tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5515373174896907462024-09-07T10:59:56.822-07:00Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-32969289410185438712008-09-05T20:24:00.000-07:002008-09-29T06:24:05.576-07:00

A tool I just discovered - Gnooks. You can enter an author you like and the site shows you an animated map of other similar authors. The closer two authors are the more similar their styles. They also have a similar feature for movies. I tried Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and many of the movies that I like came up. Truman Show - check. Being John Malkovich. Adaptation.Yes I know Amazon

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-46811893950312893322008-09-05T19:02:00.000-07:002009-11-11T07:44:32.906-08:00

Fear and Trembling: A NovelAmelie Nothomb0312288573St. Martin's Griffin (2002), Paperback, 144 pagesIn this book based on her own life, Amelie returns to her birthplace Japan on a year-long contract as an interpreter for Yumimoto Corporation. The corporation is a place of rigid hierarchy - "Mister Haneda was senior to Mister Omochi, who was senior to Mister Saito, who was senior to Miss Mori, who

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-86734365377502613952008-09-02T08:26:00.000-07:002008-09-02T19:30:33.586-07:00

Brother, I'm DyingEdwidge Danticat978-1400041152, Knopf, September 2007 Edwidge Danticat has made a name for herself chronicling the lives of Haitian immigrants in the States as well as in the home country. In this autobiographical book, she writes eloquently of her own life. In 2004, she finds out she is pregnant while at the same time she gets the news that her father Andre is dying of cancer.

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-24567184533525316772008-09-02T07:40:00.000-07:002008-09-02T09:49:08.172-07:00

The Book of ChameleonsJose Eduardo Agualusa (author), Daniel Hahn (translator)Simon & Schuster978-1416573517, $12.00How are personal histories made? What exactly are memories made of? The Book of Chameleons (original Portuguese title O vendedor de passados) by Portuguese author Jose Eduardo Agualusa explores these fundamental questions. The protagonist of this book, an Angolan albino called Felix

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-72722695888591429712008-08-27T19:57:00.000-07:002008-08-27T20:08:41.850-07:00

Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of) by Will Clarke. Tantor Media (2005), Edition: Unabridged, Audio CDThe story veers sci-fi'ish - Travis Anderson can see into the future, random things like knowing before the phone rings that it is his mother-in-law calling or beating the computer all day long guessing the color of the cow's udders on PsychicCow.com (yes, they created the site as a

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-75234882812563090972008-08-27T19:54:00.000-07:002008-08-27T20:08:53.116-07:00

Almost Heaven by Marianne Wiggins. Simon & Schuster (1999), Paperback, 224 pagesLast week I went to the library to borrow some books, armed with an NPR list, hoping to score some good stuff. But no. My library is way too ancient to have already invested in newly popular books. Not one of the books on my list was there. So I decided I would borrow some 4-5 books, just walking past shelves and

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-36182053743570291752008-08-27T19:51:00.000-07:002008-08-27T20:09:04.281-07:00

This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Penguin (Non-Classics) (1996), Paperback, 368 pagesThe other book I got was Pramoedya Ananta Toer's This Earth of Mankind (translated from the Javanese Bumi Manusia). I selected this book because it had a Penguin imprint on it. Penguin books is what I associated P. G. Wodehouse, and Love in the Time of Cholera. Penguin has an India

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-23625173259379965572008-08-27T19:49:00.000-07:002008-08-27T20:09:15.521-07:00

Bombay Time: A Novel by Thrity Umrigar. Picador (2002), Paperback, 288 pagesSet in the 60s and 70s, this book evokes a description of a quainter time and looks into the the lives of of a neighborhood of Parsis living in urban Bombay. The Parsis are peoples that migrated from Persia to India several hundred years ago to escape Islamic persecution, and this book tells us in touching detail how

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-14483116644145405222008-08-27T19:41:00.000-07:002008-08-27T20:09:31.262-07:00

Whiteman by Tony D'Souza. Harvest Books (2007), Paperback, 288 pagesAdama Diomande (Jack Diaz is his real name, Adama Diomande is the name bestowed on him by his village) is the first person narrator of the book is in Worodougou, a small Muslim village in the north of the Ivory Coast, to educate villagers about AIDS. He finds himself coming to terms with life in a different culture, sans basic

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-8637635212589598212008-08-27T19:37:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:39:19.690-07:00

The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat.This book is about a family of Haitian immigrants living in New York. The father worked as a prison guard in Haiti and is the eponymous Dew Breaker of the novel. The book consists of interrelated stories, and slowly the daughter of the dew breaker discovers how her parents met, and why her father is called a dew breaker. I'd read one of the chapters - the one

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-75140447268340352302008-08-27T19:33:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:35:53.652-07:00

Steppenwolf: A Novel by Hermann Hesse. Picador (2002), Paperback, 224 pagesTo call this book a novel is to mislabel it. Ostensibly this book is about a loner, a self-described Steppenwolf or Wolf of the Steppes, Harry Haller. Steppenwolf rents an apartment from the initial narrator's aunt and is so weird that the narrator is put off by him. He slowly wins the narrator over with his tantalizing

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-9027957269000370602008-08-27T19:27:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:30:48.918-07:00

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwanAnchor (1994), Paperback, 160 pagesVery disturbing book. A set of children are orphaned when their parents die in quick succession of each other. Before she dies, their mother tells them not to let Social Services know that they're staying by themselves, because they will be separated and placed in foster homes. To keep the mother's death a secret, the two oldest

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-80436768459248217302008-08-27T19:21:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:31:31.266-07:00

England, England by Julian Barnes. Vintage (2000), Paperback, 288 pages A satirical look at the crazy life and times of our present, where we want instant gratification. an entrepreneur in england comes up with the brillient scheme of marketing English history in accessible, bite sized nibbles, by making a theme park with miniatures of major monuments and tourist spots - the Tower of London,

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-39211524344065621612008-08-27T19:17:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:23:14.352-07:00

A Long Way Down by Nick HornbyRiverhead Trade (2006), Paperback, 352 pagesFunny premise starts off the book - 4 strangers all head to the topmost floor of Topper's House on New Year's Eve, planning to jump down and do away with themselves. There's Maureen whose only encounter with sex left her with a mentally handicapped child. There's Jess, the trash talking daughter of a high ranking minister

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-71553426481897370152008-08-27T19:13:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:26:21.085-07:00

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Vintage (2007), Paperback, 240 pagesJoan Didion gives us a clear-eyed description of the loss of her husband. What touched me most was the twin losses she suffered - just before John Dunne's death, their daughter Quintana Roo was hospitalized. Quintana healed enough to make it to a service for her father but soon after went into coma and passed away.

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-82900370076162365412008-05-27T12:18:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:25:27.355-07:00

Last Dragon by J. M. McDermottWizards of the West, 390 pp, $14.95My fingers are like spiders drifting over memories in my webbed brain. The husks of the dead gaze up at me, and my teeth sink in and I speak their ghosts. But it’s all mixed up in my head, I can’t separate lines from lines, or people from people. Everything is in this web, Esumi. Even you, even me. Slowly the meat falls from the

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-551537317489690746.post-22897288073530057672008-05-27T12:03:00.000-07:002008-08-27T19:25:00.020-07:00

The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff. Random House (2008), Hardcover, 528 pagesThe 19th Wife by David Ebershoff is unconventional in that it combines historical facts with a whodunnit set in the modern age to delve into the history of the Mormon Church, specifically into the institution of polygamy. The first storyline explores the fate of BeckyLynn, the so-called 19th wife of a present day

Priya Ramachandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641739714585961257noreply@blogger.com0