Didn't finish this for our book club discussion last weekend because the film adaptation kept interfering with my reading. Will still finish it though.

I've gotten better at predicting the Booker Prize winners. I really should be reading this soon. Where's my reading muse?

Here's another one from @penguinrandomhouse : George Saunders's first novel! His Tenth of December is a great collection so I'm really excited to read this. Thanks to Christine and Honey for the ARC. Hope to get more in the future? :D

Thanks to the nice folks at @penguinrandomhouse for the complimentary copy. We'll be discussing this at the book club this December. It's a timely read. Love is in the air!

It has been months since I bought books. New books, used books, how I missed buying them! So, when posting a stack of books, how do you choose the book to tag? I'm curious!

First time to read Stephen King, and my gosh, I actually covered what I was reading as if I were watching a scary movie with eyes partly closed.

Our September book of the month. We found many insights in this diary. Could it be true that women respond more to this than men and that men tend to be a little dismissive of it? What I think is that there should be no difference between the perspectives of men and women as long as the reader can empathize. The diarist sometimes has an arrogant tone but suffering is still suffering. You still feel her. I like this a lot (and the carrot cake).

My birthday, 71 years ago. This is an astonishing diary that gives an account of WWII Germany from the POV of an "anonymous" woman.

Don't!

I haven't opened Litsy for over a month because I couldn't get myself to read anything. Seeing beautiful book covers, snappy reviews, and all manner of bookish activities made my heart squeeze a little. Over the weekend, I tried audiobooks. I finished The History of Love within 24 hours and now I'm picking up from where I paused my belated Harry Potter reading. A friend's copy has been with me for over two years. I can finally return it, whew!

Arranged my books by the year when I read them. So this looks like a neat 5-year bar graph of my reading (2011-2015). I will just have to imagine borrowed books stacked among these. Kudos if you can find my favorite book (see tag).

Our June book of the month. All of us had something to like in this twist-and-turning novel filled with so many characters whose names we care to remember. We feel that this was written with the intention of turning it into a movie. There's a lot of drama reminiscent of soap operas. I love it still.

You can't try to comprehend and appreciate any kind of art. Art wants to cuddle up to us. Its nature is so completely pure and self-sufficient that it doesn't like it when you pursue it. It punishes whoever approaches it trying to grasp it.

That moment, when you gaze at this page and then drift off and stare at nothing in particular until that little urge to reread the pieces pulls you back from wherever you have been transported, is precious. And this is just Part I. (Not a spoiler; we are told Fritz is dead right from the start.)

50%. Yep, that's the only word on this spread. It gets intriguing at this point. Gotta continue right after posting this.

It starts out funny and entertaining, but I can't make much out of the book's central theme, which is something about the repetition of certain moments to perfect reality and to attain authenticity. What? Maybe I'm too dumb for this, but I held on. I wanted to know how dark hyperreality can get.

Recommended to me by a good friend, who says that she has never read a summer love story as beautifully bittersweet as this one. She lent me her copy and after finishing it, I decided I must have my own. The film adaptation is now being shot in Europe. Read it before it comes out (no pun intended).

This is not a tome. It's a box of 700 razor blades, each one cutting deep to the heart. It's a test on how many buttons must be pushed to see how much the reader can take. Some of the events do not seem logical to me but I'm fascinated at how Yanagihara firmly presses the characters in my mind.

50%. This has a riveting if convoluted plot. It's so engrossing that it keeps me up until three or four in the morning. One of its many blurbs says if you love Possession, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the New York Trilogy, among others, you will love this. I love those three! I'm loving this!

50%. This is an intriguing morality tale that displays a stark contrast between the lifestyles of the two main characters (a composer and an editor). Even so, I still believe that Atonement should have been the McEwan novel decorated with a Booker badge.

50%. My third Hamsun book, and as always, I'm swept away by the strange and ethereal images that he creates. Credits should be given to the translator. It's my first time to read a Lyngstad translation, and I think I must reread Hunger to compare his translation from Robert Bly's.

I would have liked this more had I not been put off by the protagonist's actions and motives, and by the smorgasbord of banalities on love that the author insisted to serve. Otherwise, the harrowing experiences of the war prisoners during the construction of the Death Railway were enlightening.

The author proves that he is not merely the son of a famous editor. His novel appeals to all senses, allowing the reader to be in New York and to witness the story of a Chinese immigrant alienated both by her surroundings and culture, and a war veteran being increasingly alienated from himself.

The story of a husband and wife attempting to make their relationship transcend the limits of time and space. The novel has a pastor as its protagonist. It never sounds preachy but it squeezes reflective moments within the main plot, which is an anthropological study of an empathic alien world.