I loved this book. It’s written in a way that although you’ll never understand completely what it means to live each day as the main character, Deborah, does, you can still relate to the same feelings (of course people without mental illnesses would feel them in different situations). Although her mind and how she perceives things is so different, she’s still human with human emotions.

Not only is the book good for those who what to know how the mental health system was like in the late forties and early fifties but for anybody who wants to read an interesting, well-written and thought-provoking novel. I thought the descriptions of Deborah’s “other world” called Yr were fascinating, as was its language. I thought it was interesting that Deb’s vision, hearing, and sense of physical feeling were all affected by her illness.

Even though mental hospitals and treatments for mental illnesses were a lot different in the late 40’s and early 50’s, the illnesses themselves haven’t drastically changed, which is important – many people could relate to the character of Deborah: the frustrations of people not understanding you (an example is on p.95 – “A young nurse had said too loudly, [so that Deborah did hear] ‘That kid looks through me as if I’m not here at all’. Trying to give comfort, Deborah had later whispered to the nurse, ‘Wrong not.”. She was saying that it was not the pretty nurse who was not there but the ugly patient, and still the wrong-coming words only made the frightened student more alarmed, and Deborah saw again the uncrossable expanse between herself and the species called ’human being’.")

Here are some parts or quotes of the book that I really liked:

-“Later, one of the little student nurses came to where Deborah was lying, looking at the ceiling….Deborah sighed and got up dutifully, thinking: She is astounded at the haze of craziness with which I fill a room.” [p. 19]

-“Brief simple moments of companionship seemed like a rain in the desert that was numbered and counted and remembered long after it was gone. Deborah and Carla were enjoying such a rain as Carla nursed her cigarette.” [p. 75]

-One of the staff [who Deborah likes] tells Deborah to not make fun of or verbally lash out at one of the new staff members, he says ‘Lay off Ellis, Deb – you’ll be glad for it later’ She says, “I’ll try” and he looks down hard at her. “Deborah fought the sedative for a while, thinking about what he had said and how. It was tough but true, and under the anger of it ran the tone – the tone rare anywhere, but in a mental ward like a priceless jewel – the tone of a simple respect between equals. The terror she felt at having the responsibility it bore was mingled with a new feeling. It was joy.” [p. 90]

-When Deborah’s doctor said, “We who have never experienced this sickness firsthand can only guess what horror and loneliness there must be.” [p. 104]

-“They [Deborah’s parents] trusted Doctor Fried. She had not been hypocritically calming, but she had given them hope, and it was hope for which they were most desperate.” [p.105]

And I like the part where Deborah and her friend Carla sneak out from the hospital at night while it’s raining – when she finds happiness in doing something juvenile and “against the rules”. (She had never been able to enjoy her childhood the same way other children had) She had broken the rules but one of the doctors said he was kind of proud of her- she was doing something that made her feel joy, an emotion rarely experienced in the wards.

It was less funny and clever than I expected and I was surprised that the plot sucked as much as it did (Borat was much better in my opinion in all these areas). It’s a bit disappointing but oh well.

The other reviewer said it pretty well. For me though, it dragged on a bit in the middle… 3.5 stars… I really don’t know if I want to read the next book which takes place in the same place with the same family.

in moderation

It’s nice that there actually is an affordable and effective book for a beginner to learn quite a bit of Brazilian Portuguese. I thought this book was really well organized and a solid introduction to the language. There are exercises throughout the book as well to practice what you learned. There is also an audio CD which is helpful (A native Brazilian speaker repeats words and phrases which are also written in the book). The chapters are:

1)Introducing the Portuguese Language (Why learn it, similarities to Spanish, European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese, tips on learning Portuguese, recognizing what you already know)

2)The Sounds of Portuguese (Portuguese alphabet, accent marks, listening practice, consonants, stress pattern in Portuguese, oral and nasal vowels, typing in Portuguese)

3)Beginning Conversation (Greetings, talking on the phone, saying goodbye, etc)

4)Nouns, Articles, and Contractions

5)Introducing “ser” (the verb “to be”)

6)Introducing “estar” (the other verb meaning “to be”)

7)Describing People and Things in Portuguese

8)The Vocabulary of Numbers

9)First Conjugation Verbs

10)Second Conjugation Verbs

11)Important Verbs to Know

12)Verb Tenses: an Overview

13)More Verbs

14)Negative Words and Constructions

15)Questions and Exclamations

16)The Future and Other Tenses

17)Imperative and Subjunctive Constructions

18)Carnaval, Samba, Feijoada, and Futebol (Brazilian culture!)

19)Means of Communication (In person, by mail, making phone calls)

20)Traveling to Samba-Land (getting papers in order, hotel reservations, currency, a bit of information about the most popular cities…)

I was mostly looking to learn the language, not the culture, and this book is indeed mostly teaching the language. I liked the bits of information about the culture though in this book and found it interesting.

I definitely recommend this for a start to anyone serious about learning the language. I went through this while going through Pimsleur lessons for Portuguese and found it to be a great supplement to my learning (In my opinion, Pimsleur goes at quite a slow pace and this book helped me learn more about grammar in a shorter amount of time, as well as expressions, etc, without going at too fast a pace). I recommend it to travelers only if they want to spend some extra time learning a bit more than they absolutely “need”.

There are certain words you just do not typically learn as a beginner in Spanish. Once you do have that “basic” foundation though, this book can help you expand your knowledge and be able to have more confidence talking and reading about 30 different topics. This book is full of exercises as well which is great because you can practice what you learn. I was not very sure how helpful this book would be as I had already studied Spanish (well, it was on and off) for a year and 10 months, and the topics seemed like they would be easy to talk about, like things around the home, in the restaurant, crime, sports, travel, etc, but after going through the book I realized how much I actually didn’t know and how much the book helped me. There are few things that I did not find helpful (but the only chapter I felt I was wasting my time doing was the last one about politics and government because 1)It was mostly about stuff in the United States, and 2)I am not very interested in the subject matter and cannot see myself having conversations about it. Answers are in the back which is nice and the book is very affordable. There were few errors (a few times they forgot to include answers to a couple of questions in the back or they accidentally gave the answers of question #10 as the answers of question #8 and vice versa.) Few typing errors. None of this really matters that much, as it doesn’t really interfere with learning. They are just little things that I notice.

Anyway, I think for anyone (at the high-beginner to high-intermediate level) learning Spanish would find this book definitely worth their money and time. (bought from amazon.ca because of good reviews as I usually do)

Useful book. I find it as useful as “501 Spanish Verbs”. Each of these books has something the other does not. 501 Spanish Verbs has many practice exercises at the end of the book, and there are different types of exercises, including fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, and crosswords. My version does not come with an audio CD, but I think there is a version that does, but I do not know what is on it. So 501 verbs offers clear explanations with examples at the beginning of the book, charts of conjugations in all tenses of several of the most popular verbs in the middle, and the exercises at the end with answer keys. 2000+ Essential Spanish Verbs offers the charts as well as exercises at the end, but the exercises are not varied. There are exercises such as reading “dialogue” and answering questions based on it, as well as translating sentences. Also, this book comes with an audio CD which has the program “[Spanish] Before You Know It”. There are flashcards of several of the most used words to help with your vocabulary. They are in several different sections such as, “Weather”, “Verbs”, “Foods”, among many others. A native speaker will say these words when you click on them, and you can add your own words on the lists (or make your own list) and there are exercises to help you remember the words. (Writing them when you see the English equivalent, writing the english word for the spanish word that is shown, you can see how many you get right) among others. (I actually have not used the program very recently, so I don’t remember all the details, but it is very useful!) It’s awesome that you can get the book AND CD for about $15.

definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would

I’ve read Kite Runner before this and finished this book in 2 days. You just get so into the characters and feel for them: hate, disbelief, happiness, sadness, relief, because it all seems so well written, like it could be a true story. Also, through the story of two women you see what life in Afghanistan can be like, a hell for people who have seen so much death in war, which is sad because it once used to be a peaceful and beautiful place where people felt pretty safe. This story makes me feel lucky that I live in a place where I’ve never had to go through anything like this! The story is indeed bittersweet, and there are many surprises which make you keep turning the pages. I love the writing style, just as I did in the Kite Runner and I really want Khaled Hosseini to come out with something new!

So what I did was go into the movie theater expecting a GOOD movie, one that would keep me awake and not drag on. I love all kinds of movies, whether they’re romantic or horror or drama or whatever, and for this I just wanted to be entertained. It was just too slow and meh for me.