One-Read Wonder?

Which is worse? Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love? I find the first predicament is worse. Fortunately neither situations have occurred to me, but for the latter case, at least there is hope that [...]

[202] The Rose Variations – Marisha Chamberlain

“And what was love? Lust-driven and hypnotic, a way to stay busy, nothing more, even if the lovers never let themselves realize, even if they contrived to extend their delusion over a lifetime.” [106] Having recently read Of Human Bondage certainly puts me into an advantage to appreciate The Rose Variations, which follows a young [...]

E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe

Here I don’t have to keep watch of time, nor do I have to answer the phone. Most coffee shops and restaurants in fact ask you to refrain from talking on the phone. If time seems to freeze, why is it that the vacation slips by without my knowing? Maybe this is what paradise is [...]

Diversity in Reading

I snag this meme from Danielle on reading diversity. I usually let my whim dictate the reading. Sometimes I’m on a binge of an author or a subject. Let’s see how well-rounded of a reader I am. Unless otherwise stated, all books are read in 2009. This week’s Musing Mondays is related to this meme. [...]

Revised Reading List

I’m still working through my reading list from last fall and the remains of the vacation list because, as many of you can relate I’m sure, what we read is often dictated by whim and binge. War, the Holocaust, Civil War (more war), have dominated my reading thus far this year, and as the day [...]

[201] Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín

“She was nobody here. It was not just that she had no friends and family; it was rather that she was ghost in this room, in the streets on the way to work, on the shop floor. Nothing meant anything. The rooms in the house on Friary Street belonged to her, she thought; when she [...]

Reading Beyond the Words, On Symbolism

My husband is not an avid reader, and he used to get very frustrated in college when teachers would insist discussing symbolism in a literary work when there didn’t seem to him to be any. He felt that writers often just wrote the story for the story’s sake and other people read symbolism into it. [...]

[200] The Piano Teacher – Janice Y.K. Lee

“They’re supporting that Wong Chang Wai [see Lust Caution by Eileen Chang] chap, who the Japanese installed in China. I’ve heard Dominick has been seen with a lot of that crowd. And Victor Chen, of course, thick as thieves with whoever can help him. Rumor has it that he had the Japanese consulate over the [...]

Mini Year in Review, a Monday Musing

Coming towards the end of April, we’re a third of the way through the way through the year. What’s the favourite book you’ve read so far in 2009? What about your least favourite? Of the twenty five books (two yet to be reviewed because I’ve been on vacation in Hawaii) read this year, Valeria’s Last [...]

Windfall, BTT

Yesterday, April 15th, was Tax Day here in the U.S., which means lots of lucky people will get refunds of over-paid taxes. Whether you’re one of them or not, what would you spend an unexpected windfall on? Say … $50? How about $500? Well, I owed tax so in order to receive a refund, I [...]