SNOW FEATHERS

Venice Reading Challenge - Invisible Cities

2012-02-18T19:11:00.000+02:00

Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" is a poetry-in-prose book, a series of descriptions, told by the Venetian traveller Marco Polo to Kublai Khan, the oriental emperor. As Marco travels round the world on the Emperor's business, his job is not to bring back treasure, but stories - the accumulated wealth of his imagination. The book has no plot and no characters, except for the two mentioned above and the described cities, all named after women - Raissa, Irene, Valdarda, Phyillis, Chloe...

"In Chloe, a great city, the people who move through the street are all strangers. At each encounter they imagine a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them, conversations, surprises, caresses, bites. But no-one greets anyone; eyes lock for a second, then dart away, seeking other eyes, never stopping."

Even though Khan insists, Polo never talks about his own city, Venice. He only talks about strange, magical, invisible cities that nobody else ever saw. And yet, Khan cannot avoid the feeling that by telling him about those nonexistent places, Polo does describe, bit by bit, the city they both really think of.The book consists of fifty-five extremely short city descriptions, embedded within an intellectual duel between Polo and Khan.

"From there, after six days and seven nights, you arrive at Zobeide, the white city, well exposed to the moon, with streets wound about themselves as in a skein. They tell this tale of its foundation: men of various nations had an identical dream. They saw a woman running at night through an unknown city; she was seen from behind, with long hair, and she was naked. They dreamed of pursuing her. As they twisted and turned, each of them lost her. After the dream they set out in search of that city; they never found it, but they found one another; they decided to build a city like the one in the dream. In laying out the streets, each followed the course of his pursuit; at the spot where they had lost the fugitive's trail, they arranged spaces and walls differently from the dream, so she would be unable to escape again."

Is this the mysterious Venice, the city that unravels itself according to its viewers or just an imaginary city? Those who have been to Venice know that it is a city you can so easily build for yourself, at your own pace and imagination; it is unlike any other city or unlike any other impression someone might have on it. And yet, no matter how you see it, it is the city that best combines art and life. Your life with the art you've chosen for yourself.

“When you have arrived at Phyllis, you rejoice in observing all the bridges over the canals, each different from the others: cambered, covered, on pillars, on barges, suspended, with tracery balustrades. And what a variety of windows looks down on the streets: mullioned, Moorish, lancet, pointed, surmounted by lunettes or stained-glass roses; how many kinds of pavement cover the ground: cobbles, slabs, gavel, blue and white tiles. At every point the city offers surprises to your view:
a caper bush jutting from the fortress’ walls, the statues of three queens on corbels, an onion dome with three smaller onions threaded on the spire. “Happy the man who has Phyllis before his eyes each day and who never ceases seeing the things it contains,” you cry, with regret at having to leave the city when you can barely graze it with your glance.”

Read for the Venice in February Reading Challenge.

Venetian Masks - Bauta

2012-02-12T16:48:00.005+02:00

The Bauta is to be considered the traditional Venitian mask, the one mostly used to cover your features, made in a way that it is still possible to eat and drink without having to take it off. The Bauta is always black, white or gilded, and it is not only a Carnival mask, in the sense that centuries ago it was also used to protect one's identity in different circumstances. It was mandatory all year long for women who went to the theater and forbidden to girls waiting to be married.

The name bauta may come from the German "behüten"(to protect), as well as from "bau" (or "babau"), typical Italian representation of the monster, or bad beast, used by adults to scare children.

The Bauta mask formed part of an entire outfit. This outfit consisted of a Tabbarro which was a veil or a small cloak starting at the neck and covering the shoulders and a tricorn hat. From this the mask protruded to give complete anonymity.

In 18th century, the Bauta had become a standardized society mask and disguise regulated by the Venetian government.It was obligatory to wear it at certain political decision-making events when all citizens were required to act anonymously.

Venice Reading Challenge - The Passion

2012-02-08T21:38:00.023+02:00

There is no better combination than to read your favorite author while reading for a challenge involving Venice! Does it matter that it is my fourth read of The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson? Not at all. :)

I first read this enchanting novel more than ten years ago and it is still in my top five favorite books. You may surely wonder what is so special about it? Here's a short list:

~ Jeanette's style is incomparable to any other author, dead or alive;
“Perhaps all romance is like that; not a contract between equal parties but an explosion of dreams and desires that can find no outlet in everyday life. Only a drama will do and while the fireworks last the sky is a different colour.”

~ the (love)story that gradually unravels between Henri, Napoleon's cook and Villanelle, the mysterious Venetian:
“In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.'Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest.
Feel for yourself.”

~ the key phrases will follow you long after you finish reading the book and you may find yourself quoting them now and then.
"I'm telling you stories. Trust me."
"You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play. It’s the playing that’s irresistible. What you risk reveals what you value."

~ Venice, described as the "city of mazes", where one can lose one's way, where nothing is certain and everything is unfolding into another thing:
"This is the city of mazes. You may set off from the same place to the same place every day and never go by the same route. If you do so, it will be by mistake. Your bloodhound nose will not serve you here. Your course in compass reading will fail you. Your confident instructions to passers-by will send them to squares they have never heard of, over canals not listed in the notes."

~ magic realism, which gives you the feeling that one day you could live (in) this fairy tale yourself: "Rumour has it that the inhabitants of this city walk on water. That, more bizarre still, their feet are webbed. Not all feet, but the feet of the boatmen whose trade is hereditary."

~ the switch in narrative voice which, if you are not careful, can make you lose yourself between the lines, just like you might lose your way on the small streets of Venice;

~ crossing boundaries and transgression: Villanelle can be as mysterious and provoking as Venice itself.

~ in short,it's a book about loving so/too much: “Whoever it is you fall in love with for the first time, not just love but be in love with, is the one who will always make you angry, the one you can't be logical about.”

Venice will taste, feel and smell even better after you've read The Passion!

Read for the Venice Challenge and the European Reading Challenge

Venitian Masks

2012-02-06T14:33:00.001+02:00

It's carnival time in Venice and since we are not there showing off our expensive costumes, we'd better lean a few things about the different masks that appear during Carnevale.

Venetian masks have a long history of protecting their wearer's identity during promiscuous or decadent activities. Made for centuries in Venice, these distinctive masks were formed from papier-mâché and wildly decorated with fur, fabric, gems, or ribbons. Eventually, Venetian masks re-emerged as the emblem of the Carnival.

After the 1100s, the masquerade went through periods of being outlawed by the Catholic Church, especially during holy days. Their policy lead to eventual acceptance when they declared the months between Christmas and Shrove Tuesday free for Venetian mask-attired decadence. This period evolved into Carnival, the pre-Lent celebration meaning "remove meat." Although Carnival lost popularity as Venice's cultural production faltered during the Enlightenment, it was officially reintroduced in 1979.

Drop by soon to discover the types of masks and their meaning :)
Click here or here if you are interested in buying a handmade mask.

Venice - A Unique Mystery

2012-02-03T08:11:00.001+02:00

“If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is... Venice is better.” (Fran Lebowitz)

VENICE IN FEBRUARY IS HERE!

2012-02-01T21:18:00.009+02:00

The amazing reading challenge that I am hosting together with DolceBellezza is finally here and my, the number of books to be enjoyed is so high I had trouble deciding what to read in one of the busiest months of the year, it seems. BUT, struggle aside, I finally decided on four books, hoping to be able to read them all this month. Here they are:

And since Venice is more than the background for an enthralling plot, it is a mystery in itself, this month there will be plenty of posts dedicated to the ever so fascinating SERENISSIMA, so feel free to drop by anytime and don't forget that it's incredibly easy to join us: just read at least one book set in Venice. You can link your participation here.

P.S. Re-reads count, as I am going to read The Passion for the fourth time :)

Blue Suitcase

2012-01-29T15:36:00.000+02:00

There's a enticing story behind every blue suitcase...

Perfection - Six Word Sum Up

2012-01-22T06:18:00.000+02:00

This is a very sad book, but not entirely.

Life: still possible after betrayed love.

Here's a very insightful interview with Julie Metz taken by the New York Times, and the official site for the book.

Nos Separations - David Foenkinos

2012-01-13T09:51:00.004+02:00

Most French authors write with a humour and charm that is so typical of them and David Foenkinos is no exception.

"Nos Separations" presents the story of Alice and Fritz and their other relation(ship)s with secondary characters such as Fritz's friend Paul and his lover Virginie, Fritz and his wife Iris or Alice and her husband. The book is more about the two lovers' sad separations rather than their relationship; it is about the constant need to be with the one you love even though you hurt that person and he/she hurt you as well.

"Encore une fois, nous étions dans une ambiance mi-prune mi-pêche (chacun ses expressions), et j'ai pensé que je serais peut-être heureux de passer ces moments sans elle. Depuis des mois, nous vivions collés, dans l'autarcie de notre révélation amoureuse, alors cette première séparation serait sûrement bénéfique."

The writer gives us the chance to see a few of the decisive moments in Alice and Fritz's liaison: we learn how they fell in love, how they quarrelled and how Fritz cheated on Alice. It is with so much ease that Foenkinos presents his lovers' story that you might think their situation is not serious. He even mentions at the beginning of the novel that we might all be cliches. Still, with delicate humour the final separation takes place and we are left with the character's struggles to avoid any place they walked together in Paris and with ironic dictionary definitions in which he as well becomes one.

“Il y a des personnes formidables qu’on rencontre au mauvais moment, et des personnes qui sont formidables parce qu’on les rencontre au bon moment.”

The end is still optimistic. A boy and a girl - Alice's and Fritz's children from different relationships) meet in Pere Lachaise cemetery (read the wonderful book to discover why) and we may think the story can begin once more. maybe with a different, better ending this time :)

Read for: New Authors Challenge and European Reading Challenge (France)

The Marriage Plot - Six Word Sum Up

2012-01-09T14:04:00.001+02:00

My third book by Jeffrey Eugenides and definitely my favorite, and one of the best reads of 2011!

Life is about loving and learning.

The New York Times offers a great review here.

Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates

2012-01-04T13:15:00.003+02:00

My first encounter with Joyce Carol Oates' work has been rather disturbing, since this novella is not something one would truly enjoy reading. As its provocative title suggests, it is about a rape and its effects on the people involved. Still, how can love find its place amidst all that?

The novella brutally starts with: “After she was gang-raped, kicked and beaten and left to die on the floor of the filthy boathouse at Rocky Point Park. After she was dragged into the boathouse by the five drunken guys – unless there were six, or seven – and her twelve-year-old daughter screaming Let us go! Don’t hurt us! Please don’t hurt us! After she had been chased by the guys like a pack of dogs jumping their prey, turning her ankle, losing both her high-heeled sandals on the path beside the lagoon" and we hardly find any time to breathe between pages, bound to go through the ordeals and struggles that the mother and daughter have to face. Teena Maguire together with her 12 year old Bethie chose the shorter way home, on the night of 4th of July, and being the victim of a gang rape, she is now left to regret that she has survived.
The dreadful trial, the shame and the blame that the community casts over them leave the two in the impossibility to move forward, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands. Out of love for Teena and to see justice being done. The book finally takes a positive turn when we see the two characters being avenged. Somehow.
Could things have been different? Was it their destiny? Bethie tries to find an answer:
“There was a final shake of the dice. Another time it might have been averted. When Casey said, ‘Teena, let me drive you two home. Wait a minute, I’ll get the car,’ and your mother thanked him and kissed him on the cheek, telling him not to bother – ‘We want to walk, don’t we, Bethie? It’s a perfect night.’”

It was not a perfect night, but there is hope at the end of the last page.

Read for: Orange in January Challenge and New Authors Challenge

2012 - It's Dickens Time!

2012-01-01T07:27:00.004+02:00

Everybody has heard of Charles Dickens, one of the greatest writers in English literature and I dare say, everybody has read one or more of his works. If not (shame on you!) 2012 is the time to (re)discover him, since the literary world is celebrating 200 years since his birth.
You can find everything about his life here , his works online here or any related event to Dickens 2012 here. Oh, and if you happen to visit London, The Charles Dickens Museum has reopened.
For those pressed for time, the BBC has adapted Dickens' works for the screen and Great Expectations broadcast at the end of 2011 was a total success for the British audience and I loved it, but I still have trouble deciding if it's better or not than the 1998 version...

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

"I never had one hour's happiness in her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death."

Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape."

Quotes taken from Great Expectations.

Man Walks Into a Room - Six Word Sum Up

2011-12-22T09:37:00.000+02:00

I have been planning to read "The History of Love" for more than a year, but it "strangely" happened that I decided to discover Nicole Krauss starting with her first book, "Man Walks Into a Room". I really enjoyed reading it and I can say I found it quite intriguing. You might too.

Losing your memory means finding freedom.

For a more in-depth review, click here.

The European Reading Challenge

2011-12-17T18:26:00.005+02:00

I could not have resisted this challenge, simply because the majority of writers I use to read are European, and there are so many books by them or taking place in Europe that I have planned on reading in 2012. Rose City Reader in hosting this challenge in its first year and I am sure it's not going to be the last :)
As you have figured out, the simple thing that you have to do is read books by European authors or books set in European countries. Easy? To make it challenging, each book must be by a different author and set in a different country. There are five levels of participation and I decided to go with Five Star (Deluxe Entourage), but I will most definitely read more than five, thus qualifying for the Jet Setter Grand Prize!

And since we are speaking of challenges, do not forget to join our own (mine and Bellezza's) VENICE IN FEBRUARY :)

Wednesday Meme - What I Am Listening to 5

2011-12-14T05:48:00.001+02:00

My newest discovery :)

Meme started by Bellezza.

A Friend with a Story

2011-12-11T15:28:00.005+02:00

Birgit from The Book Garden has written a book and she has kindly sent me a copy. What a great surprise! I found the story quite uplifting and optimistic. It felt like a rendez-vous between Madonna's children stories and Coelho's "Like a River Flowing", with advice not to give up and never stop following your dreams. Is there something more important in life? We all have our secret garden inside us and it's up to us to rediscover it and its mysteries. Isn't that a simple, yet utterly true message? To have more smiles on your face, click here.

P.S. Dandelions are not just dandelions! :)

The Bigger, the Better? We shall see!

2011-12-09T06:31:00.000+02:00

I have decided to join one more challenge, the one hosted by Birgit from The Book Garden, since huge tomes seem to be a problem for me, always postponing them till next year, and next year... and next year. The books in question have to be of more than 700 pages (yup, that's seven hundred) and they should be read sometime next year, meaning 2012 :) There are several levels of the challenge that you can check here. . I decided on the first level, The Chamomile Lover, since it's always better to read more than you planned rather than read less, and the two chunksters are Pamuk's "The Museum of Innocence" and Murakami's "19Q4". So, are there any huge books haunting your shelves?

What Work of Literature Would You Recommend to Someone Who Doesn't like Literature?

2011-12-01T14:42:00.006+02:00

This question is part of the Literary Blog Hop, and it is definitely not an easy one.

If someone doesn't enjoy reading literature, how could you fix this "issue"? A work of literature cannot truly and entirely be revealed unless one finds pleasure in solving its mysteries page by page.
And yet, if there were a book that could turn a non-lover into a passionate lover of literature, that book should be THE BOOK. Is there such a thing? Well, (un)fortunately, not really. Surely, we can recommend our favorite books and that might work, but the true spirit of literature lies in every single book worth reading.
How could anyone not recommend one of Shakespeare's plays (and how difficult it would be to just choose one) or a poem by Wordsworth? They are not among my favorite writers, but can we skip them? Wasn't their writing and our reading that brought us closer to what we now call our favorite writers? How can we say that we like Ionesco if we haven't read any other play? Could we recommend Jeanette Winterson and completely forget about Virginia Woolf? Is that even possible?
To sum up, any work conveying literary value is worth reading in order to savour literature, but one is never enough to fully discover what lies beneath this word: LITERATURE.

One Day - 6 Word Sum Up

2011-11-27T15:19:00.000+02:00

"One Day" has been the best book I have read this year. It is one of those books that stays with you forever, though incredibly sad at the end, but maybe that is one of the things that makes her unforgettable. I have also seen the movie and for a perfect book I could not have imagined a better way to personify the two main characters, Emma and Dexter.

True Love Stays with You Forever.

Movie trailer for book clubs here.

Wednesday Meme - What I Am Listening to (when I have the time) 4

2011-11-23T08:05:00.001+02:00

The psychotherapist Susie Orbach speaks during the Free Thinking Festival, 2011, about a constant obsession: our body and the world we live in. Definitely note taking :)

Meme initiated by Bellezza.

Click here.

More about Susie Orbach's work and campaign here.

Venice in February Reading Challenge 2012

2011-11-20T11:35:00.011+02:00

And the time has finally come to reveal the challenge I have been hinting at for a few months now: in February, together with Bellezza, I will be hosting a simple yet marvelous reading challenge: read one, two or how many books you would like and have the time for, that are related/based in Venice.

We have chosen Venice because it's a unique city, with a dreamlike atmosphere and yet, with secrets to discover. Whoever visited Venice once still wishes to go back and this challenge may be the next best thing :)

There are two buttons that you may choose from if you want to join us, a very long list of books to choose from - or come up with others - HERE and a BLOG where you could link your reviews and also enjoy "other things Venice".

So, are you up for the challenge of (re)discovering the mysteries of VENICE, A PURE CITY?

The Jane Austen in Me

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000+02:00

Take the Quiz here!

Marianne Dashwood is a fictional character in the Jane Austen novel "Sense and Sensibility". The 17-year-old second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood, she embodies the ‘sensibility’ of the title, as opposed to her elder sister Elinor’s ‘sense.’

Here are a few of this character's words of wisdom:

"It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others."

"I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter into all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both. . . ."

Wednesday Meme - What I Am Listening to (when I have the time) 3

2011-11-09T09:21:00.001+02:00

An out of this world composition by the world's fastest pianist, Havasi Balasz. Go to Bellezza to see who else is taking part in this musical meme.

New Authors Challenge 2012

2011-11-06T15:56:00.003+02:00

It seems I quite enjoy challenges, especially when that means (re)discovering new authors, as it happened with The Japanese Literature Challenge. For next year, besides the challenge I will be hosting together with Bellezza, and which will be announced very soon, I will be taking part in the New Authors Challenge, hosted by Literary Escapism and Seduced by the Book that will take place from January to December 2012 and my goal is to discover 10 new authors. Let's see if that will happen!
Do you plan on discovering new authors next year?

To analyze or not to analyze?

2011-11-05T09:28:00.001+02:00

I decided to take part in the Literary Blog Hop, mainly because I find the questions to be answered every month quite clever and sometimes even challenging. This blog hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase and this month's question is: to what extent do you analyze literature? Are you more analytical in your reading if you know you're going to review the book? Is analysis useful in helping you understand and appreciate literature, or does it detract from your readerly experience?

The days of thoroughly analyzing literature are long gone. Back in college, when I had to analyze everything I was reading I really enjoyed writing long papers on different literary works, especially when I would discover great books and fascinating writers that became my favorite ones(Winterson, McEwan, Tim Parks). Now, in my adult life, I am too pressed for time to think about certain literary aspects in depth, so I just read for pleasure or stop reading the book if it doesn't appeal to me. Lacking time to write "serious" reviews has made me go for a less demanding task, The Six Word Sum Up. Yet, the literary brain finds itself thinking while reading whether certain words are or might be the key ones in this sum up! :)
As for better understanding literature when analyzing it, I do agree that one could grasp a different or a deeper meaning when reading pen in hand and notebook aside, but sometimes the more you analyze, the more tired of that work you may become.

Aleph - 6 Word Sum Up

2011-11-01T08:59:00.002+02:00

This book deserves more than six words about it, but lacking time to do that, I leave you with one of those quotes that you cannot forget: "I love you like a river flowing."

Past Lives/Loves always save you.

To read more, click here.
To read a very inspiring interview click here.

A Picture = 1,000 words

2011-10-23T01:40:00.001+03:00

More images from the "2011 United Nations European Ad Competition to Say No to Violence Against Women" here.

Wednesday Meme - What I Am Listening to (when I have the time) 2

2011-10-19T08:44:00.001+03:00

I'm assuming this meme, started by Bellezza will happen every two weeks, simply because I don't seem to have enough time to listen to things/music worth mentioning every single week.(except Madonna, of course)
But today, probably for the 4th time, I am listening to Jeremy Irons' speech that happened on the 17th of October, during the World Food Day Ceremony in Rome, when he was nominated Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. More about his very important work to eradicate hunger here.

There is no excuse for us not to care!

4 Is Not a Crowd

2011-10-16T14:39:00.003+03:00

A few days ago I read an interesting post here and it made me seriously ask myself the same question: What writers should I invite to my (fancy) dinner?. The tricky thing is that they have to be from different centuries, so after I struggled with a list of 10 or so writers, I decided to have a "ladies' night" with three of the most inspiring women writers. EVER.

Jeanette Winterson (21st century, born in 1959)

~ first encounter with her work: 2001
~ adopted by Pentecostal parents, she used to hide in order to be able to read books.
~ she wrote her first and probably her most talked-about novel "Oranges are not the only fruit" at 23, which she published in 1985.
~ owns an eco-shop in London, called "Verdes".
~ has just started using twitter and is about to have her first autobiography published - "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?".
~ her best book, in my opinion: "The Passion".
Everything she writes feels enchanting and yet, utterly true and about myself :)

Anais Nin (20th century, 1903 - 1977)

~ first encounter with her work: 2002
~ probably most famous for her tumultuous affair with Henry Miller.
~ of French-Cuban origin, she also used to live by herself, although she was married, on a boat on the Seine.
~ studied psychoanalysis and briefly practiced as a lay therapist in New York; she was a patient of Carl Jung for a time as well.
~ was an obscure literary figure until 1966, when her diary in ten volumes was published.
~ her best creation (IMHO): the love letters addressed to Miller in "A Literary Passion".
Her journal is incredibly sultry and passionate.

George Sand (19th century, 1804 - 1876)

~ first encounter with her work: 1997
~ her real name was Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant
~ her reputation turned scandalous when she started smoking cigars, wearing men's clothing in public and all this after she had left her husband.
~ visited Venice in 1834 with her lover Alfred de Musset and stayed at Hotel Danieli, then known as "Albergo Reale".
~ fought for women's role in political life and took part in the events of June 1848 in Paris.
~ my favorite work: "Histoire de ma vie".
As Musset, her lover, said, she was "the most womanly woman."

Strangers - 6 Word Sum Up

2011-10-09T12:34:00.005+03:00

Desperate Lonely Soul Saved by Ghosts
More about this great book here and here.

Wednesday Meme - What I Am Listening to (when I have the time) 1

2011-10-05T14:41:00.007+03:00

I have been aware of so many memes throughout the blogs I follow but this is the first time I have decided to take part in one, simply because it is easier to listen to yet another album/song/podcast/interview than to move on to the next book. Thanks to Bellezza, who initiated this great meme, here's what I am listening to this Wednesday (when I'm not listening to Absolute Radio, Candy Station, NRJ French, BBC or Venice Classic Radio ):

My affair with Tori Amos started back in '93 when tapes still existed and "Crucify" was the song that I kept rewinding. She still amazes me with her unique style and perfect voice.
Favorite track on the album: Nautical Twilight

Peonies

2011-10-01T10:14:00.001+03:00

"Out of the gravel there are peonies growing. They come up through the loose grey pebbles, their buds testing the air like snails' eyes, then swelling and opening, huge dark-red flowers all shining and glossy like satin. Then they burst and fall to the ground." (p.5)

"I watch the peonies out of the corners of my eyes. I know they shouldn't be here.It's April, and peonies don't bloom in April. There are three more now right in front of me, growing out of the path itself. Furtively I reach out my hand to touch one. It has a dry feel, and I realize it's made of cloth." (p.6)

"It was Agnes who helped me with the burial. We put flowers from Mrs. Alderman Parkinson's garden into the coffin, having asked permission; and it being June, there were long-stemmed roses and peonies; and we chose only the white ones. I scattered the petals of them over her as well, and I slipped in the needle-case I'd made for her, but out of sight, as it might look wrong otherwise, being red; and I cut a piece off the back of her hair to remember her by, and tied it together with a thread." (p.229)

"It was a lovely and windless evening, and the birds were twittering, and the trees in the orchard near the road were golden in the late sunlight, and the purple milkweed flowers that grew beside the drive smelled very sweetly; and also the last few peonies beside the verandah, and the climbing roses; and the coolness came down out of the air, while Jamie sat and played on his flute, so plaintively it did your heart good." (p.268)

"If you stare into the darkness with your eyes open you are sure to see something after a time. I hope it will not be flowers. But this is the time they like to grow, the red flowers, the shining red peonies which are like satin, which are like splashes of paint. The soil for them is emptiness, it is empty space and silence. I whisper, Talk to me; because I would rather have talking than the slow gardening that takes place in silence, with the red satin petals dripping down the wall.
I think I sleep." (p.344)

All quotes taken from Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood, book offered by Corri.

How do yo like your eggs?

2011-09-19T21:19:00.000+03:00

Fried? Boiled? Poached? Scrambled?
If you run out of ideas, here are 100 ways to cook an egg.
And if you manage to put all your eggs in one basket without laying an egg or killing the goose that lays the golden egg, then you may consider that your chickens have come home to roost! :)

Pieces of Sky

2011-09-14T20:02:00.005+03:00

I stumbled upon this song here, and the post that goes with it is simply amazing! Whoever is behind those lines is a true master of words and emotions. :)

Eskmo - Cloudlight (Official Video) from mc707 on Vimeo.

All I know about Gertrude Stein

2011-09-06T05:16:00.000+03:00

"Sometimes I have affairs. But though I enjoy the bed, I feel angry at the fraud; the closeness without the cost. I know what the cost is: the more I love you, the more I feel alone."

This is not Jeanette Winterson's first encounter with the British literary journal GRANTA - in fact, it is her fourth - nor with Gertrude Stein, whose work and daring attitude are analyzed in "Art Objects" and this short story is available entirely to be read on their site here as part of the 115th issue devoted to Feminism (which is not such a bad word, after all :) )

As with other short stories in which Winterson mingles her passions and interest with the almighty creativity (in "Goldrush Girl" she mixes parts of Puccini's opera "La Fanciulla del West - one of her favorite operas - with the story of the two lovers) here, in "All I know about Gertrude Stein" she sets her story in Paris - Jeanette has been musing for a long time whether to settle or not in the city of lights - and names her character Louise (that's a clue for the more avid Winterson readers), while she also juxtaposes anecdotes from the lives of Stein and her lover, Alice B. Toklas.
If you want to discover how women can love you will truly savour this short story and why not, become a Winterson fan, just like myself.

"But love has no limits. Love seems to be a continuous condition like the universe. But the universe is remote except for this planet we call home, and love means nothing unless it is real and in our hands."

The Schopenhauer Cure - 6 Word Sum Up

2011-09-03T09:47:00.000+03:00

Compassionate Friends, Death Overcome by Philosophy

More about this fantastic book here.

D. H. Lawrence Poetry

2011-09-01T03:14:00.003+03:00

To Women, As Far As I'm Concerned

The feelings I don't have I don't have.
The feelings I don't have, I won't say I have.
The feelings you say you have, you don't have.
The feelings you would like us both to have, we
neither of us have.
The feelings people ought to have, they never have.
If people say they've got feelings, you may be pretty
sure they haven't got them
So if you want either of us to feel anything at all
you'd better abandon all idea of feelings altogether.

A White Blossom

A tiny moon as white and small as a single jasmine flower
Leans all alone above my window, on night's wintry bower,
Liquid as lime-tree blossom, soft as brilliant water or rain
She shines, the one white love of my youth, which all sin cannot stain.

Cherry Robbers

Under the long, dark boughs, like jewels red
In the hair of an Eastern girl
Shine strings of crimson cherries, as if had bled
Blood-drops beneath each curl.

Under the glistening cherries, with folded wings
Three dead birds lie:
Pale-breasted throstles and a blackbird, robberlings
Stained with red dye.

Under the haystack a girl stands laughing at me,
With cherries hung round her ears--
Offering me her scarlet fruit: I will see
If she has any tears.

Lucky Girl in the Book Garden

2011-08-22T18:12:00.007+03:00

When you enter giveaways, do you really expect to win? I didn't, but I won the 500 follower giveaway, graciously offered by Birgit from The Book Garden YAAY!
The next complicated step was to decide on the books to be ordered by Birgit, which was a tough task, since there are around 70 books on my wish list, but it just dawned on me that in February I am going to host my first Reading Challenge together with Bellezza (more details to be posted soon), so all the three books I chose are about or set in Venice (does that give you a clue about the Reading Challenge?:))
And remember, there's only one Venice and probably just one lucky little girl... ME :) Thank you, Birgit!

Happy Birthday, Your Madgesty!

2011-08-16T10:10:00.004+03:00

Madonna - Like a Virgin (Addiction 2011 Mashup Mix)

Asculta mai multe audio pop

Aimez - vous Francoise Sagan?

2011-08-08T21:58:00.014+03:00

"Love lasts about seven years. That's how long it takes for the cells of the body to totally replace themselves."

After a Murakami marathon, I decided to take a break and read something "light" but still enjoyable. Francoise Sagan seemed the perfect choice.
"Avec mon meilleur souvenir", written in 1984, is a book about what Sagan loved the most: gambling and how she won her only possession - a big house in Normandy; speeding up, jazz and her Favorite BIllie Holliday for whom she travelled all the way to New York; writers, especially Tennessee Williams whom she considers to be amongst the greatest writers; the theatre, which she started as a way to amuse her entourage but which ended up being a passion that she would never give up, just like gambling.

The book ends with a love letter to Jean - Paul Sartre in which she acknowledges him as the most important writer in French literature, the one that delivered what he had promised in his books: to be true to his words and beliefs. The sequel? A blind Sartre wishes to meet Sagan...

Everything that Sagan writes about is what moved her along the years. She reveals herself in a tender way, while sincerely narrating about the years long past and the fascinating people that she encountered. We discover between the lines a writer that fears loneliness, and who spends nights on end in the casinos of Saint-Tropez.
Still, Sagan returns to literature, fearing the fact that she might not write and reminding us of the four books that she considers to be her guiding light in a troubled universe. These books are Gide's "The Fruits of the Earth", Camus' "The Rebel", Rimbaud's "Illuminations" and Proust's "Albertine gone".

Here are a few of her words of wisdom:

“Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.”

“I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.”

"I have loved to the point of madness; that which is called madness, that which to me, is the only sensible way to love."

More Banana(s)...

2011-08-01T06:13:00.003+03:00

"Everything in life has some good in it.And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more – it’s sad, but that’s the truth."

Not long ago I posted a few impressions on N.P., by Banana Yoshimoto. It was my first read by the Japanese writer, but it seems, not my last. At the end of June I was the lucky winner of Bellezza's Giveaway and so, I dipped into my second book. Needless to say, whenever I read a second, third, etc. book by the same writer, I compare them. "The Lake" was a bit different from "N.P.", but still, dealing with the same recurrent themes of feeling alone in the world, the impossibility of communication, the drowning need to commit suicide because there's too much "otherness" and little "you" in the world.

"When things get really bad, you take comfort in the placeness of a place."

"The Lake" is about Chihiro, a graphic artist who finds herself falling in love with Nakajima, a student in biotechnology with whom she previously shared glimpses and smiles from their opposite windows. Her feelings oscillate between "Just being with Nakajima made me feel as if we were detached from history, and had no particular age" and the impulse to remain independent. However, Nakajima's attitude towards sex makes her wonder what had happened in his past that traumatized him so deeply.

"When someone tells you something big, it's like you're taking money from them, and there's no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening."

Do we discover in the end the mystery surrounding him and the ghostly lake, that force that relentlessly calls for both characters? We definitely do. Do we see them having a cup of tea in a small cafe in Paris? We might...

"Here we were, two ridiculously fragile people, sliding along on a very thin layer of ice all the time, each of us ready to slip and take the other down at any moment, the most unsteady of couples – and yet I believed what I had said. It would be all right."

This is not an ordinary love story, but it's definitely a simple one. Not that simple means dull!

"Love isn't only a matter of fussing over each other, hugging, wanting to be together. Some things communicate, inevitably, precisely because you keep them in check."

Un peu de Paradis :)

2011-07-25T11:36:00.001+03:00

Nouvelle Vague & Vanessa Paradis - ''Couleurs sur Paris'' (2010) - ''Week-end à Rome''

Asculta mai multe audio pop

Man and Wife

2011-07-18T13:34:00.002+03:00

"The stars are like photographs. You can read into them what you will. You can believe that they measure all you have lost, or you can believe that they represent all you have loved, and continue to love."

"Life holds hostage all those we love."

"It was all or nothing with this woman. That's why I loved her - and I can say that now. I loved her. But she wasn't cut out for an affair. The right girl in so many ways, she was the wrong girl to play that role. She was a romantic. Say what you like about those starry - eyed souls, about the upheaval and destruction they always leave in their wake, but there is one thing about romantics that nobody can deny. They never settle for second best."

"Sometimes we have to stay away from the things we love, and learn to appreciate the things we need."

Oranges ARE the Only Fruit :)

2011-07-07T14:03:00.006+03:00

To play with Jeanette Winterson's words, this month you can only have oranges... No, I am not imposing on you to only eat oranges, but to only read books that were longlisted, shortlisted or winners of the Orange Prize for Fiction. The lists of books are on the side bar, and you can find more information on the Orange Prize here.
The Orange Prize is all about women writers and the books that you can discover are fascinating: "Gut Symmetries" or "The Powerbook" (Jeanette Winterson), "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (Tracy Chevalier), "The Lovely Bones" (Alice Sebold), "The Time Traveler's Wife" (Audrey Niffenegger) and the list can go on.
I have read books nominated long before knowing about the prize, but a few weeks ago I discovered there's an Orange January/July challenge and I am taking part right at this very moment, reading "The Night Watch", by Sarah Waters.
Hopefully, the next one will be "The History of Love" :)

The Ice Man

2011-07-05T12:00:00.001+03:00

"When I cry, the ice man kisses my cheek, and my tears turn to ice. He takes those frozen teardrops in his hand and puts them on his tongue. "See how I love you," he says. He is telling the truth."

Once you rediscover Murakami, there is no going back. :)

"The Ice Man" is a story that you can't forget easily. It's about love that persists below zero degrees. It starts in a ski resort, with HER being drawn towards HIM.
“…I couldn’t help myself. I had to talk to him. This was my last night in the hotel and if I let this chance pass I probably would never have another."

After dating every week in Tokyo, talking only about her, they finally fall in love and decide to get married.
“I fell deeply in love with him, and he came to love me, the present me, apart from any past or future. And I came to love the Ice Man for who he is now, apart from any past or future…the Ice Man was the first person I’d ever truly loved”
Because no one accepts the Ice Man, and by consequence the narrator, she does not have friends or family to talk to, so loneliness invades her.
The story ends “in the coldest, loneliest place in the world”, the South Pole, where she eventually discovers that her heart is frozen, and also that... but here's the whole story. Enjoy! :)

Sputnik Sweetheart

2011-07-02T22:48:00.002+03:00

"I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do."

My first encounter with Haruki Murakami happened years ago, when I was offered two of his books, "The Elephant Vanishes" and "A Wild Sheep Chase". I liked them, but I also found them a bit strange and I wasn't very eager to go back to other works. That was until I decided to read "Norwegian Wood" for The Japanese Literature Challenge (and discovered that there's a Murakami Challenge taking place as well)but things almost never turn out as planned, so I started reading "Sputnik Sweetheart" instead and I was MESMERIZED. Sure, different times, different self, but what an incredible writer I have rediscovered!!!!

"And it came to me then. That we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits. From far off they look like beautiful shooting stars, but in reality they're nothing more than prisons, where each of us is locked up alone, going nowhere. When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant we'd be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing."

Murakami's writing is quite different from that of a European writer and the way he takes you into the story and leaves you to wander between the real and the surreal is truly unique.
The story is about Sumire, a twenty two year old girl, with plans to become a (famous) writer and K., her best friend and madly in love with Sumire but whose love is never returned. Once Sumire meets Miu, a sophisticated businesswoman, the plot starts to develop and we find Sumire drawn towards Miu, while K. is the spectator of their (strange) relationship. The love traingle turns into a mystery when Sumire suddenly disappears on a Greek island and Miu calls K. to help find her. This is the moment when K. discovers things "out of this world" about Miu and a possible answer to Sumire's disappearance.

"So that's how we live our lives. No matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing that's stolen from us--that's snatched right out of our hands--even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. We draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. Repeating, often adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. Leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness."

Murakami gave the story such a surprising ending when six months later Sumire calls just to say “Hey, I’m back. Come and get me.”, then the phone cuts off. Is it a hallucination or Sumire is really back, and back from where exactly?
I found the whole story intriguing and it left me thinking if such things are possible... What things? Well, you'll have to read the novel if you want to know more.:)

"The answer is dreams. Dreaming on and on. Entering the world of dreams and never coming out. Living in dreams for the rest of time."

Emotional

2011-06-26T13:30:00.003+03:00

Banana ... Yoshimoto

2011-06-24T15:40:00.001+03:00

"I saw the sky and sea and sand and the flickering flames of the bonfire through my tears. All at once, it rushed into my head with tremendous speed, and made me feel dizzy. It was beautiful. Everything that happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy." (N.P.)

I heard about Banana Yoshimoto a few years ago, when Humanitas published her novel "Kitchen", but I didn't manage to read it or other books by this author,whose real name is Yoshimoto Mahoko, until this week, when I came across N.P.

N.P. (North Point) is the name of an old song and the book of ninety seven stories that an obscure writer called Takase Sarao wrote before committing suicide, and the newly found ninety eighth story makes its translator kill himself as well. The characters seem to linger between possessing and being possessed, moving towards one another with the slow pace of the burning sun during a hot summer day.
Kazami, the narrator of the story befriends Takase's twins, Otohiko and Saki, but later in the novel develops a strange relationship with Sui, the lover but also daughter of Takase himself. Between incest and melancholy, the characters go in search of passion just to find the obsession of suicide, as a curse for those who get near the ninety eighth story... Will they go beyond this presumed curse to find just the sad love story of a summer? It's for you to discover...

Book Binge

2011-06-10T20:38:00.000+03:00

"If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited."
— Schopenhauer

More often than not I am trying to stick to these words, but then I find myself wondering: "What makes a book worth reading?". I usually read books whose authors I am familiar with and I really enjoy their style, but this has also been the year of new discoveries: ONE DAY by David Nicholls is still among my top ten favorite books; Tony Parsons is a writer I will keep on reading, since I love the authentic way in which he portraits relationships and people in their 30s with the (un)necessary struggles they have to face; I finally read Borges - Aleph - a collection of stories - and I found him too cryptic for my taste; I had a second and yet unforgettable encounter with Alice Sebold and her "Lucky" memoir and with Marc Levy whose third book "Le premier jour" I am about to finish, but what thrilled me the most in these six months (bookwise) was reading the letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller. The passion between them was out of this world and I am sure it's going to be one of those books I will always return to.
What other books await me? I will be going back to Haruki Murakami due to the Japanese Literature Challenge I entered and I will keep on reading about teaching ESL reading for my dissertation. Also, I will try to discover why FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT, but that's for another post :)

Word of the Day 5

2011-06-02T00:00:00.001+03:00

JAYWALKING

Lucky

2011-05-26T17:19:00.005+03:00

"I live in a world where two truths coexist: where both hell and hope lie in the palm of my hand"

"Lucky" is the story of a girl being raped; it is in fact Alice Sebold's memoir of her own rape that had taken place eighteen years before the publication of the book. If you are familiar with "The Lovely Bones", then this book, rather unfortunately, is better written, with short sentences that aim for the heart finding you with tears in your eyes. If you haven't read anything by Sebold, then it's high time you got down to some powerful, yet sad reading. Why? Simply because life is not just about laughter.

P.S. Careful! This is not a comfortable book. Some phrases might leave you speechless, since Sebold's confessions are gut-wrenching and disturbing.

"I knew, now that I had been raped, I should try to look good for my parents. Having gained the regulation freshman fifteen meant that my skirt that day fit. I was trying to prove to them and to myself that I was still who I had always been. I was beautiful, if fat. I was smart, if loud. I was good, if ruined."

"No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved."

Getting Old(er) and Wise(r)...

2011-05-12T10:37:00.001+03:00

Shakespeare Rapping :)

2011-05-03T09:06:00.000+03:00

"As you sow, so shall you reap" - Paulo Coelho and his secrets

2011-04-26T23:55:00.002+03:00

Question: What do you do after you meet your favorite writer, that is Paulo Coelho?
Answer: You read his official biography! :)

After having read "A Warrior's Life: A Biography of Paulo Coelho" I could not help but marvel at Paulo's incredible strength and character. Surely, people interested in glimpses of his life before becoming the best selling writer that he is today know about the time he spent in psychiatric hospitals, his travels around the United States and Europe with of without (a) wife, his involvement in witchcraft... BUT this biography brings along facts and details never mentioned before, mainly due to the fact that Paulo's official biographer, Fernando Morais, had access to 170 handwritten notebooks and 94 cassette recordings that the writer has kept for more than thirty five years and which he wishes to be burnt when he dies.

Thus, we are able to read extracts written decades ago about Paulo's struggle to become who he is today, his insecurities, his black magic rituals and their effect on him, and we are amazed to discover that he is an incredible person with an incredible dream who had his doubts but never gave up. Here are a few interesting facts about his life:

* the small, white ponytail some 10 cm long is a sikha, the lock of hair worn by Brahmans, orthodox Hindus and Hare Krishna monks.

* he performs a short prayer at least three times a day and also when a plane takes off/lands or a car drives off.

* his favorite cigarettes are Galaxy, a brand found in Brazil.

* after his Pilgrimage brought hundreds of pilgrims a day to Santiago de Compostela, the Galician government named one of the streets of Santiago "Rua Paulo Coelho".

* Hotel Le Bristol of Paris, where Paulo sets parts of "The Zahir" has named a drink from the book as "Le chocolat chaud de Paulo Coehlo".

*when he was young, he didn't enjoy dancing, thinking it would make him ridiculous. (from my experience, he has no problem now :))

* Paulo wrote a parody of Kipling's "If..."

"If you can ask your friends and enemies for a chance.
If you can hear a 'no' and take it as a 'maybe'.
If you can start from the bottom and yet still value the little that you have.
If you can improve yourself each moment and reach the heights without succumbing to vanity.
Then you'll be a writer."

TO BE CONTINUED. SOMETIME.

Bodies

2011-04-17T08:21:00.001+03:00

“Bodies”, written by Susie Orbach is one of the books that made me better understand the relation between body and mind. In a world in which the fact that you do not fit the pattern imposed by the ones around you becomes a great tragedy, psychoanalyst Susie Orbach explains why we are anxious when it comes to our bodies and why we sometimes end up hating it so much as to mutilate it, keep diets that make us risk our life, become anorexic and endlessly be preoccupied with the way we look and if we look according to the rules imposed by a society that supports shame towards our bodies through the ideal images imposed by it.

"Like many of us, the people I work with wish to and do reshape their bodies in both small and dramatic ways. They find fault with their bodies and say it makes them feel better, more in control, to improve them. Like most of us, they do not like to believe that they are being unduly influenced by outside pressures and may disdain such an idea, with its crude sense of manipulation. Whether followers of fashion or health trends or not, we take for granted that looking good for ourselves will make us feel good. And yet there is a subtle tracery of outside urgings which works on us, creating a new and often dissatisfied relationship with our bodies."

"The slim aesthetic – with pecs for men and ample breasts for women – bedevils those who don’t conform, and even those who do happen to fit can carry a sorrowful insecurity about their own bodies. A constant fretfulness and vigilance take hold for many from the moment they wake until the time they fall asleep. Their bodies are on high alert. The norm has become to worry. In another time, we would have called such anxieties an illness and, seeing how many suffer, we would have called it an epidemic. But we don’t. We have become so implicated in variants of body preoccupation ourselves, and girls and women in particular so colonized by it, that the preoccupation has become second nature – almost ‘natural’ and invisible."

The majority of the examples and cases presented in the book are shocking and they demonstrate the power of those around us to influence our psyche, whether those around us are tv commercials or our own parents.
“Bodies” has revealed how vulnerable we are to exterior stimuli and it has made me rethink the attitude I have towards my body so that this does not turn into a daily burden.
In short, we are more than our own bodies and from time to time it is of utter importance to remind ourselves of this fact.

My Life in HER Books

2011-04-16T17:41:00.002+03:00

The incomparable Jeanette Winterson is talking about the books that marked her life.

Jeanette Winterson: "My Life in Books" with Ann Robertson from pedalo on Vimeo.

Word Clouds

2011-04-11T22:22:00.000+03:00

Word clouds

View more presentations from Marisa Constantinides

Bitch?

2011-03-18T19:47:00.000+02:00

Bitch

by Carolyn Kizer (1984)

Now, when he and I meet, after all these years,
I say to the bitch inside me, don’t start growling.
He isn’t a trespasser anymore,
Just an old acquaintance tipping his hat.
My voice says, “Nice to see you,”
As the bitch starts to bark hysterically.
He isn’t an enemy now,
Where are your manners, I say, as I say,
“How are the children? They must be growing up.”
At a kind word from him, a look like the old days,
The bitch changes her tone; she begins to whimper.
She wants to snuggle up to him, to cringe.
Down, girl! Keep your distance
Or I’ll give you a taste of the choke-chain.
“Fine, I’m just fine,” I tell him.
She slobbers and grovels.

After all, I am her mistress. She is basically loyal.
It’s just that she remembers how she came running
Each evening, when she heard his step;
How she lay at his feet and looked up adoringly
Though he was absorbed in his paper;
Or, bored with her devotion, ordered her to the kitchen
Until he was ready to play.
But the small careless kindnesses
When he’d had a good day, or a couple of drinks,
Come back to her now, seem more important
Than the casual cruelties, the ultimate dismissal.
“It’s nice to know you are doing so well,” I say.
He couldn’t have taken you with him;
You were too demonstrative, too clumsy,
Not like the well-groomed pets of his new friends.
“Give my regards to your wife,” I say. You gag
As I drag you off by the scruff,
Saying, “Goodbye! Goodbye! Nice to have seen you again.”

I Love Reading about LOVE

2011-03-10T16:24:00.008+02:00

David Levithan's book "The Lover's Dictionary" is a true poem, some even call it a prolonged haiku. I sipped every word hoping I would not have to finish it so soon; I even allowed myself only a few definitions a day in order not to spoil their beauty by taking in too much. When the book ended I wanted to wrap myself up in half the definitions so I would not forget them. Then, I remembered I had a blog :)

* AUTONOMY, n.
"I want my books to have their own shelves," you said, and that's how I knew it would be okay to live together.

* CORRODE, v.
I spent all this time building a relationship. Then one night I left the window open, and it started to rust.

* HUBRIS, n.
Every time I call you mine, I feel like I'm forcing it, as if saying it can make it so. As if I'm reminding you, and reminding the universe: mine. As if that one word from me could have that kind of power.

* QUALM, n.
There is no reason to make fun of me for flossing twice a day.

* YEARNING, n./adj.
At the core of this desire is the belief that everything can be perfect.

Happiness anyone?

2011-02-28T15:00:00.000+02:00

Hafiz

2011-02-19T20:37:00.004+02:00

Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket to protect you.

Man and Boy

2011-02-08T22:21:00.006+02:00

Harry and Gina love each other tremendously so they get married. Nothing seems to disturb their bliss, but after five years in which they raise their child, Pat, Harry has a one night stand with no meaning to him but unfortunately (or not) Gina finds out about his escapade, so she decides to start her life all over again, but this time away from Harry, in Japan.

The important question that Harry asks himself (and we should try to find an answer to it, just in case...) is: "Can one stop loving and give up on a relationship that they thought it would last forever just because of a mistake, be that sleeping with a colleague?"

"People don't break up because of a one-night stand, Gina. It's not what grown-ups do. You don't chuck it all away because of something like that. I know it hurts. I know what I did was wrong. But how did I suddenly go from being Mr Wonderful to Mr Piece of Shit?"

The answer is in the book, but what kept me reading on was how Harry managed to cope with it.
"Man and Boy" reminded me of "One Day"'s male voice and that was one more high point in the story, which also takes a look at how we (should) act at thirty, wondering if we made a good choice giving up some dreams just to follow others.

"That was my problem. When I thought of turning thirty, I thought of somebody else's life."

Find time to read it! ;)

Dream Catch Me...

2011-02-03T16:33:00.000+02:00

Word of the Week: Horses

2011-01-11T13:11:00.000+02:00

We may say we love horses, but the English love them more, since they have so many idioms and expressions about them :)

~(straight/right) from the horse's mouth: if you hear or get information straight from the horse's mouth, you are told it by someone who has direct knowledge of it
~ a horse of a different color: (Am.E.) something that is completely different from another thing
~ horses for courses:(Br.E.) the process of matching people with suitable jobs or activities
~ never/don't look a gift horse in the mouth:(spoken) used to tell someone to be grateful for something that has been given to them, instead of asking questions about it

~ white horses: (Br.E.)waves in the sea or on a lake that are white at the top
~ put the cart before the horse: to do two things in the wrong order
~ hold your horses!:used to tell someone to do something more slowly or carefully
~ dark horse: (Br. E.) someone who does not tell people much about themselves, but who has surprising qualities or abilities
~ be flogging a dead horse:(spoken) to be wasting time or effort by trying to do something that is impossible

On (a Happy) Life

2011-01-08T10:14:00.001+02:00

Eat Pray Love (or a book about an American woman bored with life)

2011-01-03T23:28:00.017+02:00

It is a wonder I went on to finish this book, taking into consideration that I stopped enjoying the main character, Elizabeth Gilbert, after the first fifty pages.
Still, I do understand why it has become a bestseller: it presents a rather selfish American woman who has it all, including plenty of money to take a year off and travel to three foreign countries - Italy, India, Indonesia - drops it all, messes with her life and, of course, just as in a soppy American movie (yes, I have seen this as well) finds happiness in the end. Don't we all want this?

I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to live in this big house. I don't want to have a baby.

Surely, I understand her struggle with not wanting a baby, her wish to discover God and love after divorcing her husband, her craving for good food, her drive to feel free, her need to satisfy both spirit and body through her actions, but her journey was not at all convincing. I found her quite naive to just travel to Bali a second time because a Yodalike medicine man told her she would do so, to pretend to be such a post-feminist liberated woman and then long for a handsome Italian to kiss her, while still analyzing his status and not being satisfied with the fact that he lived with his mother (while she gave up a marriage to a powerful man who loved her very much)and he was younger (I found no reasonable explanation for this, only maybe that she was more into older guys, seeing that she chose Felipe, a Brazilian man much older that her).

I wish Giovanni would kiss me.

Oh, but there are so many reasons why this would be a terrible idea. To begin with, Giovanni is ten years younger than I am, and, like most Italian guys in their twenties, he still lives with his mother. These facts alone make him an unlikely romantic partner for me, given that I am a professional American woman in my mid-thirties, who has just come through a failed marriage and a devastating, interminable divorce, followed immediately by a passionate love affair that ended in sickening heartbreak.

Even if certain American critics claim that this is not chick-lit but an irresistible memoir, my view is that her whole spiritual journey is rather fake. It is a good book if you have nothing else to read and the only ideas that you remain with after the final chapter are a) people can be so superficial, even on a spiritual quest b) each person has his/her own word. Hers was "antevasin" (in the book) and "attraversiamo" (in the movie, demonstrating that, after all, anything is changeable when it comes to "serious" literature). As for my word, I haven't found it yet, maybe I will go on a spiritual journey in its search :)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T02:33:00.000+02:00

Joy

2010-12-08T22:13:00.000+02:00

Joy is knowing God has granted you innermost wish and you are still around, basking in His glory, breathing the air and smiling back at the sun or childishly enjoying the raindrops falling on your cheeks. Joy is knowing you are not alone and there is always someone to share the miracle of being alive with.

Word(s) of the Week: Angry

2010-12-01T20:55:00.000+02:00

Everybody knows what "angry" means, but did you know these related words and expressions? :)
a little angry: miffed (informal), peeved (informal)
rather angry: annoyed, irritated, cross, in a bad/foul mood
very angry: furious, livid, outraged, incensed, incandescent with rage (formal)
to become angry: lose your temper, go mad , go berserk (informal), go ballistic (informal), hit the roof (informal)
words for describing someone who often gets angry: bad-tempered, grouchy, cantankerous, crabby, stroppy (BrE informal)

The True Alchemist of Words

2010-11-23T22:07:00.001+02:00

Listen to internet radio with SyndicatedNews on Blog Talk Radio

"Call me Z"

2010-11-21T10:09:00.003+02:00

"I thought you are my Jesus"

"A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers" is a beautiful book. So beautiful that it becomes difficult to express it into words. It is the story of a simple girl from China who is sent to London by her parents to study English so that she could easily establish connections and develop their business. Nothing out of this world so far, except that she narrates her story/love affair with an older Englishman in a rather incorrect English, and this is what made it unique for me. Besides the sad love story. Not only is she struggling with tenses and plurals, but she also has difficulty in understanding the Western way of living and loving.

The honest way in which she compares attitudes and cultures is so touching. Her naivete and search for love and truth are endearing. We do smile when she pays a visit to a sex shop or when she states how irrelevant it must be to talk about the weather all the time. Still, there is sadness in her lines when she talks about being loved and needed.

"I hate myself being so needy. The way I want of love, is like a hard toothbrush try to brush bad teeth, then it ends up bleeding. The harder I try, more blood comes out.But I believe love can cure everything, and eventually the teeth will not bleeding anymore. I still think love is the hope, of everything."
Is it, indeed? There are many dreams in a long night...

To read the entire novel, click here.

The Happy Bunch :)

2010-11-18T21:24:00.001+02:00

Partir

2010-11-16T10:20:00.002+02:00

There's nothing like a French movie, especially when Kristin Scott Thomas stars in it. After an astonishing part in "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime", she takes up a role in which she embodies a wife who longs for attention and love and whose husband doesn't seem to provide that. So, she finds herself a penniless lover and strives to get by with very little, provided she is offered love, sweet love. Is there a happy ending to their story? Maybe, maybe not...

I quite liked the movie, but I still prefer "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime", simply because I didn't find any plausible reason why I would sympathize with the Spanish lover... Nevertheless, the scene at the gas station is heartbreaking and the way Kristin portraits a 40 and something woman in love is quite impressive and reminiscent of this.
Peut etre partir, c'est aimer un peu...

More about the movie and the director's ideas here.

Stay

2010-11-05T21:39:00.002+02:00

Truth Hurts

2010-10-29T23:11:00.000+03:00

I Read Books Because I Can't Stop

2010-10-22T21:34:00.007+03:00

Is it a bad thing being a bookaholic?

* I spend more money on books than on other "respectful" things.
* There are times when I don't go to sleep because I have to see how a book ends.
* I have a book with me most of the time I am out of the house.
* It is hard to leave a bookstore without buying (a) book(s) even if I have a huge pile of "to-be-read".
* I am not sure of the books I have.
* I sometimes find myself quoting from the books I have read.
* I don't lend my books because I might not get them back (or have them stained).
* I can easily get excited about any new book that my favorite writers release.

* There are plenty of books I have read before other people.
* I can leaf through a book and forget about the food on the cooker.
* I enjoy reading reviews before and after I have read the book.
* I have a wishlist on a dedicated site.
* I have my favorite books in English, French and Romanian (if they have been translated).
* I have struggled to get autographs from my favorite authors (and succeeded).
* It took hours to be taken out of the "Shakespeare and Co."
* I am planning a future trip abroad in accordance with a literary festival.

Teaching to the Student

2010-10-14T15:25:00.004+03:00

Seth Godin continues to teach me smart things :)

All teachers know about differentiated learning, but what this phrase actually says is that different students want to do different things and what they end up doing is what makes them acquire new information. Thus, if you want your students to learn the most, you should start by thinking that they are different.

The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition states that there are 5 stages that a student could pass through:
1. Novice
--wants to be given a manual, told what to do, with no decisions possible

2. Advanced beginner
--needs a bit of freedom, but is unable to quickly describe a hierarchy of which parts are more important than others

3. Competent
--wants the ability to make plans, create routines and choose among activities

4. Proficient
--the more freedom you offer, the more you expect, the more you'll get

5. Expert
--writes the manual, doesn't follow it.

Although it is hard not to teach to the book or to the curriculum, what should one do is teach to the student in order to get positive feedback.

Demonstrating Strength

2010-10-05T22:41:00.000+03:00

Via Seth Godin's blog.

Apologize

Defer to others

Avoid shortcuts

Tell the truth

Offer kindness

Seek alliances

Volunteer to take the short straw

Choose the long-term, sacrificing the short

Demonstrate respect to all, not just the obviously strong

Share credit and be public in your gratitude

Poetry Is Where the Heart Is...

2010-10-01T08:53:00.000+03:00

TIPTIL

aud glasul tau si privesc in
lumina ochilor tai.
fara suflare
incerc sa-ti patrund in inima
cu sfiala,
sa nu-ti tulbur ritmul
exact si perfect,
care ma-nfioara.

(Nicu Alifantis)

You Are the Drug That I Can't Quit...

2010-09-21T10:57:00.001+03:00

Optimism

2010-09-16T17:03:00.000+03:00

The Art of Travel

2010-09-13T07:41:00.000+03:00

It’s in our nature to be on the move, in the search of new places, exhilarating experiences and longed-for soul mates. We travel in our heads or over the clouds, but we always look for the next heart throbbing spot that will place us in the center of the yet untamed mother Earth.

Indeed, there’s nothing more addictive than roaming around, discovering, with every step, things, places and people that change us forever. We go sightseeing, travel guide(s) in our backpack, just as the painter goes on to trace lines on the canvas, hoping for wishes coming true, as we hope to go beyond the unknown and tedious, because there is pure ART in the way we TRAVEL, and there’s no art without pleasure. Yet sometimes, our sole purpose is to only return from our travels in order to flee again, in a much greater style, for what is our world but an oyster awaiting to be conquered?
And if our restless heart and desire to hit the road prove to be more abundant for a single life, we can still hope for the other eight...

If You Want, I'll hunt You like an Animal...

2010-09-08T13:20:00.006+03:00

I am totally overwhelmed by the number of Madonna leaks this past week. Not only are they of good quality, but most of them sound fabulous.
Here's Animal, from the Hard Candy sessions, and I am still wondering why it wasn't included on the album. It's definitely funkier than some of the songs from HC.I guess Madonna has her ways, after all...

Madonna - Animal (Hard Candy sessions)

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Four Lions or Screw Political Correctness

2010-09-07T09:24:00.001+03:00

Ok, let’s cut to the chase. I loved this movie. It was simply brilliant while being bloody funny. I haven’t laughed that much since Blackadder.
Four Lions is a black comedy, which, fortunately, makes you laugh at contemporary issues, because, let’s be honest, that’s probably the only thing worth doing. It tries to show that extremists are humans after all, and multiculturalism can also be a sloppy matter. Indeed, there may be some uncomfortable truths amongst the laughter and irony, but one can go past them in order to savour a comedy in which four blokes are trying really hard to put together a terrorist cell that could blow up …. wait for it….. a mosque. What the buffoons end up doing is … well, I won’t spoil it for you so watch the movie without feeling guilty that you might laugh when a bomb goes off. It happened to me, too.

Here are some hilarious lines and the trailer.
“We’ve got women talking back. We’ve got people playing stringed instruments. It’s the end of days”.
“You can’t win an argument just by being right”.
“Are you in Paradise, bro?”

Les Memoires D'Hadrien

2010-09-05T14:55:00.003+03:00

Octavian is generous once more and here I am writing in order to get a book. But not just any book, Les Memoires d'Hadrien written by Marguerite Yourcenar, the first female writer to enter the French Academy (and this time, my knowledge about her and the book stop here).

Why this book? Well, shamefully, I haven't read anything by her, not even during my French courses, so it would be a great first. Secondly, I long to read in French and to brush it up a bit, since I can sense I am getting rusty at that :).
Thirdly, (and here comes the "generosity shock" on my part), If I enjoy it, I will pass it forward to my friend and French teacher... How does that sound for "giving, you shall receive"? :)

Whisling in the Wind

2010-08-30T09:01:00.001+03:00

I was leafing through the "Encyclopedia of Taboos" and found an interesting article about whistling.
Now, it seems that you can whistle in the dark or become a whistle-blower, not to mention the wolf-whistle that some men use to show the animal within, but still, it is useful to know that in the Islam world, whistling is forbidden because of its association with sorcery and the casting of spells in pre-Islamic times. Whistling is also a means of “communication with the Jinn”. The Jinn (from which the English word “genie” derives) inhabit the immaterial world. In the Koran it is stated that the jinn were created from “smokeless fire” while man was made of clay and angels were formed from light.

Moreover, the French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, has uncovered a link between whistling and sorcery in ancient tribes, fact described in his book "From Honey to Ashes: Introduction to a Science of Mythology".
If you also happen to travel at sea, mind that you could easily be thrown overboard if you attempt to communicate with the jinn, simply because whistling at sea is deemed unlucky.

It's All about the Clothes

2010-08-23T12:33:00.000+03:00

~ all mouth and trousers
blustering and boastful, showing off without
having the qualities to justify it.

~ pull up one's socks
try harder

~ keep one's shirt on
try to stay calm

~ buckle down
to give one's complete attention or effort to do something

~ feather in one`s cap
something to be proud of, an honor

~ talk through one`s hat
to say something without knowing or understanding the facts

Fabulous Madonna

2010-08-16T06:34:00.003+03:00

Madonna turns 52 today and I can't stop marvelling about her power and determination to change the world while also having fun :)
Happy Bday, Queen of Hearts! :)

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Sacred Hearts

2010-08-12T17:03:00.008+03:00

I really enjoyed reading Sarah Dunant's previous books, whether they were thrillers - "Transgressions" - or historical fiction - "In the Company of the Courtesan" or "The Birth of Venus", so I was glad to emerge into a new reading of hers.

SACRED HEARTS is a novel that belongs to the genre of religious fiction and thus, it represented a premiere amongst my readings, which at first made me reconsider it, thinking it would be tedious, but once you get past the first 200 pages (lol) (out of its 460), it totally grips you.

"She is only a young woman who did not want to become a nun. The world is full of them."

As the world of the Santa Caterina nunnery during Renaissance is set, you experience an eagerness to get to the last page and see if Serafina, a sixteen year old novice, will run away from the nunnery and reunite with her lover/music teacher or she will benevolently succumb to the life of the nunnery where Sora Zuana plays an indispensable part.

If Serafina manages to escape her destiny or remain its prisoner is for you to find out in this weave of devotion, rebellion and the worlds between them.

Literacy

2010-08-06T14:59:00.001+03:00

Vocabulary and adolescent literacy for resa

View more presentations from Donna Murray.

Teachers

2010-08-01T12:12:00.002+03:00

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” William A. Ward

Why Would I Go to Paris?

2010-07-12T22:43:00.003+03:00

Once you've been to Paris, it becomes quite difficult to describe it because there's nothing that compares to it, even a few previous visits...
So, "La Femme de Trente Ans" will go to Paris because it's the one and only city where love can actually be felt in the air, where one can indulge in the sheer beauty of the Sacre Coeur, stroll in "Jardin de Luxembourg" with no care in the world, be overwhelmed by what true art really means in Le Louvre, touch the dreamy sky while up in La Tour Eiffel, allow oneself to be swept away by the gentle breeze while enjoying a ride in a "bateau mouche", chuckle about some "dubious" artifact while in Le Musee de l'Erotisme et refaire le parcours d'Amelie, comme une petite folle de ce film :)
How much Paris can one squeeze into two weeks? I will let you know when I return, now I almost feel like I am living a life of pure debauchery :))

One of My Gods

2010-07-07T10:26:00.000+03:00

A Single Man

2010-07-01T17:00:00.001+03:00

"A Single Man" has easily crept among my all time favorite movies, for a simple reason: it is STUNNING! The actors, Julienne Moore and Colin Firth need no introduction, and Tom Ford, the director, writer and producer, is at his first but worthy attempt in the vast field of Hollywood movies.
This perfect film combines 3 unfinished love stories and the sadness and desperation that they bring along. It is love that turns the main character into a suicidal one, and it is also love that rescues him. But not for long, as fatality strikes...

The haunting music reminded me of "In the mood for love" and I wasn't wrong. The music composer, Shigeru Umebayashi, wrote the music for "In the mood ..." but also for its sequel, "2046".

The Hump Effect

2010-06-27T14:59:00.006+03:00

The Hump Effect is related to the idea that Wednesdays are considered days of hard work and making it through to the middle of the work week is just as getting "over the hump."

The Hump Effect, mentioned in Edward de Bono's book "The Happiness Purpose", is explained as getting people to do things which seem to go against their best interests at the moment. It may be a matter of preventing someone from doing something which is tempting, or making someone do something which is unpleasant, but eventually, this less attractive 'road" opens out into a wider one, with more, beneficial opportunities. A simple example would be the one about going to the gym. It may seem hard and/or boring, but if you succeed in constantly going, it will better your health and looks, which may prove exactly what you wanted for yourself in the beginning.

Spelling Bee

2010-06-21T20:19:00.004+03:00

If you think you're good at spelling, try this preliminary test. I scored 17 and missed 3 because I didn't check the words at the end, so make sure you do that!

The Hole in the Elephant's Bottom

2010-06-11T21:51:00.001+03:00

The funniest thing you may have heard :)

Jeremy Irons - The Hole in the Elephant's Bottom

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Proficient in English

2010-06-04T19:56:00.006+03:00

If you are able to correctly solve this word - formation exercise, then your English has reached a proficiency level :)

For many people Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is the most (0) influential (INFLUENCE) figure in the history of western classical music. His (1) ..... (ORDINARY) talent was already clearly evident as a young man, (2) ..... (MERCY) surviving a somewhat unconventional(3) ..... (BRING) during which his eccentric father would often force him to take music lessons in the middle of the night.

The young Beethoven's ability won him the admiration of the leading contemporary musical figures. Throughout the 1790s he worked hard to secure the interest of wealthy patrons. Such patronage (4) .....(ABLE) him to concentrate on becoming a successful composer.

Whatever his awe-inspiring musical (5) .....(ACHIEVE), however, his personal life was something of a disaster. His day-to-day (6) ..... (RELATE)with people invariably turned out to be rather turbulent. Although he apparently fell in love with a number of society women, the identity of the girl who lay closest to his heart remains (7) ..... (ELUDE)to this day.

However, just at the point when Beethoven was beginning to reap the rewards of his early endeavours, he had to come to terms with the crushing (8) ..... (REALISE)that his increasing deafness was (9) ..... .(CURE) From that point on, his music displayed a (10) ..... (STRIKE) change in style, becoming both heavier in tone and larger in scale.

Mon Dieu, Comme Il Est Idiot...

2010-06-01T15:32:00.001+03:00

Nothing Really Matters

2010-05-20T00:17:00.001+03:00

I still can't believe this video wasn't included on CELEBRATION :(

Here's a remix I simply and totally LOVE.

Madonna - Nothing Really Matters Lukesavant New Beginnings Mix

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