{"id":7834,"date":"2019-08-12T11:50:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T18:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=7834"},"modified":"2019-08-12T11:46:59","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T18:46:59","slug":"mixing-it-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/travel\/mixing-it-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixing It Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Travel is a great way to mix it up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was looking around for something to read. I’d just finished reading a new thriller<\/a> by Robert Dugoni, an author whose writing I knew from earlier books. Before that, I read The Wife<\/a><\/em> by Meg Wolitzer. I knew her writing too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe, I thought, it was time to mix it up. Time to find something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then one day as I was browsing through my daughter’s bookshelves, I happened upon a novel called The Reluctant Fundamentalist<\/a><\/em> by Mohsin Hamid. It looked interesting, and seeing that it had won several awards, I decided to give it a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even on the first page, I could see that the author’s approach was going to be unusual. The protagonist, a Pakistani man educated at Princeton, was sitting at a cafe table in Lahore having a conversation with an American man. The unusual thing was, although the American must also have spoken, we never hear him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could this technique work, a one-sided conversation that lasted from the first page all the way to the last?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. It did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And was it good? Was the book enjoyable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, it was. Sometimes what you don’t know and don’t hear makes all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I’m reading Lady in the Lake<\/a><\/em> <\/a>by Laura Lippman, another author whose books I’ve read before. It’s very good so far. But at some point I’ll feel the need to mix it up again and find something new and unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or take another trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Moreton Bay fig tree roots in Allerton Garden<\/a>, Kauai (where the doctor in Jurassic Park found the Velociraptor eggs)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was looking around for something to read. I’d just finished reading a new thriller by Robert Dugoni, an author whose writing I knew from earlier books. Before that, I read The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. I knew her writing too. Maybe, I thought, it was time to mix it up. Time to find something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[317,743,673,1886,253],"tags":[1916,1887,1914,1915,1913,1917,1910,1912,1911],"class_list":["post-7834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-books","category-creativity","category-hawaii","category-travel","tag-allerton-garden","tag-kauai","tag-lady-in-the-lake","tag-laura-lippman","tag-mohsin-hamid","tag-moreton-bay-fig-trees","tag-the-eighth-sister-by-robert-dugoni","tag-the-reluctant-fundamentalist","tag-the-wife-by-meg-wlitzer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-22m","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7432,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/travel\/books-and-other-kinds-of-travel\/","url_meta":{"origin":7834,"position":0},"title":"Books and Other Kinds of Travel","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"December 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 That\u2019s the thing about books. 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