Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Kissing the Virgin's Mouth

By Danna M. Gershten

This is the book I was reading while reading Rethinking Rape. I started at the end of February, traveling to Basel. At first I found it kind of irritating. I didn't quite like the narrator, she sounded a bit fake. But as I kept reading I started to understand her more, which was quite interesting. I also find it incredible that the author is not Mexican. She sure made the main character look like one.

Rethinking Rape

By Ann J. Cahill

Took me a while to finish this one. (Though not as long as it may seem - I did finish it about 2 weeks ago, and read another book while reading this one). Which is understandable - it's an essay book, not a story. It did finally answer some of the questions I had about the subject.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Seeing

By Jose Saramago

No, it didn't take me THAT long to read this book - though it was hard because the structure is very unusual (pages-long paragraphs, even for conversations!) - I finihsed it exactly 2 weeks ago. It was a sort of a sequel to Blindness, which I read a long time ago, and didn't think it was the best Saramago. But Seeing is interesting, though somewhat dismal.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Young Visiters

By Daisy Ashford

A nine-year old wrote it! Yes, it's true. The publishers decided to leave all the misspellings in place, and not correct the punctuation (or lack thereof). I thought it was a shame they did that. It made it harder for me to read it without any commas. I liked the story and thought it was both obvious and unbelievable that a nine year old wrote it. Obvious because of the childish look at the life of adults; unbelievable, because of the amazingly sober insight she had into the social lives and aspirations of adults.

Finished: Dec 20

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Mr. Vertigo

By Paul Auster

That's right - I had to read another one of his books.
I don't remember when was the last time a book made me cry, but this one got the tear welling in my eyes three times. What a beautiful story!
Characters:
Walter Rawley
Master Yehudi
Aesop
Mother Sioux
Mrs Witherspoon
Uncle Slim

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Brooklyn Follies

By Paul Auster

(I actually finished it on Saturday).
Ahh... This book reminded me why I liked Paul Auster so much. I find that I still do.
Good stories and great writing. What more could you ask for?
This one was told by a retired life insurance agent who goes to live in Brooklyn and finds his nephew whom he hasn't seen in a while. The nephew, in turn, hasn't seen his sister in a long time, and all of a sudden his niece shows up. But there's more to the story than just the lives of members this particular family. There's an Harry and his adventures in white collar crime, and Marina who's married to a SOB husband, and the perfect beautiful mom and her mother, and a New England widower and his daughter. Yes, a lot is going on, but everything is laid out beautifully and so it's very easy to follow.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

Story of a boy who accidentally brings a Bengal tiger onto his lifeboat. Kind of an amazing survival story - 227 (or so) days at see. In the end he tell an alternative story to the Japanese investigators who don't believe his animal story. Both are hard to believe but I'd much rather believe the animal story. Probably because I don't want to hear more stories about how brutal humans can be.