Meredith added 11 books to this list. Add your votes »
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Meredith added 7 books to this list. Add your votes »
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bookshelves: asian-literature, china, currently-reading, england, europa-editions, humor, malaysia
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bookshelves: anthropology, banned, dystopian, england, fantasy, nobel-prize, philosophy, psychology, sociology, young-adult
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by William Golding
Two factors contributed to my picking up this book tonight:
1) Most of my peers read this book in eighth grade English. Fourteen years ago.
2) I borrowed this from my sister about a year ago, and should probably give it back to her someday. ]]>
bookshelves: canada, favorites, romance
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by Haruki Murakami
Though shorter than Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, this was the most complex of Murakami's novels for me. The sheep are, potentially, symbolic of Japanese collectivism and conformity; there is certainly enough anti-individualistic banter between characters to substantiate such an interpretation. Add to that sociological component a nebulous ear-model-cum-call-girl, a string of unrealized romances, and a strange quest to find a single sheep in the Hokkaidan countryside. This is Murakami at his eccentric best. This strangeness and stark surreality are what make his stories so memorable. ]]>
bookshelves: asian-literature, fantasy, japan, magical-realism, mystery
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bookshelves: catholicism, christianity, england, lgbt, religion
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by Shahriar Mandanipour
Who needs the fourth wall when you can engage in mortal combat with your own characters? Not only is this book a fun narrative experiment, but it also serves up an honest, unsensationalized assessment of Iranian politics and censorship. Feeling blue about your romantic relationship? Go somewhere crowded, take your significant other by the hand, and realize that there are places where such a seemingly harmless gesture would be calamitous. Feeling tormented by your latest writing project? Read this book, and be glad that you don't have to engage in the kind of linguistic acrobatics necessitated by a trigger-happy editor in a theocratic milieu. ]]>