Author Archives: annabelle

About annabelle

Hello! My name is Ann and as of last month I am a UBC student in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. I am in the GRS program but haven't yet commited myself to any specific region or resource specialty. The personality test I took last week told me I'm bad at making decisions.....I don't like to commit to anything until the last minute.......but I think the real problem is I'm interested in SO many things! Anyways background info : from a small town in the interior called Grand Forks and no it is not in Alberta of the US, it is in BC. I've spent my four years out of hgh school in various places such as France, Victoria, Canary Islands, Portugal, and lots of Grand Forks in the summe time. I like trees and penguins, books and grape vines, art and science. I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts.

The End of the Road

Posted on March 25, 2026 by annabelle

Ahhh. This was the easiest that picking up Bolaño has been all semester. I’ll admit I’ve done most of my reading early Wednesday morning and late Wednesday night this semester (so that I can write my blog before midnight and work on things for my two other Thursday classes that are due in the morning […] Continue reading →

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Les Misérables et les révolutions

Posted on March 18, 2026 by annabelle

Back to Les Misérables for this week! Here’s a quick summary of the book so far: Jean Valjean was convicted for a crime in his youth. He repented and became a beloved mayor, but then tenacious police officer Inspector Javert found out about his criminal past and started hunting him down. Along the way Jean […] Continue reading →

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García Madero Alert

Posted on March 11, 2026 by annabelle

I’ve sort of avoided saying this in my blogs because I feel bad, but I can’t hold it in any longer: if The Savage Detectives were not for class, I would have stopped reading around page 200. Which I do not usually do – my mom calls it “book martyring” where we both have to […] Continue reading →

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Cosette

Posted on March 5, 2026 by annabelle

Whew! Even though it is my first time reading both books, after the polyphony of The Savage Detectives, returning to Les Misérables felt like sliding back into a favourite armchair after a long day. Here, there is one narrator, one clear protagonist, and one clear antagonist. What a comfy seat. I started a section, called […] Continue reading →

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Speaking of cohesive…

Posted on February 25, 2026 by annabelle

Getting back into The Savage Detectives after about three weeks off was not as difficult as I had feared – I recognized the first voice, Amadeo Salvatierra, from his references to the Suicida Mezcal, and the rest of the pieces linked together from there. It helped that some of the chapters began to grow into […] Continue reading →

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Moonlight on Tiles: Thoughts on Amulet

Posted on February 12, 2026 by annabelle

The first two lines of Amulet that I read were the first, as I opened the book, and the last, as I flipped to see how many pages I should pace myself for each day this week: “This is going to be a horror story” (p. 1) and “And that song is our amulet” (p. […] Continue reading →

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Who is Jean Valjean?

Posted on February 5, 2026 by annabelle

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo, page 74-120 At the end of the last section, we were introduced to Fantine, a young mother who has to leave her daughter, Cosette, with a cruel family; Monsieur Madeleine, the beloved new mayor of Fantine’s hometown who promises to get Cosette back; and Inspector Javert, who assures M. Madeleine that […] Continue reading →

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Back to Bolaño

Posted on January 28, 2026 by annabelle

As I cozied up to start the next section of The Savage Detectives, I was very curious to see where the story would take me. I want to know what happens to Lupe, and I wonder how Garcia Madero will continue to mature. At first, I felt a bit lost in this new narrators and […] Continue reading →

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Blog 3: Redemption in Les Misérables

Posted on January 21, 2026 by annabelle

Going into my reading, all I knew about Les Misérables was the blurb on the back – which promises a “spine-tingling chase” through the sewers of Paris! I chose to read the first chapter, called An Upright Man, (page 1-34) of the first section, called Fantine. The story begins in a small Alpine town where […] Continue reading →

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RMST Weekly Blog 2: The Savage Detectives

Posted on January 15, 2026 by annabelle

They say not to judge a book by its cover – and in this case, that’s pretty easy: the cover doesn’t give away much! I do like the black on white and the disrupting lines, very arresting…anyway, on to the reading! I was interested in how the story started in a university setting – a […] Continue reading →

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