For it is so important to read! It strengthens the mind and your imagination, sets up delayed gratification (which is increasingly rare in our society), and is a very environmentally friendly form of entertainment - especially if you buy your books second hand or borrow them from a library. This week for my blog, I would love to share with you some of my favourite books that I have read recently.
"Burmese Lessons" by Karen Connelly - a young Canadian woman goes to Burma and unearths people and stories that she did not expect (inspired my song: "Betel Red")
"The Idiot" by Dostoyevsky - a classic and a wonderfully depressing Russian literary work that is best read during the sunny summer months (inspired my song: "The Fool")
"Cannery Row" and "East of Eden" by Steinbeck - get a glimpse of reality and a perspective on human nature, Steinbeck is truly brilliant at capturing American sentiment
"In the Shadow of the Banyan Tree" by Vaddey Ratner - told from a young girl's perspective, this book shines a light into the Khmer Rouge's take over of Cambodia
"The Tiger Claw" by Shauna Singh Baldwin - set during WWII, a young Indian woman joins the French Resistance in order to go under cover and attempt to recover her Jewish lover
"The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov - there is a talking cat, a naked woman, and satan... what more could you want?
"Journey into the Whirlwind" by Eugenia Ginzburg - suspected of 'terrorism' during Stalinist's reign of terror, our narrator is imprisoned and shipped to Siberia. It is nothing short of miraculous that she survived to tell her tale.
There are so many wonderful books to read! I'd love it if you left a comment with a book suggestion, or even a few!