As with any good book, Miles from Nowhere ended with me not wanting to set it down. Nami Mun’s first “novel” is really more a collection of stories centered around the main character, Joon. Joon has had a hard family life, with a father who has left home many times and a mother who is bordering clinical insanity and ends up leaving home to live on the streets. Each chapter is a free standing story that tells about Joon’s difficulties and most of the stories focus on her teenage years.
There are so many parts of this book that I highlighted because they made me laugh or think. I really wish that Mun had more books published because she is an amazing author. Check out the Chicagoist interview if you want more info, or just get the book and read it!
Two book reviews in one day, you must think I’m crazy…
I just finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. After hearing all the hype about it I really wanted to check it out, especially since I have been wanting to read a vampire novel.
I have to say I am a little disappointed. Maybe it was all the hype or maybe it really just wasn’t that wonderful, but I had several problems with the book.
The first and most glaring problem was how quickly Bella became infatuated with a vampire, without ever really going through any stage of disbelief. As a human firmly planted in a human world I can tell you that it would take a long time for me to go from thinking someone was a lunatic to actually thinking they were a vampire. Bella seems to go from zero to vampire in record time, requiring nothing more than a few suggestions and a 33.6k connection to determine that Edward could be a vampire and that she is “ok” with that. Then she instantly falls in love with Edward and he for her.
His gold eyes grew very soft. “You said you loved me.”
“You knew that already,” I reminded him, ducking my head.
“It was nice to hear, just the same.”
I hid my face against his shoulder.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“You are my life now,” he answered simply.Â
This takes about a week as best I can tell. Granted, it is the first relationship for both of them, but puhlease?
Once you move past that part of the story it does get better though. The last third of the novel is where all the action is and honestly I would have been perfectly happy if the first two thirds were compressed to a chapter or two since they did a poor job anyway and the last bits lengthened and elaborated on.
I do think that Meyer has a bit of a problem with the word “incredulous.” Your mileage may vary but this is a word that I have rarely heard or seen used and Meyer uses it eleven times throughout the book. “…incredulous eyes…” “His face was incredulous.” “‘Incredulous, for the most part.’” “I shook my head, incredulous…” “The inning continued before my incredulous eyes.” “…incredulous as he took an involuntary step…” Holy crap – and those quotes don’t include “incredulously”. It was to the point where I actually highlighted a section and noted “author uses the word incredulously too often.”
I will admit to this, though, I think I am in love with the man I have conjured up in my head as Edward Cullen. And he does not look like Robert Pattinson.
In the end, my recommendation is move on and find something else to read. I’ll probably end up reading the second book at this point though since I’ve spent so much time on the first, I’m hoping the series gets better.
One of my favorite things about taking public transportation to work instead of driving is having that time each day to read. You can always tell a commuter on the CTA because they’ll have a book in their hand. A couple weeks ago I found myself at the office without anything to read on my way home. Sure, I could have braved the below-zero temperatures that day and gone to the book store, but lucky for me I know of a few places around the office to find something to read. So, I went to a friend of mine, and asked her if she had anything I could borrow.
Einstein’s Dreams isn’t a particularly long book. It took me just a couple days to read using only my time on the bus, which is relatively short. The language isn’t difficult either. It is, however, incredibly interesting and thought provoking. The book isn’t a factual depiction of dreams that Einstein actually had. Instead Lightman used Einstein as a tool to look at different ways time could exist and how that might affect the world.
One particularly interesting chapter for me says that time moves slower the higher you are. As a result everybody lives on mountains and puts their houses on stilts, only coming down when absolutely necessary. “Height has become status. When a person from his kitchen window must look up to see his neighbor, he believes that neighbor will not become stiff in the joints as soon as he, will not lose his hair until later, will not wrinkle until later, will not lose the urge for romance as early.” How can you read that and not translate it to the world we actually live in?
There are so many different ways we could have ended up at this very moment. So many decisions and possibilities. Time is a mysterious thing and maybe it is different for me than it is for you. Grab a copy of Einstein’s Dreams, head down to your local coffee shop, and spend a Sunday reading and thinking about all the directions time may travel in.