Category: Art
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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Piranesi is a hauntingly beautiful novel that defies genre and expectation. From the very first page, I was captivated by its surreal world—a labyrinthine House filled with statues, tides, and echoes of forgotten knowledge. Clarke’s prose is lyrical and precise, drawing the reader into a space that feels both infinite and intimate.
What struck me most was the book’s profound exploration of madness and healing. The protagonist’s journey, told through meticulous journal entries, resonated deeply with me. The act of journaling—documenting, reflecting, and making sense of one’s reality—was not just a narrative device but a lifeline. I found myself relating to this deeply personal ritual, which threads through every part of the story.
The novel’s magic lies in its quiet revelations. It doesn’t shout; it whispers. And in those whispers, it speaks of trauma, resilience, and the redemptive power of solitude and curiosity. Piranesi reminded me that healing can be found in the most unexpected places—even in a world of tides and statues.
I’m truly glad I read it. It’s a literary gem that lingers long after the final page.
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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Piranesi is a hauntingly beautiful novel that defies genre and expectation. From the very first page, I was captivated by its surreal world—a labyrinthine House filled with statues, tides, and echoes of forgotten knowledge. Clarke’s prose is lyrical and precise, drawing the reader into a space that feels both infinite and intimate.
What struck me most was the book’s profound exploration of madness and healing. The protagonist’s journey, told through meticulous journal entries, resonated deeply with me. The act of journaling—documenting, reflecting, and making sense of one’s reality—was not just a narrative device but a lifeline. I found myself relating to this deeply personal ritual, which threads through every part of the story.
The novel’s magic lies in its quiet revelations. It doesn’t shout; it whispers. And in those whispers, it speaks of trauma, resilience, and the redemptive power of solitude and curiosity. Piranesi reminded me that healing can be found in the most unexpected places—even in a world of tides and statues.
I’m truly glad I read it. It’s a literary gem that lingers long after the final page.
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Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (Translator)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a fun exploration into time travel–very worth reading. Simple, pleasant, relevant, and fun. Strongly recommended escapism.
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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I don’t know. I really wanted to like The Night Circus—the premise is undeniably magical, and the world Morgenstern builds is rich with imagination. But for me, it just didn’t land.
There was a lot of weird, overly elaborate description that felt more like a distraction than an enhancement. The prose is lush, yes, but sometimes it felt like style over substance. I found myself getting lost in the imagery and not in a good way.
The ending? Not particularly worth it—or something. It just didn’t feel like the payoff matched the buildup. Maybe I missed something, or maybe it’s just not my cup of tea right now.
If you love atmospheric reads and don’t mind a slower, more meandering plot, this might be for you. But personally, I was left feeling underwhelmed.
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Olga Tokarczuk & Antonia Lloyd-Jones. “The Empusium.”
We are shaped not by what is strong in us but by the anomaly, by whatever is weak and not accepted
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Hemingway, Ernest. “A Moveable Feast.”
The blue–backed notebooks, the two pencils and the pencil sharpener (a pocket knife was too wasteful), the marble–topped tables, the smell of early morning, sweeping out and mopping, and luck were all you needed
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Andrei Tarkovsky
How would I know the right word for what I want? How would I know that I don’t want what I want? Or that actually I don’t want what I don’t want? They are elusive things: the moment we name them their meaning disappears, melts, dissolves, like a jellyfish in the sun.
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Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung) (Jung Extracts) by C.G. Jung, R.F.C. Hull (Translator), Sonu Shamdasani (Contributor)
Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung) by C.G. Jung
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
epic read
Super fun exploration of old school Christian themes, 1950’s papal decrees, and just weird observations from the humanities department.
Worth reading to grok what a madman Jung could be.
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Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was not a huge fan of this book. The author is the narrator which is fun. The book is simplistic and written for children. It is that strangely British convention of using other people tragedy to tell a metaphor which I find distasteful and disrespectful. Another book read in school that should not be–it is violent, has deep homoerotic longings that are weirdly disturbing (British men of a certain period just cannot get enough young naked boys–shudder). Heavy handed, simplistic, and just weird.
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David Given Schwarm 