author : chaim Potok

i read the chosen the first time when i was about 13 years old. and have since then read most of chaim potok's work. and reread. and read it again. they are beautifully yet simply written. elegant in their portrayals of characters and their emotional predicaments, they always strike home at some level. every time something else about them speaks to me. if you have never read any of chaim potok's work i suggest you give it a try. or if you've read it long ago, pick it up again. they will never cease to be good stories.
books: the chosen / the promise / my name is asher lev / the gift of asher lev / davita's harp / i am the clay / book of lights / in the beginning /

author: Haruki Murakami

The wind up bird chronicles is what started it all. In all but his his non-fiction work there is an element of the surreal, of the somewhat completely bizarre. the things is though, it works. there is a guy sitting at the bottom of a well contemplating about the meaning of his life for 40 pages and not once can you get bored. it enticing. His books have something profound in them, that even in the surreal you know it doesn't get much more real then this.
books: the wind up bird chronicles / the elephant vanishes / norwegian wood / Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World / South of the Border, West of the Sun / Sputnik Sweetheart / A Wild Sheep Chase / kafka on the shore / dance, dance, dance / after dark / blind willow sleeping woman /

Book : A perfect peace

"one day a man may just pick up and walk out. What he leaves behind stay behind. What's left behind has nothing to stare at but his back."
i truly loved this first line in the book. it sets the tone for the story that is to come. and it describes the writing of amos oz completely. precise, clear, neat. "the perfect peace " is not the only book I like of oz. but for the opening line alone makes it one my favourites. and the rest of the book helps put it there. do i always like his depiction of women? no! but it doesn't stand in the way of his amazing story telling.
others i liked: my michael / black box / to know a woman /

Book : status anxiety

We all desire to be treated with respect and try to avoid it's opposite. but where does it come from? and why is that we are so driven by it. can we do something about it? must we conform to societies ideals of success? as with Alain botton's other works, he uses philosophy to shed some light on contemporary life. not in a dull over academic way but in a direct, sometimes confrontational and most of the time in an enlightening way. i have learned something from every one of his books i read. the proof? i am typing this and not running around trying to be what i think others want from me. and happy to be doing so. seriously just read it.
others i liked: art of travel / consolations of philosophy /

Book : middlesex

the story of callie has so many levels and dimensions that's it's hard to put down in a few sentence why I loved this novel. assume the obvious that it's well written and so forth. there is something about how callie's and her families tory is told that is haunting and stays with you a long time. "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smog less Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.'is the opening of this novel. but this is not all of callis story. the remarkably smog less detroit, the story of an greek immigrant family, sex and gender identity, american mid 20th century racial history. it's all in there. some 530 pages long, this book does not contain a single boring letter.

Book : flesh and blood

I read this long before I had even heard of the hours. and it remains my favourite michael cunningham book to date. followed by a very close second by at home at the end of the world. following the stassos family for several generation (from 1935 to 2035), their ups and downs, their lives, their decisions. i felt like i became part of their family.
others i liked: at home at the end of the world / specimen days /

/ more books/ magazines I like will be added soon /