Unlike many other books, I find it difficult to review this one. I have mixed emotions about it and it's somehow become very important to me. Obviously, I am a little late in reading it--it was first published in 1991, so almost two decades ago. I am sorry to say, however, that not many things have changed since that time and the book is still, (and horrifically in many ways) accurate and current.This book has been long waiting to be read and reviewed. It’s time finally came this week and I am excited about it. I felt a lot of affinity with the author and the more I read about Domnica Radulescu…
Hilarious video created by the Paper Rats (authors Kristen J. Tsetsi and R.J. Keller).
Herta Muller won the Nobel Prize for literature and, well, she does deserve it, is what I can say after reading this book. You only need to read through the first three pages and you understand why. It doesn’t take…
Beautiful cover photo, right? It is by Charles Platiau, Reuters News Service.
This is a story that happens with the 1989 Romanian revolution in the background, written by an American journalist who spent nine months in Romania in 2007. As the proud Romanian that I am, it is hard for me to see the images of my country constructed by others, from afar. I get defensive: they have no idea, what to they know, how could they understand the depths, the hidden truths, the dark yet beautiful mysteries of this land and its people. As I grow older I am starting to realize that all this patriotism was instilled in me by communist practices and it is in the end more damaging than constructive, and yet I cannot help but feel strongly for my home country--especially now, when I am so far away from it.
I found out about this book and got it through A Writer’s Edge, so thank you again, Georganna. It is a book with a religious theme and written by a Romanian writer, so my interest in it is twofold. I have, however, taken my own sweet time reading it. So, you can be warned: this is not a book that you will read in a day and a night, unable to put it down. It does need time to win you over, but it is worth it if you let it do so.
This is my second Marlene Schiwy book and I loved it as much as I loved the first one. I got Simple Days, A Journal on What Really Matters from a book swap site and read it in Romania. Now it has remained over there, because my luggage was just to heavy and couldn’t take any of the books (I had bought a few Romanian poetry books which have also been left behind).It smells like spring and looks like spring, and I am very happy. Yes, I’ll let the poet say it better. Here is my translation of Lucian Blaga’s “Spring.” To know. To love. Once more and then again same thing,…
I picked up this book because Carrie (or CKHB) from Heim Binas Fiction mentioned it on her blog. I usually do not buy into this fascination with other culture’s eating habits. I do not believe the answer rests into what others eat. I do not think that America’s weight problem is caused by the wrong local diet, but by a too processed diet. I think that people from each region of the world should eat the food that is easily available to them in their own area. I think that local food is the food that our bodies need. I do not like to get into political discussions and I didn’t do it, for a very long time. Unfortunately, time is running out, and I believe that every one of us has the duty to say the truths that…
I feel like a bad reviewer. I won’t be able to do a good job with this book because it really didn’t capture my attention much and I had difficulty convincing myself to finish it. It is a very long…