What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 75

Ten strangers, apparently with little in common, are lured to an island mansion off the coast of Devon by the mysterious U.N.Owen. Over dinner, a record begins to play, and the voice of an unseen host accuses each person of hiding a guilty secret. That evening, former reckless driver Tony Marston is found murdered by a deadly dose of cyanide. The tension escalates as the survivors realise the killer is not only among them but is preparing to strike again... and again.

And There Were None by Agatha Christie is a recent addition to her novel translated in Slovene and I see there are more waiting to be translated in our language, so I'm not done with Agatha Christie yet.

The nail polish is from Essence, an old Colour & go line. The name is reach peach and it's a rusty red colour. Perfect for autumn, it reminds me of autumn leaves. The application is very easy with almost every colour from this line and this was no exception.

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 74

Picking up where Fall of Giants, the first novel in the extraordinary Century Trilogy, left off, Winter of the World follows its five interrelated families--American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh--through a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the great dramas of World War II, and into the beginning of the long Cold War.

Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide until daring to commit a deed of great courage and heartbreak. American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific. English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism. Daisy Peshkov, a driven social climber, cares only for popularity and the fast set until war transforms her life, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence that will affect not only this war but also the war to come.

The story is narrated by the children of the main characters of the first book. We know what is happening with them, because they are still in our story, they just don't get the main role. Everything I said about the first book is also true for the second one in the trilogy.

The nail polish is from the same LE from Essence as it was for the first book. This one is Hunt Me If You Can from Vampire's Love LE and it's black with silver glitter. Unfortunately you can't see the glitter because it seems that my top coat somehow eats the glitter so the nail polish looks black. You must look hard to see the glitter. But it's clearly visible in the bottle and it was also visible before I put on the top coat. Strange.

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 73

'I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974 ...My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license ...records my first name simply as Cal.' 

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Point, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Middlesex is indeed an epic novel. I always loved the stories when we get to know the whole history of the family till the present day. It's written in a way that will always pull you to read forward even though you decided that you have enough for today. It is a fatty, and I was a bit scared how long will it take me to finish it, but after I started I saw that it would be a quick page turner.

Sometimes when I finish reading a book I have some questions in my head that are not always connected directly with the story, but maybe there is a theme I would like to explore further. The debate between sex and gender is not new to me, since I had taken gender studies at my university, but it was some time ago so I decided to refresh a subject a little. And there was a book on my reading list that it was perfect for this.

It's the book Sex/Gender. Biology in a Social World by Anne Fausto Sterling. Sex/Gender presents a relatively new way to think about how biological difference can be produced over time in response to different environmental and social experiences. This book gives a clearly written explanation of the biological and cultural underpinnings of gender. Anne Fausto-Sterling introduces the biochemistry, neurobiology, and social construction of gender with expertise and humor in a style accessible to a wide variety of readers. In addition to the basics, Sex/Gender ponders the moral, ethical, social and political side to this inescapable subject.

Human body is very complicated indeed and I didn't get definite answers about sex and gender just a will to learn more. There is some interesting fact in the book and I would recommend the book to everyone that is interested in the debate about sex and gender, since is written in the way that anyone can understand the topics. For example, did you know that the colours, blue for boys and pink for girls, came in use after the second world war, so that the generation that is now around fifty is the first that was raised in this strict colour scheme. 

Here I have another fun fact for you. In Slovenian language we don't have a world for gender, so for the need of having something, at least for studying the subject at universities we say social sex when we mean gender and biological sex. But in everyday use, I don't think we ever use the world gender, is all just (biological) sex for us.

The nail polish is from Essence, from an old limited edition and the name is Blues of being cool. It's a greyish blue, application was ok, nothing to complain about.

Have a great day.