Genji 10-13

Chapter 10 Sasaki 榊 / The Sacred Tree. In which Genji’s father the Kiritsubo emperor dies, and Genji’s life takes a dramatic turn for worse. The Rokujô lady leaves society accompanying her daughter Akikonomu, who has been appointed a priestess, to the temple. Since the new emperor is Kikoden’s son, she and the Minister of [...]

Half Yearly Review, a Monday Musing

Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites? The first half of 2009 has seen fruition of some of my reading goals. In the month of March I read Gone with the [...]

Booking Through Hot Reads?

Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you? (I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year [...]

[211] Masquerade – Walter Satterthwait

Masquerade is a book-crossing find. I have never heard of the author nor the Pinkerton series. Masquerade is a sequel to Escapade. Phil Beaumont is a Pinkerton agent who is hired to investigate the suicide-murder of a wealthy expat, an American publisher named Richard Forsythe and his German mistress. Assigned also to the case is [...]

Acquisitions: Novellas

I was looking for a novella by Miguel de Cervantes, The Dialogue of the Dogs, in which two dogs set to satirize humans through the observation of their masters. Skimming through the book reveals some parallelism to Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov and evokes sweet memories of the narrating canine, Enzo, in The [...]

Book Crossing

I know Book Crossing hasn’t really taken off but I have stumbled upon a book-crossing book that somehow intrigues me at the coffee shop. The title would speak for itself: Masquerade by Walter Satterthwait.It’s a thriller about an investigation of a double suicide in 1923 Paris. One of the victims is an American publisher and [...]

Library Loot, a Monday Musing

Do you restrict yourself on how many books you take out from the library at a time? Do you borrow books if you already have some out? Do you always reborrow books you don’t get to? Since my branch has closed over a year ago for seismic retrofit and renovation, I can count with my [...]

[210] The German Woman – Paul Griner

With the Germans suspecting I work for the English, and the English suspecting I work for the Germans? I don’t want to live my life worried what will happen. I did that for far too long, so now, who cares?[285] During World War I, in East Prussia, the Russians have mistaken Kate and her husband [...]

Genji 5-9

Chapter 5 Wakamurasaki 若紫 / Lavender. In which Murasaki is introduced. Murasaki, at least ten years of his junior, has a striking resemblance to Fujisubo for whom he yearned.  “The child must stand in the place of one whom she resembled.” For this reason alone, Genji decided to bring her to the court with him, [...]

Pairing Literature

Echoing and projecting from Molly’s post on pairing literature, I’m naming some reading pairs that would be of interest. While Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours encompass similar and dark events on one day, they are not prerequisite to one another. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) / The German Woman (Paul Griner). Both novels revolve around [...]