This was a lovely gift from Kenny @BooksActually in Singapore. Kenny is also responsible for my new love - the author Nevil Shute. An illness separates a couple. Through close to 400 pages, and a time span of 17 years, at each turn I clung on to the desperate hope that their love survives the... Continue Reading →
Lilies
Having submit both her contact details and forehead to scan for fever, she was approved for entry. The grocery list held in her mind, memorized in order of the aisles fades as she is overcome with a sudden romantic notion: “I will get flowers.” Time no longer used to ponder the difference between peanut butter... Continue Reading →
Books: “When the Future Comes too Soon” by Selina Siak Chin Yoke
The story starts with an expectant mother, searching the streets for her husband after an attack from the invading Japanese Imperial army. You think “that is love”; how otherwise would she leave her four children, then risk not only her own life but that of the unborn child's. She finds him hiding in his office,... Continue Reading →
Books: “The Possessed” by Elif Batuman
I had asked for some science-fiction selections in my book order to change things up a bit. In the pile was "Dune," a series I had meant to reread, but decided against it; from the look of the spine, it would require commitment. There was Ursula le Guin’s “The Dispossessed,” which has been on my... Continue Reading →
Lizard Killer
It was during lunch; a much needed break from the morning home learning session. The kids don’t complain that they can’t play with their friends or go to school; “Is the virus still here?”, they ask, in grown-up acceptance. But they do voice reluctance in practising ABCs with Mum. Before lunch there was an ‘up-cycling’... Continue Reading →
Books: “Requiem for a Wren” by Nevil Shute
Another brilliant story by Nevil Shute (see also: “A Town Like Alice”, “On the Beach.”), on the silent truth of war, what it means to those involved at the height of their youth. Despite its heart-wrenching outcomes, the surviving characters look upon war as their glorious past – their love, their achievements, are born from... Continue Reading →
Books: “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” by Douglas Adam
I thought the vastness of the Universe might put our recent lock-down living into perspective. Surprisingly (or improbably??) in Adam’s Galaxy, there are just as much, if not more of, bureaucratic blunders. Those who study the endless ripples of cause and effect, would say, "it's just life." An improbable outcome turning reality, is well…improbable. But... Continue Reading →
Books: “The Railway Man” by Eric Lomax
Eric Lomax wrote the forward to “A Town like Alice,” by Nevil Shute, a novel that takes place around the same place, same time: Japan occupied South East Asia. In the forward Lomax wrote he could attest to the Japanese brutality of their prisoners, being a surviving POW himself. Right away I noted “The Railway... Continue Reading →
Books: “The Beauty of Everyday Things” by Soetsu Yanagi
A gift from my good friend Jamie @ BooksActually. We have yet to go grab a coffee and really hash things out about boys, cats, and our shared love of the written word, with the lock-down in effect. But the heart knows when it meets a kindred spirit. I must say…this was a difficult read... Continue Reading →
Books: “On the Beach” by Nevil Shute
Another haunting tale, which along with “The Plague,” by Albert Camus, serves as an echo of the horrors we live today. Nevil Shute (see also: "A Town Like Alice") is not only an outstanding author, but his protagonists share a ferocious moral core that cannot be anything but genuine to the writer himself. I think... Continue Reading →
JohannaAirth 