CLASSICS The catcher in the rye, by Salinger The Invisible Man, by HG Wells Jean-Christophe, by Romain Rolland CHRISTIAN CLASSICS The Canterbury Tales La Divina Commedia Paradise Lost Piers Plowman The Pilgrim’s Progress A Wrinkle in Time FICTION Chinese Whispers, by Jan Wong The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon. Studied it in depth [...]
Archive for October, 2010
25 Oct
I’m now reading – 10/25/2010
A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson. I wrote in my TBR that I wanted to try some of Bill Bryson’s books, but I had not listed that one. I had not even realized he was the author of this book, which has been on the Book Club shelf of my library for a [...]
23 Oct
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David SEDARIS ABOUT THE BOOK Featuring David Sedaris’s unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new collection of keen-eyed animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life. [...]
20 Oct
The Storyteller
The Storyteller: A Novel by Mario VARGAS LLOSA ABOUT THE BOOK In this dazzling novel, Vargas Llosa shows that “story-telling can be something more than mere entertainment.” In alternating chapters, he tells the story of Saul Zuratas, a Peruvian Jew who becomes a “hablador” (storyteller) to the Machiguengas–a tribe still wandering the Amazon [...]
19 Oct
To be read – week of Oct 18, 2010
If you have read any of these, please comment and tell me what you think about them. CLASSICS The catcher in the rye, by Salinger Jean-Christophe, by Romain Rolland The Invisible Man, by HG Wells CHRISTIAN CLASSICS A Wrinkle in Time Piers Plowman The Canterbury Tales The Pilgrim’s Progress Paradise Lost La Divina Commedia FICTION [...]
19 Oct
I’m now reading – 10/18/2010
The Storyteller, by Mario Vargas Llosa, who just got the Nobel Prize of Literature, and oh shame on me, I had never read anything by him. This was the only book available at my library, the others had just been checked out! Dreamers of the Day, by Mary Doria Russell. As she is a very [...]
19 Oct
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne TRUSS ABOUT THE BOOK Who would have thought a book about punctuation could cause such a sensation? Certainly not its modest if indignant author, who began her surprise hit motivated by “horror” and “despair” at the current state of British usage: ungrammatical [...]
19 Oct
The Glamour of Grammar
The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English by Roy Peter CLARK ABOUT THE BOOK Grammar is a subject that typically induces wincing, wheezing, or worse. Clark, a lifelong whiz at the subject, wants readers to fully appreciate the importance of good grammar and the qualities of superior [...]
19 Oct
The Last American Man
The Last American Man by Elizabeth GILBERT ABOUT THE BOOK “By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.” Such behavior might qualify Eustace as a potential Columbine-style triggerman, but in Gilbert’s startling and fascinating account of his life, [...]
19 Oct
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel BARBERY ABOUT THE BOOK In a bourgeois apartment building in Paris, we encounter Renée, an intelligent, philosophical, and cultured concierge who masks herself as the stereotypical uneducated “super” to avoid suspicion from the building’s pretentious inhabitants. Also living in the building is Paloma, the adolescent daughter of a [...]
10 Oct
Wordle to celebrate Read-a-thon day
I’m not ready yet for a read-a-thon, especially on a day when it’s 80 outside, but I have followed the book bloggers who have done it this year, and I discovered the Wordle in ‘Reading Through Life’. So here is my wordle, from my here book blog: Just click on it to see it bigger [...]
5 Oct
TBR – week of Oct 4, 2010
Here is finally an updated list from books I have noticed recently in book blogs. After today, I plan to update this list at the beginning of each wook, as well as my ‘I’m reading now’ list. I plan to post reviews as soon as I have finished a book. If you have read any [...]
4 Oct
TBR – 10/04/2010
Here are just a few, from my recent lists. I will add to this regularly. If you have read any of these, please comment and tell me what you think about them. CLASSICS The catcher in the rye, by Salinger Jean-Christophe, by Romain Rolland FICTION Ken Follett’s books: The Pillars of the earth, World without [...]
4 Oct
I’m now reading – 10/04/2010
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery – funny and witty [audiobook] The Last American Man, by Elizabeth Gilbert – on Eustace Conway, a VERY interesting American man in his early forties, who setup Turtle Island Preserve A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, by Barbara Tuchman – historic portrait on 14th century Europe. [...]
4 Oct
The Postmistress
The Postmistress by Sarah BLAKE Narrated by Orlagh Cassidy Click here to watch a video by the author herself Click here to read an interview of Sarah Blake by Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help ABOUT THE BOOK Those who carry the truth sometimes bear a terrible weight… It is 1940. France has fallen. [...]
