When you're dead, you have more power

"When you're dead, you have more power," said Dr. Brenda Flanagan, author of You Alone are Dancing and In Praise of the Island Women and Other crimes.
And this power is also entrusted to her ancestors and inspires her to write those award-winning pieces that she published.
Every writer has something or someone who guides their thoughts and help them write remarkable pieces. Flanagan explained that she sometimes call to the spirits for help in writing her books.
"There are spirits that guide you," she said.

MUST SEE

While reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett, I was trying to imagine what it would look like as a motion picture. Well, Now I will know...

Life in a metaphor

"Life is like a pipe, and I'm a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside."
--- Amy Winehouse, Back to Black ---

"Operation Beautiful" close to home

    I've never heard of this initiative before tonight. I was walking around my campus, and I found those post-it notes located at the most random places. It's amazing how words can reverse the mood of the day. Seeing those post-it notes doubtlessly made me happy. I tried to think about those single mothers and those abused individuals walking along the hallways where those post-it notes were placed and how great those post-it notes will make them feel.

This operation was initiated to help fight "Fat Talk." The creator of this project is Caitlin (http://operationbeautiful.com/about-2/), who admitted to have dealt with "Fat Talk" herself.

It reminded me of a comic book that I read a long time ago. I just wish I could remember the name of it! 

Colombian soap operas (Telenovelas)

I love to watch Colombian soap operas. They rarely fail to breath reality. Series, such as La Madre, contain good story lines and real life situations. The endings are not always about resolution, but mostly a lesson. La Madre is a good example of that. The ending did bring a resolution. However, it was mostly about a lesson. Here is a link to the series from Youtube if you want to watch it http://www.youtube.com/user/maggiebee0208

The word Uniqueness

"Uniqueness is of course a dangerously over-used concept in historiography; firsly by definition, any country's experience is unique, and, secondly, every country specialist is tempted to perceive the subject of his or her expertise to be interpretable in its own right and on its own terms" (Kapcia, 2008, p.7).

--- Antonia Kapcia, Cuba in Revolution: A History Since the Fifties---

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

Dear Ms. Stockett,

What a wonderful book you wrote. I haven't read a book that reached me so deeply in a long time. They say the best stories come from the heart, and in your case, it truly did. I compared Skeeter's character with the brief bio that was set at the end of the book cover for you. I might be wrong, but I felt that her character was inspired by your very own person. By the way, Skeeter was one of my favorite character, along with Aibeleen.

Nonetheless, it was Aibeleen's soft nature that I admired. Sometimes, I wanted to skip through the chapters just to catch up with her. I always say to myself that someone has to be righteous in this world (there just has to be one) to inspire the rest of us who are striving everyday. Her soul reached me through the book and gave me courage in a way. 

A Librarian once told me that some books are more focused on characters whereas others are more focused on plot ( I guess the ones that you can't put down would be categorized in the latter genre). This book was a fairly even mixture of a powerful plot and complicated characters. It kept me going, and I just wanted to ditch all my work just to read it. Yet, it also had enough emphasis on the characters that I took my time to learn every single one of them. 

I love the mystery of the characters. Such unexpected yet almost innocent revelations and such pleasant way to unfold everything!

My favorite quote from the book was about things unfolding like silk or something like that (I can't seem to find it. stupid me forgot to mark the page).

Congrats on a good work!

Sincerely,

Ba

***

Dear readers,

I truly recommend this book to you. You will most likely have a different opinion than I did. I don't want to say more because I don't want to ruin it for you. I can almost assure you that you are going to love it. I looked at the reviews on amazon. They were full of positive feedbacks. The book is about motherhood, friendship, love, hate and how we all find a way to survive in this world of "madness."

Best,

Ba

http://www.amazon.com/Help-Kathryn-Stockett/dp/0399155341/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297575646&sr=1-1