Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan is a magical-realist centered on Indonesia in the years after Suharto’s fall in 1998. It opens with the main character emerging from her grave to check up on what’s happened to her daughters and grandchildren, and it’s not pretty. The family is dealing with a lot of drama,… [Read More]
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Recapping Velvet: Season 1, Episode 12, “The Visitor”
Warning: there are many, many spoilers about the Spanish drama Velvet ahead. You can see it on Netflix. At the end of Episode 11, Don Emilio was on the floor of the shop. It turns out that he is alive, and the doctor orders him to stay in bed for a week. His situation is… [Read More]
Cyprus: The Island of Missing Trees
I’m working through my global books project and realizing that this could turn into a lifetime of work! For the island nation of Cyprus, I read The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. Cyprus is an island nation located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Like many nations in that part of the world, it… [Read More]
Recapping Velvet: Season 1, Episode 11, “The Remains of the Shipwreck”
Warning: there are many, many spoilers about the Spanish drama Velvet ahead. Fashion Point: Understanding the muse. Spanish Language Tip: I was listening for the Y pronounciation. We open on Cristina and Alberto in bed at Marquez Manor. Cristina is a little freaked; it’s 7:00 am, and her father will be pissed. Naturally, this very same… [Read More]
Please, Give Me a Medal
I almost told someone that they looked tired, then I remembered how hurt someone looked the last time I made that comment, 20 years ago at least, and so I asked them how they were doing instead. The person in line behind me at the grocery store had only three items, so I let them… [Read More]
