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Showing posts from November, 2023

MY NAME IS RED, A NOVEL BY ORHAN PAMUK (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)

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Hello dear friends and fellow bloggers! I'm back with another reading recommendation. My Name is Red is a novel by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk.  Published in 1998, this lengthy postmodern historical novel focuses on a group of miniaturists working in sixteenth century Istanbul. Most of the major characters are a part of the same group of artists. The novel opens with a murder mystery. What follows is a story that has two main characters  (protagonists if you will) but also subplots.  There is a love story of sorts within this murder mystery, but   My Name is Red is not a typical romance. It's, in many ways, a philosophical and detailed dive into Ottoman Empire. The realism of this novel is at times graphic (featuring graphic descriptions of violence) and at times dreamy (featuring poetical descriptions).   My Name is Red often focuses on philosophical debates about the nature and purpose of art. It uses postmodernist writing techniques and is narrated by various characters, some

THE ROSE TATTOO, A PLAY BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)

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In this post, I shall review The Rose Tattoo , a play by Tennessee  Williams . It's one of his lesser known plays, but it is not lesser in any other way. There's also a movie version I haven't watched and therefore cannot comment on. I haven't actually seen this play on stage, but I have imagined it. I've also read it a number of times. Some say you cannot understand a play without seeing it on stage, but I think it depends on the play. Some plays are very readable. All    Tennessee  Williams's  plays are that way for me. When I read them, I both see and feel them.  I actually wrote this review years ago. You could say it's one of those books that have stayed with me and that I remember fondly.  It's been sitting in my blog archives , waiting for the right moment to be presented to my readers. I  think I have found a suitable outfit to publish this book review with.  I'm shopping my closet once again. I'm wearing a vintage red  dress paired w

THE LADY OF THE LAKE, A NOVEL BY A. SAPKOWSKI, WITCHER BOOK #7 (REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)

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Hello dear readers and fellow bloggers! In this post, I shall review The Lady of the Lake , the eight book and the fifth novel in the Witcher series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Published in 1999,  The Lady of the Lake   is a direct sequel to The Tower of Swallow . Chronologically,   The Lady of the Lake  is the last novel in the Witcher series. However, there's another Witcher book, Season of Storms , that follows it.  Season of Storms  is a prequel of sorts, basically a novel chronically placed between the first two Witcher books. Published in 2013,  Season of Storms is the actual last published Witcher book. Nevertheless, it is not wrong to regard   The Lady of the Lake as the final book of the Witcher saga.   In fact,  The Lady of the Lake is basically the final book of the Witcher series. After all, this novel is the one that really wraps up the saga and ends the story. Having read this fifth novel, I do have a sense of closure. I might even wait a bit, you know, befor