Here's to April!! Yay and finally.
March was a butt kicker. Working too much between two offices, doing overtime and trying to fill in for an absent employee busted the month badly. I started failing at my tasks, I had no energy and I ended the month in a melt-down with my boss that thankfully resolved but did not play well at the time.
March had good weight loss: down 23 pounds now since starting Weight Watchers. Not hungry, enjoying the community online and both success and not-quite-success stories.
Budget blew up. If it wasn't for my sick co-worker who forced me into working on my day off and getting overtime, I would have been in big trouble. Instead the overtime saved my ass financially while screwing me emotionally.
I'm really hoping for a much better April.
I'm putting aside any writing plans right now and am reading The Marrying Stone by Pam Morsi. I read Simple Jess ages ago and Carolyn told me it was a trilogy so I'm starting at the beginning. I like the formality of the writing, it fits my mood right now so it's a great choice.
Mollie is on Maui with her band and having a great time.
I got the shots in my knee and although it's better, there's still pain. I'm going to have to advocate to get an MRI and get a look at what's really going on with it.
Altogether March kicked my ass and I ended it on a down. But I had some beautiful moments with my daughter and I'm feeling a lot more positive about things so I'm looking forward to April and getting back on a positive emotional track.
And I'm looking to build up my library with more literary fiction and magical realism, two genres I adore. All recs are welcome.
I had mentioned to you Carlos Fuentes' "Aura." Decades ago, it was my introduction to magical realism, and I love it to this day.
ReplyDeleteLaura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate is also good, though I can't vouch for the translations (I've only read the original in Spanish), I can tell you that the movie is very close to the book; the script was written by the author.
Isabel Allende's House of Spirits is well known, but if you don't mind really dark, shorter stories, the anthology Of love and shadows is really, really good.
I can recommend a few more, but unfortunately I have only read them in Spanish, and I sincerely doubt they translate well to English; a lot of the mores and slang are too specific to the time and place of writing. However, you may want to try to find them.
ReplyDeletePedro Paramo, and El llano en llamas (The burning plain) by Juan Rulfo
Quien mato a Palomino Moreno? (Who killed Palomino Moreno) by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Not exactly magical realism, but still on that vein, Los renglones torcidos de Dios (God's crooked lines) by Spanish author Torcuato Luca de Tena. Also by him, Carta del mas alla (Letter from beyond).
And if you have not yet read Paulo Coelho's The Alquimist you absolutely should!