“Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
– Fran Lebowitz
Tag: reading
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante – Book Review
This is the first volume in the Italian writer’s Neapolitan Novels series, and if the next three books are as good as this one I should make it to the end of the quadrilogy in no time at all.
Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James – Book Review
I finished this book in a couple of days while recovering from a nasty cold. This was in fact the first P.D. James novel I’ve read in my life – despite their enormous popularity they just never fell in my lap before, even though I quite like the crime genre.
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell – Book Review
Another I-moved-to-another-country book, this one by a London woman who moved to Denmark after her husband got offered a job with Lego – and rather than exchanging one capital city for another, they move to the “real” Denmark, a tiny town of 6,100 in the rural Jutland (the European peninsula part of Denmark). Unlike many other books of the similar sort, which are rather rambling in nature and simply concern themselves with the author’s experiences in a foreign country, this one has an actual focus: uncovering the secrets of Danish happiness.
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley – Book Review
I first read this book when in high school, and had only vague memories of it, so when I spotted it in friend’s book collection while housesitting I was curious to read it again.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell – Book Review
What a book. Its scope and ambition made me feel like I’ve read multiple books and been away on a very very long journey.
Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist – Book Review
I absolutely loved Let the Right One In, Lindqvist’s brilliant, original and macabre first novel, which offered a new take on the well-beaten vampire story, so when I saw this one at my local op shop I grabbed it immediately. While I didn’t think that Harbour was quite as strong, it’s got some of the same haunting power and memorable imagery that made Let the Right One In unforgettable
Quote of the Day
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
(I’m pretty sure he meant, if you have a garden other people look after and prune and water)
The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman – Book Review
I’ve read this book in a bizarre pattern – read the first 50 pages, got distracted and put the book away, decided to start over, re-read the same 50 pages, got distracted again for a shorter period, picked up the book where I left it, then finished the whole thing in a day while staying at home with a cold. It started off in an intriguing enough fashion, but at one point it becomes such an emotional rollercoaster it was simply impossible to put down. It’s not without faults, but it’s a powerful read about love, family and good people making bad decisions.
Quote of the Day
“Are you a devil?”
“I am a man,” answered Father Brown gravely; “and therefore have all devils in my heart.”
– G.K. Chesterton
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