04.Nov.2010 Mori Ōgai and Gyogenki
When I saw The Classics Circuit was having a tour on Meiji-Era Japanese Classics, I was intrigued. However apart from Natsume Sōseki and Ryunosuke Akutagawa, I had a big WHO? moment. I had not heard the rest of the people on the list. One name did ring a bell, and I checked the books I [...]
02.Oct.2010 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
I’ve been intrigued by The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie since it was featured on the First Tuesday Book Club late last year and how it is often included in the various book lists (e.g. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Guardian’s 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read). Coincidentally, Muriel Spark is an author [...]
03.Jul.2010 Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
Love in a Fallen City was picked by Claire for our Asian Book Group. It’s a perfect selection after The Good Earth, because both women wrote in the same era, both about China. Buck is even mentioned in the Introduction by Karen S. Kingsbury, the translator. “[Chang] tried , with little success, to break into [...]
22.Jun.2010 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To Kill A Mockingbird seems to be one of the most loved book in the history of literature, so I was excited to finally get to read it. Did I fall in love with it? Prior to reading, I knew there was a lawyer as main character and I was expecting court scenes. But there [...]
04.Mar.2010 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
As I assume the main plot of the book is no secret to most people, I’m going to write my thoughts with no worry of possible spoilers. Pride and Prejudice is my very first Jane Austen and it took me some time to get used to her style. I found the beginning was very very [...]
09.Dec.2009 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White suddenly took book blogosphere by storm a couple of months ago. In the midst of it, a copy was displayed prominently at one of my favorite bookstore for great prize and The Classic Circuit started on Wilkie Collins. The universe was aligned. I read the book. Once I finished, I was [...]
05.Dec.2009 If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller is one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read. It started with you, the Reader, going to a bookshop to buy the latest book by Italo Calvino titled If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller. You go back home and start reading. The book starts with new chapter [...]
29.Oct.2009 Dracula by Bram Stoker
*SPOILERS below* (Thought I’m not gonna bother to avoid spoilers this time) I had the advantage of reading Dracula (or so I thought). I knew almost absolutely nothing about it, because I never watched the movie based on the book. Oh of course I knew he sucks blood. I knew there were Count Dracula, a [...]
17.Oct.2009 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and the Disney Movie
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their house pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D One [...]
03.Oct.2009 Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote and the Movie
New York 1940s. Playgirl Holly Golightly captures the heart of everybody that passes her path. Our narrator, Fred — as she calls him, is a shy wannabe writer. Neighbours at first, they start to develop a unique relationship. Holly is all charm — the type that men want but can’t have, free as a bird. [...]