Oh the Books You Will Read: An Ode to my Kindle.

I love to read. I have ever since I was a little kid. I also have always loved having a huge collection of books.  I've always dreamed of one day having a house with my very own library, when I was little it was one the size of the Beast's in Beauty in the Beast, now a little more realistic, but still a dream.

However, as I've grown up I've also gained a love of travel, and it is quite a struggle to pack lightly and also bring along books for the journey. This is where my Kindle comes into play. Before I left for the Peace Corps I was so anti-kindle you would have thought that I had stock in Border's or something. But I am here today to tell you I am a Kindle convert.  Don't get me wrong I will always love a good old fashioned book, but nothing beats a being able to carry hundreds of books in something that only takes up the space of one.

With the awesomeness of my Kindle (and the awesomeness of the PCV library) added to more free time and less things to do with said free time I have been able to read over 30 books since I came to Paraguay in February.  Here are some of my favorites:

Mansfield Park (Jane Austen): Taken from the poverty of her parents' home, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with only her cousin Edmund as an ally. When Fanny's uncle is absent in Antigua, Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive in the neighbourhood, bringing with them London glamour and a reckless taste for flirtation. As her female cousins vie for Henry's attention, and even Edmund falls for Mary's dazzling charms, only Fanny remains doubtful about the Crawfords' influence and finds herself more isolated than ever. I enjoyed this book. It wasn't my favorite Austen, but it did mark a special occasion, the completion of all 6 Austen novels!

Everything is Illuminated (Johnathan Safran Foer): With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past. Part of this novel is from the perspective of Alex, a Ukrainian, his characters narration is written in the way his English would sound, grammatically incorrect with numerous mistakes, for this reason it took me a little bit to get into this book. But, once I did I actually really enjoyed this novel. 

The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon): Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love. For some reason I really enjoy books about books, and definitely get that in this novel the first in the series about the Cemetery of Lost Books. I can't wait to read the next book in the series and find out what else happens to Daniel. 

A Secret Kept (Tatiana de Rosnay): Entirely set in France in the present day and in 1974, A SECRET KEPT begins when Antoine Rey, a divorcee in his mid-forties, takes his sister, Mélanie, to their childhood vacation spot, Noirmoutier Island, for her fortieth birthday. Passage to the island is made on a causeway called Le Gois, a road that is only passable at low tide and which becomes treacherous in moments once the water rises. They make the passage and spend an idyllic time on the island, but the devastating events following their holiday set in motion a search for clues surrounding the untimely death of their mother when they were children. This is written by the same author as "Sarah's Key" and while not as good,  I still tore through this book in no time reading it in one night. I look forward to reading more from her.

The Routes of Man (Ted Convers): Roads bind our world—metaphorically and literally—transforming landscapes and the lives of the people who inhabit them. Roads have unparalleled power to impact communities, unite worlds and sunder them, and reveal the hopes and fears of those who travel them.With his marvelous eye for detail and his contagious enthusiasm, Ted Conover explores six of these key byways worldwide, in Peru, Pakistan, Kenya, Israel. China and Nigeria. This book was great! It appealed to the travel junkie in me, but, I liked how it took a different look into travel.

Lady Oracle (Margaret Atwood): Joan Foster is the bored wife of a myopic ban-the-bomber.  She takes off overnight as Canada's new superpoet, pens lurid gothics on the sly, attracts a blackmailing reporter, skids cheerfully in and out of menacing plots, hair-raising traps, and passionate trysts, and lands dead and well in Terremoto, Italy. I'd heard of Margaret Atwood before but this was the first thing I'd read by here. I really enjoy her writing styles and am really excited that she has written so many more books for me to choose from ... next up "The Blind Assassin"

Visit my  Goodreads account to see the other books I've read so far. Also, all the summaries in this post were borrowed from Goodreads.

Adventures in Voting - Paraguay Style.

This will mark the 2nd presidential election that I am eligible to vote in, and it will be the 2nd time I have had to vote via absentee ballot. The first time in 2008, I was away at college and could not make it home on election day, this time I am thousands of miles away.

A few of my other friends were talking about how easy it was for them to vote this year because they could vote via email. I thought, "Oh wouldn't that be great if Maryland let you vote that way." Well .. they don't! I could receive my ballot through email but then had to print it out (finding a printer was an adventure) to cast my vote then mail it.

Well the mail system itself in Paraguay could fill a whole blog post. The closest "post office" to me is 10k away on bike, and lets just say post office is a very liberal term. It is one room at the bus terminal in Coronel Oviedo, and the women that work there aren't very enthusiastic about helping me. So I waited until I was going into Asuncion for the weekend to mail it, where I proceeded to get lost trying to find the post office. I finally made it back to the Peace Corps office, unsuccessful in my mission, when someone at the office told me I could just put my ballot in the embassy "mail box" there at the PC office and the US Embassay would mail it for me.

Now I'm leaving it up to faith that it makes it there on time and that my vote will actually count ...


Have you all voted already (I know MD has early voting)? Has anyone had similar adventures trying to cast their vote in an election?