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 [...]
13.Jul.2010 Ivan the Fool by Leo Tolstoy (Short)
Russian literature is something I’m completely unfamiliar with. So when The Classic Circuit announced Tour on Imperial Russian Literature, I knew I had to partake in some way. I wouldn’t have enough time to read a full-length novel (what with Russian novels all look so freakin thick), so I was looking for short stories. I [...]
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 [...]
29.May.2010 Short Saturday: QL 696.C9 by Anthony Boucher
Continuing In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians I read a murder mystery/detective short today by Anthony Boucher. The murder happens in a library to a librarian and the mystery revolves around library code. Fun. I don’t normally read mystery novels, let alone short stories, but short seems to be a less suitable [...]
16.May.2010 Short Sunday: Sleep by Haruki Murakami
Back in my high school days, I was so into mountain hiking and camping it drove my parents crazy. It wasn’t so much about the activities, more about how unsafe it was for a bunch of teenagers to hike faraway mountains considering how wild these places are in Indonesia. There isn’t much organization or safety [...]
08.May.2010 Short Saturday: First Love and Other Sorrows by Harold Brodkey
In Short Saturday I will journal my journey to find 5-star quality short stories. 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. Unlike books, I’m willing to take more risk for shorts, because they are.. well.. short, [...]
30.Apr.2010 The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
I don’t usually read every single story in an anthology or short story collection. I did a couple of times before but it didn’t work well. I’m glad I did for The Bloody Chamber, because it felt like all the stories belong in the same world, like glimpses of different lives in separate parts of [...]
17.Apr.2010 The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the Change by Kij Johnson (Short) and Misc
Do you also find it ironic that the super long title of this post is followed by ‘short’? The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the Change is a short story by Kij Johnson, which I picked out of Nymeth‘s favorite short stories (check her sidebar). Knowing that it’s about [...]
04.Apr.2010 Short Saturday: Chicxulub by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Oh how do I begin? Chicxulub is such a simple story. A man and his wife has the phone ring one night. Their daughter has been in an accident. Everything in the story is like a thunderstorm, sweeping me, like a meteor, hitting with resonating impact. Like Chicxulub, an asteroid that collided with the earth [...]
21.Mar.2010 Short Saturday: Gaiman, Jackson, and Gilman
In Short Saturday I will journal my journey to find 5-star quality short stories, whose virtual trophy right now is held by Truman Capote and Haruki Murakami. 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. Unlike books, [...]