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Conclusion

As we wrap up this semester, reflecting and looking back throughout what I have done in this course  seems pretty crazy to me. One of my new year resolutions was to read more books than the previous year  (which was 1) and this course helped me achieve that! As I signed the contract, I was a bit unsure about aiming for an A- as it required me to read 9 books out of 11, but it was far more enjoyable than what I had anticipated. I enrolled for this course as it sounded extremely enticing and I wanted a change of scenery from the stats and mathematics courses I have been taking. And let me tell you, it was the change I was looking for. One of the reasons why I enjoyed this course so much was the significant freedom and creativity it granted us when writing about the books we read. This gave me less stress and pressure and allowed me to focus more on expressing what I was genuinely interested in for each book. I will admit, there were a couple of books that I wanted to just breeze...
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LAST BOOK OF THE COURSE!!!!

With this being the 9th and final book I am reading for this course, it feels very melancholy. As I am not a big fan of reading books in general, having read a book almost every week for this term feels like a major accomplishment. In addition, some of the books I genuinely actually enjoyed such as "Money To Burn" - Ricardo Piglia. Unfortunately, the last book of this term was not one of them. "Faces in the crowd" - by Valeria Luiselli was a very confusing read with multiple main characters, such as the young mother with a messy marriage and Owen, a divorced, going blind alcoholic. The way the novel switches between these two and as well, them talking about their present and past and not highlighting any of the change of perspectives makes me extremely confused throughout the whole read. In the first half of the novel, it was more about the struggling mother of two kids that is married to an architect. As she recollects her past memories when she used to frolic arou...
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Going out on a bang - "Money To Burn" by Ricardo Piglia

This week's book is "Money To Burn" by Ricardo Pigila. Personally, I think this book is definitely the most action-packed, engaging read so far. Even though it was a bit on the longer side with around 200 pages, the constant adventures the characters are put through makes it very intriguing to read. Moreover, I do enjoy watching or reading thriller or action-adventure packed stories. This book was about a group of men robbing banks throughout Buenos Aires as if they were invincible but eventually after many police reports, their crime caught up to them. What makes this book different, yet similar to the books we have read so far is the the trope of family and how important that is to the characters in this novel.  Although their blood ties with family members may not hold as much over the men's lives, the novel portrays the group of robbers as a closely-knit family. Through the numerous crimes they had done, it built a sense of trust, camaraderie and loyalty between e...
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Fair enough for Duras actually

Hey Everyone! This week's book is "The Lover" by  Marguerite Duras. This book was an interesting read because it was very strange yet it kept me wanting to read more. It felt like one of those forbidden reads where I wanted to see if the nameless 27 year-old Chinese man would end up with 15 year-old Duras. Initially, when I was in the first half of the book,  I definitely thought it was weird that Duras was accepting the advances of a 27 year-old Chinese man. The way they met on the ferry crossing the Mekong river and how, initially hesitant, but still accepted his invitation to give her a ride home on his black  Limousine was very careless of her. I understand her being curious about his wealth and status, however, it felt like she was so absentminded.  Then, I got to around the 50th page and I started to understand more and more why Duras did the actions she did. Understanding more of her background, having a very controlling mother, a very abusive, addicted, gambl...
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A Portrait of Neglect, abuse and exploitation: "Hour of The Star"

This book is utter confusion. At the first half of the book, I was super confused about what I was even reading. I could barely make out the situations that were being described in the book in my head and just couldn't grasp what the book was even talking about. There were times where the author (Lispector) wrote herself into the story which made it difficult to understand who's perspective I was reading as she would just rant about Macabea and her thoughts and suddenly come back to the story.  Reading it was pretty depressing but, I was trying to empathize why she became the way she did. Macabea's life story felt like she was a side character to her own story. Her life is marked by a series of mundane routines and chance encounters, each seemingly devoid of significance. Both her parents passed away pretty early on in her life and her aunt raised her throughout her childhood. She became a symbol of oppression and abuse in Macabea's life shaping how she thought even wh...
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The Time Of The Doves by Mercè Rodoreda

The time of the doves is the read for week 7 and I have a lot of things to share with you guys! Definitely my favorite read of this course so far. Initially, reading it, I felt more irritated than anything while reading the first part of the novel. Natalie abandoning her fiance, Pere, for a walking "black" flag, Quimet felt so wrong to me. How Quimet even treated her when they first met was so questionable to me, asking her if she had broken up with Pere and also how quick he proposed to her and wanted to introduce Natalie to his family. Maybe on that time period it was the societal norm for a marriage to happen that quick, but, it just didn't sit right with me especially because of Quimet's behaviour.  After their marriage, there was a moment when Quimet mistakenly believed he saw Natalia meeting Pere on the street. He confronted Natalia aggressively, accusing her of wrongdoing and demanding an apology vehemently. He was just very controlling and restrictive as a par...
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Agostino by Alberto Moravia

 Reading Agostino by Alberto Moravia, I expected a very light-hearted read, but, it was anything but that. "Agostino" follows a journey of a young boy named Agostino on a summer vacation at a beach resort. The story revolves around him uncovering his subconscious desires, sexual frustation and how he tackles these challenges that he faces.  If I were to describe what Agostino was on the beginning of the novel, it would be a mama's boy. He was infatuated with his mother's love and expected to be showered by it all the time until she met a young man. When most of his mother's attention was taken up by the young man, Agostino felt left out and  frustrated. That led him to meet a gang of teenagers playing on the beach. This was the first time Agostino was exposed to a new world and that feeling of curiosity of the unknown made him try venture and forge relationships with these boys. However, those boys openly made remarks about his mother's appearance, and the act...
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