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Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, ‘No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!’
In the last count I had more than 200+ unread books. However, I take this question is for those books, which we have had for ages and think we will get around reading those some time or the other. There are certain books our conscience doesn't allow us to giveaway or throw and we are always hoping to read those. Here is the list I remember as of now:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dosteovosky
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Love In the Time of Cholera by Gabrial Garcia Marquez
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The Russia House by John le Carre
The Joyluck Club by Amy Tan
I used to love this season. The Wood stacked by the door, the tang of its sap still speaking of forest.
Title: Year of Wonders
Author: Geraldine Brooks
ISBN: 184115458
Publisher:Fourth Estate/2001
Pages: 304
Year of Wonders is about plague that took place in 1666, in an isolated Mountain village. The plague might have come there with an bolt of cloth from London. Anna Frith, the narrator, is a housemaid. In the midst of all this madness, she emerges as a strong heroine, who tries her best to heal. The plague destroys almost all of the village and also reason. Poeple go frenzy with madness and resort to witch hunting. Anna comes out stronger out of all this with faith, and love for people.
She loses here own family. That doesn't deter her from offering her services for healing those who need her. The minister of the village insists that they quarante their village so that it does not spread far and wide. Apart from a few handful, everyone agrees to it. In a way, 1666 becomes an Year of Wonders instead of Year of Plague.
Anna Firth comes out to be strong woman. She has faith in their minister and most important in the young wife of the minister. Their relationship is not that of a mistress and a servant but more like two sisters. Both love each other. Elinor teaches Anna to read too. Mr Mompellion, the minister loves his wife Elinor, which seems to be reciprocated well.
For all her goodwill, her healing powers, Anna is torn with misplaced love too. She is one of the survivors of the plague and she knows what she has to do at the end of it. We don't see Anaa failing us at any time and she has got her priorities right too. In those times when a woman was taken for a witch just because she could heal, Anna survives in more ways than one. With good writing, this makes an extremely readable book. Brooks has made that period of time come alive for us.
I can be any place speaking of love, loss and grief. These are universal feelings. It doesn't matter, which century, what place, what culture. These hurt and how. Still, in those poems I am trying to come into terms with myself.
~Renascence and Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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"This door you might not open, and you did;
So enter now, and see for what slight thing
You are betrayed... Here is no treasure hid,
No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring
The sought-for truth, no heads of women slain
For greed like yours, no writhings of distress,
But only what you see... Look yet again—
An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.
Yet this alone out of my life I kept
Unto myself, lest any know me quite;
And you did so profane me when you crept
Unto the threshold of this room to-night
That I must never more behold your face.
This now is yours. I seek another place."
~Bluebeard, Page 73, Renascence and Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Who, if anyone usually accompanies you to the library? Is it somewhere you go alone? Or is it a regular outing with family or friends? Which do you prefer?
Nowadays, I seldom visit the library. Any library. However, when I was regular visitor to a library, I used to do it alone. I browsed books leisurely at my own pace. Picking this, leaving that.
Even now when I visit bookstores, I prefer my own company. Pausing, buying in my own time and at my own pace. But I do love taking along my nephews and nieces and let them buy whatever they desire. It is huge outing for all of us. After buying books, we end up having lunch/dinner and truly enjoy!
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It's Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a weekly event hosted by J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog, "to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finish this week."
I finished the following:
I am in the midst of reading:
Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie
A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence
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Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia, In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren and New Crayons is hosted by Color Online. Check all three which are related to books you receive in the past week.
That house in Manawaka is the one which, more than any other, I carry with me. Known to the rest of the town as "the old Connor place" and to the family as the Brick House, it was plain as the winter turnips in its root cellar, sparsely windowed as some crusader's embattled fortress in a heathen wilderness, its rooms in a perpetual gloom except in the brief height of summer.
Title: A Bird in the House
Author: Margaret Laurence
ISBN: 0771099851
Publisher: M&S/1970
Pages: 191
A Bird in the House can be read both as short story collection or a novel as the short stories are interconnected and yet stand alone. The stories speak of childhood, and girlhood very beautifully, depicting, pathos, wonder and also the joys of growing up.
The protagonist Vanessa MacLeod, is a keen observer and she is attuned to everything that is connected to her. This books speaks of family love, duty and the pain of death too. The conflict too is shown in a very fine way. When Vanessa's father dies suddenly due to flu, she misses him terribly and doesn't know how to cope with her grief. Her relationship with her Grandfather Connor is interesting. He is forceful, dominating yet a steady force. No one expects him to die all of a sudden although he is ninety-four.
With plenty of interesting observations, Vanessa manages to tell us so much about Manakawa. Despite liking the book, I find it hard to review it. Each and every character has a place in the book and are necessary for Vanessa's growing up phase. This book starts when she is 9 years old and finishes when she is around 40 years of age. Vanessa's narration is filled with interesting snippets and beautuful poignant emotions.
Book 1 of The Canadian Book Challenge 3
Fire in the Blood By Irene Némirovsky
In a leisurely narrative, middle-aged narrator Silvio recounts three interlocking stories of love and betrayal over two decades. These secret affairs, he says, can be explained only by fire in the blood, the intense passion that can overtake men and women when they are young, highly sexed and vulnerable. Silvio's laconic descriptions of unappeasable desire are seasoned by bitter assessment of the wisdom earned after things cool. Linked through blood and common local history, the characters in this la ronde of betrayal exist in a seemingly idyllic community that is always alert for deviations from the social code.
1) How many books did P G Wodehouse write? How many of those are Jeeves books?
96 books. Jeeves canon consists of 35 short stories and 11 novels
2) What is Ayn Rand's philosophy known as?
Objectivism
3) What does Bel Canto mean?
Beautiful singing
4) What is Manga? Do you recommend any to me?
"Manga" as a term used outside Japan refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan
5) Who wrote the Hardy Boy Series?
The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional teenage brothers and amateur detectives who appear in various mystery series for children and teens. The characters were created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging firm, and the books have been written by many different ghostwriters over the years. The books are published under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon
6) Who is best known for Stream of Consciousness works?
There are many but we best know James Joyce and Virginia Woolf
7) Pearl S Buck is best known for The Good Earth. Name any other novel by her.
Click here
8) Who first used blank verses in his poetry?
9) What is magical Realism?
Magic realism, or magical realism, is an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" setting. It has been widely used in relation to literature, art, and film.
This year too I am joining in The Canadian Book Challenge hosted by John Mutford.This is one of two challenges, I join and try to complete.
I do have few books lined up for it. Out of 13 books to be read, I have those book ready in hand as of now:
1) Claudia's Shadow by Charlotte Vale Allen
2) Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
3) A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence...more than halfway through
4) Blasted by Kate Story...read 1/3
5) The Wolf's Head by Peter Unwin....already started
6) Hoodoo Sea by Rolf Hietzer
7) The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
B
Do you read celebrity memoirs? Which ones have you read or do you want to read? Which nonexistent celebrity memoirs would you like to see?
In one word, no. I don't read celebrity memoirs. I was never tempted to read one at any point of time. And I still don't wish to read any. Their lives don't interest me. As it is we get a overdose of those from the media. Call me a snob or whatever.
Of course I have read a memoir of Henry Ford. Does that count for anything?
To read any other. So spare me. For now. Maybe later on, when I don't have anything to read, I might.
Wondrous Word Wednesday is hosted by Kathy of BermudaOnion
Only one word are from Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.
1) Sillion (page 87): ..or see raw sillion laid open to receive the body of another neighbour.
sil·li·on
