Category: Books

Quote Of The Day: The Perfect Performance

Image by hoahoa111 from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #66 I have become a bore, I have been asked to forfeit my independent young feminist card. I don't care. I balance his checkbook, I trim his hair. I've gotten so retro, at one point I will probably use the word pocketbook, shuffling out the door … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: The Perfect Performance →

Quote Of The Day: Too Tender To Be told

Image by ADD from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #65 A perfect, paralyzing blissContented as despair I took my power in my handand went against the worldIt was not much as David had,But I was twice as bold. Glow plain and foreignOn my homesick eye That blame is just as dear as praiseAnd praise as … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Too Tender To Be told →

The Christmas Thrillers

Image by Dean Lewis from Pixabay I haven't read thrillers or detective stories for a long time. I think the last thriller I read was "Pirate Latitude" in 2009. That was 13 years ago. I have to say "Pirate Latitude" is quite an interesting book, which prompted me to buy another book from the author, … Continue reading The Christmas Thrillers →

An Interesting Stretch Of Reality

Image by Capucine from Pixabay I read Pooja's review of "The Housemaid" by Freida Mcfadden and bought the book to read for myself. It's an easy and fun read, which is about a maid Millie who is hired by the Winchester family as a nanny. Soon, Millie finds that things are weird in this Long … Continue reading An Interesting Stretch Of Reality →

Quote Of The Day: Husband And Wife

Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #64 Joe Castleman is flying from New York to Helsinki with his wife Joan to receive the Helsinki Award for literature (imaginary. No such award exists). Joan was an aspiring writer once, and attended Smith College, but she quit and ran away with her professor … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Husband And Wife →

Quote Of The Day: Love And Dating

Image by Neil Dodhia from Pixabay Quote Of The Day # 63 It has become so necessary to maintain power structures to benefit a selected few that it has become woven into our idea of reality. You don't need to be in love to count as a human. When women do not have a partner, … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Love And Dating →

Quote Of The Day: Fiction & Reality (Continued)

from my cell phone This is the second half of the post and the first half is here. I read this book because I heard that this book is based on the author's marriage to Clara, his second wife, who's a famous actress. The author grew up admiring her movies. It is said the two … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Fiction & Reality (Continued) →

Quote Of The Day: Fiction & Reality

from my cell phone Quote Of The Day #62 Ira never graduated from high school and he worked in a factory after WWII. However he had a gift in talking and was quite active in labor unions. He became a well known radio actor in New York area, where he met Eve, who was ten … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Fiction & Reality →

Quote Of The Day: The Ghost Writes

Image by Kira from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #61 "Everything undeniably true struck me as transparently false as soon as I wrote it down, and the greater the effort to be sincere, the worse it went." "I have neither too high nor too low an estimate of my work. I believe I know exactly … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: The Ghost Writes →

Quote Of The Day: Saving Or Spending

from my phone Quote Of The Day #60 "History never repeats itself; man always does" "People do some crazy things about money, but no one is crazy. People from different generation, raised by different parents, who held different values, in different parts of the world, experience different economy learn very different lessons (about money)." "The … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Saving Or Spending →

Quote Of The Day: Slang And Satire

Image by Capucine from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #59 I think I must have missed half of the jokes or parody or satires in this book since there are so many historical contexts and allusions to events that I have no knowledge of. However with my limited understanding, the book is still very funny. … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Slang And Satire →

Quote Of The Day: Lively Debate

Quote Of The Day # 58 "...Recite a text and then the young monks have the job of memorizing them. Simply absorb the teaching while memorizing in the classic Indian sense associated with the oral tradition of teaching throughout the Indian world. And then they have to go out to debate it. That's where the … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Lively Debate →

Quote Of The Day: The Feeling Of Belonging To Nowhere

Image by Tiểu Bảo Trương from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #57 Irena moved to Paris after Prague Spring. She and her husband struggled to raise their two daughters. About 20 years later, her husband died, her daughters grew up, the Berlin Wall came down. Then Irena met Gustaf, and the two started a relationship. … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: The Feeling Of Belonging To Nowhere →

Quote Of the Day: Josie’s Story

Image by Pavan Prasad from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #56 Josie grew up in a small town near Chicago. Her family was chaotic and her parents were not very responsible. She was actually a small town drunkard's angry daughter, a young woman already haunted by grim memories and oppressed by an inextinguishable resentment over … Continue reading Quote Of the Day: Josie’s Story →

Quote Of The Day: Diversity And Conflicts

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #55 Our parents were, with few exceptions, the first-generation offspring of poor turn-of-century immigrants from Galicia and Polish Russia, raised in predominantly Yiddish-speaking Newark households where religious Orthodoxy was only just beginning to be seriously eroded by American life. However unaccented and American-sounding their speech, … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Diversity And Conflicts →

The Foxy Plan

Image by Monika from Pixabay Two girls, Banford and March, about thirty years old, bought a little farm together. In those days (about one hundred years ago when the story was written) such girls were considered old maid, with no prospect of ever marrying. Their lack of physical strength was described in detail by the … Continue reading The Foxy Plan →

Quote Of The Day: The Descriptions Of Immigrants

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #54 One thing I like about the book in my last post here is that there are many descriptions of immigrants that are carefully crafted and beautifully written. Although the author is a 3rd generation immigrant, he grew up in an immigrant neighborhood and had a … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: The Descriptions Of Immigrants →

The Swede’s Perfect Life

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay The Swede was a star athlete in his high school's football, basketball, and baseball team. He could go on to be a member of the sports teams like Yankees or Giants in New York, but as a dutiful son he gave up his own dream to serve as an apprentice … Continue reading The Swede’s Perfect Life →

Make It More Interesting

The local grocery stores have free newspapers that one can pick up after one's shopping. The most popular one is this newspaper "El Españolito", which one can only get on Saturdays. On Sundays, it's all gone. Sigh. Language learning is a marathon and it is too slow. After a year of learning Spanish for 30 … Continue reading Make It More Interesting →

Quote Of The Day: Long Time Ago

Image by Maurygraf from Pixabay Quote of the day #52 I usually read history books that I can relate a little bit, but this book is on sale on Audible and you know me--I am like a moth attracted to fire whenever I hear the word "sale". So I bought this book named "S.P.Q.R"--whatever that … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Long Time Ago →

For Better Or Worse

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Maggie was a beautiful and capable woman. Since she grew up in a poor and dysfunctional family, she got married very young just to get out. Several years later, with two children in tow, she divorced her husband and left. Since she didn't have any income, the judge ruled that … Continue reading For Better Or Worse →

Quote Of The Day: On The Road

Image by Tayyab Bashir from Pixabay Quote Of The Day #52 About 10 years ago, I read Gloria Steinem's "Moving Beyond Words" and it was a very good read. I can't remember the particulars, but I remember it talks about the train wreck kind of life many women have experienced. It inspired me to reflect … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: On The Road →

New Word: Games

Image by Rick Brown from Pixabay New Word #111 I haven't watched the South Korean TV show "Squid Game" on Netflix--maybe I will do so during the holiday season. According to google, "Squid Game" depicts people in dire financial straits who sign up to play children's games in the hopes of winning an enormous cash … Continue reading New Word: Games →

Quote Of The Day: A Secret Revealed

From My iPhone Quote Of The Day #51 Professor Coleman Silk, in his seventies, used a derogatory word to describe two absent students in his class. The students complained, the school investigated, and the news spread on campus. Coleman felt that he was unfairly vilified and censured--in a rage, he quit. His eminent wife couldn't … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: A Secret Revealed →

Quote Of The Day: Wake Up, You Are In …

Image by geri cleveland from Pixabay Quote of the day #50 It's a simple story. Peter is a writer who published a popular book before he's 30. He meets Maureen, who adores him, but the relationship just don't work out. Maureen is too headstrong for Peter and the two have escalating clashes. Finally they split … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Wake Up, You Are In … →

Quote Of The Day: The Last Resort

From My IPhone Quote Of The Day #49 Wilkie Walker is a 60-year-old professor, writer, and naturalist. He thought he had cancer and didn't want to go through the indignity of radiation treatment and the painfully slow progress of declining health. He wants a quick solution. So he convinced his wife Jenny to go for … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: The Last Resort →

Quote Of The Day: Love And Friendship

Quote Of The Day #48 Emmy lives happily with her husband Holman Turner and their five-year-old son Freddy near Convers College in Upstate New York, where Holman is an assistant professor. As the husband is busy with his teaching and research, the wife is left alone, feeling isolated, unfulfilled, and unloved. Holman is unsympathetic to … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Love And Friendship →

Quote Of The Day: Weekend Reading

Quote Of The Day #47 I've tried to read a scary book like "Dead Zone", "1922", or "Full Dark, No Stars" by Stephen King, but I ended up reading "11/22/63", "Different Seasons", and "On Writing". None of the three books are scary. The last one is not intended to scare people, but rather it is … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Weekend Reading →

The School Bully (Flash Fiction Part 2)

This is the 2nd part of the story. The first part is here. Nali thought about how to get those books from Sulang, but it was just a thought. An obsessive thought, but still it's only a thought. It would never be put into action if it was not for the newcomer Meiru, who's parents … Continue reading The School Bully (Flash Fiction Part 2) →

Somewhere And Nowhere

Paul and Katherine, the loving couple, fly from Boston to Los Angeles. Paul is a thirty-year-old historian who finds a wonderful job at a big corporation in the West Coast. Paul is so excited since this is a career boosting opportunity. Katherine, on the other hand doesn't want to leave Boston, where she has her … Continue reading Somewhere And Nowhere →

Quote Of The Day: Complicated and Unexpected

Quote Of The Day #46 Alan and Jane had a perfect marriage--he's a professor, architect, and writer in a university in upstate New York while she's a capable senior administrator in the same place. One day Alan played sports with his students twenty years his junior, fell to the ground, and hurt his back. At … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Complicated and Unexpected →

Quote Of The Day: Contradicting Views

Quote Of The Day #45 Why shouldn't she, like Polly, have made at least one serious mistake in a rush of passion. In the absence of happiness, pleasure and power are the best the world has to offer. Both of us were fools, trusting people to whom in the end we didn't mean all that … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Contradicting Views →

Quote Of The Day: Know Yourself

Quote Of The Day #44 When her husband left eighteen months ago, Polly hadn't expected her life to turn out like this. Miserable and angry though she was, she had looked forward to the adventure of being single again. But as her friends and the media had already warned her, there weren't any good men … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Know Yourself →

Quote Of The Day: Campus Controversies

Quote Of The Day #43 Other wars end eventually in victory, defeat or exhaustion, but the war between men and women goes on forever. Sometimes I think wanting to be good is just another form of vanity. Probably he isn’t taking proper care of himself because of self-hatred… He could see no way out: it … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Campus Controversies →

Quote Of The Day

Quote Of The Day #42 I read this author's "The Loyal Son" about Ben Franklin and his son, and really like it. I have to say our local grocery store really has nice biographies and nice WWII books. Anyway, I went online to see if the same author wrote other biographies and found this one … Continue reading Quote Of The Day →

Quote Of The Day: Not Scary

Quote Of The Day #41 I read three of Stephen King’s book before: “1922”, “The Dead Zone”, “Full Dark, No Stars”. And I like all of them. And this is why I bought “11/22/63”, thinking that it is simultaneously entertaining and educational since it is about JFK assassination and 1963. However, the book is not … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Not Scary →

Quote Of The Day: Better Than Middlemarch

Quote Of The Day #40 "Scenes Of Clerical Life" by George Eliot I was surprised to find that this book is better than "Middlemarch", which I read long time ago. And I am sorry to say that the only reason I read "Middlemarch" was that it is recommended in many reading lists from google search, … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Better Than Middlemarch →

Quote Of The Day: Life In The 18th Century

Quote Of The Day #39 I've got this habit of picking up books from the local grocery store. They are very good sleep aids--reading several pages can put me to sleep much quicker than watching videos on my cell phone. Then last week I picked up "The Loyal Son" by Daniel Mark Epstein and surprisingly … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Life In The 18th Century →

Quote Of The Day #38

Image by Jerzy Górecki from Pixabay I have an Audible plus membership and it gives free audio books. Even though I know I often don't like these free books, I can't resist a freebie. So I downloaded an anthology of poems "She Walked In Beauty". It turns out better than I thought. Most of these … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #38 →

Quote Of The Day #37

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay "The Thing Around Your Neck" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the first book I read that's written about immigrants' life from an immigrant's point of view. The struggle and the hustle and the opinions expressed have that special effect that I can identify with. Other books I've read on similar … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #37 →

Quote Of The Day #36

Image by virin000 from Pixabay I was reading "The Collected Poetry Of Dorothy Parker". These poems are too sad and despondent for my taste. I think probably the author can really release her feelings of being unloved and abandoned through writing these lines, but it feels awful to read it. Actually it's not only the … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #36 →

February Festivities

Image by Lubov Lisitsa from Pixabay February is the month with the most festivities because it has four holidays. This happens almost every year, except when the Lunar New Year falls in January. For 2022, Feb 1st is the Lunar New Year; Feb 13th, The Super Bowl; Feb 14th Valentine's day; Feb 21st, President's Day. … Continue reading February Festivities →

Quote Of The Day #35

Image by Erin East from Pixabay I stumbled upon a YouTube video, which is also a book “Political Philosophy” by Steven B. Smith. It's posted by YaleCourse and it is part of the Yale Open Course series. I instantly thought that the view in this course would be too conservative for my taste since I … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #35 →

Quote Of The Day 34

Image by Kristine Lejniece from Pixabay I found some quotes on "hope" that I think are very interesting. We can't live without hope, but hope can sometimes lead us astray. “It’s not the despair... I can take the despair. It’s the hope I can’t stand.” This is from Blackthorn's post here. The post describes a … Continue reading Quote Of The Day 34 →

Irrational Man

Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay I just finished "Irrational Man" by William Barrett, with only an hour of appendix to go. I have to say I still don't understand existentialism more than before even if I've finished this book. However, this is not to say the book is not entertaining. There are many quotes … Continue reading Irrational Man →

December Reading

Image by FETHI BOUHAOUCHINE from Pixabay I've been reading these books for at least two months, but the progress is rather slow. Life has too many distractions and reading is usually the first thing to be sacrificed. And inevitably the regret will come later, "why didn't I read books instead of watching that silly video … Continue reading December Reading →

November Unfinished

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Unfinished Story I can't come up with an ending for the "The King And The Thief" post of yesterday. And right now I don't know what to do. I know my own weakness--the stage fright. I can come up with reasonably good ideas when not under stress. However when … Continue reading November Unfinished →

Quote Of The Day #33

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay Finally finished the book "Utilitarianism/On Liberty". I already read "On Liberty" before, but this combined book was on sale on Audible. I just can't resist a discount. So I bought it. Also I have always wanted to know if the concept "the pursuit of happiness" is really from utilitarianism. … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #33 →

Veterans Day Favorite

Image by azboomer from Pixabay I was too busy yesterday, Veterans Day, to finish this post. I often watch a documentary or a movie on wars for this day. All of these shows are interesting, and I guess the reason for that is because there are so much action. The plot moves quickly and the … Continue reading Veterans Day Favorite →

Quote Of The Day #32

Finally, I am finishing reading this very entertaining and very pessimistic book. And the last 20% of the book is even more fun to read than the previous chapters. One funny thing about Mencken is that he is against all the major wars. He doesn't like the Civil War and he thinks the South should … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #32 →

Quote Of The Day #31

Finally I am at the last quarter of this book. Here Mencken is getting more pessimistic and more entertaining. We can't take him too seriously and his ideas are often stretched for comedic effects. Mencken thinks that hard working can kill inspiration. …the observed hopelessness of trying to pump up inspiration by mere hard industry—the … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #31 →

Quote Of The Day #30

Image by Yuri_B from Pixabay More Mencken. I don't have much time to read every day and now I feel that I am stuck with this Mencken book forever. He is very pessimistic about almost everything, himself included. I think probably his only pleasure in life is to voice his pessimistic views. Still, whatever he … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #30 →

Quote Of The Day #29

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels I've been reading "Chrestomathy" for a month, but still I haven't finished it. It is so interesting that I really don't want to skip. However I also don't have much time for reading recently, being caught in the year end rush to get things done. The result is I … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #29 →

Quote Of The Day #28

Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay He is chronically and unescapably deceived, not only by the other animals and by the delusive face of nature herself, but also and more particularly by himself—by his incomparable talent for searching out and embracing what is false, and for overlooking and denying what is true. The capacity for … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #28 →

Quote Of The Day #27

Image by Laci Döme from Pixabay I dislike Nietzsche very strongly when he talks about women or marriage--he is quite mad and biased and unfair. However when he talks about education, I do feel that there's some truth in it. "Whether his work be done in a primary school, a secondary school or in the … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #27 →

Quote Of The Day #26

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay I think these quotes should be called anti-quotes rather than quotes since they sound downright ridiculous. I like H. L. Mencken a lot but still whenever the topics of relationship and women come up, he talks like a mad man--a very entertaining mad man but still a mad man. … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #26 →

Ode To Bookworms

Image by Pexels from Pixabay I'm often annoyed when bookworms are mocked or criticized in books. Around the world, little bookworms are often unfairly ostracized and isolated from their relatives or friends due to their choice of entertainment. Being misunderstood by people surrounding you is hard enough, and being misunderstood by authors who write books … Continue reading Ode To Bookworms →

Quote Of The Day #25

Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay I vowed that I would never buy another book on sale at Audible.com, but here I was, once again, bought something just because of the discount. I knew I don't like Emerson very much--his English is a little too archaic for my non-native ears--but I couldn't resist the temptation … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #25 →

Quote Of The Day #24

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Talking with an old friend, I suddenly felt the urge to find some quotes about friendship. These are several I found from books. I tried to find a quote by George Orwell, but he didn't write about friendship much. Still reviewing several pages of his essays, my love for his … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #24 →

Quote Of The Day #23

Image by Willgard Krause from Pixabay I don't agree with what H. L. Mencken says, but still what he says is very entertaining. His ideas of relationship between men and women are too exaggerated to be taken seriously, too caricatured to be considered real. Or probably because he's from a different time--those days before or … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #23 →

Quote Of The Day #18

Image by Elena Tishkova from Pixabay "Orthodoxy" by G. K. Chesterton is on sale at Audible.com and you know me, who cannot resist a discount, which is the reason why my shelf is filled with books I don't feel like reading and my closet full of clothes I hardly ever wear. And Chesterton is rambling … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #18 →

New Word #38: Recently Learned

shiv: a knife or razor used as a weapon.kryptonite: an alien mineral that has the property of depriving Superman of his powers. (It's only used in fantasy novels or movies.)These are from Princess & Pages' posts here and here zany: amusingly unconventional and idiosyncratic.harping: talk or write persistently and tediously on (a particular topic).quibble: a … Continue reading New Word #38: Recently Learned →

The Great Escape

I should have read "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" long time ago, but I didn't. Mostly because I was afraid that the description is so bloody and horrid that I would be depressed after reading it, but I turn out to be stronger than I thought. There are only two … Continue reading The Great Escape →

Quote Of The Day #16

I just read the essay "It Is Obscene" from https://www.chimamanda.com/ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose book "Americanah" I bought but haven't read yet. And it is such a wonderful essay, in which the author describes a student of her workshop who criticized her unfairly or heartlessly. People who ask you to ‘educate’ yourself while not … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #16 →

Resilient But Divided

When I was young, there's an old guy in our neighborhood who was rumored to have a colorful life--a farmer turned bandit, a bandit turned soldier turned small business owner. He's been to Russia and several other countries for business and had some beautiful souvenirs on display, which were covered under a piece of embroidered … Continue reading Resilient But Divided →

Life And Existence

I've never known the difference between the word freedom and the word liberty--I think the two are interchangeable but most likely they are not. However I am too lazy to look it up. It's like watching all the seasons of "Frasier", but never really figuring out the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Still … Continue reading Life And Existence →

Quote And Review–“An Introduction To Existentialism”

This book is so easy to read and so good that I can't tell you how much I love it. It's almost beyond my power of praise, just like "Notes From Underground" by Dostoevsky and "Words" by Sartre, which I love to read and hopefully to reread sometime. You don't need any philosophical background to … Continue reading Quote And Review–“An Introduction To Existentialism” →