vodkafan

Learning Polish is not going very well. The Get By in Polish book seems to have no plot at all and no main characters (I am joking). Seriously though I am going to have to work harder. My first strategy has been to learn five phrases and five words a day (only when at work) from flash cards then try them out on Polish people I work with. Only in a work situation I don't get much quality talk time. Also if my pronunciation is OK then they think I know more than I do and come back with something I haven't learned yet. End of conversation. I will buy a portable CD player tomorrow and get listening to the CD that came with the book. Also I will have to widen my net. There is a Polish shop near my house. I will introduce myself to them tommorrow and start going in every day for a chat. I know Polish have a great sense of humour- they must have I have seen their food. Surely they are having a laugh. Those things in jars in the supermarket that look like pickled biopsy specimens. I really want to do some normal reading but until I start making progress with this everything is on hold.

I love it when that happens. When I was a kid I was very dreamy and used to draw all the time. The right side of the brain is responsible for images and doesn't count time (which is a left brain function) I could actually FEEL it when my brain used to switch over when I started to draw or paint. I would always feel recharged and refreshed coming out of that. Sadly I seemed to lose that as I got older and life and school tries to turn you into a left brain, goal oriented person. I have found ways lately to get it back though. For instance, I swim 100 lengths in the pool when I get time. I would count them all like a target and try to better my time. Then it hit me, why am I working so hard? This is supposed to be fun. So I deliberately stopped counting lengths and just would stay swimming for a certain amount of time instead. Immediately I found it more enjoyable, spiritually more fulfilling. My mind would wander wherever it wanted and time disappears. Sometimes the lifeguard would have to shout me it was time to get out.

Haha Frankie is that a pun?

This book sounds very interesting Frankie. So I retrained myself from reading under your spoilers. One more for the TBR pile. After I can speak passable Polish anyways.......

Will most likely be memorising some more Polish words later on off a falshcard whilst working.

book review: Shame by Jasvinder Sanghera This was a quick non-fiction read . Not wanting to go into too much details because if things had been slightly different somebody very close to me could have suffered a similar fate. This is the true life story of Jas, a Punjabi girl growing up in Derby with her strict Sikh family. Always independent and questioning, Jas eventually rebels against an arranged marriage to an older man by running off with a forbidden lower caste boyfriend. She tells poignantly of being completely and irreversibly disowned by her family, and gives an insight of how Asian society is run on the notions of shame and honour. I read many reviews on Amazon before purchasing this book, and some of them (by Asian women it has to be said ) were quite critical of her behaviour. I think they missed the point. Jas never holds anything back, nor tries to excuse herself or portray herself in a good light when she does behave badly. She tells her story with honesty. The second half of the book is different. Laundry Fairy saw me reading this and told me that she had read it herself many years ago. As I said I won't go into any details there. I think this is an important book which highlights something that is still happening in Asian communities today.

book review: Shame by Jasvinder Sanghera This was a quick non-fiction read . Not wanting to go into too much details because if things had been slightly different somebody very close to me could have suffered a similar fate. This is the true life story of Jas, a Punjabi girl growing up in Derby with her strict Sikh family. Always independent and questioning, Jas eventually rebels against an arranged marriage to an older man by running off with a forbidden lower caste boyfriend. . She tells poignantly of being completely and irreversibly disowned by her family, and gives an insight of how Asian society is run on the notions of shame and honour. I read many reviews on Amazon before purchasing this book, and some of them (by Asian women it has to be said ) were quite critical of her behaviour. I think they missed the point. Jas never holds anything back, nor tries to excuse herself or portray herself in a good light when she does behave badly. She tells her story with honesty. The second half of the book is different. Laundry Fairy saw me reading this and told me that she had read it herself many years ago. As I said I won't go into any details there. I think this is an important book which highlights something that is still happening in Asian communities today.

I have a friend in Bangalore he speaks and writes his native Malayalam, Hindi and English. What other languages do you know Vinay? Telugu maybe? I can get by in French (but am very rusty) and I know a few phrases of Gujerati, Punjabi and Urdu I have picked up. I want to do the Polish thing properly though.

Picked up a conversational language course book and CD today, and somebody gave me a small phrasebook/dictionary. It has given me a headache already, that special language sort of headache. Have put some words on flashcards so I can look at them and practice while working (my job requires no brain activity).

I am on my eighth book for february. Was going great guns, just starting to settle into a steady reading routine......but going to have to CUT MY READING IN HALF.....because I have decided to learn POLISH. Going to pick up a teach yourself type of book on the way to work tonight. So this will be my constant companion for a while....wish me luck.

Wow Thanks Rebecca I never even knew this was a book. Enjoyed the film a lot. Richard Matheson also wrote I am Legend I think?

Did she get punished? (or treatment or whatever) I hadn't heard the term "social porn" before. Thankfully Laundry Fairy also seems to have tired of that genre although she read quite a few. It's like watching soaps all the time, I think reading nothing but stuff like that must do something to the brain after a while

Hehe not unless it is a super duper Library. It has been out of print about 30 years at least.

Hi Frankie , Laundry Fairy has all these in her collection. I read the first one only. Yep they are upsetting I won't read anything like this any more. James

Mugglemagic I will lend it to you if you like as long as you promise to send it back?

Mrs M I noticed that only one of your books this year has hit the spot for you (5/5). Are you quite a critical reader or is it just bad luck?

I would be most interested in your take on it Vinay...

Hi Kylie If you don't have it already don't buy it it is in my "to swop" list. Just let me know where to send it...

Book Review: The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. After struggling through with this book I found it ultimately rewarding and worth the effort. I think the reason it is hard to read is the sheer amount of rich description which hits you like a wall. It is like suddenly entering a cluttered room with busy Paisley wallpaper and ornaments everywhere to catch the eye. Enough for maybe two or even three books in there. But I guess that is just her style. The story is basically that of a family trapped in the rigid confines of the caste system. It is also a story about different types of love. It is told mostly through the eyes of Rahel who has come back to the ancestral home after being in America for many years . It helps if the reader has a bit of familiarity with Indian society and ways (as I do) Even so, it was fully Chapter 10 (half way through the book)before I began to understand what was going on. The story jumps between the now adult Rahel and what happened when they were children. Up till then, several hooks kept me reading. Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, These are the three big ones. But there are several smaller ones : and Baby Kochamma's story too. Being married into an Indian family, I found the characters and events that unfold completely believable. Even today this could happen, let alone the post-independence India of the story. The final thing you want resolved as a reader, is can Rahel reach her twin again after so many years apart? Even then there is a twist. Good book.

Book Review: THE BLUE WORLD by Jack Vance. I first read this when I was about 16. Jack Vance is my favourite author and although all his books are good this one is my favourite. Sklar Hast is one of the descendents of the survivors of a crashed spaceship marooned on a strange world that is all sea, no land at all. But he and his fellow citizens know no other world and have made a strange (to us) but peaceful society. They live on giant floating sea plants and have developed a technology using all natural materials. They have no metal though. The hardest material there is human bone. There is plenty to eat. But this peaceful world has one drawback- nasty sea creatures they call kragen. One in particular has grown so large he is known as King Kragen. Sklar Hast one day decides to kill King Kragen and becomes the catalyst for a revolution that will either liberate the people of the floats or kill them all...for he must also go against the established cult of the Intercessors who worship King Kragen. Lots of things make this my favourite Vance book....the way he has thought out the technology. (Like all JV books it is presented in liitle footnotes on the bottom of the page) This would really work! I like the way Sklar Hast character is represented. He has faults like a real person. Also I like the fact that (as in some other JV books) there is a gentle romance going on as a sub-plot. If you have NEVER read a JV book before then it is no good me telling you about the sheer fun of his writing style and use of words that just carries you along page after page...you will have to discover this for yourself. You can buy this book on Amazon for 1p. You have no excuse!

I'm interested Johnny. You are one of the people I look out for when they post up. So what you got lined up to read next? You gonna play safe and stick with your usual genre?

Yes good review missy. I had a slightly different take on it

We get to discuss it next month missy. You finished that one really quick. I struggled with it, took me a whole week. Can't wait to see what you thought of it.

Finished two books this week so I allowed myself to buy two more from a charity shop on the way to work... Screenplay of Trainspotting and Sophie's World Total cost:

Kat your TBR pile is impossibly huge. Just letting you know your swop book arrived two days ago thanks but Laundry Fairy liked the look of it straight away and has stolen it.