books this year

though it may seem hard to believe, many people in the performing arts tend to be introverts. perhaps because what we do requires so much giving and extroversion, we need those extra moments of inwardness to recharge.

so with that as a preface, here are some books i've enjoyed most lately...

Here I Am - Jonathan Safran Foer

though my fiance wasn't too happy with me reading a book about divorce in anticipation of our wedding, this book actually made me more excited about the rituals and solemnity involved with marriage. i loved the book's alternation between laugh out loud moments of ridiculousness, political absurdity, jewish discourse and poignant everyday moments of loss and healing. 

“Between any two beings there is a unique, uncrossable distance, an unenterable sanctuary. Sometimes it takes the shape of aloneness. Sometimes it takes the shape of love.”

Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino

a book i brought on honeymoon to the amalfi coast and my first time reading calvino. moments of such beauty and such a fine line between poetry and prose... such a pleasurable read.

“Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. 'There is the blueprint,' they say.” 

Le grand Meaulnes (The Lost Estate) - Alain-Fournier

I read this book in English while in paris (also on honeymoon). so nostalgic and dreamy and touching... hard to believe the author was killed in WWI just after completing. great for patient readers who enjoy proust... 

“This evening, which I have tried to spirit away, is a strange burden to me. While time moves on, while the day will soon end and I already wish it gone, there are men who have entrusted all their hopes to it, all their love and their last efforts. There are dying men or others who are waiting for a debt to come due, who wish that tomorrow would never come. There are others for whom the day will break like a pang of remorse; and others who are tired, for whom the night will never be long enough to give them the rest that they need. And I - who have lost my day - what right do I have to wish that tomorrow comes?” 

Americanah & Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

I went on a Chimamanda kick this year (how could i not?). while i enjoyed her feminist manifestos, i found myself most moved by her novels. her discussions of race and living in america as a non-american black woman were illuminating, though what drew me most into the story were the love stories interwoven throughout the novel. Half of a Yellow Sun was written so beautifully from the different perspectives, and painted such a picture of nigeria in the 1960s and the complexity of sisterly love. 

“This was love: a string of coincidences that gathered significance and became miracles.” 

there've been other books but i think that's enough for one post. :) now i'm reading Nicole Krauss' Forest Dark. curious to see how it goes...