Reading;
Yesterday, I finished an absolutely marvellous novel by Khaled Hosseini, "A Thousand Splendid Suns". The story follows two women living in war-ravaged Afghanistan from the mid seventies right through to the present. It's violent, disturbing, heart breaking, terrifyingly true, and beautiful all at once.
The main character Mariam is born a 'harami' (bastard child) to a wealthy businessman & his maid. Her Nana (mum) resents her for 'ruining her life' and tragically, commits suicide, resulting in Mariam being married off to an abusive, sadistic man "Rasheed" in Kabul. It is there they both discover Mariam is unable to have children, and what ensues is years of physical & emotional abuse at the hands of her husband. 15 years later, Laila is thrust into their lives after tragically losing her parents in a bombing by the Taliban. Laila is 14, pregnant to her lover Tariq (whom has just left to Pakistan), and homeless. She takes up Rasheeds offer of marriage and convinces him the baby is his. Without giving away the entire story, Laila too becomes a victim of both physical and emotional abuse via Rasheed, and yet, she forms this magical bond with Mariam that truly warms your soul. To me, the story was about feminism, courage, and finding love in the most hateful of circumstances.
This powerful book has set a high mark for my future reads of 2015, if you haven't read this already, please do.!
Pre "a thousand splendid suns", I read "memoirs of a geisha" by Arthur Golden. This novel totally rocked my socks also. It follows a beautiful young girl "Chiyo" from a small fishing village in Japan, who is sold off to an Okiya (geisha house) in Kyoto. There she eventually becomes one of the most successful geisha in Japanese history. Don't know what a geisha is? Niether did I. Read this book though, & you'll know more than enough. It is so intriguing, interesting, and informative. It's like peeking into an unknown & amazing new world, and it is wonderfully written. I lapped up every last page.
This morning, I downloaded "A brief history of seven killings" by Marlon James. After reading a brief sypnosis online, and seeing it was in Time mags top 10 fictions of 2014, I thought it would be worth a crack. I'll let you know my thoughts once I get through it!
Watching;
Shameless & Girls are back, and I couldn't be more excited about getting my weekly dose of both. Those two shows always have me in hysterics, but if I had to play favourites it would be Girls. Twenty minute episodes are such a tease. Imagine having dinner and drinks with Lena Dunham? Ultimate evening. Both shows are disarmingly vulgar, shocking, captivating & hilarious. So fricken hilarious. I cannot get enough.
Oli and I have also been hooked on "the walking dead". I'm a little 'meh' about it, although I continue to watch it most evenings. The main characters are pretty poor actors, but the gruesome zombie slaying is obviously enough to keep me around. Blood, brains & guts gets me every time!
Listening to;
The Black Keys' new album "Turn Blue" has been running hot on the old iPhone all month. Those cool, bluesy, electronic, funky mother fuckers know how to make good music. They somehow manage to cater to every genre (blues, rock, pop, electronic) and there's definitely a little bit of something for everyone on this album. "Weight of love" & "Turn Blue" are my current faves, but I genuinely enjoy each and every song (rare). I cannot quite believe I'll be seeing these cats in a couple of months, I'm expecting incredible things!
If you haven't had a listen yet, you need to do so immediately!
Oli recently put the Alt J album "This is all yours" onto my pod, and over the last couple of weeks I've really been warming to it. A lot of it is slow, and weird, but the music is really funky & the lyrics really clever. I had heard "Left Hand Free" loads on Triple J over the last few months and I bloody love that song, but "hunger of the pine" is definitely my album favourite. If you're after something chilled out, I would highly recommend Alt J!
And lastly, on Saturday eve, Oli and I dusted off our dance shoes (we didn't actually dance) & went to see Fat Freddys Drop in fremantle. I hadn't seen this iconic Nz band live before, and let me just say, they did not disappoint. Holy crap that team of musicians is incredible! It made me rather proud to be a New Zealander to see them put on such an epic sold out show so far from home. And to top it off, it was made even more spectacular by the accompaniment of this sunset;
Right? Oh nature, you so prettaay.
Well, that's quite enough bantering out of me. It's currently 39 degrees out (faaaaark me!) so the kids and I are off to submerge in our clamshell pool out on the patio. It's a shark free zone out there, which makes me happy.
Hope you all enjoyed every last moment of your long weekend both here & in NZ,
Gem
Thought of the day "I feel as though I may just catch on fire today"
No comments:
Post a Comment