book crazed: reviews

Ever since I've started teaching, I've become increasingly voracious of various books. Actually, in general, I absolutely love bookstores and libraries. I could spend hours in a bookstore and not feel like I wasted any time at all. Having said that... I've picked up a few books these past few weeks that I think are awesome, weird, and totally worth it for anyone to read.

The Arrival - Shaun Tan

One of the best picture books I've read/seen. It tells the wordless tale of an immigrant's experience in a new world. Definitely something that will stimulate thought for both the young and the old -- especially since we live in such a multicultural and self-centered society where we see and meet people from various backgrounds but often fail to understand their struggle in a new place.

The Night is a Mouth - Lisa Foad
I haven't finished reading this book yet because I can only take so much of it in one sitting. In a few words, it is disturbing, overwhelming and poignant. It's a collection of short stories but none of them are written in a typical narrative fashion. And the stories are riddled with poetic verse and allusions and disturbing content that is all pathetic, violent and beautiful. I got this book at the Writer's Fest a few weeks ago at the 'Coming of Age' seminar where a bunch of authors came and talked about their works. I don't know how true this book is in terms of the "coming of age" genre (*think Catcher in the Rye and Holden Caulfield-esque?) but I'm pretty sure a lot of people won't like these short stories because of how graphically gritty they are but they sure present real portraits of the human struggle.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne
Started this book yesterday and finished it by last night.... And then I bawled for a good 15 minutes at the end wondering at the gross wickedness in the world. Yah. That's all I need to say about how powerful and good this book is. Read it. And then maybe go watch the movie but here's a short preview of the movie (though I'm a firm believer that movies never really do good books justice).