pickI had a hard time keeping all the timelines and characters straight and after a while, simply gave up in order to enjoy the vignettes on their own. The language is gorgeous and flavored with Arabic and atmospheric enough that it kept my interest.
Such a slippery little book. I dip into it time and again, having never read it from cover to cover.
Ironic that I read this passage on the train, a list of errands in hand, wanting to ‘accomplish‘ most of it today.
Holding a book in my hands and going off to sleep on a park bench, those are the kind of days I live for. No one has held a gun to my head: all my errands are non-urgent and can be done tomorrow.
Almost makes me want to return home.
This is such a difficult read. The language is easy to understand, the voice flows. But the sheer horrors we humans are capable of? Not so much.
I can only read a few pages at a time, in daylight.
This is the sort of book we all should read, though. ALL of us. Especially, now, when hatred of the other is a rising tide the world over.
Okay, so not the best book to read when you‘re down with flu, hacking away with cough and trying to feel cheerful, but I had this book with me, and started on it, without wanting to.
And now I can‘t stop, even though I know it isn‘t helping me. Someone stop me before I finish this book.
An afternoon of truffle fries, wine, and carrot-orange-ginger juice to finish Louise Doughty‘s Apple Tree Yard.
Gripping, suspenseful and so very well written. This is one classy literary thriller.
This book has me by the throat: it isn‘t a genre book, it‘s a strange sort of Bildungsroman literary novel combined with the story of an obsessive friendship.
It was a rage when it first appeared a few years ago, and I get why. Haven‘t been this seduced by a book for a long long time. I‘m pretty sure I‘ll buy the other two in the series as soon as I finish this one.
Reading Manhattan Beach is like watching a virtuoso at the piano, or looking up at aerial acrobatics at cirque du soleil.
All pages are strewn with pearly descriptions—this is one beach I want to visit, again and again.
The stories are staggeringly well-written, and explore a gamut of human emotions—the title story, Life with an Idiot, is an orgy of violence and disgust, but also profoundly human, and vulnerable. It will stay with me a long time. Pick this one up when you can handle a dark, real-yet-surreal read.
Ok, so I‘m reading this book I found at a garage sale some time back, by a Canadian author writing on Colonial India based on her own experiences.
Since it was originally published in 1903, the English is of its time, but the stories are wonderful: sharply observed, and a brilliant depiction of that time and place from a bright, cynical woman‘s mind.
I‘m going to hunt for her biography now.
A strange little book with an unsympathetic protagonist (and first person narrator) who grew on me.
Most of the chapters read like diary entries, and despite the detached, and often-laconic style, the overall effect is fierce, often vulnerable, and ultimately, quite sympathetic.
Insightful and poignant commentary on relationships, on existential loneliness, and the way we each try and live out our lives.
“Blind luck, to arrive in the world with your properly formed parts in the right place, to be born to parents who were loving, not cruel, or to escape, by geographical or social accident, war or poverty. And therefore to find it so much easier to be virtuous.”
Reading this #novella by McEwan—this quote sums up my thoughts on life, and on virtue. So much easier to be virtuous and brave when neither is challenged in any way.
Fiona Mitchell's debut novel just hit bookstores. #TheMaidsRoom explores the lives of over-worked, underpaid Filipina maids who decide to fight back and change their lives: the sort of book I've wanted to read for a while, based on what I've seen and heard in Singapore.
She's giving away a signed copy of her book to one of the readers of my blog who comment on her post.
I‘ve begun reading it, and love it so far!
A completely different, unfamiliar world, the border between #Russia and #China in the 1970s, is brought alive in Ha Jin's ocean of words.
So much simplicity, humor, poignant emotion in these #shortstories: men in harrowing yet hilarious circumstances interact on the pages, and make for an absorbing read.
Glad I stumbled upon this in the local library.
"Some were more actors than puppeteers, but others handled their marottes and tickle puppets and Bunraku puppets with an ease and affection that didn't exist between my glove puppet and me. I think the soul must be heavy and smooth, Myrna: I deduce this from the buoyant, jerky movements of puppets, which lack souls."
Beautiful #writing and beautiful #stories. Love this collection!
so-soWas unwell, so spent the day in bed with this book. It is well-written, and I like Nalia, the protagonist, and Raif, her love interest.
Too much backstory in places made me skim, and Malek didn't sound like a convincing character. The chapters where Haran went on his binges became predictable and repetitive after a while.
Moving on to the next in the series, but might just bail from that one.
Good for light reading, I guess.
I've been reading this novel, structured like a memoir, from a daughter about herself and her mother.
Funny at times and frankly depressing at others, it began as research for my novel, but I find I like it for itself now. The characters are real, and I'm caught up in the story.
This is my first novel-as-memoir, and it is fascinating.
What are you reading this week?
I've been #reading #poetry first thing in the morning for a long time now, and like one of those fragrance diffusers, this practice perfumes my days.
There might be deadlines, dental appointments, news of deaths and devastation, but this practice keeps a calm center to each day, and guides me back home within myself, when I go to bed.
Do you read or write #poetry ?
What place does it hold in your life?
Snacking on this book from @culturedllama by Frances Gapper, who is a whimsical, subtle writer, as you can see from the excerpts. But what I like about her stories is that they can be gossamer-bright and fragile, but often carry a steely strength.
