WWW Wednesday 08-April-2020

Hello there! It’s April! Welcome to another WWW Wednesday, hosted by Sam from Taking On A World of Words.

As usual, just answer the three W questions:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m halfway through Permanent Record and I find it fascinating so far. Also, I’ve started with Wayward Son. I haven’t read a Rainbow Rowell for quite some time now and it’s really nice to be reading about Simon, Baz and Agatha again.

Recently Finished

I’ve finally finished City of Djinns and it was a really informative and interesting read. A mix of history, myth, religion, travel, etc. I don’t know what to say about On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. I managed to read this in the office and would’ve finished it in a day if it weren’t for some urgent work. It was brutal. It was devastating. It was beautiful. It felt so real. One of my best reads so far this year.

Up Next

I’m thinking of reading Kokoro first among these three but a friend recommended The Alice Network and two others suggested the The Secret Keeper.

Have you read any of these books? Or is there anything you want to recommend? What have you been reading this past week? I’d be delighted if you share your WWWs, too. Leave a link or share your lists on the comments section so I can check them all out!

Happy reading and keep safe, homo sapiens!

 

Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Bought/Borrowed Because…

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original blog meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and is currently being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s given topic is Books I Bought/Borrowed Because…

Let’s get started!

I bought the next three books because they were highly recommended:

Recommended by a friend – A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. This is a great book. One of my all-time favorites.

1. Recommended by my boss – Demian by Hermann Hesse. I’m still not quite sure whether I really liked it or not but it was okay as a whole.
2. Recommended by a stranger – City of Djinns by William Dalrymple. I was in the bus reading on my way home one night when the lady beside me started a conversation. She said she also likes to read and her favorite so far was the City of Djinns and she thinks I will enjoy it, too. So I’m currently reading it know and yeah, so far so good.

I bought the next three books because of the cover:

I bought the next book because it’s been showing both in my WordPress feeds and in Goodreads quite a lot:

I bought this book because of the best sidekick ever:

Yes, the one and only Fermin Romero de Torres in The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Fermin is my favorite character in The Shadow of the Wind and it is said that he will be taking center stage in this book. I’ll be reading this maybe next month.

Lastly, I bought these two books because they were on sale:

Both Stoner and Mornings in Jenin were 5-star reads for me so I’m very delighted that I bought them.

Have you read any of these books? What were your reasons for buying them? Share a link of your TTTs so I can check them out, too, or simply share your lists on the comments section. I’d be delighted to read them all!

Happy Tuesday, homo sapiens!

The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark

I’m not very sure what to make of this novella just yet even after reading it months ago. The plot and ending didn’t really make sense to me. Perhaps a reread would help?

A reread, indeed. Thankfully, it’s a short read.

One can tell from the beginning that there’s something wrong with Lise. I can’t say I was enjoying it. Lise was actually getting into my nerves. I spent the whole time reading it wanting to slap her hard.

To summarize the story, Lise is crazy and she will be murdered. And yes, she was. I couldn’t see any point in the characters or the story itself so it was definitely a good thing that it’s a really short read.

This was the weirdest book I’ve read as far as I can remember. Weird in a way I didn’t really like or enjoy.

Apparently, I wasn’t satisfied in my first foray of Muriel Spark’s works but I’m still inclined to familiarize myself more of her. The more perceptive readers could probably get more from this book. Any suggestions for a better one, please?

Rating: 2/5 stars

WWW Wednesday 01-April-2020

Hello there! It’s April! Welcome to another WWW Wednesday, hosted by Sam from Taking On A World of Words.

As usual, just answer the three W questions:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:

Recently Finished:

Up Next:

Have you read any of these books? Or is there anything you want to recommend? What have you been reading this past week? I’d be delighted if you share your WWWs, too. Leave a link or share your lists on the comments section so I can check them all out!

Happy reading and keep safe, homo sapiens!

Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Signs You’re a Book Lover

Hello there! It’s another edition of Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original blog meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and is currently being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s given topic is:

Ten Signs You’re a Book-Lover

Here it goes!

1. Books are always great gifts.

2. Saving money to buy new books.

3. It’s hard not to read several books at one time.

4. You wish some fictional characters were real.

5. You tend to become emotionally invested in characters.

6. Nothing makes better company than coffee when reading.

7. You love the smell of books.

8. You spend sleepless nights sobbing, laughing or simply enjoying a different world.

9. You can spend hours in a bookshop, library or book fair because they’re your personal heaven.

10. You  own more books than your space can hold.

These are just ten of the many signs you’re a book-lover. Do we have the same list? Feel free to drop a link of your TTTs or share your list in the comments section. I’d be delighted to read them.

Happy Tuesday, homo sapiens!

Top 5 Tuesday – Authors from A-Z (U, V, W, X, Y, Z)

Hello there, homo sapiens! It’s time for Top 5 Tuesday.

This tag is hosted by Shannah over at Bionic Book Worm.

March is a themed month and this month’s theme is Authors from A-Z. Last week. we had authors with names starting with the letters P, Q, R, S & T. Today we’ll be having authors whose names start with U, V, W, X, Y & Z. Again, I opted for family names.

U – John Updike

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet and short-story writer. He is one of the three other writers who have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. Apart from his novels and short-story collections, many of his works were published in The New Yorker.

V – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was an American writer. He’s best known for his satirical novel Slaughterhouse-Five. It is in fact the only work of his that I’ve read so far. It is the story of Billy Pilgrim who was born in 1922 like Vonnegut himself who survived the bombing of Dresden.

W – John Williams

John Edward Williams author, editor and professor. He is the author of Stoner, a tragic fictional tale of a university professor — one of my top all-time favorite novels. His novel Augustus won a US national book award.

X – Xue Xinran

Xue Xinran is a British-Chinese journalist and author. She is also a known advocate for women’s issues. Her book The Good Women of China is on my TBR so I hope to get to it soon.

Y – Hanya Yanagihara

Hanya Yanagihara is a novelist, editor and travel writer. She is the author of A Little Life, winner of the 2015 Kirkus prize for fiction. She also was a National Book Award and Man Booker Prize finalist in 2015.

Z – Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak is an Australian writer of German origin and is best known for his books The Book Thief and The Messenger. Bridge of Clay is on my TBR and I hope it to be as his other works.

Have you heard of these authors before? (I doubt you haven’t!) Have you read any of their works? Any recommendations? I look forward to reading your Top 5 Tuesdays so drop a link on the comments section so I can check them all out.

Happy Tuesday and keep safe, homo sapiens!

All photos downloaded from Google. Credit to the owners.

Short Stories – The Last Leaf, The Necklace & The Gift of the Magi

These three short stories were recommendations from my new boss during a car ride for lunch. We’ve been working together for only two months and it didn’t occur to me even once that he likes reading. He also recommended Demian but that’s for another post.

The Last Leaf by O. Henry is an absolutely beautiful story. There’s love, friendship, death, sacrifice and the significance of hope. Sue and Johnsy are young aspiring artists but Johnsy fell prey to pneumonia. Johnsy already lost hope to live while Sue was desperate in finding ways to keep her hopes up and survive. Mr. Behrman is an old painter but pretty much failed all his life. But he never lost hope. And then one day, he was able to paint his masterpiece.

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant is a story that teaches a lesson about greed, contentment and being grateful for what is given to us. It’s about an ungrateful lady, Mathilde, who desired wealth, fame and to be envied by people. Her mindset never changed until the end of the story, still chasing the same things when she was younger and even after the incident that happened so I think the ending serves her right.

The Gift of the Magi, again by O. Henry, is another well-written story about true love and gift giving. Della wanted to buy a wonderful gift for her husband but she didn’t have enough money to do so. She decided to do the unthinkable. It was adorable and sad but all in all lovely. The wonderful message is worth some reflection.

Have you read these short stories? Which one is your favorite? Or any recommendations for another short story? Feel free to share on the comments section.

Happy reading and keep safe, homo sapiens!