This will be my first 'bookstore' review! Well, not so much of a review because I'm totally biased when it comes to bookstores! I visited 'Word on the Water' last Sunday, and it was just the perfect sunny day for my first visit. The bookstore is a boat floating on Regent's canal. It has a... Continue Reading →
Book Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.”Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude This book. I will definitely judge... Continue Reading →
Book Reviews: Faber Stories – Lorrie Moore, P.D. James and Alan Bennett
Story One: 'Terrific Mother' by Lorrie Moore ‘Terrific Mother’ is my first Lorrie Moore. I know she is much praised here so when I saw this Faber mini book I thought why not? Adrienne is 35 years old and childless. The best compliment a woman can get is ‘you’d make a terrific mother’ when they... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf
Then a terrible shriek came from the middle of the crowd, as if someone has set his foot upon a burning thorn, as if his foot being nailed to the earth with nails of fire, as if flames were shooting through his marrow. The crowd fell apart, all eyes drawn to the foot to which... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
"She pictured him in nice clothes, his hair cut shorter, maybe his nose straightened, speaking a more careful English, interested in music and literature, learning about politics, psychology, philosophy; wanting to know more the more he knew, in this way growing in value to himself and others." The Assistant, Bernard Malamud I found Bernard Malamud... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Half of the Yellow Sun
“...my point is that the only authentic identity for the African is the tribe...I am Nigerian because a white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be as different as possible from his white. But I was Igbo before the white man came.”... Continue Reading →
Review: The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton
“Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down.” Meeting fictional detectives seems to be my main interest when reading classic crime books and this year I started with Father Brown. Unlike the flashy and... Continue Reading →
Review: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
On November 16, 1959, The New York Times published an account of murders, which began: Holcomb, Kan., Nov. 15 [1959] (UPI) — A wealthy wheat farmer, his wife and their two young children were found shot to death today in their home. They had been killed by shotgun blasts at close range after being bound and gagged...... Continue Reading →
A Year of Books
December is always dreadful. This is the time when Goodreads sends us our 'year in books' and this month I have to face the fact that I didn't accomplish my reading goal (45/55). I was thinking of reading ten mangas and called it done but thinking about all the books I read, I was quite... Continue Reading →