Gosh lately my posts are so few and far between and always related to books!

For my birthday on Sunday I got the following books:

The Boat

Nam Le

The Boat by Nam Le:
I got this from Neh, we always give eachother a list of books we want for our birthdays and then it's a surprise which one we actually get! I'm dying to start this one but I'm making myself finish Emma by Jane Austen first. This is a collection of short stories set around the world that has been getting rave reviews in the Australian media.

The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics)

Henry James

Portrait of a Lady by Henry James:
I got this one from Phil along with some CK perfume :)

A Geisha's Journey: My Life As a Kyoto Apprentice

Komomo

A Geisha's Journey: My Life as a Kyoto Apprentice:
I got this from my mum, it's a lovely hard cover book, an autobiography filled with large, beautiful photos.

In June I finished:

All of these as well as A Letter to D by Andre Gorz, which I couldn't find a cover for. A Letter to D was also the only one this month I wasn't absolutely enraptured with. All the other books I loved but A Letter to D I didn't get into. It was supposed to be a love letter to a man's dying wife, but to me it had too much about Gorz's career as a philosopher and writer and about French idea's I had no clue about.

The Host

Stephenie Meyer

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Peony in Love: A Novel

Lisa See

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Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I bought this a few days ago and have just started reading it. I'm completely hooked. Marquez's style is just so beautiful and the story is so involving and poetic that I haven't wanted to put it down at all. I can just tell this book is going to be a major hinderance to any plans of doing my assignments and studying until it's finished! I really recommend it so far. I can't wait to see how it translates to the big screen! The cover picture above is the same edition I have and it's definately my fave of the ones I've seen.

This month so far I have finished:

Half of a Yellow Sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Which was really good. It centres on three connected people living through the Nigerian - Biafran war of 1967 - 1970. Something I knew absolutely nothing about before I started!

Amsterdam: A Novel

Ian McEwan

I really liked this one, but it lacked the subtlety that made Atonement so great I think. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I didn't have such high expectations of it. It's exploration of our moral compass and the selfishness of human nature was quite interesting.

Mansfield Park (Penguin Classics)

Jane Austen

I found Mansfield Park a tad dull in the beginning but I gradually warmed to it. Edmund is such a boring uninspiring love interest for a gal!

This month's purchases (apart from Love in the Time of Cholera):

The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary Classics)

Margaret Atwood

I LOVE this edition!!!! I just love the cover art of it! I already had a second-hand copy but when I saw such a nice edition of one of my fave books I had to have it.

The House of the Spirits

Isabel Allende

Curious Pursuits: Occasional Writing

Margaret Atwood

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My web presence has been shamefully absent from this vox this year so far, so this is a part of one of my upteenth resolutions to post more regularly. Last month was a really poor reading effort - nothing was finished. This month things are looking up: so far I've finished:

Mansfield Park (Penguin Classics)

Jane Austen

Mansfield Park was my first Jane Austen. I quite enjoyed it but it isn't one of my favourites now or anything. I'm looking forward to getting into discussing it more at Rory's Book Club. I won't go into it too much here but Fanny really reminded me of the character Jane Eyre in some ways.

Amsterdam: A Novel

Ian McEwan

I enjoyed this and it was a very fast read. It didn't have the same subtlety of Atonement and On Chesil Beach that was part of what made those novels so good though. I thought the its main theme about the consequences of human selfishness was really interesting. I wonder if all of McEwan's novels end in tragedy? The three I've read all do. Maybe he's a tragedian (non-sequitor but that reminds me of Stranger of Fiction - good movie!)

Currently reading:

Half of a Yellow Sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

My friend Emma leant me this one as she thought I'd really like it. At first I'll admit I wasn't too keen - it didn't look like what I was in the mood to read. But I perservered and started it anyway and it instantly gripped me. I'm only 50 pages in and I'm totally hooked. It's basically about three people living in Nigeria whose lives intersect. That's all I've got so far, I'll update as more happens.

Next up on my tbr list:

I have to review these two for Vibewire

Paula: A Memoir (P.S.)

Isabel Allende

The Sum of Our Days: A Memoir

Isabel Allende

But it's really annoying me that I haven't read any of Allende's better known work so I've also added House of Spirits to my list.

House of the Spirits, the

Isabel Allende

After which I want to FINALLY read:

Peony in Love: A Novel

Lisa See

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What fictional character do you relate to most and why?

To be honest I think that which character I relate to most is entirely changeable and dependant on what's going on in my life and my mood at the time. Also I guess the beauty of fiction is that you often get to see the world from someone else's perspective and be privy to someone's inner feelings and opinions. In that way you empathise with a character you might not actually have all that much in common to, you "relate" with what they're going through at times without necessarily having experienced it yourself.

That in mind, there isn't one character I've related most to. But characters I've related to over the years have included:

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The way in which Nick was appalled by the shallow, hollow nature of his society and the selfish, irresponsible nature of his acquintances at the end of the novel mirrors how I think we have all thought about the world at some stage, in some moment of madness or after witnessing or being party to some thoughtless deed, or even during some moment of clarity surrounded by pumping music and shallow materialism at the mall.

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Marie Antionette from Sophia Coppolla's film:

The feeling of being trapped by a society based the external is one many experience. Also the way in which Marie really has no control and little real meaning in her life was sympathetic, for much of the film she really is little more than a show pony.

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Show us your favorite pair of shoes.

Ohhhhh this is such a hard question! I'm one of those stereotypical females who just LOVES shoes. Ok hmmm lets see:

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These are a pair I bought this season from Pulp's Noir range, they're very vintage looking and cute.

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These are my suede slouch boots. I love them because they're like wearing slippers everywhere they're so comfy! They're also handy because they can be worn in a casual or dressy way.

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I think I bought these in 2006 and have probably worn them maybe twice? They're absolutely gorgeous shoes but I think they're the most uncomfortable ones I own. Theyre so high, the strap over the toes is really low and uncomfortable, the diamonte strands get stuck in between my toes and stuck to the carpet. But I still love them anyway... even if I never wear them!

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These are also from the Pulp Noir range, I bought them a few days ago. I just love them they're so vintage looking, they remind me of something Lauren Bacall might have worn in The Big Sleep. 

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Ok so these are my favourite photos from 2007. It includes some ones from my Japan trip (which I tried to keep to a minimum and failed). There are some ones from that trip I haven't already posted on the book club though :) Enjoy!

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Jessandi

One of my close friends Jess and I at her 21st birthday.

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My sister and I in front of the massive ship that was washed up on a nearby beach during an enormous flood. This ship was a really big thing in our town, you can't really get an impression of it's enormous size from this pic.

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A picture of sumos mid body slam. My uncle took me to a sumo training place during my stay in Tokyo. It was pretty amazing.

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A picture of some of those paddle duck boats on a pond in Tokyo, I think the colours and the light in this one are really pretty. I also love the detail of the funny little bows around their necks!

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Me inside of one of the ducks.

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Karen and I in our Mickey Mouse hats after Disneyland.

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A temple covered in lights during the night time illumination festival in Kyoto.

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A lantern during the illumination festival. The lanterns in the distance are the trail you're meant to follow.

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A picture of a bamboo forest during the illumination festival. It's a bit blurry but I kinda like the effect of it :)

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Tokyo Tower and the moon.

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Me and geishas in Kyoto (my aunt and I decided we think these are actually tourists dressed as geishas but it's still a cool pic!).

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A random pic in Kyoto, I think the star shaped leaves look cool against the reflection of the trees.

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A pretty park in Tokyo

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My uncle and I and our rickshaw driver in Ueno, Tokyo.

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A macro close up of cranes at Hiroshima's Children's Peace Monument, which is the one built after Sadako's death.

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Ok so it's been ages since I updated this blog, it's beginning to look a little abandoned. I'm going to try to post more and decided to start with a (rather copied topic) list of the best books I read in 2007.
 

The Virgin Suicides

Jeffrey Eugenides

I just loved this book. The writing is so beautiful and poetic, it's definately one of my favourite books of all time.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Marisha Pessl

Another great contemporary book, Special Topics in Calamity Physics is confusing, packed with cultural references, mystery and unusual characters.

Wuthering Heights (Norton Critical Editions)

Emily Bronte

This year I read Wuthering Heights for the first time and I was absolutely enthralled. Reading more work by the Bronte sisters is definately on my 2008 to do list.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Oxford World's Classics)

Anne Brontë

I also really enjoyed this one by Anne Bronte, which I hadn't really heard of before my friend lent it to me. To be honest (and this is probably going to be an unpopular opinion) I think I prefered it to Jane Eyre.

Atonement: A Novel

Ian McEwan

This was the last book I read in 2007. It was so beautifully written and I cried in more than one area. Like many great tragedies at the end the reader is left thinking if only this minor event didn't happen the calamity would have been unavoidable. If only, if only, if only... I found some parts of this story absolutely heart wrenching.

The Twilight Collection (Twilight)

Stephenie Meyer

While I would probably class this series as a guilty pleasure I found it utterly addictive.

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

Diane Setterfield

Another really enjoyable book.

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Show us your favorite literary character.

I can't go past Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. There's just something about him.

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In under 24 hours I will have finished my 24 hour long law exam and will be free of university for three months!!!!!!!
So excited!!
Just have to get through this marathon of a cruel, stressful and sleep depriving task first - without spending too much time on vox/rorys book club/myspace/facebook/the sydney morning herald online!

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Video: Show us a music video you'd gladly watch over and over again.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

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