Monday, July 22, 2013

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

Truly an exquisite story! Beautifully rendered and timeless. This one will stay with you for a long time. She also wrote "Streetof a Thousand Blossoms," "One Hundred Flowers,""Women of the Silk," and "The Language of Threads."

"The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight."

More info:

Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard

One of my all-time favorite authors. She holds up a lens to life and then tilts it just so and you see things anew... gasping, jaw dropped, or laughing...

"The god of today is rampant and drenched. His arms spread, bearing moist pastures; his fingers spread, fingering the shore. He rises, new and surrounding; he is everything that is, wholly here and emptied--flung, and flowing, sowing, unseen, and flown."

"We are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we control any switches at all. We sleep to time's hurdy-gurdy; we wake, if we ever wake, to the silence of God."

"Give the mind two seconds alone and it thinks it's Pythagoras"

More about her books here: http://www.anniedillard.com/books-annie-dillard.html

Wendell Berry's novels

What a find! He wrote around eight or nine novels about the village of Port William, KY and each one is beautifully written, filled with much wisdom about the land, people and in general how to get along with one another and how to truly care for this world. These novels as well as his poetry and essays are described here (including a map of Port William: http://www.wendellberrybooks.com/

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

As this review states "...reading it is enough to inspire missionary fervor. You must read this book." I tend to mark passages in books with small colored tabs. My copy of this book has at least 30 tabs... A couple of quotes then:

"Nowhere in Scripture is there a father who behaves wickedly toward his child, but the rich and powerful in Scripture are wicked much more often than not."
"Feuerbach is a famous atheist, but he is about as good on the joyful aspects of religion as anybody and he loves the world. Of course he thinks religion could just stand out of the way and let joy exist pure and undisguised."

In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill

Beautiful, spare writing about a young village woman in England who is widowed at the age of 21
when her husband is killed while felling wood. Exquisite writing.
http://www.susan-hill.com

Maisie Dobbs Mystery Series by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs - Delightful series about a young British woman who sets herself up as a private investigator during the 1930s and 40s in London. She has been trained in a most unusual way and there is much wisdom in these books. Also interesting historically especially about the war, the trauma of the returning soldiers and medical personnel, and about forensics.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

I'll let a few quotes suffice. This is a beautifully crafted novel. Her dexterity with language reminds me of Anne Michaels (author of Fugitive Pieces). This book will stay with you.

"Every spirit passing through the world fingers the tangible and mars the mutable, and finally has come to look and not to buy."

"And the dear ordinary had healed as seamlessly as an image on water."

 more quotes>>

Monday, January 28, 2013

Instruments of Darkness / Anatomy of Murder by Imogen Robertson

Well written series, very descriptive and evocative of the 1780s in England. There are two more, Island of Bones and Circle of Shadows that I look forward to reading. 

"Instruments of Darkness combines the brooding atmosphere of the best of Daphne du Maurier with the complex, compelling detail of Tess Gerritsen, moving from drawing room to dissecting room, coffee shop to country inn, and into the shadowy heart of eighteenth-century society."

http://imogenrobertson.wordpress.com/the-books/