Caro’s Comments (group member since Jan 22, 2017)

Caro’s comments from the Our Traveling Shelf group.

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I completely agree with McKenna. This was such an amazing story and was written incredibly. Each chapter was like a short story but the characters were still complex and each story was still really impactful. And they all tied together so beautifully. I loved how there were connecting themes across the stories like fire that impacted so many characters. Honestly everyone should read this, it's such a change from what I learned through school and history classes.

1. What did you like best about this book?

I really enjoyed the way this book was written. The different perspectives, as Leah said, created many different characters and stories and I loved how the author moved through each but still represented each character fully. He created very personable characters, some of which I kind of hated, and some that I felt bad for.
2. What did you like least about this book?

I have to say I really hated the characters of Mrs. Asrani and Mrs. Pathak. The constant fighting and trying to one up each other was pretty nauseating. I also really didn't like the focus on what other people though, which both characters had a lot of, but which seems to be ingrained in the culture.
3. Which character(s) was your favorite in the book?

My favorite character in the book was Mr. Jalal. I know it's a bit of a strange choice but he was the most interesting character to me. Out of all of the characters, and besides Vishnu, he is the only person suffering from something that fell out of the realm of domestic life. It seemed like everyone's story revolved around family and their life but he was entirely obsessed with figuring out a higher purpose and what religion meant.
4. Share a favorite quote from the book. Why did this quote stand out to you?

"Evil is evil. It springs up from inside the hearts of people, it needs to external source to appear."

This quote stood out to me because to me it represents each character completely. They all blame others and make excuses to justify their actions and thoughts but in the end it's really just them. Half the time being shitty people.
5. What feelings did this book evoke for you?

Actually a lot of feelings. I felt disgust, sadness, surprise, wonder, happiness. And all from the actions of all the characters in the book. They were all so different and kind of crazy!
6. What do you think of the book’s cover? How well does it convey what the book is about?

I really love the cover of the book. It's so simple and clean but represents the story fairly well and does a great job of drawing the reader, or at least me, in!
7. Do you have any book recommendations for next month’s poll?

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

I'm sorry it took me so long to write this! I have no good excuse because I even finished the book last month! But anyway, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE IT!!!!!! This was such an amazing book. The characters were so incredible and had so much depth. The way that the book discusses racism was brilliant- it highlighted the micro-aggression that exists EVERYDAY and that we might even be a part of perpetuating. It really made me think about my own life as well as the experiences of my parents and feeling like I'm neither Colombian nor North American. Ifemelu is such a strong character that we get to read from who still has so many struggles, especially when it comes to her identity. This book was absolutely amazing. I felt like it was such an honest and refreshing read!

I thought this book was incredible! I loved the format- it was so incredibly easy to read and absorb. I really enjoyed that we were able to view this time in history from a real life, growing alongside it perspective. Especially that of an 8 year old. I felt like the author was incredibly honest about her own thoughts and actions during this time. The every day events in the story add served to remind me that this was happening to people who were trying to continue living a normal life. Her family was so different than what you would expect and what other families were like and the constant contradictions between daily life and the outside world were amazing to read and think about. Her character is charismatic and easy to love and feel for!

This book was definitely not what I was expecting! I really liked that we got perspectives from different characters in the book because it explained their actions a lot more and I wish that there would have been more of that. It was an absolutely heartbreaking book and Cora was an incredible, strong character. It gave me a different idea of that time, of slavery, and of freedom. It also discussed the dynamics within the slaves and African American and it was interesting to read of an African American helping to hunt runaways down. One of the most shocking parts of the book was when Cora goes to the doctor and we find out that they are trying to convince all the women to get surgery. They are trying so hard to make it seem like positive and vital to their futures when in reality it's for the benefit of the white community. There was a lot to think about in this book, and I really enjoyed it!

This book was amazing. I fell in love with every aspect of it. The story was incredible and the way it was writing was phenomenal. I wasn't even ready for what this book was going to be. I loved how we were reading both from the past and the present and that they converged at such at important point in the story. My favorite character in the story was probably Jutta. She understood something so big at such a young age that took her brothers years to get. Although it was a story about the Holocaust, it was written in a completely different way. I'd never read anything like it. I really feel like I barely have any other words than I loved it!

I don't know about all of you, but I did not feel like this book for was people in a hurry! I found myself having to re-read so much and still don't feel like I have a complete understanding of what Neil Degrasse Tyson was trying to explain. Honestly he's just way smarter than everyone around him and maybe he forgets sometimes haha! It's definitely a book that I want to come back and re-read eventually after a little bit of time. I feel like I understood the broad ideas but now details. I did really appreciate how he tried to be funny throughout the book. It's amazing to think about some of the things that he talks about and how small everything started, how we still don't understand Black Holes, and how small Earth is in the big picture. It really gave me more perspective on my life!

I had a hard time reading this book. I'd hear a lot about it through the years and I've always been curious to read it for myself and see if I think it's the greatest love story of all time, or it's just a story about a pedophile and his horror. The interesting part is what a scholar Humbert is but you can still see his underlying ticks, or honestly craziness. Throughout the beginning of the book as he's trying to explain his past, all it felt like was that he was trying to justify what he did while at the same time convince us that he wasn't crazy. It's interesting because it seems like the whole time he understands it's wrong and we have a direct comparison in Quilty, who is also a pedophile but sees nothing wrong with it and is almost glorified since he's famous. I struggled a lot with Lolita's character throughout the book. She seemed very rebellious which I felt stemmed from the fact that her mother clearly disliked her and favored her dead brother and also the fact that she never had a father in her life and saw this in Humbert at the beginning when he first showed up. Finally someone was paying attention to her. I did have to keep reminding myself that we were seeing her through Humbert's eyes and what he created her to be, not who she really was or her true feelings. There is only one point in the entire book that I can recall where we saw a glimpse of what she was feeling; otherwise it seems she was just trying to survive. Humbert creates everything about her, down to her name really and even though at the end he claims to still love her as a 17 yr old, I can't help but feel like he was still only in love with his creation and interpretation of her. We will never know what the real Dolores was like or would have been. One final note: her name means pain in Spanish which I felt really represented her entire existence.

This book turned out to be completely unexpected. From the description I thought that Gotz and Meyer would turn out to be in this Professors family and we would follow his class as they discovered the horrors of the Holocaust. Reading this, I felt more like we were following a man slowly getting crazier and crazier. The fact that it was totally continuous, without chapters or even any kind of break made me feel like I was going crazy along with him, or at least experiencing some part of it. It seemed that he was having some sort of midlife crisis because he mentioned a couple of times his age and being the last in his family since he never had any kids. The fact that we never find out anything about his identity I think is a comparison between him and Gotz&Meyer. I really enjoyed the way that this was written and how the Professor goes between Gotz and Meyer and mentions both when he's talking about them because ti really drives in just how little he actually was able to find out about the two men that drove so many people to their deaths. It was unlike any book that I've ever read about the Holocaust but I think one of the most impactful.

I'm so sorry I've fallen so behind!! These last couple of months have been crazy and I lent the book to a friend and she still hasn't returned it....and spilled water all over it :( so sad!

I really liked this book a lot! Machu Picchu has always been on my bucket list, actually with Leah, and reading about it definitely made me want to go and do the 5 day trail. I really liked that he wrote it more like a journalist and also that he wasn't a skilled backpacker at all. He balances humor and history perfectly and I really appreciated that he gave more back story on Bingham's family and weaves it into his own story. He also does a great job at really trying to get to the bottom of Bigham and talk to a variety of people about their opinion of him and his "discovery" 100 years ago. I really enjoyed this one!

Last months book, Reading Lolita in Tehran was on this list! It's a pretty cool site as well if you guys wanna check it out!

http://www.readitforward.com/bookshel...

It took me a little bit to really get into this book and understand it but I ended up really enjoying it. I love the way that Nafisi ties the authors and books in with her story and the story of the war. It made me reconsider some of the books she mentioned that I've read and learn a lot from them. Her account was a little confusing for me since she goes from the group back to her University days and then to the group again and it was hard for me to keep all of the characters straight in my head. For me, one of the best parts of this was getting to learn more about Iran, the war, and the conditions people had to live in, especially women. I tend to concentrate on Latin America and this was truly eye opening. It also made me reflect on my own life and how lucky I've been to be able to express myself how I've wanted without fear. Specially with the election in November and the women's marches that we had. We are lucky to be able to practice free speech and protest peacefully without disappearing, getting put into prison, or even getting killed. Of course there's a lot to work on here but reading something like this put things into a different perspective for me. It was also interesting to read about Nafisi's struggles in staying to teach or leaving and staying in Tehran or going to the US. Where would she be most useful to the war and her people? Where can she help those that don't have a voice? The decisions that she took were extremely difficult as well as the decisions some of her girls took. There were so many things to learn from in this book!

Wow! This book was incredible. It was so eye opening and made the journey that some people take so real. I really enjoyed how Sonia didn't try to make a novel out of this story- she kept it in a journalist style and stuck to the facts. I think it made it a lot more impactful because the reader can trust that what she's writing is the truth. Some of the experiences that she wrote about literally made me cringe. It's incredible how many children decide to take the journey alone just to try and get to their mothers. There are obviously a lot of stereotypes surrounding illegal immigrants, especially with the recently appointed new president and I think a book like this should be widely read. I enjoyed that Sonia didn't defend illegal immigration. Instead she touched on points like supporting democratic governments in Latin America, something which the US has historically NOT done. There's definitely a lot of work left to be done but I think if we can better understand the reasons why people are coming through stories like this and then maybe come up with some sort of solution.

In term of Enrique, I appreciated that Sonia wrote about him as he was and didn't try to justify any of his actions. It definitely makes sense that his relationship with his mother wouldn't be what he expected when he got there even though I was happy when it turned out ok and a little surprised that many children never get past the resentment towards their mothers.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. Even though I've heard from people that have made the journey, it's never been as detailed as this. I'm glad that she actually took the journey and have a lot of respect for her. I think everything needs to read this book, especially since it's such a relevant topic today.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It has great information and presents a lot of what I think everyone subconsciously knows in an easy to swallow way. I learned a lot from it. But, sometimes I felt like I was drifting off and unable to concentrate on what Pollan was saying. It wasn't until Part III that I was fully immersed in the book.

There were definitely eye opening moments for me. His explanation of why isolating nutrients is a failure was really interesting as well as his idea to avoid health claims. The idea that food has a lot more to do with culture and relationships than we realized was incredible, especially when I think about the coffee culture in the United States of to-go, vs other countries where it's a time to sit and reflect. I agreed a lot with him and the book made me want to pay more attention to what I eat and if I fall into the trap of eating a "Western diet." Also, I hate going to the dentist so the idea that eating better could prevent those trips is something I can go along with.

I believe that a lot of what he said could have been said in an even more concise way, but overall I definitely enjoyed the book, learned from it, and am able to use it to reflect on my own life and those around me! Can't wait to hear what you all thought!

Can't wait to read this!
"Eat Food. Not much. Mostly Plants."