Latest book you have finished

[stargirl]

hi everyone!read stargirl. it will turn you into an instant spinelli fan. i hope you enjoy it as much as i have!

[PrincessPea]

Stargirl: yehey ang dami na natin! Ano yung Stargirl?

[christine]

hi everyone!read stargirl. it will turn you into an instant spinelli fan. i hope you enjoy it as much as i have!

I love Stargirl too! I'm about to read its sequel, Love, Stargirl! This is a fun read. A story of an eccentric girl who embraced her individuality, refused to succumb to conformity and experienced true love.

[ehlanadanae]

"Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami

... i'm not brainy or something, i just love to read books so it probably helped me a lot to have read michio kaku, neil gaiman and caleb carr beforehand or else murakami would have left me wandering in that great labyrinth of his, forever lost
... some parts of the story are not for the faint-hearted so i thank caleb carr for shocking me first with his "The Alienist" and "The Angel of Darkness"
... i don't think this is gonna be a good read for pet lovers, especially cat lovers
... kaku ang gaiman prepared me for the more "weird" and sometimes "scary" thoughts
... i thought i was reading Franz Kafka all over again
... this is a good read for people who likes philosophy

[ehlanadanae]

"Fang" by James Patterson

...teenagers who love action and bird kids will like this

[Wanda]

Ehlanadanae: i noticed you finished two books today, way to go! Kafka on the shore does sound pretty bizarre, and Fang sounds like fun!

[ehlanadanae]

Ehlanadanae: i noticed you finished two books today, way to go! Kafka on the shore does sound pretty bizarre, and Fang sounds like fun!

Fang was an easy one so i read fast...and besides I was already a quarter into the book when i had to put it down for a while because Murakami happened..hehe

bizarre...yeah you could say that again

[laila_6045]

Hello! Kakabasa ko lang ng the Mysterious Benedict Society. Super nagustuhan ko.

I have a copy of this book too. Likewise, I enjoyed it despite my age...now i'm sharing this book to my younger cousins, hope they will also experience the same adventure of reading it as I did. I'm going to start reading on the second installment of the series soon.

[Memnoch26]

kafka on the shore is such a mind boggling story...

try Norwegian wood also by the same author.... i saw its has been made into a movie last year...

"Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami

... i'm not brainy or something, i just love to read books so it probably helped me a lot to have read michio kaku, neil gaiman and caleb carr beforehand or else murakami would have left me wandering in that great labyrinth of his, forever lost
... some parts of the story are not for the faint-hearted so i thank caleb carr for shocking me first with his "The Alienist" and "The Angel of Darkness"
... i don't think this is gonna be a good read for pet lovers, especially cat lovers
... kaku ang gaiman prepared me for the more "weird" and sometimes "scary" thoughts
... i thought i was reading Franz Kafka all over again
... this is a good read for people who likes philosophy

[Wanda]

-spoiler warning-

Just finished Madame Bovary! What a sad story....

I thought by the title that it was about french high society. On the contrary, it was really about provincial life. Emma Bovary grows up in a farm and is married to a country health practitioner. Soon after her wedding she finds that the 'passion' she was expecting never comes. Motherhood does not bring her happiness either. Bored and longing for expensive clothes and high society, she gets intimately involved with a few of the men in her town. Soon she finds herself deeply in debt and resorts to drastic measures with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter.

Written in french by gustave flaubert in 1857, it was supposed to be the first REALIST fiction because it touched on adultery. I guess that means next to this book pride and prejudice and jane eyre would seem like fairy tales. It was so real that many women who read it at that time claimed they were Madame Bovary! Hehe. Of course this was a translation that i read but i found the book to be very descriptive, and flaubert was known to take pains to find 'le mot juste' or the right word. He also didnt give his opninions whether the actions of the character were right or wrong. He just narrated the story, and maybe thats why it was said to cause a lot of controversy at that time.

My only thought while reading from one of Emma's mishaps to another, was that if she didnt love or even like her husband why did she marry him in the first place?! Of course if she didn't then we wouldn't have a story but it could've saved everyone a lot of trouble and heart ache! I guess its a good story about unfaithulness, how ridiculous it can be, the chain of lies and the serious consequences it can lead to. The character of her husband charles bovary was rather remarkable i think. He had a saintly selflessness bordering on naive stupidity that i didnt know whether to love him or hate him! I mean all those long absences by Emma right under his nose and he still didnt have a clue! Maybe he is the true romantic because despite Emma's beauty and elegance he didnt see any of her numerous faults. The book also touches on medicine, religion, the role of agriculture in a society, and of course, marriage.

Regarding the translation, this is the only version of the novel that I have read so i cant compare it with other translations but i found it beautifuly written and easy to read. Lydia davis, the translator, said she tried to keep the tone and essence of the original as much as possible, not just to recount the story. She is also supposed to have translated Marcel Proust's masterpiece In Search of Lost Time.