The Courage Of Hopelessness by Slavoj Zizek is a necessary read. Tackling our troubled times from the point of view of hopelessness.The author forcefully suggests that once we can all admit to this state, rather than ignore minimize or live in false hope that it will all right itself or go away, only then can …
Category: sharing book titles
Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
Turn history on its head? Now there's a sobering eye opening potentially game changing exercise for all! And it's exactly what Bernardine Evaristo has done in her novel Blonde Roots. What would history look like if the perpetrator became victim, the violent meek, the abuser abusee, the hostile peace loving....? All the hate would shift …
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
This, the first read of the New Year proves that everything doesn't have to be at the speed of light in order to have presence and worth. It reads as multilayered modern language with a poetic heart. Passages, especially those you may most identify with, are so chunkily filled with concepts, observations and experiences to …
The Bookseller’s Tale by Martin Latham
Where can you find Paolo Sarpi and Mick Jagger, the earliest book peddlers and Nazi's, comfort reads and medieval marginalia, bouqinistes and UNESCO bookstalls, shy nerds and arrogant pedants? The answer is...in Martin Latham's book. Not only is the subject matter varied, but so too is the wide variety of characters you meet along the …
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
I read Haroun and the Sea of Stories recently (the book however is 30 years old) and it smacks of right now even after all this time. The author, all those years ago, wrote this fantastical tale for his eleven year old son Zafar. Don't be fooled, though, into thinking it is in any way …
Fiction therapy
During the past five months of change, I have turned to books and movies for their cerebral sustenance and the comforting familiar ritual they provide. Amidst all the tumult and unknown variables, having books around me offers the same feeling of protection as a big strong hug. At the end of days replete with antagonistic …
It’s coming…
We are just now dipping our toes into fall, and already there is the frisson of Christmas in the air. Briskness of breezes and warm cozy accoutrements gently tug at our memory strings. Those living overseas find it normal to shop for and ship their Christmas parcels in the fall to ensure they make it …
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
If you loved Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, then prepare yourself for Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Douglas Stuart's mastery of tempo, tone and detailed description produces physical reactions whilst reading. There are many stories about poverty and alcoholism. Families on any given street in any given country and from all walks of life could …
For whatever mood you are in
Triage of reads that, in my opinion, work well together When you are in the mood for some deep introspection Romanticism, yearning, disappointment, betrayal in much earlier times. Nail biting action, fast paced and adrenalin pumping reads you can chew on. The raunchier, experimental, freer side of living and writing. (Bukowski title in English is: …
Before Miss Manners there was Washington
I just finished reading, almost in one breath, The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Interesting to the book, after the formidable writing of course!, are photos (found at the beginning of each chapter) taken by Walker Evans (mostly known for his photos of the Great Depression). Between 1938 and 1941 Evans rode the New …
Manu writes 