Charanavi by Masahiro Tsuromoto

May 14th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Synopsis:
How your birthday tells you who you are.
Review:
Charanavi is a Japanese book in translation and offers a fortune-telling system that relates your birthday to a type of animal. Based on my birthday, 11/4/1973, I am a “potential tanuki.” A tanuki is a sort of raccoon indigenous to Japan. Being a potential tanuki [...]

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Tags: Japanese Literature

Love’s Executioner by Irvin D. Yalom

June 17th, 2007 · No Comments

Synopsis:
10 tales of clinical psychoanalysis by a leading psychotherapist.
Popularity: 23% [?]

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Popularity: 23% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

May 23rd, 2007 · 12 Comments

Synopsis:
The tangled fates of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his four sons, three legitimate, one a bastard, culminating in a trial for murder.
Review:
I’d be a fool if I tried to pretend I were anywhere up to the task of critiquing The Brothers Karamazov. I can honestly say I’m a little freaked out by what I’ve [...]

Popularity: 48% [?]

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Tags: Russian Literature

The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits

May 21st, 2007 · 2 Comments

Synopsis:
When Mary was 16, she may or may not have been abducted and raped by an older man, whose life was ruined by her accusations.
Popularity: 75% [?]

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Popularity: 75% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson

March 16th, 2007 · No Comments

Synopsis:
One girl with four personalities at war for dominance, and her only hope is the doctor who is growing to loathe her.
Review:
I swear this has never happened to me–I could have sworn I read The Bird’s Nest when I went through my Shirley Jackson phase back in 1998. I found this awesome woman in [...]

Popularity: 29% [?]

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Tags: American Literature · On Reading

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

February 11th, 2007 · 6 Comments

Synopsis:
An old spinster teacher narrates her obsession with fellow teacher Sheba Hart, who is having an affair with her 15-year-old student.
Popularity: 29% [?]

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Popularity: 29% [?]

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Tags: British Literature

Diagnosis: Schizophrenia by Rachel Miller & Susan E. Mason

December 29th, 2006 · No Comments

Synopsis:
A look at schizophrenia through first person accounts by 35 people diagnosed with the disease, along with advice and recommendations from several clinicians and doctors.
Review:
This book is designed primarily to be comforting and encouraging for someone with schizophrenia. The first person accounts in Diagnosis: Schizophrenia demystify the illness and give honest answers to questions [...]

Popularity: 20% [?]

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Tags: American Literature