I love historical fiction as a genre because it’s immediately transportive and provides my conscious a good excuse to not read an actual history book. Yes, it’s not the same thing but life is short, and can you blame me for finding a little joy in history-with-a-twist. An ambitious multi-generational saga, Pachinko starts off in an island village in 1903 in Korea where a Hoonie and his wife earn their livelihood by hosting lodgers. When…
The artistic rendering of the famous Dutch painter’s work is both uplifting and confusing; so should one pay the price of admission? Vincent Van Gogh in his short and tragic life never experienced the kind of wild success and reverence for his work that has survived well into the 21st century. Equally famous for both his bold, colorful post-impressionist work and the slicing off of his ear, Van Gogh’s work and life have caught the…
I will not claim that during the pandemic cloud we are all collectively suffering under has a silver lining. But things would have been gloomier were it not the presence of some good friends. Whether one is living with a family or alone, a conversation with a friend has often provided much-needed relief. It gave me the opportunity and time to reinvest relationships that had fallen by the wayside in the business of living. And…
I am a self-confessed bookaholic. My passion for reading is such an integral part of my personality that anyone who knows me even a little cannot avoid noticing how my life is truly immersed in all things books related. So often, I get asked questions about books. Questions that send me in a mild brain freeze, have me sweating at my armpits and fumbling at my mouth — as I try to find an answer…
As an immigrant parent, I had been looking forward to participating in my son’s education journey through the American public school system. Not only I wanted to revisit math and science, but was curious to see what art, literature, and social sciences mean on this side of the hemisphere. When my son started 3rd grade, I decided to read along the novels they were studying in class. I grew up on steady diet of Enid…
In life, it’s not unusual to have moments when one feels they are losing it. Sometimes these doubts last for a second or sometimes for days. The feeling of losing one’s mind can be a result of stress, anger, nervousness, anticipation, or sometimes you are being just gaslit. And that’s the insecurity that Edith White leans into while building the narrative of her timeless novel The Wheel Spins. Made famous by the Hitchcock movie, “The…
What would happen if one day you came home and your wife had disappeared? Would you worry yourself to death? Or would you send a little prayer of thanks? What would happen if your wife disappeared and it looks like you killed her? And this is where Gone Girl begins…<spoiler warning> That’s where Nick Dunne finds himself one day when he returns home to find his wife gone. The cops are called in and find…
Even though I follow a lot of reading blogs and enjoy marking posts with great book suggestions, I seldom remember to pick these up when I go to a library or a bookstore. For the last year or so, I have noticed that the Persephone Books come highly recommended. These are mostly wartime novels written by woman authors that for some reason or the other had gone out of print. I was a little hesitant…
