On My Bookshelf

A young girl reading - Fragonard

A History of Love
Nicole Krauss

It's tough to write an opinion about a book or a movie without giving too much away. However, briefly (and inadequately) this book is about the eccentric and extremely lonely Leo Gursky, a man who drops his pocket change in stores just so that people will notice him; it is about Alma Singer, an awkward, sweet and complex 14 year old  who is obsessed with the idea of survival and Zvi Litvinoff, an insecure intellectual who publishes a novel to feel deserving of his wife's love. This book is the individual journey each of these characters make and how their paths meet.
Funny, beautiful, sad and quirky, I read this book on our trip to Peru and it was the perfect read for that journey.


Like Water for Chocolate 
Laura Esquivel
This book came recommended by my sister Karin and as such I had high expectations from the get go. Like Water for Chocolate met each one of them. Uniquely written, it is a magical tale of family, tradition, fate and love. Intense, provocative and heartbreaking all at the same time, it was a poetic read that I love to go back to often.

Date a girl who reads {Rosemarie Urquico}

Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

via here

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Gordena P. Jackson

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Sunny Reading by John Williams

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

- Rosemarie Urquico

I loved this. Thank you Karin.

On my bookshelf

Moon Tiger
Penelope Lively

While the story may seem familiar, it is the narrative style and the way in which the events are arranged, shuttling between narrators and tenses that is bold, curious and extremely engaging. I loved the heroine, Claudia Hampton - she's selfish, headstrong and smug, yet vulnerable and almost likable.


A Tree grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith

One of my favorite novels, I think it is a book every young girl ought to read. Poignant, poetic and timeless, it is the story of young, tenacious, resourceful Francie Nolan set in Brooklyn at the turn of the century.
I read it first when I believe I was 12, but each time I revisit it, I'm struck by how beautifully each of the characters are written and the little memorable incidents that pepper the novel and each time I feel the sting of the pine needles (from a tree that Francie and Neeley win one Christmas Eve), smell the pungent aroma of coffee and can almost hear the muted sounds of the street below.

Catch 22
Joseph Heller 

Eccentric, powerful and pointed, Catch-22 is about the absurdity of bureaucracy and the insanity of war. Almost a rite of passage it is hilariously funny yet remains one of the most tragic novels I have ever read. It is a rare and genius book.

Hunger Games

For some reason I'm completely hooked onto The Hunger Games trilogy.
Its young adult sci fi, which could not be further away from the genre I usually read but I've read and re read Collins' books thrice! I've started dreaming Mockingjays, Districts, Katniss, Peeta, Gale and President Snow.

I'm going to stop now.

On my bookshelf

Both Rohit and I love reading and we'll pretty much devour anything! So I thought I'd start a section on books that we have read, are reading, own and want to own!

via Arts Journal

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
One of my favorite books, I thought Catcher in the Rye was brilliant, original, unpretentious and the characters so real. Allie's baseball mitt, Jane Gallagher's game of checkers, Holden's red hunting hat, the ducks at Central Park and Phoebe's notebook have stayed on with me long after I put the book down. I read this book first when I was nearly fourteen and to me it remains as poignant and relevant today as it did nearly fifteen years ago.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
One of the books I think all young pre teen girls should read is, Gone with the Wind.
Even if they haven't read the book most people know what its about - Love. Life. War. Loss. Society. Race. Money. Politics. Endurance. and so much more. The characters are so perfectly written and some of the moments in the book are heartbreakingly beautiful.
I think, however, that you should read it understanding who the author is and the time it was written in. 

Atonement by Ian McEwan
I know Atonement isn't like your typical McEwan novel, but I loved it. The slow pace to begin with, the beautiful imagery, and the distinct vivid scenes in the book - from the hazy, warm, almost claustrophobic English summer to the acrid graphic scenes at Dunkirk. Absorbing, intriguing and always tender, I couldn't put this book down.