16.Jan.2010 Short Saturday: Brodkey, Munro, and Kundera
In Short Saturday I will journal my journey to find 5-star quality short stories, whose virtual trophy right now is only held by Truman Capote for A Christmas Memory. Unlike my book reviews, I will talk more about my thoughts and what I learn, why I choose the story and how I come upon it. [...]
Hello Japan: My YA J-Pop
This month’s of Hello Japan is about Japanese music. I’m going over the top by being awfully nostalgic in the past week. I haven’t listened to Japanese songs regularly for many years, but it used to be my staple day and night. It was in the late 90s and I was all alone. At 17 [...]
12.Jan.2010 Waiting by Ha Jin
I have other things to post, but I almost can’t wait to talk about this book! I read it sometime at the end of December during my vacation, brought over to January, so I’ll just count as my first book of 2010. And what a great start it was! Waiting is written in English by [...]
11.Jan.2010 Book Awards IV, Bring It On!
Book Awards IV 1 January – 1 November 2010 10 months. 10 awards. Do I dare say, “Bring it on!” ? I do! Books read: Waiting by Ha Jin (finished 01/10, rating 5/5) 1999 National Book Award for Fiction 2000 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Finalist of 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Flowers for Algernon by [...]
10.Jan.2010 2009 In Review
Finally I managed to finish my review of 2009. Silly me and my numbers. That just took forever! My Favorite Books in 2009 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides The Arrival by Shaun Tan Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell One novel, one graphic novel, and one nonfiction. Perfect :). I would love to also mention The Woman in [...]
09.Jan.2010 Orbis Terrarum Wrap-up
I kinda dreaded wrapping up this challenge, because I predicted it would be the longest of them all. And it is. But here we go, my last challenge wrap-up of 2009! I joined Orbis Terrarum Challenge in March 2009, running from 1 March to 31 December 2009. The rule is to read 10 different books [...]
Bloggiesta Ole!
Bloggiesta is an event hosted by Natasha@Maw Books which is basically for you to spare some time (Friday-Sunday) to do whatever you want for your blog, things you put off doing, housekeeping, normal posts, any blogging activities. There are many useful suggestions to do on the event post if you want to check out. This [...]
08.Jan.2010 Foodie Books (or End of The Spice of Life Challenge)
I’m rather sad that The Spice of Life Challenge has ended (it ran from 1 July to 31 December 2009). I’m a huge foodie and though I only ended up reading 3 books, I had lots of fun thinking about books that could fit into the challenge. There are 4 categories: Cookbooks Nonfiction Memoirs, autobiographies, [...]
06.Jan.2010 Herding Cats II Herded
Herding Cats II Challenge ran from 1 April to 31 December 2009. In this challenge we list 5 books we love (read in 2007-2009 only) and everybody’s recommendations make the master list from which everybody would read any number of books for the challenge. There are 163 books in the list and I read 3: [...]
04.Jan.2010 Lost in Translation Challenge (Barely) Completed
Frances @ Nonsuch Books hosted Lost in Translation Challenge running from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009, required us to read 6 books in translation. I said, it sounds like an easy rule. I did manage to complete it, but barely. I read 6 books, sort of, or 5 1/3 if you want to [...]