[399] City of Night – John Rechy

” And ghostfaces, ghostwords, ghostrooms haunt me: Cities joined together by that emotional emptiness, blending with dark-city into a vastly stretching plain, into the city of night of the soul. ” (372) Books that make one sad do not limit to the ones about death, destruction, catastrophes and disasters. City of Night is unflinching in [...]

6/30 Day Book Meme: A Book That Makes Me Sad

In which I reflect upon the reason for my approaching this book very slowly. Day 6: A Book That Makes You Sad: Some books are just plain tear-jerkers. The one I pick doesn’t need Kleenex but it invokes a deeper sadness, one that is percolated with melancholy. When John Rechy first published City of Night [...]

“What Was the Last Book You…” Meme

This week’s musing is a book meme: What was the last book you… What was the last book you borrowed from the library? The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. That was last fall. You can tell I’m not that into him, he’s very out there. What was the last book you bought? Seven Types [...]

5/30 Day Book Meme: A Book That Makes Me Happy

In which I answer somewhat rhetorical question. Day 5: A Book That Makes You Happy: Books that concern with human struggles and forces of humanity always find an audience in me. Literature is an imitation of life. Imagine life-stills stitched together in words on pages. Literature is the great school of motivation: it teaches us [...]

4/30 Day Book Meme: Favorite Book of a Series

In which I reflect on the best book in my favorite series, a literary thriller set in Victorian England. Day 4: Favorite book of your favorite series: Both authors, Michael Cox and Stieg Larsson passed away in the middle without finishing the series. It’s been said that Larsson’s what is now known as the Millennium [...]

History

Sometimes I feel like the only person I know who finds reading history fascinating. It’s so full of amazing-yet-true stories of people driven to the edge and how they reacted to it. I keep telling friends that a good history book (as opposed to some of those textbooks in school that are all lists and [...]

[398] The Rules of Engagement – Anita Brookner

” All my life, it seemed, I had longed for direct engagement, for total intimacy, and had encountered only once, in the least poetic of settings, in a rented flat of no great amenity, which nevertheless held the secret which had at least been revealed to me. However shabby, however second-rate, however deplorable in the [...]

3/30 Day Book Meme: Series

The beauty of 30 Day Book Meme is that you can always find a niche among popular choices across the board. Day 3: Your Favorite Series I’m not a series fanatic. Series makes up a substantial portion of mystery, true crime, and YA books—these are not books on my radar. I do recognize the appeal [...]

Plot or Character-Driven

Do you prefer character-driven stories, or plot-driven stories? I’m quoting Somerset Maugham to answer this question. “The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.” While I enjoy a great story with twists and turns, I also have a penchant for lyrical elegance. The book I’m currently reading, The [...]

2/30 Day Book Meme: A Thrice-Read Book

It looks like the 30 Day Book Meme will be a weekly affair. Day 2: A Book You’ve Read (at least) Three Times I set aside time to re-read my favorite novels, of which there are enough to fill half a bookcase. I will not elaborate on The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which [...]