Art of the Day

Café de la Paix 
-Antoine Blanchard

Literary Pick (***)

Norwegian Wood 
-Haruki Murakami

Quote of the Day

"In 1953, Hemingway's cat Uncle Willie was hit by a car. He wrote a heartbreaking letter to his friend Giangranco Ivancich about his decision to put the animal out of his misery.
"Dear Gianfranco:
Just after I finished writing you and was putting the letter in the envelope Mary came down from the Torre and said, ‘Something terrible has happened to Willie.’ I went out and found Willie with both his right legs broken: one at the hip, the other below the knee. A car must have run over him or somebody hit him with a club. He had come all the way home on the two feet of one side. It was a multiple compound fracture with much dirt in the wound and fragments protruding. But he purred and seemed sure that I could fix it.
I had René get a bowl of milk for him and René held him and caressed him and Willie was drinking the milk while I shot him through the head. I don’t think he could have suffered and the nerves had been crushed so his legs had not begun to really hurt. Monstruo wished to shoot him for me, but I could not delegate the responsibility or leave a chance of Will knowing anybody was killing him…
Have had to shoot people but never anyone I knew and loved for eleven years. Nor anyone that purred with two broken legs."

Artist of the Day

Jeanne Hébuterne 

(6 April 1898 – 25 January 1920)

Quote of the Day

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
– Desmond Tutu.

Literary Pick (*)

A Child in Time
-Ian McEwan

Ok, that's it. I'm done with Ian McEwan. This book was total bullshit.
This was my third book by the author, and this is why I don't like reading too much by the same writer, especially popular "NYT best-seller" authors. I purchased this book because I thought it was going to be about a three year old girl (Kate) who gets kidnapped at a supermarket while out with her dad. True, McEwan wastes no time in describing the kidnapping in the very first chapter of the book, but after that the rest is about inane events that has little or nothing to do with the kidnapping, guilt, loss and anguish that would normally occur after such a tragic event. I despised the main character of the book. In true McEwan fashion Stephen Lewis (Kate's father) is a pretentious self-centered snob.
There was not an ounce of angst, despair, madness, or desperation you'd expect in a book about a child who has been kidnapped and whose parents are suppose to be in mourning. The story is about Stephen, who often visits his friends in the county. Who btw never bring up his daughter. He also saved a man from a car-wreck, and he's often in a meeting in which child welfare is the topic of discussion.  It was a very flat, boring drawn-out story. The chapters were so long... so tedious.  It's infuriating to be strung along so many chapters without so much of a mention of what these parents were supposedly going through! It didn't compel me to feel any sympathy for him or his wife. This was one of the worst novels I've ever read.

Literary Pick (***)

Bonjour Tristesse
-Françoise Sagan

Overall the story was tolerable, if not satisfactory.  However, one small detail prevented me from truly enjoying it... the fact that the author was 17 when she wrote it. Everything about the author and story reeked of impudence. There's nothing more annoying than a talented underaged brat.

Literary Pick (****)

Open
-Andre Agassi

I'm a big fan of biographies and auto-biographies, so when I read that OPEN was one of the best sports auto-bio's ever written, it was hard to resist. I thoroughly enjoyed this story despite not being a sports fan at all. I know it may sound trite but it read like fictional novel.
There's a lot of self-pity in his journey. I think the only reason it works in this book is because Andre is the epitome of humility. He's a very quiet and shy person, and it seems that all his life he has had to battle to balance his obligation to tennis, and what he really wanted to do with his life, which even he wasn't sure of. An uneducated man who dropped out of school (a choice his father made for him) at a young age to focus his career on tennis, had no previous career training. The story is a balance between his tennis career and personal relationships with Brooke Shields and Steffi Graf. I didn't get too bored of the tennis scenes, although I know absolutely nothing about the sport, whatsoever. It was pretty much a good insight to how fragile and sensitive he is as a person. He always wanting to please others and not disappoint anyone. At times I think it must've been frustrating being his coach, or trainer because sometimes you just wanted them yell, "If you hate it so fucking much get the hell out of the game, quit tennis, but stop bitching, stop being so negative all the time and play the fucking game". At least that's what I would've said to him. It felt like the people around him had to constantly draw him in. It seemed exhausting. To have a gift and to whine about it constantly, I'm surprised some of the people in his life didn't just walk out on him. He seems to have come to terms with his choices later in life, after his first child was born.
Brooke Shields was portrayed a self-centered snob, which doesn't surprise me at all. She seems like one of the most bring people in Hollywood. I don't know how he put up with her...I guess he didn't. Steffi Graf, seems unemotional and void of personality. I don't get her., but he loves her, so all the power to them. It had a happily ever after ending that was really sweet. I'd say it's worth the read if you're nosy like me and like to read about celebrity lives. Even I'm surprised I'm giving this book a 4 star rating.

Quite possibly my favorite book cover.

Photograph

J. D. Salinger

Quote of the Day

"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."
-André Gide

Literary Pick (**)

Out Stealing Horses 
-Per Petterson

Quote of the Day

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” 
― Plato

Literary Pick(****)

The Sickness 
-Alberto Barrera Tyszka

A good page-turner to the end. The kind of story that stays with you and leaves an everlasting impression for the rest of your life, I'm sure of it. It brings up many questions about death.. either one's own, or of a loved one. I actually caught myself counting the last page hoping there were at least 2-3 pages more to read. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Photograph

Murakami and Kafka

Literary Pick (**)

Nine Stories
-J.D. Salinger

Literary Pick (***)

Atonement

-Ian McEwan

What I enjoy most about Ian McEwan's novels is the gracefulness of his prose.
You won't go wrong if you're in search of good conscientious writing that is unlabored or overly manipulated. There's a certain placidity in the manner of his writing that for me is steady and calming, and that from now on, after having read two of his books, I will have the need to return to every now and then, like an intermezzo. I believe McEwan has not yet written his best life's work. This story developed very slowly for me. I read McEwan's Saturday, and although, perhaps just a little less complex than Atonement, possessed more of the qualities I search for in a dramatic work.
Although I feel his stories aren't exactly solid, they're worth the course.

I reluctantly give it a 3.

Art of the Day

Monarch of the Glen 

-Sir Edwin Henry Landseer

Literary Pick (*)

Never Let Me Go 
-Kazuo Ishiguro

RIP

Phyllis Diller 

(July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012)

Literary Pick (****)

The Tunnel

-Ernesto Sabato

 

Precisely the kind of literature I search and long to read. Obsessive, manic, compulsive, and finally tragic.
I coincidentally purchased this book together with Othello, both stories about irrational jealousy.
The Tunnel reminds me very much of The Kreutzer Sonata, another personal favorite in which both protagonists are insanely jealous and unable to control their emotions which leads them to murder.

The Tunnel pairs very well with Adiago for Strings.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...

Literary Pick (**)

Fahrenheit 451 

-Ray Bradbury 

I delayed reading this book for years, and resisted forcing myself to do so simply because it's considered a masterwork of 20th century literature.
Something about the theme of this novel with buzz-words such as dystopia, over-population, extinction, futuristic, and television, repelled me from it from the very beginning. I don't like hearing any of those words. The concept in these kinds of novels frightens me. The need for our society to continuously create bigger and better not only scares me, but disgusts me very deeply as well. So in those terms I was able to appreciate the message of this novel. A lot of which has already happened, and will continue to occur for years to come. Which is why I believe this novel continues to be relevant even in our time today.
When leaving the safety of one's cocoon, it's alarming to see what people have become, and how automatic and mechanical they behave, in actions and response. Parents and children seem to be hypnotized, and what was bad in now good, or mainstream. We've become numb to things that society used to strongly react to, like morality and decency. In that respect I could relate to everything in the book, but what I had difficulty relating to was the style in which it was written. Not too different from A Brave New World, Bradbury's style is somewhat obscure, the scenery, nebulous, and the exchanges bordering on abstract. I found it tedious almost from the very beginning. The story does get better as it progresses. The ending was pretty good and somewhat inspiring. I wouldn't not recommend this book. It's just a genre that fails to reach me as a reader. 

Quote of the Day

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” 

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Literary Pick (***)

Before Night Falls

- Reinaldo Arenas

I must admit, I was somewhat put off by the bestial eroticism in the beginning of this memoir. I felt it was rather gratuitous. However, halfway through, the story rapidly picks up the pace and focuses more on his political struggles in Cuba during both Batista's and Castro's regime. The writing gets much better as it progresses as well. If you're into Latin American literature it's definitely worth the read.

Art of the Day

Cattleya Orchid and Three Brazilian Hummingbirds 

-Martin Johnson Heade

Literary Pick (***)

Hopscotch

-Julio Cortázar

I chose not to read Hopscotch in the traditional linear fashion, which ends in chapter 56 and omits a third of the novel. There are a total of 155 chapters. A table of instructions takes the place of a table of content. There are 3 parts, "From the Other Side," "From This Side," and "From Diverse Sides".
In the second method the novel begins with chapter 73, then hopscotches from chapter 1, then 2, then 116..
Chapter 131 is read twice.

After a bit of head-scratching, I discovered that the sentences on chapter 34 must be skipped in order to make sense. There are two stories in that chapter. One of Oliviera's visit to his Uncle in Madrid, and the other about La Maga.
The first and second lines (sentences) in this chapter both begin with capital letters, which was the first suggestive clue and indication on how it should be read.
The story about the uncle (first story) ends first. 5 lines before the end, to be exact. It was somewhat confusing at first, but then I realized that after the phrase, "were already married." there was no new sentence with a capital letter, thus ending the first story.

I've always been intrigued by novels that center around artists and writers in cafe's and small apartments, especially if they take place in Paris or South America. These seem to me to be more cerebral and authentically Bohemian than the beatnik gatherings in America, which I feel are more self-centered than collaborative.
The story starts with a group of artists "The Serpent Club" who often discuss topics on Art, music, philosophy, and Jazz, mentioning big names such as Picasso, Dizzie Gillespie, Dostoyevsky, and Descartes. You can expect a good deal of -isms thrown in this section as well.
Horacio Oliveira, (the protagonist of the novel) seems to be in pursuit of something in Paris. Often involving himself in lively chatter with the other members of the Serpent Club and taking long solitary walks. He resides with his lover, La Maga, who he often belittles, and who disappears from his life, nowhere to be found, shortly after her son, Rocamadour, passes away. Realizing he (Horacio) misses and appreciates La Maga, now more than ever, he leaves Paris for his home-land Argentina. There his friend "The Traveler" meets him at the boat and takes him under his wing. The Travelers wife (Talita) bears a striking resemblance to "La Maga", causing some tension in the friendship. There The Traveler helps Horacio obtain a job in the circus he works for, and later in a mental hospital where Horacio finally loses what's left of his mind.

It's difficult for me to review this novel because it seems to be cut up into a few categories. I didn't mention the part about Morelliana, the writer, who gets hit by a car, is aided by Horacio, then rushed to the hospital.
The parts with La Maga I drank up. I was intoxicated with the unorthodox method of reading the book. It was like a game. There are many pages I dog-eared in the first half because they were either hilarious or thought provoking. The relationship with his friend, The Traveler, and his wife, were interesting, but I didn't seem to have the same passion for reading it as I did the parts with the Serpent Club and La Maga. I particularly enjoyed the part when Horacio met Madame Berthe Trepat, a famous concert pianist, who he was honored to comfort after concert-goers empty the theater because she kept making mistakes. He offers to walk her home, but he realizes the extent her mental instability, and finds himself wondering how in the hell got into the mess in the first place. I thought it was hysterical how he just wanted to start running and leave her there in the middle of the street. I don't think I've ever had more fun reading a book. The structure is brilliant and innovative, especially for a novel written in the 50's. I highly recommend the experience of reading it, if for nothing else.

Art of the Day

Zhang Daqian
Lotus (1899-1983) 

Photograph

Julio Cortázar

Quote of the Day

"In man's struggle against the world, bet on the world." 

— Franz Kafka

Poetry

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

 

-Maya Angelou

Literary Pick (****)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

-Zora Neale Hurston

Great story. Much better than I expected. I have a history of not being able to particularly appreciate novels written in the vernacular, however, Hurston did a remarkable job in executing it in manner in which I was not only able to follow it, but truly enjoy it as well.

Try as I might, I've had quite the difficulty in trying to discover a piece of African American literature I could  enjoy. None of the AA novels I have read in the past couple years have left much of an impression on me, but this one sure did.  I'm happy about that too, because one of the reasons I chose to read this book in the first place is because of a quote I found by Hurston, and use in my blog profile.

"I have known the joy and pain of friendship. I have served and been served. I have made some good enemies for which I am not a bit sorry. I have loved unselfishly, and I have fondled hatred with the red-hot tongs of Hell. That's living."
-Zora Neale Hurston

Literary Pick (***)

After Dark

-Haruki Murakami

Literary Pick (**)

The Brothers Karamazov

-Fyodor Dostoevsky

There's a quote by Lauren Bacall in a movie called "The Mirror Has Two Faces" which I absolutely love, and it goes like this: "I've buried a husband, I've raised two daughters, I've *made* my coffee." That's pretty much how I feel about Russian Literature after finishing The Brothers Karamazov. I've read War and Peace, I've read Crime and Punishment, I've read Anna Karenina, and I've read The Idiot,.... I've *made* my coffee. Meaning, I'm done, it's over, no more. I'm sorry, but enough is enough.
The Brothers Karamazov is just another novel that served as an excuse for a Russian writer to drown you in their philosophical ideas about politics and religion. It's taken me thousands of pages to finally arrive to this realization. However, knowing me, I'll likely end up reading Notes from the Underground, anyway.
The story about father and son vying for the same woman was a theme I didn't expect from Dostoyevsky, to be honest.. To me there is no comparison between this novel and Crime and Punishment. You cannot even compare it to The Idiot. I will concede that the only merit in this work is how it differed from his other tome's, because typically, writers adhere to one type of theme and don't part far from it.
I'm still not certain what was the purpose of including (insert something I have forgotten in the course of reading and trying to finish this book which took me 2 1/2 months) in the novel, other than to add an additional 300+ pages to the story. Most of which I suppose served as an extenuation for lengthy discourses on religion. Once I was able to wade through 500 pages of development, and to the trial part of the story I had to literally drag my sight from word to painstaking word. This book gets 2 stars by automatic default because it's Dostoyevsky.

Art of the Day

Elizabeth Throckmorton

-Nicolas de Largillière

Poetry

The Hills of Little Cornwall 

-by Mark Van Doren

The hills of little Cornwall
Themselves are dreams.
The mind lies down among them,
Even by day, and snores,
Snug in the perilous knowledge
That nothing more inward pleasing,
More like itself,
Sleeps anywhere beyond them
Even by night
In the great land it cares two pins about,
Possibly; not more.

The mind, eager for caresses,
Lies down at its own risk in Cornwall;
Whose hills,
Whose cunning streams,
Whose mazes where a thought,
Doubling upon itself,
Considers the way, lazily, well lost,
Indulge it to the nick of death--
Not quite, for where it curls it still can feel,
Like feathers,
Like affectionate mouse whiskers,
The flattery, the trap.

Quote of the Day

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

― Epicurus

RIP

Carlos Fuentes

The Mexican author Carlos Fuentes has died, aged 83.

Fuentes was one of the most prolific Latin American writers known equally for his fiction and his essays on politics and culture.

His most famous works were The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo.

He was associated with the Latin American Boom - a literary movement made up of mainly young authors whose politically critical works broke with established traditions.

He died in a hospital in Mexico City. Hospital sources did not comment on his cause of death.

Mr Fuentes wrote a wealth of novels, plays and essays and regularly commented on political events in Spanish newspaper El Pais.

Born in Panama in 1928, he did not move to Mexico until he was 16.

The son of a diplomat, Mr Fuentes spent much of his childhood moving around the Western Hemisphere.

He said it was this which allowed him to view Latin America from a distance, giving him a critical edge.

'Universal Mexican'

In many of his works he drew on historical events.

His narrative, like that of his contemporaries of the Latin American Boom, was rarely linear, instead relying on flashbacks and changing perspectives.

Among English-language readers he is arguably best known for his novel The Old Gringo, which was made into a film starring Gregory Peck in 1989.

The novel was inspired by the real-life disappearance of American journalist Ambrose Bierce during the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution.

Cultural and political figures around the world have been mourning Mr Fuentes' death.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon expressed his sorrow at Mr Fuentes' death on his Twitter account.

"I am profoundly sorry for the death of our loved and admired Carlos Fuentes, writer and universal Mexican. Rest in peace," Mr Calderon wrote.

'Deep imprint'

The front-runner in July's presidential election in Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, said he had not always agreed with Mr Fuentes on political matters but that he recognised his "extraordinary work".

Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa told Spanish daily newspaper El Pais that "with him, we lose a writer whose work and whose presence left a deep imprint".

Mexican novelist Jose Agustin told BBC Mundo that Carlos Fuentes "became an essential protagonist in Mexican political and cultural life. He had an immense value, from his first launch in the 1950s he never once backed down for anybody".

Mr Fuentes had often been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize but never won.

Among the many major literary awards he did win was the Cervantes Prize in 1987.

He continued to write until the end, with an essay on the recent change of power in France published in Mexican newspaper Reforma on Tuesday, the same day the Angeles del Pedregal hospital announced he was dead.

-BBC News

Photograph of the Day

Sylvia Platt, and her brother Warren

RIP

Maurice Sendak 

-Author of Splendid Nightmares, Dies at 83

NYT Obituary 

Maurice Bernard Sendak, June 10, 1928-2012

Dubbed by one critic “the Picasso of children’s literature” and once addressed by former President Bill Clinton as “the King of Dreams,” Maurice Sendak illustrated nearly a hundred picture books throughout a career that spanned more than 60 years. Some of his best known books include Chicken Soup with Rice (1962), Where the Wild Things Are (1963), and In the Night Kitchen (1970). Born in Brooklyn in 1928 to Jewish immigrant parents from northern Poland, Sendak grew up idolizing the storytelling abilities of his father, Philip, and his big brother, Jack. As a child he illustrated his first stories on shirt cardboard provided by his tailor-father. Aside from a few night classes in art after graduating high school, Sendak was a largely self-taught artist. His characters, stories, and inspirations were drawn from among his own neighbors, family, pop culture, historical sources, literary influences, and long-held childhood memories. He worked with such well-known children’s authors as Ruth Krauss, Else Minarik, and Arthur Yorinks, and illustrated books by Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Brothers Grimm, and the poet Randall Jarrell. Sendak began a second career as a costume and stage designer in the late 1970s, designing operas by Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky, among others. He won numerous awards, including a Caldecott Award, a Newberry Medal, the international Hans Christian Andersen Award, a National Book Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and a National Medal of Arts. His books continue to be read by millions of children and adults and have been translated into dozens of languages and enjoyed all over the world. The Rosenbach Museum & Library has been the home of his picture book artwork since the late 1960s and mourns his passing as it also celebrates the life and work of an artist who touched so many young lives and nourished so many dreams.

-The Rosenbach Museum & Library

Quote of the Day

Art of the Day

Mark Rothko 

-Green over Blue 1956

Quote of the Day

Every step I've taken on my new found appreciation of good literature I owe to my beautiful wife - without whom I would have ended up alone and empty. Thank you my love for enriching my life in all the ways that matter. 

-Charles G. Crane III

Art of the Day

Adolph Menzel

-Flötenkonzert Friedrichs des Großen in Sanssouci
(Flute Concert with Frederick the Great in Sanssouci)

Food 52

 Kumquat

 A Sweet Pea Chef

Hungry Native

Quote of the Day

“There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.”
― Nikki Giovanni

Art of the Day

Katsushika Hokusai 

The Great Wave at Kanagawa (1832)

Photograph of the Day

Truman Capote Rescuing the kitty.

Pure Vegetarian

Fashioneestar

Literary Quote

“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.”

 — James Branch Cabell From The Silver Stallion

Literary Pick (**)

Nausea

-Jean Paul Sartre

Not nearly as good as his plays in No Exit. Sartre claimed Nausea to be his magnum opus. Existentialism is a philosophy I deeply believe is the doctrine of life. So I was surprised and disappointed that Sartre, being the forefather of existentialism, offered this, his crowning achievement, with little to no theory. Nausea reminded me much of Fernando Pessoa's Book of Disquiet, in the sense that it presented a profoundly disturbed individual attempting to cope with the meaningless of everyday life, but lacking purposeful argument.

Quote of the Day

When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past. 
~Author Unknown

Literary Pick (***)

Easy French Reader

-R. de Roussy de Sales

Finally finished this, my second French workbook. The only drawback about this practice textbook is that there were no English side-by-side translations. I had to often refer to a French dictionary and Google translate throughout the entire book.

Quote of the Day

“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Literary Pick (**)

Breaking the Surface

-Greg Louganis

I owned this book for quite some time, but for some reason or other continued to put off reading it. Not sure why I've always admired Greg Louganis.. I'm not a big Olympic follower, and I'm not into swimming as a sport either. Perhaps my admiration for him began after he hit his head on the springboard during the 1988 Olympics in Seoul Korea, and much later hearing the news of his HIV status, which I could've sworn he came forth with immediately after his diving accident, but it turns out he actually came out in 1994. In this bio Greg Louganis comes off as whiny and self-pitying. I was initially taken back by it. He has never appeared like that in his televised appearances... I thought it would have an affect on how I felt about Louganis, but after finishing I've decided I still think he's a remarkable athlete who's been through a lot. I feel sad that he hasn't been able to find a meaningful relationship, which seems to be something important to him. I hope he continues to do well in life and in health.

Suicide Note

(Virginia Woolf's suicide note to her husband Leonard)

TO: LEONARD WOOLF

'Dearest, I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that - everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer.
I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.

V.'

Literary Pick (**)

A Room with a View

-E.M. Forster

It's hard for me to believe this is considered a romance novel. It seemed like most of the time there were at least half a dozen people guarding Lucy's virtue. I don't understand how an author can take a character from one extreme to the next. Up until the last chapter it was about Lucy Honeychurch asserting her independence as a young lady. She didn't seem at all interested in finding romance. She just wanted independence from her family. Lucy's character was flaky. She becomes engaged to Cecil, but then realizes he's extremely pompous and is only interested in showing off his knowledge for the arts. Then we have George's father, who insists Lucy marry his son because all women should be married, and all this anti-feminist mumbo-jumbo. I think she finally marries George's son to escape her less than sane relatives. This novel was anything but romantic. In fact, it's one of the worst romance novels I've ever read. The back cover is very misleading. When you read the synopsis for the book you feel like you're about to embark on another amazing novel like Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, but it's far from it on every aspect imaginable. I was tempted to give it only one star, but the prose was decent enough.

Literary Pick (***)

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
-Maya Angelou
 




















"Preach it, I say preach it!" I will always say that with a heart-felt chuckle.
I've always had a deep admiration and respect for Maya Angelou, so when I first learned about this autobiographical novel I was thrilled to add it to my to-reads list for later reading. The title alone, "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", says so much about the story, and seems to be filled with such hope in the face of adversity.
The story chronicles the life of Marguerite (Maya), along with her brother Bailey, in the care of their devout grandmother in Stamps Arkansas, and years later moving in with her mother (Vivian) to San Francisco, ending with the touching bond between Maya and her newborn son. As a novel, it wasn't as interesting as I would have liked it to be, so I had to keep reminding myself that it was the story of Maya Angelou's life. It would've been nice to clearly hear the voice of wisdom we all know and love, but I felt it didn't come through so much for me, then again, it was young Angelou. This is a book I would definitely recommend you read first if you're just beginning to have an interest in Angelou's works.

Poetry

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe

Literary Quote

“Success, after all, loves a witness, but failure can't exist without one.”

Junot Díaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao