Read The World - Brazil - Dora Flor And Her Two Husbands

Book: Dora Flor And Her Two Husbands
Author: Jorge Amado
Pages: 776

Book takes place in the country: YES

Author is from the country: YES

I have visited: NO

This is my 144th read for the year

This is the story of Dona Flor.  Her husband, Vadinho, has just died.  According to everyone around him - he was a gambling, good for nothing, and no one was surprised to see him go.  After his death, Dona throws herself into her work and her life around her.  Soon - she is being encouraged to remarry.  She meets a pharmacist who is everyting Vadinho wasn't and soon they are married.  However - after their marrige, she finds herself dreaming of Vadinho.  Her new husband doesn't have Vadinho's passions, and soon his ghost returns to her to bring excitement back to her life.

This book was really hard to read.  I am not a huge fan of magical realism, yet I keep finding these books regardless.  I trudged through it, but it took forever for me to get into it and finish it.  It was a bit of a chore to read.  The second half was better thant the first, so I am glad I stuck with it.  But a book that takes 300 pages to get me interested isn't something I would recommend.

Stars: 3

Read The World - Bhutan - Beyond The Sky And The Earth

Book: Beyond The Sky And The Earth
Author: Jamie Zeppa
Pages: 320
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: NO - (but she lives there part time)
I have visited: NO

This is my 143rd read for the year

Just for the record - I do not read a book a day.  Sometimes I get a few short books in a row and that catches me up to where I am blogging a book a day.  But not reading that quickly.  I stick to about 100 pages a day in the main book I am reading (sometimes I have time for a little more, but often not).  I read more than one at a time.  My 2nd book I usually read 25 pages a day (but may read a little more if I can't help myself).  I listen to audiobooks while I shop.  I still read to my kids.  I don't blog on the weekends.  All of these catch me up on the blog quickly.

This is the story of the author's time living in Bhutan.  In the 1980s, Jamie took a leap of faith and left the comforts of home in Canada - along with a fiance - and decided to take a teaching job in Bhutan for two years.  She would be home only once a year during that time, but she felt she needed to explore and try this.

At first, Jamie was very homesick.  Within a few weeks, she felt she had made the biggest mistake of her life, and was going to try and return to Canada.  She was living basically in squalor in a third world country, and it was more than she bargained for.

What she didn't see coming was the help she received not only from the other expat teachers that befriended her, but the Bhutan people themselves.  Some of her students taught her how to cook on her propane stove so she would stop eating just biscuts.  Her students would come to her house at all hours around school - wanting to help, wanting to keep her company, and soon Jaime began to feel at home.  She opened up her eyes to the beauty of the country around her and realized there was no where else on earth she wanted to be.

I really liked this book.  It is very well written and an intriguing read.  I am always impressed with the teachers who take the leap to teach English in these very remote, third world areas, and fall in love with not only the area, but the people.  I have read several of these stories for this challenge, and each one has been better than the last.  I love to watch how real they explain the situation is from the beginning - explaining exactly what it was like for them and how out of their depth they felt.  

We moved to Switzerland two and a half years ago on a leap of faith.  It was the biggest decision we have ever made for our family and we felt out of our depth for awhile living here.  And this is one of the richest countries on the planet.  We still struggle being outsiders here - I cannot imagine how it felt in a place like Bhutan.

Great read.  Highly recommend.  Glad I found this book.

Stars: 4 1/2

Top Ten Tuesdays - Changes In My Reading Life

Top Ten Tuesdays was started by The Artsy Reader.  You can visit her blog and join in the fun!

This weeks' Top Ten is:

Changes In My Reading Life

This one is pretty easy for me, but I probably cannot come up with ten.

1) Reading Challenges.

      In 2015 I was in a rut in my reading life.  I was sticking to reading just a few books here and there.  And I was stuck on the same genre - dystopian.  I had always been a reader, but life had gotten busy and I was not devoting a lot of time to reading.  That all changed when a friend of mine introduced me to reading challenges.  We did them together for a few years and it changed my whole outlook on reading.  I was in sections of the library I had never visited before.  I read things that I would never had glanced at before.  And in doing these challenges, I realized how many great books I was missing out on.

2) Changings My Genre choices

     This goes pretty well with the Reading Challenges.  This forced me out of dystopian and into so many other things.  I have always loved history, but hadn't read many history books.  I found a new love for non-fiction and historical fiction.   I found many genres that I enjoyed.

3) Figuring out what Genres I really don't like

     As I figured out the Genres I did enjoy with my Reading Challenges,  I quickly found what I didn't like.  Mostly it revolves around romance novels.  I keep trying them, hoping that I will find one that really hits me.  But I really haven't.  I also struggle a bit with the classics.  Is that a Genre?  Maybe not.  But I like them and don't love them.  Glad I read them, but struggled with them.

4) Reading Pace has changed

     I used to read maybe 5-10 books a year.  My first reading challenge I changed that to 50.  And then I reached for 75.  Then 100.  This year I have read 145 books so far - my biggest reading year.  I am not trying to outpace myself each year.  I could go back to reading 50 books and be just as happy.  But I WANT to read this much.  I enjoy reading 100+ pages of a book a day. Or reading 2 books at a time.  Adding audiobooks when I run my errands.

5) Finding A Love For Stand Alone Novels

      Before 2015, I read mostly trilogies.  I hated to see a story end after one book.  I figured stand alone novels would never give me the satisfaction that a story with multiple books and developing characters did.  But I was wrong.  Now I hardly ever read trilogies.  I still love them, don't get me wrong.  But I find that I don't need them to get the satisfaction out of a story.

6) Traveling The World made easier

        We moved 2 1/2 years ago to Switzerland from the United States.  It as the biggest move we have ever made, and we are still very much out of our comfort zone.  But this move has provided for us many opportunities to travel throughout Europe and Asia, and I am forever grateful.  We have visited more countries and cities in these last two years than we have in the last 10.  I could live 1000 lifetimes and never see all the places I would like to see.  So that got me thinking.  If I "Read The World" - I could read about all kinds of countries that I may never have a chance to visit.  And it has been the best challenge I have ever done.  Truly.  There are 202 countries on our planet, and I have learned so much about over half of them so far.  I have read books - again - I would have never even looked at in the past.  There are so many amazing places on this planet, and I am loving learning about all of them.

7) Meeting Other Avid Readers

    Who knew there were so many people who devoured books out there?  I had no idea because it isn't really in my inner circle - people who read like I do.  But those people exist.  And with the power of blogging and instagram, I have found 100s of them.  And so many young people that love to read!  It is empowering and wonderful and gives me hope for the future.  That there are still so many people out there who love literature.

I think that is about it.  What about you?  What changes have you made to your reading life?

Read The World - Belize - The Last Flight Of The Scarlet Macaw

Book: The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw
Author: Bruce Barcott
Pages: 313
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: NO
I have visited: NO

This is my 142nd read for the year

This is the true story of Sharon Matola - the "zoo lady" who has devoted her life to the safety of the wild animals in Belize.  When she discovers that a big power company plans to build a dam right where the last remaining Scarlet Macaw's nest is in Belize, she knows she is in for a fight to stop the build.  

The story follows how she, and a pieced together team, fight the dam all the way to court to try and save these endangered birds.  The author pieces together how globalization and a growing demand for power are killing off species all over the globe.  He shows how one woman risks everything to save this bird and the land around it.

This was a pretty good book.  It had some dry parts, where it gets very involved with the history of some of the government and power companies involved in the fight, but the parts revolving around Sharon and the animals were very interesting.  She is a power house in the world of animal conservation and the zoo she has built for injured animals.  She is an American that picked up her life 36 years ago and hasn't looked back.  She had a mission and a passion and she stuck with it - even when hard times hit.

This was a great find, this book.  I am intrigued to visit her at her zoo and Belize in the future.  I would like to meet someone who had that much passion for our ever disappearing wild animals.

Stars: 4

Extra Book - Call The Midwife

Book: Call The Midwife
Author: Jennifer Worth
Pages: 376

This is my 141st read for the year

I watch this TV show and am definitely hooked.  When I found out that it was not only a true story, but a book series, I knew I had to have it.

This is the story of the author's time as a midwife in the 1950s in the poor East End of London.  She lived at a convent and worked with the poorest women of the area delivering hundreds of babies in her time there.  She speaks about the harsh conditions these families lived in, what it was like to take care of families who had 10 children or more, and even when she cared for the older folks who lived in condemned conditions of the area.  

It is a great book.  I stayed up late at night finishing chapter after chapter.  It is a facinating tale, and - as a nurse myself - I tried to visualize what it would be like to work in this area at this time in history.  A lot of the stories in this book were covered in the TV show, but it was great to read the true details of what happened and get further in depth with the lives of the people she worked with.

I am anxious to read the next book in the series.  There are 4 books total, and I plan on reading them all.  This is a series you should not pass up.

Stars: 4 1/2

Read The World - Costa Rica - Cadence of the Moon

Book: Cadence of the Moon
Author: Oscar Nunex Olivas
Pages: 262
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: YES
I have visited: NO - but my daughter was there for 3 weeks in 2024 for a Women in STEM program

This is my 140th read for the year

This is a story of a serial killer who was lose in Costa Rica.  IT is based on a true story of the first known case of a serial killer in the country.  The murders are committed with sadism.  The police and the press try to uncover who the killer is because no traces are ever left at the crime scene. Between the story of finding the murderer, are a few love stories that evolve between a few characters.  

There isn't much else to say about this book becuase it truly did feel like two different stories were happening but they never really meshed together well in the book.  It was like the author had two tales he wanted to tell, but couldn't quite figure out how he was going to get them to work well together.  It would have been better if he would have stuck to just the story of trying to catch the serial killer and how the press and police worked together to try and solve the case.  The love story part of this book made it a less likable read.

Stars: 2 1/2

Extra Book - Part Of Your World

Book: Part of Your World
Author: Liz Braswell
Pages: 480

This is my 139th read of the year

I do still enjoy reading to my children - even though my youngest is 13 years old.  I don't think they will tolerate it much longer, but I do hold out hope that we can get through this Disney Dark Fairy Tales before they quit on me.

This book takes place 5 years into the future from when Ariel lost her voice to the sea witch.  Instead of the happily ever after ending like we see in the film, Ariel never regained her voice and Ursula (as Vanessa) is now the Princess of Trulia.  Prince Eric has remained under her spell for 5 years - as well as members of his staff.  Ursula is trying to rule the Dry World and trying to figure out how to destroy the Mer World.  She still has King Triton as her prisoner.

Ariel - now Queen of the Sea - has ruled in silence for 5 years.  With the help of sign language, Sebastian and Flounder, she has kept the peace.  But the time has come for her to try to return to the Dry World and rescue her father, and defeat Ursula.  She has to figure out how to do all of this without being able to speak.  Wtih the help of her friends - both on land and in the sea - she has a real chance of defeating the Sea Witch.

This was another great installment of Disney's Dark Fairy Tales.  This author is a great writer and story teller.  We have really enjoyed the spin of some of our favorite Disney Classics.  This one - at almost 500 pages - took us awhile to read (we only read a chapter or two a day) but it was worth it.  It ended beautifully after a clever tale of heroes, friendship, and love.  We are so glad we read it.

Stars: 4 1/2