The Biblio Blogazine

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
Translated from the Portuguese by Jull Costa
Fiction, 191 pages
Harper Collins Publishers

Inspired by personal experience, Coelho brings us this novella which explores the perceptions of those with mental illness and those who have to deal with it – or choose not to.

At the core is a story about finding acceptance, facing denial, and finding the freedom to takes one’s fate into their own hands regardless of the obstacles.

The only detraction, for some readers, may be way the author handles the narration, at times literally placing himself within the story. In addition, there is sexual content which didn’t bother me, but may put off others.

This was a good introduction to Coelho, but not the best one. I have a feeling The Alchemist may be a much better story. I’m looking forward to reading it, hoping to appreciate this author more.

If you would like to learn more about the this work, the author, or any of his other stories, please visit the links below:

• Paulo Coelho’s website
• Paulo Coelho’s blog
• Author discussing writing this book
• My reading notes posted November 19, 2009 which gives you a bit more in detail about thoughts I had regarding this read. If I had chosen to do an in depth review, much of this material would have been used.

This is my very first “Review In A Flash” [mentioned in this post]. I know I went over the limit a bit, but overall I had fun with it. I am feeling much better about catching up now. Finally.

….on catching up on reviews.

Oh dear, you thought…no, no, I’m not giving up yet.

I just realized there is no way to catch up if I plan on reviewing every novel or story I’ve read as I have done in the past. At least for now.

After reading about someone doing “mini-reviews” in order to deal with their backlog, I thought that would be perfect for me too.

I’ve always loved flash fiction and have dabbled in it myself. That being said, I think I am going to go for a series of “Flash In The Pan” reviews. In one hundred words or less, I will attempt to alleviate this tremendous bloggers guilt while simultanesouly clearing off my desk. (Where I stack my current reads and to be reviewed ones.)

Sounds challenging, and yet fun.

Let’s hope this works for getting me out of my funk.

I’m sure many of you have heard of Google Alerts. It’s fairly versatile and has some wonderful uses. Besides setting it up to monitor my blogs and who is referencing them, I also use it to monitor issues that I’m interested in such as literacy and book banning – or those instances where challenges are made toward a particular book.

This morning I was struck by several thoughts regarding what has been popping up over the last month or so: people banning books.

But not in the way you think.

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