Of all the Miyazaki films I have loved before, Howl’s Moving Castle is not one of them. However, upon discovering that the original source material was a young adult fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones, I decided to give it a shot, as it is filled with the things my younger heart would have loved. Witches? Wizards? Magic? A minimal romantic subplot? Yes, please! Read the rest of the review here.
The Real Housewife of Yonville
Clearly the only way I can get myself to read one of the books in my continually growing to-be-read pile is for there to be a movie coming out. Get on it Hollywood, there are about 60 books I still need to get through. Disclaimers: I read a translation due to my French being nonexistent, but the original is supposed to be exquisite. I don’t have to warn about spoilers in a review about something published in 1856, do I? Madame Bovary is one of those classics in which the elements that […]
In Our Family Portrait, We Look Pretty Happy
First things first: The Lives of Others is a very good book. It is skilfully written, the imagery is vivid and the portrayals are, as far as I can tell from my limited experience with Indian culture, realistic and poignant. It is also, at times, an infuriating and frustrating read. Make no mistake: this is not a story about a quirky but essentially kind-hearted Indian Addams Family. If you’re looking for something to cheer you up, look elsewhere. The Lives of Others focuses on the […]
All That’s in a Name
This week I finished The Namesake, the first novel of Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. When I first picked it up I had no idea what it was about, and knew only that Lahiri’s second novel The Lowland had been nominated for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award in 2013. In my decision to diversify my reading list, her works made their way to the top of my TBR pile. Read the rest of the review here.
I’m back?
So, after 10 months away, I’m back! I’ve actually read over 52 books this year already (I think I’m at ~60), but where did I go for all those months? Well, I lived on the road all over the southern US for a few months working a miserable job, therefore I went and got a new job, moved across the country for it and started working long hours at the new one. But this one I love so overall my life is much happier. Oh, […]
Mmm… books about books
At the risk of becoming too meta, I’m going to talk a little bit about one of my go-to books for choosing other books to read.* I tend to think – judging by the Cannonballers I actually know, the general bookish-ness around here, and the sheer amount of things that Must. Be. Read – that a lot of you CBReaders are similar to me, in that you tend to read quite a bit. (And write rather less often than you should/would like too, but that’s […]