What I'm reading + NOTD pt.78

Black Rock White City is a novel about the damages of war, the limits of choice, and the hope of love. During a hot Melbourne summer Jovan's cleaning work at a bayside hospital is disrupted by acts of graffiti and violence becoming increasingly malevolent. For Jovan the mysterious words that must be cleaned away dislodge the poetry of the past. He and his wife Suzana were forced to flee Sarajevo. Intensely human, yet majestic in its moral vision, Black Rock White City is an essential story of Australia's suburbs now, of displacement and immediate threat, and the unexpected responses of two refugees as they try to reclaim their dreams. It is a breathtaking roar of energy that explores the immigrant experience with ferocity, beauty and humour.

In the library I found this one in the crime section, but I wouldn't put it in the crime genre. True, there are unresolved crimes that are happening in the hospital, but the story is much more profound than that.

On the nail I have the first polish I bought from Catrice. Before the Catrice stands reached Slovenia, there were Catrice nail polishes. This one is Let's Talk About Barrie! and in the bottle it looks berry red, but on the nails is classic red, no berry tones in sight, which is a shame, but otherwise I still find it fantastic. The application is still great, and the brush is so easy to work with.

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt.77

When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life.

Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn't seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye. 

Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction, Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely pilgrimage at the heart of Rachel Joyce's remarkable debut. 

A hearth worming story of an elderly man, who decided that he has still something to give in his life and that the past mistakes can be still resolved and the unspoken words between him and his wife can still be said. 

"People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The superhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that."

Nail polish is from Essence, an old limited edition called Wild Craft, the polish is Mystic Lilac. I wouldn't say it's lilac, it leans more toward plum and brown, but still, nice autumnal colour. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 76

Sharp object is first novel by Gillian Flyn, for which she won the 2007 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller.

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

A novel that I've read in a day. It was so gripping that I wanted to stay in the house and neglect my exercising, but I gave in ant went exercising and had to finish it in the evening.

On my nails is nail polish from O.P.I with the name Coca-Cola Red and it's my sister's. The colour is, as the name suggests, a coca cola red and the application was easy. I noticed that the nail polish is thinner in comparison with those from Essence or Catrice, so the application is somehow easier, you just need to be careful a bit that you don't flood your cuticles. In terms of staying power, nothing new with me in this department, one day of full manicure and the second day, there is already chipped nail polish.

Have a great day!