literarycannons

Hafiz

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:52:50 GMT

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."

Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.

Nichita Stanescu

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:52:27 GMT

Tell me, if I caught you one day
and kissed the sole of your foot,
wouldn't you limp a little then,
afraid to crush my kiss?...

Excerpts.

Wed, 02 May 2007 04:28:19 GMT

“Posters of Ethan soon hung in every general store. They hung in Post Offices and Town Halls and on the front wall of the supermarket in Adams, where we shopped. His disappearance was covered by local newspapers. We heard his name several mornings on the radio. Still, there was no trace of him. Not the vaguest hint of a possibility of what happened. All we could do was sit around imagining things and hoping. All we could do, given his absence, was watch the myth of Ethan bloom.” (“The Odd Sea”, page 8.)

“According to my Father, my Mother was to come home in mid-August. The exact day was to be August seventeenth. Having this target date was heartening, but Mom’s rejuvenated optimism remained tenuous, and I worried she’d return home and just get sad again. Ethan was, after all, still nowhere. And there were times when I could literally see Mom battling her despair.
For instance, one rainy Sunday afternoon Halley and I brought her a new copy of To the Lighthouse. Mom’s response was a subdued, ‘Oh, thank you.’
‘We thought you’d want a copy to take home,’ I said.
She nodded and kept staring at the lighthouse on the cover. She said, ‘One day Virginia Woolf filled all her pockets up with rocks. Then she drowned herself in a river.’” (“The Odd Sea”, page 69-70)

“By the time Mr. Harvey reached the tin-roofed shack in Connecticut that night, it promised rain. He had killed a young waitress inside the shack several years before and then bought some new slacks with the rips he’d found in the front pocket of her apron. By now the rot would have been eclipsed, and it was true, as he approached the area, that no rank smell greeted him. But the shack was open and inside he could see the earth had been dug up. He breathed in and approached the shack warily.
He fell asleep beside her empty grave.” (“The Lovely Bones”, page 271.)

“Despite its abrupt arrival, my accident felt anticipated after the fact, like a long-delayed package arriving as a thwup on the doorstep. Finally, I thought, as I spun through the air and thudded back to earth, delivered.
I tell this with the authority of memory.

I’m wearing dark clothes on a moonless night. A moonless night in late March, a night scrimmed with the fine, soft rain that falls in spring, the road’s muddy shoulder too slick to run upon, the wet, bare asphalt making for better purchase. Through the misty dark, a carload of joyriding teenagers makes its oblivious way toward me.
My breathing settles, the road turns, my running shoes slop against the pavement. Then: hit and run. A brief flight through the murk. A bone-rattle landing. “ (“Any Bitter Thing”, page 3.)

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 04:40:46 GMT

Jesus, I totally forgot I had made this thing. I think it's still a great idea, and I want to utilize it... so I'm going to start doing that. I want to have book summaries, reviews, lists, excerpts, etc, documented in here.

Recent reads-

1.) Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule
Non-Fiction True Crime book about Diane Downs alleged murder of her three children. Chronicles the case from the very beginning-- the suspects, the case, the conclusion. Includes a bunch of pictures of the murder scene and detailed recorded conversations/diary entries of Diane Downs in which she claims her innocence. A mindless read... I pick up a true crime book here and there when I want a break from heavier reads.

2.) The Beach by Alex Garland
Fiction book detailing a young mans experience backpacking in Asia. He spends his first night there in a crummy motel, hearing his neighboring hotel guest rant about "a beach" of some sort. In the morning, he finds a map has been slid under his door, and that his ranting neighbor has committed suicide. He decides to follow the map to locate a hidden beach paradise on a nearby island, and becomes enveloped in a cult with ideals reminiscent of communism. A bunch of crazy stuff happens once he "joins" the "cult"-- shark fights, love triangles, betrayal, murder. Not a bad read, if you can get over the initial unrealistic qualities.

Keep watching for updates. Finals are coming up, but I've done a ton of reading since my last post in February. I'll keep you updated.

-Sally

Books read:

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 15:09:55 GMT

I try to read two books a week. Sometimes that doesn't happen, sometimes it does, and sometimes I read five books a week. I'll keep a record of books read, among other things, here. Italics indicate a re-read.

1.) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (finished 02/05/07)
2.) Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi (finished 02/03/07)

-Sally