Deluged With Books Cafe

Some books needed time and maturity to have affinity. The first reading found myself wanting in wisdom to understand the deeper brushes of pain and helplessness. Hence, I thought it was a rather odd book. It is about a woman drowning, perhaps, in her own melancholy or in her own art moving eerily around her house. Of old ghosts and broken sense of reality. In short, the book is almost one big metaphor. Reading The Body Artist  felt like being inside a white room slowly closing in and you never know the passage of time or days. All you are left with is your own mind which sometimes torments or becomes a dreamy haze in which you never find yourself. DeLillo knows his language and brilliantly plays with words that renders the reader grasping thin vapors instead of solid form. He plays with the spaces and shadows in our heads, the silences between one memory to another in the mundane poetry of day to day. I could ignore the vagueness of the plot and just thoroughly enjoy re...

On his break from a season and driving along the highway in Colorado, Dean Robillard passed by a walking headless beaver. A very pissed girl in a beaver mascot, that is. What starts as a hilarious interlude becomes an amusing companionship and from there, things escalate to the gypsy caravan..er, the unexpected. There are few books which had me laughing on the first paragraph and this is but a first, methinks, that got me on the first sentence. It's been a while since I last read a SEP novel and I am surprised I find it still refreshing.

Two college students, Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris, attempt to solve the mystery about an old allegorical Renaissance manuscript,  Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Poliphilo's Struggle of Love in a Dream),  which had eluded historians for generations. Each has his own deep connection to the coded text and it is this to which they threw their passions and also could lead to their ruin. Set in an Ivy League school, the scholarly atmosphere and ruminations of post-graduation life served as a background for treachery, murder and suspense. The Rule of Four  is bit scholarly than most historical fiction with the premise quite promising, drawing out the nostalgic school life, literary pursuits and intellectual squabbling so to speak. It also displays the human psyche by delving more on character background and the seduction of passion (in this case the devotion to study the text) which could either soar one so high or make one a slave for life.

If there's a saying to sum it all up, it would be that quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Life is a journey, not a destination ." One day for each year. We get to glimpse Emma and Dexter and their status of friendship or relationship whichever comes on first, from the day they first met through a number of succeeding years. Nicholls wrote this book focusing more on character development which invariably helps to explain the emotional journey of both to each other. This probably wouldn't be for those who read to escape and seek ideal romance (I wouldn't even call this under romance) for this is but a reflection of the bitter reality we are living. It touches on their own disappointments, issues and triumphs in their own lives like any normal post-graduation adults (e.g frustration with career, purpose of living, passions, etc).

It starts with a serene day in Brooklyn in the early years of the twentieth century, a description of a little fire escape, a little corner facing a big tree in the yard; a metaphorical figure looming over Francie Nolan's growing years. It is a quiet coming of age classic about a girl's dreams, about Brooklyn and the American social classes, about immigrants and being poor, about the luminescent characters of two different families: the strong Rommely women and despairing Nolan men. In the outskirts, it is also about a tree. Francie Nolan is an eleven-year-old girl living in a small apartment with her brother Neeley, her mother Katie, a pretty scrub woman and her father Johnny, the impeccably handsome Irish singing waiter with an on and off job at the union. With the book spanning Francie's life from a young girl to a budding young woman against the backdrop of the shifting years in Williamsburg, we are given glimpses of her honest thoughts and struggles, despair again...

I enjoyed reading this book, the narrative prose really set the tone and the pace of the novel.  It was like watching those Woody Allen Films set in New York.  The Bookstore aka The Owl is like New York itself and all the unique personalities that passed thru its door seemed symbolic of what the city is all about.  This is about a young woman's self discovery, of what she can accomplish, of what her goals are and in the end the realization that dreams change.   The end game becomes something else but what remains is her own self worth and the people that truly support who she really is. Overall the story is good, the writing is excellent and despite the many cliches and tropes you can truly feel Esme's struggle.  The only downside is the Mitchell character, there was too many pages devoted to him, his family his callousness and self centered personality. The way he manipulates Esme.  There was a lot about him but not really anything to make the r...

Lady Lyssa, queen of the vampires, the last in the line of pure royalty has been given a gift by her former human servant. Jacob, a former vampire hunter, has made it his goal to be his lady's bonded human servant. The premise of The Vampire Queen's Servant is very simple. Is Jacob worthy enough for Lady Lyssa and will she accept him as hers, bonded to her until her own life ends (that's pretty long considering she's nearly 5 centuries old)? But this is a Joey W. Hill novel and they never are simple. This is a story solely between two people. There is a subplot but serves more as background, a conflict source. But as a whole this is a book about Lyssa and Jacob, its their interaction, submission, domination, their anger, their joy, their love. Its as intense as anything. Although very strong on the BDSM elements and graphic sexual scenes, its the exchange during those moments that makes you aware of the emotions between Lyssa and Jacob. They serve as the catal...

cr image:amazon.com The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen, Victoria has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. When her talent is discovered by a local florist, she discovers her gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But it takes meeting a mysterious vendor at the flower market for her to realise what's been missing in her own life, and as she starts to fall for him, she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, and decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. The Language...

After moving with her husband to the tiny, bustling island of Macau, Grace Miller finds herself a stranger in a foreign land—a lone redhead towering above the crowd on the busy Chinese streets. As she is forced to confront the devastating news of her infertility, Grace’s marriage is fraying and her dreams of family have been shattered. She resolves to do something bold, something her impetuous mother would do, and she turns to what she loves: baking and the pleasure of afternoon tea. Grace opens a café where she serves tea, coffee, and  macarons —the delectable, delicate French cookies colored like precious stones—to the women of Macau. There, among fellow expatriates and locals alike, Grace carves out a new definition of home and family. But when her marriage reaches a crisis, secrets Grace thought she had buried long ago rise to the surface. Grace realizes it’s now or never to lay old ghosts to rest and to begin to trust herself. With each mug of coffee brewed, each cup of te...