The Other Hand/Little Bee by Chris Cleave

On my list of books to read this summer was Little Bee by Chris Cleave, because the first time I came across it in a Target about a year or two back I knew that I wanted to read it. So this summer when I found a used copy at Hasting's I bought it without giving it a second thought.

The Other Hand, also known as Little Bee, is a 2008 novel by British author Chris Cleave. It is a dual narrative story about a Nigerianasylum-seeker and a British magazine editor, who meet during the oil conflict in the Niger Delta, and are re-united in England several years later. Cleave, inspired as a university student by his temporary employment in an asylum detention centre, wrote the book in an attempt to humanise the plight of asylum-seekers in Britain. The novel examines the treatment of refugees by the asylum system, as well as issues of British colonialism, globalization, political violence and personal accountability. (source: Wikipedia)


This book will immediately draw you in and leave you on the edge of your seat as the character's, Little Bee and Sarah, recall their memories and navigate the reader through their present struggles. I was a puddle for a good portion of this book and I'm okay with that. Because if there's one indication of a a writer's capability to keep a reader's attention, it's turning them into a massive blubbering mess. Cleave's writing is amazingly fluid and simultaneously addicting and his character's only become a part of you, right down to little Charlie who refuses to  take off his Batman costume. The innocence of Charlie is a sweet reminder that even though there is a myriad of bad things that happen in the world that there is still some good and hope for humanity out there, even if the murkiness of one's life is blinding. 


I highly recommend this book, though if you're already kind of depressed then you should prepare yourself with a box of tissues and maybe some chocolates because your heart will be ripped out, stomped on and then slowly put back together again. 


5/5 typewriters


xoxo

Maslow would be so disappointed right now

So for the past two days at work I have been only half way there, mind, body and spirit. Ever since I have found out my news about school I haven't been my usual "on top of things" self at work.  It's like I haven't even left yet yet I feel like I'm about to leave or something. I thankfully didn't mess up anything too serious at work, just had to deal with some cranky customers and made a lame excuse of "being too tired" and apologizing profusely. I think only half of them bought it.

But I didn't come here to write about work today, I came to talk about my still unmet needs for a distraction, at least one that will last for the next three months. So I think that my options are as follows:

• Look for a second job, since my first one pays my bills, the second will go to my savings account so that I can have some money saved up for school until I can find a job up there. 

• Have a Sarah Dessen novelesque summer whirl wind romance and then end it when we go to school in the fall?? But the way my dating life is going right now I don't see that happening unless the guy I almost met at a deli a couple of weeks ago happens to cross my path again (but that story is for another time).

Those seem to be my only options that I can think of besides hanging out with friends and family and getting school stuff taken care of.

I think I'm only having Basic Needs met (sadface) so far.

This is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, one of my favorite things to learn about in high school psychology.

They say time flies when you're having fun, I think time flies if you throw a clock out of a window. Guess I should go look for some fun.


xoxo

So what are you doing this summer?? Are you excited?