So, the latest book review I’ve been procrastinating on is Isabel Allende‘s (probably) most well-known novel, The House of the Spirits. I finished this book about a week ago, so I figured it’s time to finally write some kind of passable review about it. The House of the Spirits isn’t hard to read; it’s engaging,…
The Hyaku-nin-isshu is a collection of 100 poems by 100 different individuals compiled by Fujiwara no Teika during the 11th century. The poems follow the tanka form of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables per line and are mostly about love or nature, written when only members of the nobility were allowed, or known, to write poetry. In fact, several…
I just finished Paul Beatty‘s The Sellout, which was the Man Booker Prize winner of 2016. It’s a short, strange, witty novel that, though seemingly humorous, tackles very serious social and cultural issues. The novel starts with the protagonist, African-American Mr. Me, high on his homegrown marijuana at the Supreme Court of the United States,…
Hey guys, if you haven’t already!, download and try out Litsy, an app every book lover will love! Litsy is like a cross between goodreads and instagram. You can upload pictures of books and write blurbs, quotes, and short reviews. You can also upload books you’re currently reading, as well as books you want to…
I’ve been a bit remiss in updating my blog partly because of the Holidays and partly because a lot of things have happened in my life lately. However, a big part of it also has to do with laziness. I realized that I did not post a December Book Loot earlier this month either but…
When the body of an adolescent boy is found, eviscerated with heart and penis cut off and face skinned, at a city landfill in Manila, it seemed like just another unfortunate though brutal crime. But when bodies sharing the same signs and markings start showing up every month at the landfill, the head of the…
In 2001, German writer W.G. Sebald published his final novel, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. That novel was Austerlitz, which is about a man looking for his family and identity told by an unnamed narrator. During one of his many trips to Antwerp in the 1960s, the nameless narrator haphazardly meets Austerlitz, a scholarly man with…
Before the name Everdene (spelled -deen) was popularized by a willful, bow-and-arrow-toting girl fighting against an oppressive government, it was the name of an equally strong, spirited, and independent young woman, Bathsheba Everdene, the heroine of Thomas Hardy’s novel Far From The Madding Crowd. Published anonymously in a monthly serial in 1874, Far From the…
The Suspicions of Mr. Which or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale is a non-fiction novel that chronicles the rise in popularity of the private investigator, the detective/crime fiction genre in the mid 1800’s and how they were influenced by the gruesome murder of a boy in his home in the English countryside. Just before…
February was a good month for book shopping; I bought 13 books, 3 of which I already read. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion – Yoshio Mishima Soul Mountain – Gao Xingjian The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt Death with Interruptions – Jose Saramago The Known World – Edward P. Jones Death and the Flower…
The Misanthropologist 