Dinara Tengri

Hello everybody!  Today was the last day of school (phew!). I prepped my last plastic tooth, and I returned all the instruments I've been working with this past semester. I've gotten quite acquainted with such lovely tools as the excavator, the bur, and the periodontal probe (they're not as scary as they sound). And now I rest... For like two days, because then I have to start studying for the finals that are in three weeks.  Before I go back to the school library, and hit those textbooks hard, I want to share some news and updates . This blog has been in this weird half-life for months now, partially due to the increasingly demanding schedule, but mostly due to my extra-curricular commitments. For the past year, I have been the chairman (woman? person?) of our faculty's cultural committee and, though a lot of fun, this job has been taking a large chunk of my personal time.  I decided not to run for a second term (I sound like a damn politician), so t...

Hello all and welcome to Weekly Small Talk, an original series, that gives me an excuse to talk about anything even remotely related to books and popular culture. Ever since I went back to school, maintaining an active life here, on this blog, has been more of a struggle than I wanted to admit to myself. The last time I was studying full time was five years ago, and even then, I didn't have any hobbies or side projects that required this amount of time and attention. Needless to say when I plunged into this thing called college last September, I had a bad grasp of what I was getting into. And it wasn't just the school itself, but the full list of extra-curricular stuff that our wonderful Faculty of Odontology at Malmö University has to offer. I'm not complaining. I haven't had this much fun since... well, ever. That being said, something had to give. For instance, I had to quit my tutoring job, which was bringing me a lot of joy. And then there was this blog whi...

Last Thursday, I went to a science fiction tea party. It was hosted by Malmö City Library  and it featured two women who work at the local SF book store. They did a Power Point presentation on the subject of science fiction in literature . More specifically, futuristic science fiction.  I went there both as a book blogger (completely incognito, should the question arise) and as a rabid fan of SF literature and hot beverages.  The presentation was short- about forty minutes, minus the following Q&A, but the book store ladies still managed to cover most of the themes that are typically found in futuristic SF. The bulk of the presentation was space, and what it represents in the SF. Space is the final frontier of discovery and exploration. But space is also big (unfathomably big), and thus it functions as the perfect backdrop for discussing and exploring themes like diversity and xenophobia, war and peace, and cultural identity. Space is basically a playground for...

For the past couple of months, I've been experiencing this reading fatigue (for lack of a better word). After doing some looking around on the Internet, I found out it's not an uncommon thing among people who read and review full time. You read one book after another, often in the same genre, and after a while they all start to resemble each other. The same old tropes, the same old archetypes. The same predictable endings. You're thinking, I read this before! And you did, only it was a completely different book. I love books. I love to read . But being fed up with something, even if it's a good thing, is inevitable, I guess. I've been blogging for a year now. When I started out, I didn't think that I could grow tired of reading. I thought it would be the little tedious side chores such as editing and template design that would get to me first. But I've come to find these little things more enjoyable with time. The last five or ...

  The Silent Steppe:The Memoirs of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin,  by author Mukhamet Shayakhmetov. It's so pretty. It has a  smooth dust jacket and there are black-and-white photos inside. And here it is! I love it. I don't even mind the little hole in the dust jacket (although whoever is manhandling these books during the packaging and the shipment should really take it easy). Right now,  The Silent Steppe  is standing proudly next to its two newest friends: Michael Jackson's Moonwalk and a little tome called  History of Kazakhstan . And it will stay there for a long while, because I still have about three to four books to R&R before I can immerse myself in the history of my people.  

And so it's a new year. As promised, I'm making a few changes on my blog. First of all, I'm working very hard on a new bookish meme , which I will reveal to you later. Secondly, I'm not doing Musing Mondays anymore. It's very fun meme, but I have decided to clear my Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for reviews . So, let's take a look at what the rest of week will look like @ Dinara Tengri Tuesday I'm still doing Top Ten Tuesday . Nothing is changed here. Thursday I'm taking part in a new meme, called Quotable Thursdays . It's hosted by  Bookshelf Fantasies , and I've been wanting to take part in it for a long time now. Every Thursday I will post a quote from a book I'm currently reading. It will be either a meaningful quote, or just something fun. Saturday Now here's when I have an excuse to write about something else that's not books. Knitting, Movies, the weather, you name it! Saturday will b...

I was going to write my second "Thank Spock it's Friday" segment today, but something has happened, which made me change my plans. As you may know, I live in Sweden. There is a town in Sweden, called Trollhaettan. In this town there's a school, called Kronan. Yesterday, that school was attacked by a masked man with a sword. He killed a teacher and a student, wounded three more people, before the police could arrive and shoot him. After doing the research on the killer, and taking into consideration that all of his victims were immigrants, the police has now confirmed that this was a hate crime. A racist crime. I'd rather not to give my two cents on the news. My blog is not political, it's about entertainment. But I cannot be quiet about it either. Four years ago there was a massacre in Norway, and we were all shocked because a thing like this could never happen in a small and peaceful country like Norway. But the murderer w...