Prolific Living

book review

Baroness Emmuska Orczy: “The Scarlet Pimpernel”

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Reading A Scarlet Pimpernel at breakfast in Argentina's Park Hyatt

If I had to do it all over again, I would….?

When you ask yourself that question casually, what is the answer? In some situations, we cannot change the past and the opportunity has passed. In others however, we may be able to set a new course. A few years ago I realized one of my many answers. That I would have loved to read far more classics over the years. Heaps of engineering textbooks, technical jargon and business buzzwords prepared and educated me well for my career but left me with a strong desire for voraciously consuming the classics, literature, poetry, art and history – hence my reading mania since 2006! There is usually a very good reason a book is considered a classic and besides, exploring the genre has hardly resulted in a regret for anyone that I have ever met. [Read more…] about Baroness Emmuska Orczy: “The Scarlet Pimpernel”

Edith Wharton: “Age of Innocence”

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Be it naïveté or lack of insight, I have never understood all the fuss about New York and its self-proclaimed greatness. Try as I might, I cannot recollect a single memory of a warm encounter, a nice experience or a kind human interaction during my visits. Sadly, I do have a few sour such memories, but you learn to write those off as exceptions, especially if the good ones balance things out. After all, the amalgamation of dozens of religions and cultures is bound to produce its challenges anywhere on earth, particularly in big cities. Even so, New York’s inadequate impression on me remains unchanged as yet.

Reading Wharton's Age of Innocence at home

Reading is the best pastime for an active mind! If you like to see the other book reviews, check the index of In Print.

So it is with great reluctance that I started Edith Wharton’s classic short novel on high society life in New York city at the close of 19th century (1870s). Wharton’s Pulitzer-prize winning “Age of Innocence” depicts all the hypocrisy and convention, duty and criticism, propriety and snobbery of the New York elite as it tells the story of protagonist Newland Archer [Read more…] about Edith Wharton: “Age of Innocence”

Daphne du Maurier: “Rebecca”

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In my mind, I was driving to Manderley last night.

Engrossed in Rebecca's Daphne Du Maurier

I was driving my little Honda down a remote highway when I went into this state of complete mental absorption. Less than a day after finishing Daphne Du Maurier’s classic of a novel, Rebecca, I was finding it nearly impossible to stop thinking about Manderley, the magnificent estate and grounds and a central part of the novel. But this time, I was not particularly thinking about the story. No. I was living in it momentarily. I had a notion that I was driving to Manderley on that very road, veering left and right, winding down a path with the large hanging trees, past the sidewalks covered with the fallen autumn leaves which are sometimes tossed about by the soft palm of the wind, and heading towards the light orange sky with the deep blue clouds in the horizon. It could very well have been the road to Manderley. How fantastic and exciting it all seemed. How swift a return to reality too. Sigh. Is it normal for you to fantasize about fictional places that surely do not exist but in the figment of the author’s imagination, and now in yours as a reader?

[Read more…] about Daphne du Maurier: “Rebecca”

Henry James: “Daisy Miller” and “Washington Square”

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Henry James

I read “Daisy Miller” and “Washington Square” because Azar Nafisi mentioned them in “Reading Lolita in Tehran“. I had set out to complete the reading list of all the books mentioned in Nafisi’s tales of Iran, and next on my list were these two short novels of Henry James. They came in the same book. I read “Daisy Miller” first, and while it’s a tiny 62 pages, it took me weeks to get past the first few alone. I remember starting out the same way with “Jane Eyre” and fell in love with her gradually. So I stuck it out. I remember hearing about Eleanor Roosevelt’s theory that motivation will come to you if you are already working, so put yourself in autopilot of the task at hand at first, go through the motions, and motivation will come to you then but not any sooner. [Read more…] about Henry James: “Daisy Miller” and “Washington Square”

Malcolm Gladwell: “Blink”

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Malcolm Gladwell's Blink on top of my Mac

Reading “Blink” made me more confident in trusting those instant first impressions. Gladwell put some logic and reason into what I could only describe as instinct.  Agree or disagree with him, Gladwell knows how to tell a compelling a story, and it is the stories that grasp his readers, or at the very least, me.  I read this book on a coast to coast airplane ride on a December a few years ago. In preparation for reading his latest book, “The Outliers“, which has been sitting on my book shelf from last Xmas wish list, I realized this book never made it into the book posts. So I finally took it off the shelf, dusted it off (it’s just an expression, there is no dust at my house!), and tried to remember what I consumed in the 254-pages. [Read more…] about Malcolm Gladwell: “Blink”