CARAMELO

It's easier for me to write about a book I don't like or hold in high regard, than writing about one that I fell in love with. But I will try and explain why this book is so great. Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros is the most recent book I have finished and I am in love. It's hard for me to explain what were the best parts I liked about this book. Maybe it was her intertwining of stories through different generations, or her graceful manner in which Cisneros mixed in Spanish-Mexican dichos. Or maybe it was how she so accurately described the relationship between a Mexican male and his mother. The book was all around fun to read.



Caramelo is narrated by Celaya "Lala" Reyes, who shares her life experiences and intertwines them with those of her family. The book starts when Lala as 4 years old and spans through her late teens/early twenties and the stories take place in Chicago, Texas and Mexico. Her family is full of characters and storytellers which consists of her parents, six brothers and her "evil grandmother" just to name a few. Cisnero's touches on mother/daughter relationships and as it relates to mother/son relationships. My favorite quote of the book is:
"It's amazing how blind Mexican sons are to their mother's shortcomings. A meddlesome, quarrelsome, difficult, possessive mother is seen only as a mother who loves her child too much, instead of the thing she is - an unhappy lonely person."

Maybe for this quote alone, you should pick up this book.



BLOGS
I am addicted to blogs! Not mine specifically but to blogs in general. Most of you already know, I am nosy. So it's no surprise that I like to lurk on blogger.com and check out random blogs that come up in the roll down list of newly updated blogs. I have found some interesting ones, but most are pretty self absorbing and don't contribute anything worthwhile to the internet. (unlike mine of course:)


I came across a blog called "And baby makes three". I don't include a link to it because it's not particularly interesting. It's just a blog set up by a new mother which features new pictures of her baby. What is interesting is that she writes her blog like it's for her baby to read when he gets older. She assumes that this blog, website and technology will be available in the year 2017 when her child will be at least 10 to read her blog. What she doesn't realize is that in ten years this technology of blogging will be obsolete. Not necessarily the internet will be gone, but the system of blogging and the blogger website will no longer exist giving way to the most recent program that makes "blogging" easier, whatever it may be called. Once blogger creators or Google decided that blogs are no longer popular and they decide to shut it down, they will not give you enough notice to save your entries. Most people will not have the foresight to transfer the information to update formats or whatever is going to follow the blogging sensation.
I just state this so you, my reader (tee hee) will be up to date and know that things online aren't forever. If that mom-blogger would want something for her child to read in the future, and ensure that he gets it and is able to read it, paper is the way to go.
(This has been a public service announcement made by your local archivist/librarian.)