It's late, but Les Miserables is the best novel ever written.

This week has been a crappy one. Loss of job (and thereby income), average GRE scores (much lower than my target score), loneliness, stress of getting 12 Christmas gifts for loved one, stress of getting into grad school, stress of finding a new job. . . I could go on but I've pretty much been stressed out about my future, even though I KNOW that God has a plan for my life.

It just so happens that I noticed my favorite book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo on my bookshelf last Friday. And it just so happens that I picked it up after a decade of not reading it, and it just so happens that I fell in love with it all over again.

It is the best book ever written. It shows how one good deed done not for the sake of man, but for God can have repercussions that span generations. That is, a middle-aged newly released prisioner comes into a new town, is turned away from everyone in town except for the local priest. The local priest takes him in, and, when stolen from reacts in love, giving him the items that were stolen.

This stirs the man, who sets out to make a good, pious life for himself. Ever present in front of the man are his failures, his sins. He seeks out to act rightly and does so. In the process he takes in Cosette. The little orphan girl grows up and is raised to love and revere God, the church and her father. And through a glance, she falls in love.

I don't know why the story of Cosette and Marius moves me so much. They are youths, he 20 and she 16 when they fall in love. He a historian-lawyer-rebel and she a quiet daughter. They exchange glances at the park and he pursues her. When the insurrection of 1832 causes them to be separated, the father brings them back together.

Jean Valjean is my favorite character now. Back when I was 15, I thought Marius was the best. However, now I see that Jean Valjean is the best character because he truly shows not only what it means to be redeemed, and reconciled with Christ, but what it means to love.

Its late and this isn't well written, but Jean Valjean gives up his own security so that his adopted daughter may be loved. That is an example what Christ has done for each of us. It is completely laudable. One day I will have to write a better review on this masterpiece of fiction.

Am I Ruth or Joseph?

So I went on a reading frenzy lately and didn't post about it. I read 4 historical fiction books right in a row. I'm talking 600 pages a day for days on end. Now of course, I'm suffering from reader-burnout, and my eyes hurt.

So that being said, for the past couple days I've been listening to sermons on my iphone. I'm desparately hungry for Christian fellowship. I go to a church now, but no new Bible studies are starting until after the holidays. It's already been a long time. Anyway, so I listened to a Mark Driscoll sermon on the life of Joseph and I found it super inspiring. I think Boaz and Jospeh are the most honorable "junior varisty" men in the Bible. I told my best friends that I wish I knew of attractive men who exemplified the qualities Jo and Bo have.

Anyway, so I go to work each night thinking of Joseph and I find my self saying "Jo didn't get things right every time because he wasn't perfect, but he kept at it." Then as I was polishing silver one night, I remembered a sermon the pastor at Bethany Church in Wyckoff said over the summer about Ruth.

Am I a Ruth or a Joseph? I don't know. I just want to be a good example of the type of employee God approves of. Already my boss has said, "And you? You're a worker, God bless you." And he's not even a Christian.

More book recommendations after the holiday.

National Novel Writing Month

November is one of my favorite months of the year. Its the anniversary of when my grandparents came to this country, its the anniversary of when a lot of my family became believers, its Thanksgiving, its one of my sister's birthday, and its National Novel Writing month.





I heard about this a number of years ago, and try and participate everyyear. I'm not to great with getting 50,000 words in in one month, but it's great practice. Anyway, my piece this year is that historical fiction thing I've been meaning to try and write for years. I made a collage to help me get a handle on all of my ideas, so there it is. I hope I actually finish it!

Additionally, here is a prayer written by the Patron Saint of journalists and writers:

"Lord, I am Yours, and I must belong to no one but You.
My soul is Yours, and must live only by You.
My will is Yours, and must love only for You.
I must love You as my first cause, since I am from You.
I must love You as my end and rest, since I am for You.
I must love You more than my own being, since my being subsists by You.
I must love You more than myself, since I am all Yours and all in You. Amen."
-Prayer of St Francis De Sales

Weddings and Murder

So over this weekend I babysat and read Melody Carlson's "Three Weddings and a Bar Mitzvah." This book is the final book in the 4 books series 86 Bloomsberg Place. In my opinion, it was one of the strongest in the series. Lelani and Gil are getting married, Gil's sister Ana is having difficulties at work and in love, her housemate Megan's boyfriend just up and leaves her for a mission trip to Africa with next to no notice, and crazy Kendall is marrying her Maui Man. Throughout the whole book the girls struggle with patience and communicating (in life who doesn't)? I believe that many Church pew Christians will identify with Megan and Ana, while many of those trying to figure out how to balance life will identify with Kendall and Lelani.

For my self it was a hard book to read, simply because I began this series a year or so ago while in a dating relationship, and ended up reading the last book of this series single, with no prospects at all. I think I most closely identified with Ana, although my mother and I have a wonderful relationship. I kind of wish that there would be a spin off series with Ana, Megan and their men. I could go on, but I'll just shut up and give Mrs. Carlson a Gold Star!

As for "Midnight in Madrid" by Noel Hynd, this is the type of novel that I would relate more too in away because I am single. Although it kind of makes me glad I'm single. Single people can go off and have adventures while those married are tied to their apartment and responsibilities. In the first book, Alex LaDuca loses someone who she loves with her life, and in the second book she is on vacation recovering from said loss when artistic disaster strikes. The suspense kept me turning pages every night this weekend and made me wish I had mastered all of the languages I took in college. Many murders later, we realize that Alex might just be ok after all. Gold Star Mr. Hynd for a novel that was as entertaining as it was encouraging.

Both of these novels show that love changes us. God's love is there all along, and sometimes he brings godly men into our lives to love, and sometimes he doesn't bring a spouse, but a people we care deeply for. Either way, God's love sets us free.

High School Humiliation week & books

So Anne and May, those lovely ladies who wrote A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS asked people what their most humiliating moments were in high school. Well, I thought about it for 2 days and then this morning it came to me, and I was even more embarrassed. Notice the picture, its me 15, in 10th grade at my surprise quinceanera. Notice I'm not wearing a lame gown. That was 2001.

You see, my sister and I used to take the bus. I used to sit next to a cute kid who I didn't think was "Christian" enough to date. We became bus-buddies though & I guess you could say and he always knew who I was crushing on and resented them for it. As it happens, a family from my church, took in a foreign exchange student from Ecuador (this is not to be confused with the foreign exchange student from my freshman year Spanish class I mentioned on Camy Tangs website). This boy was tall, way cute, and an upperclassman. He often wore a jean jacket, a white sweater and was the Antonio Banderas version of Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World (in my humble opinion).

Anyway, so 10th grade was the year I was all into poetry, ok, I was always into poetry. Well, I wrote him a poem. and I showed it to my bus-buddy. I didn't title it or anything, and all I remember are the lines, "Hero from across the sea, came to sit in front of me." Yeah, it was that bad. Bus-buddy laughed, and then stood up and said "Hey Eric Banderas (I can't remember his real name), Mandy wrote a poem about you!"

I tore it out of his hands, but for the rest of the ride home it was "Oooo your eyes are so dark and dreamy," or "oooo your my latin lover from across the ocean."

So there you have it. One of my most humiliating moments in high school. I have a bunch, though, and most involved foreigner exchangers. Oh and this week we're reading: Midnight in Madrid by Noel Hynd

Do you cry when a character in a book dies?

Ok so this weekend I read Noel Hynd's novel "Conspiracy in Kiev" as you'll note from my last post. And while there was no sex (yay I won the bet!) there was a lot of flirting and bantering back and forth between characters. There were jealous boyfriend's, and jealous Ukrainian mobsters...and death. I mean you have to have death in a political/spy thriller right? I expected certain characters to die, or be kidnapped, but of course Mr. Hynd pulls a fast one on me. A totally unsuspected death in the novel.

And the most surprising thing out of the whole day was not that one character died. No, no, the most surprising thing to me was the fact that when I came home from bringing James (a 4 month old we have in our home now) from the doctor, my sister was up in our room all emotional about a character who died in a series she was reading! And since I hadn't yet read the death of the character in Hynd's novel, I was a jerk. I mean my sister is reading a YA series, Cirque du Freak or something like that and is almost done the series. A major character dies. All day she was complaining, "How could the author do this?" And of course I have to be a professional jerk and say, "Well you know, authors are really thinking of the story arc and character development and how could this one character develop if this other character was holding his hand the whole time?"

Is it silly to cry over fake people? See, I view it this way: we will never know the lives of FBI guys or Secret Service or CIA people, so in a way, when I get upset over the death of a character in a novel, I'm thinking: there is a chance that one of these patriots has died like this or in a similar way; and: isn't the world so unfair?

This is only one of the many reasons why my mother only reads memoirs and biographies. When she gets upset over characters in books, she wants it to be real people she has learned about and formed an attachment too, not fake people.

I give this book a Gold Star, not only for the emotional response it invoked, but because of a particular character's faith in God and the theme of long-suffering through out the novel. Bravo!

I forgot it was Hispanic Heritage Month

SO I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH.

To be fair, as a month it was only instituted in 1988 but no one really cared until1996, which mean that at the end of my elementary experience, someone in Washington made noise about a formerly passed law, which made teachers and the media have to start incorporating what it means to be Hispanic into their lesson plans and the media. This sounds like a great idea right? Well the problem with this is that very few teachers in the schools I went to knew about this proclamation from Washington. Or if they did they were a) the ESL teacher (a class I was NOT in) or b) the Spanish teacher (who spoke Spanish with an Italian accent that made it different for certain native speakers to understand her). Needless to say, its understandable why I would forget that September is Hispanic Heritage month.

I often say my family hails from 2 countries in Latin America. Cuba. Colombia. When people ask me what my background is, they usually assume I'll say Sicily or Italy or something to that nature. Usually I just smile and say "No, I'm Cuban-Colombian." What follows next is the most insulting remark ever: "You don't LOOK Latino." I smile and shrug and say "Well you know."

What I'm thinking is this: Latin America is very diverse. Hispanics (I prefer this term over Latino) are usually made up of former inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands (remember Spain used to own them) and even some Germans and Austrians, in some places the decedents of indigenous peoples and along the coastal regions, Africans.

Anyway, I thought about what do so that's special about this month, but really, I am Hispanic, I live it out each day with out effort since its my way of life, so what's to celebrate? I think there should be a Christian Heritage Month because that would give me something more challenging to live out. But maybe I'll hop on over to Babalu blog and check in on the Cuban-American news?

(book reviews resume next week).