January - Novel Month

This has been an incredible novel month, January. I have never considered myself a novel person. I don't see the point of reading novels in general. Stories about someone? Who cares? It just doesn't make sense to me the thing about novels.

But then, for some reason, or someone, I nervously gave it a try and got hooked. Novels take me places, to different cultures around the world, into people's deep vulnerable thoughts and chaos. 

In January only, I traveled to Jerusalem, Gaza, Pakistan with The Blue Between Sky and Water followed the story of Nur and her family; then to Pennsylvania, London Victorian England in the Gothic horror novel by Gram Stoker; next to Paris with the extraordinary heart transplant in a realistic and medical fiction novel by the French author Maylis de Kerangal; ending with the classic work of Jonas Jonasson on the crazy escapades of a-hundred-year-old man who climbed out of his Old Folks home's window in Sweden and disappeared on his one-hundredth birthday. 

THE BLUE BETWEEN SKY AND WATER
Susan Abulhawa painted the picture of Palestinians suffering under Israeli occupation while demonstrating the incredible resilience and resistance of the Palestinian people.

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DRACULA
Published in 1897, Stoker's classic novel became the basis of an entire genre of literature and film. Based on the Eastern European legends of undying vampires, Stoker fueled his imagination to create the Prince of Darkness, Dracula.

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THE HEART
The Heart focuses on the transplantation of Simon Limbres's heart and how it affects those involved in the process, including Simon's parents, the physicians, the nurses, and the recipients.
(Originally written in French, translated into English)

 
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THE 100-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT OF THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED

This is an amazingly wittingly written story with the mind of someone who looks at the world in its simplest form. Praise to Jonasson.
(Originally written in Swedish, translated by Rod Bradbury)

Finished this one on the last day of January.

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Determined to travel more.

T.