The Arrival by Shaun Tan has no words, but it tells a powerful story. Beautiful black and white and sepia toned art work illustrate the experience of an immigrant and his family (wife and daughter). He leaves their homeland first, arriving at his destination after 60 days of a ship voyage. He is processed by [...]
Posts under ‘Prize Winning Books’
Wolf Hall – Book Review
Thomas Cromwell is now a little over forty years old. he is a man of strong build, not tall. Various expressions are available to his face, and one is readable: an expression of stifled amusement. His hair is dark, heavy and waving, and his small eyes, which are of very strong sight, light up in [...]
Sunday Salon – February 7, 2010
February 7, 2010 9:00 AM Good morning and happy Sunday Salon! Today is a clear, crisp winter day with cerulean blue skies and a bit of frost on the ground. We’ve got the coffee on and a fire in the wood stove – a perfect morning for catching up on my reading. Later today we’ll [...]
NBCC Announces Finalists…
Do you haunt the prize lists like I do? Well, if you do, then you’ve probably already seen the finalists for the National Book Critics Circle. If not, I thought I’d share them with you: Autobiography: Somewhere Towards the End, by Diana Athill (Norton) Live Through This: A Mother’s Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed [...]
The Passport – Book Review
“Put the flour in the yard. The gate is open.” His voice was asleep. That night, there was a thunderstorm. A flash of lightening struck the grass in front of the window. The mayor switched off his torch. His voice woke up and spoke more loudly. “Another five deliveries, Windisch,” said the mayor, “then the [...]
A Bend in the River – Book Review
Nobody’s going anywhere. We’re all going to hell, and every man knows this is in his bones. We’re being killed. Nothing has any meaning. That is why everyone is so frantic. Everyone wasn’t to make his money and run away. But where? That is what is driving people mad. They feel they’re losing the place [...]
The Help – Book Review
Miss Skeeter move her eyes back to the window, on Miss Hilly’s Buick. She shake her head, just a little. “Aibileen, that talk in there…Hilly’s talk. I mean…” I pick up a coffee cup, start drying it real good with my cloth. “Do you ever wish you could…change things?” she asks. And I can’t help [...]
Someone Knows My Name – Book Review
He repeated my name over and over, and then added, “I must hear you say it. Please. Say it. Say my name.” “Chekura,” I said. “Someone knows my name. Seeing you makes me want to live.” I wondered if there was a way for me to bring him water. “Now we must all live,” I [...]
BookAwards II Challenge
August 1, 2008 – June 1, 2009 May 30, 2009 – CHALLENGE COMPLETED I read 10 award winners from the following prize lists: Pulitzer Special Awards Anthony Award Orange Prize for Fiction Booker Prize Independent Foreign Fiction Prize IMPAC Dublin Award Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature Whitbread/Costa Award Commonwealth Writers Prize My favorite reads of [...]
The Ghost Road – Book Review
Hallet was lying on his back, hands clasped behind his head, nothing much visible from Prior’s angle except his chin. How appallingly random it all was. If Hallet’s father had got a gleam in his eye two years later than he did, Hallet wouldn’t be here. he might even have missed the war altogether, perhaps [...]
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