Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

North Korea has been somewhat fascinating to me for a while, if only because it's so ludicrous that such a place can exist in today's world. This book is a collection of stories from various North Korean defectors from different walks of life gathered from interviews done by the author. In case there is any doubt, this book is very depressing.
It's hard to believe people live this way and accept it, being so brainwashed and told that the rest of the world is the same way. Many people do, even when their families starve to death or are shot because someone told the Party they were talking badly about them. Some also defect, risking life and limb to get to China or South Korea. Those that do are riddled with survivor's guilt for their families that have either died or were left behind.
I'm not going to go into any more detail about the stories in this book. I'm just going to say that even if only some of the stories are true, then North Korea is quite possibly the worst possible place in the world to live. Ever.
The author also writes for the Los Angeles Times. This book was nominated for the National Book Award and won the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction in 2010. If there's one good thing I can say about the stories in this book, they make you very grateful to live in the civilized world and to have the life you have.

So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell

This book has received a lot of praise. After reading it I'm not sure all that praise is justified, or maybe I'm just not the intended audience. The 135 page novella starts off with a bang, literally, as a son on a farm in 1921 rural Illinois runs into the house to tell his Ma that Pa's been shot. The author had definitely gotten my attention, and I thought to myself ooohhh I bet this is gonna be good.
Then things go back in time a little bit to the narrator being a kid in school in a well to do family being raised by his father as his mother died when he was very young, and since Dad didn't really like to have a lot to do with the narrator, he finds ways to keep himself entertained. While playing at the construction site for their new house he befriends Cletus, a poor farmer's son his own age. The two hang out together and their difference in background doesn't seem to matter much. Some affairs happen. Some lies are told. Cletus's father loses his wife to another man and decides to get even. Some other stuff happens, too, but I'm not going to give away the whole book. Suffice to say that I thought it was alright and it held my interest, but the author's bad feelings portrayed in this semi-autobriographical piece seem overblown to me. Again, maybe I'm just not the target audience.
This book was a finalist for a Pulitzer prize and won the National Book Award the year it was released, so evidently a lot of people enjoyed it. Maybe you will, too. Personally, I could take it or leave it.

The Spy who came in from the Cold by John LeCarré

I haven't read too many spy novels in my time, but I am a history major so I'm also interested in history stuff. Cold War era espianage sounded pretty interesting also, so I decided to check this book out. It's regarded by many as the best spy novel they've ever read, as said on the cover in the above picture. I haven't finished reading it yet but I'm pretty close and I've enjoyed it pretty well. Basically a British intelligence officer who is close to retirement is pulled into an operation where he makes East German intelligence believe that he wants to defect and give them valuable information. Of course everything doesn't go as planned and there are some hangups that involve the protagonist almost getting killed multiple times. The phrase "out in the cold" is used to describe a spy that is out in the field, to alleviate any confusion about the title. The book also got made into a movie which I intend to watch after I finish reading the book.

The movie came out in 1965 and was nominated for two academy awards. It has a review of 7.6 on IMDB which is pretty good in my understanding. If you are a fan of spy novels or movies, this would be a good one to check out.

So I was thinking...

that maybe I could start a regular non-ramen related blog for all the daily life stuff I deal with and maybe... just a place to vent about things. Nobody may ever read this or take it seriously and that's ok with me. I think of it as more of a mental health exercise where I can flex my literary muscles and just talk about everyday stuff. I guess I'll start with the basics.
I have another blog on blogger, Ramenator which I have had for a few years now. It has been a very fun experience for me and I intend to keep it going despite not having updated it in almost a year.
I'm 27 and I just moved from Birmingham, AL to Dothan, AL which is right on the Alabama/Florida state line. It's a much smaller place and I'm still getting used to it but the whole experience is made better by sharing it with my wonderful girlfriend. I'm currently a sales lead at a Dollar General store and I'm looking to go back to school at Troy University to finish my degree. It's been a dream of mine for a long time to become a teacher and I am about half way there college credit wise. Hopefully I will be able to go back to school for the fall semester!
But enough about me, what the hell is gonna be on this blog? Other than my personal ranting, you can expect posts about:

• Absolutely glorious beer
• Food
• Cats
• Life
• Work Frustrations
• Books
• Movies
• Anything else I feel like writing about and if you don't like it you can suck it

So that's it in a nutshell. This is my space to write whatever I feel like. Feel free to read. Feel free to comment.