Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident

"Also people think they’re not computers because they have feelings and computers don’t have feelings. But feelings are just having a picture on the screen in your head of what is going to happen tomorrow or next year, or what might have happened instead of what did happen, and if it is a happy picture they smile, and if it is a sad picture they cry.”

This is an amazing amazing book. A definite must read. its sad and funny and ironic at the same time.

it made me cry and laugh and at times just put down the book so i could sigh.

Christopher is an autistic boy determined to solve the mystery of his neighbour's dead dog. he has to do that and write a book keeping in mind that he numbers his chapters using prime numbers. he doesnt like talking to strangers. he cant stand the colour brown or yellow. and his father doesnt want him to snoop around.

its such a piognant story and at the end of it i just did not want to put it down.

Alice McDermott - Child Of My Heart

I curled around her little body and promised her a summer visit, all by herself, a week or two or three or four - as many as her father would allow. just the two of us, i whispered. would she be brave enough to take the train by herself? In the darkness she nodded. She would.

My mom bought this book for its title. There is nothing brilliant or amazing about this book yet it tugs at you.

Its just set over one summer...the summer Theresa takes care of Daisy Mae.

Like i said nothing crazy happens in this story...its just a simple narrative; a lazy read that somehow leaves you introspective.

Jane Smiley - A Thousand Acres

I kept saying "where are we going?" "where are we going?" certain there was somewhere to go. But we went straight home, as if there was no escape, as if the play we'd begun could not end. Since then, I've often thought we could have taken our own advice, driven to the Twin Cities and found jobs as waitresses, measured out our days together in a garden apartment, the girls in one bedroom, Rose and I in the other, anonymous, ducking forever a destiny that we never asked for, that was our father's gift to us.

I read this book just before i read Lear. almost side by side really...it ensured my instant and absolute love for both this book and Lear. now they're both two of my favourite tragedies.

this is a contemporary Lear....from the eyes of Ginny (Goneril) and shows the other side of the story. the one in which Lear was not a victim "more sinned against" and has plenty of his own vices....surely he got what he deserved.

this book made me cry in so many places....I've quoted it so many times in my literature papers. even based the majority of final on an analysis between this and Lear.

read it...it makes you asks so many questions on ideas we simply take for granted in Lear. Not saying that its not a completely brilliant novel in itself but its certainly intriguing if compared to Lear.

A.S.Byatt - Possession

They took to silence. They touched each other without comment and without progression. A hand on a hand, a clothed arm, resting on an arm. An ankle overlapping an ankle, as they sat on a beach, and not removed.

Its so rare to find a book that fullfills your love of poetry along satisfying your need of a great book. Possession was one such novel.

shifting between historical and contemprary romance it unfolds an intricate plot of suspense, drama and well...life. Her vision was so detailed that for a moment i actually thought her characters were real. both her historical poets had a voice which was distinctly their own.

In a sense i would call her story "unapologetic". her characters journey whether successful or not makes no excuse for the romance. its existance is not to be challenged or to be justified. it just is. whether they find happiness with each other or not is insignificant as moment seeps into moment. they just...are.

there are so many passages and poems i feel like i should put up here. but it was one of those books you simply curl up with. i read it my first week of college. needless to say that the experience has forever made that on e week an important and poignant cornerstone in my life.

any bookshelf would be incomplete without this.

Carole Cadwalladr - The Family Tree

Ive become one of them. A breeder. It feels as if I'm being overtaken by something else. Everyone keeps congratulating me. "You must be so happy," they say. I nod. I must be. I just don't understand how.

I'm reading contemporary fiction these days. which is why as much as i am loving N&S I'm having a hard time getting through it.

This is one of those bittersweet ironic books that are supposed to make you laugh but you see
just how sad life really is.

It is the story of a young girl Rebecca who's life did not turn out how she expected. Infact no ones life had the ending she wanted. I get that. I get the frustration you feel after all the anticipation of a happiness that continues to elude.

Perhaps it's wrong of me to judge the characters in this book. But in every corner i see a chance to make things better....a chance no one avails. Are we this blind to our own paths? Do we have any control over how our lives turn out? or are we as Alistair says preconceived to live as our genes would have us be.