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Author Archives: Samantha Lin

Reviews: 9 books from March! (Gabaldon, Kafka, Leroux, Gregory, James, etc)

13 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by Samantha Lin in Booktastic

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

era: contemporary, era: edwardian, reading: brainless bedside books, reading: challenges (2014), reading: far and wide, reading: fun book reviews, reading: stunning, text type: novel, text type: short story, writer: james (henry), writer: kafka, writer: romance authors, writer: young adult authors

Another batch of “reviews”! (I will always refer to these as “reviews” because I feel they more closely resemble ramblings.) I read 9 books in March, and, once again, they’re from a range of different genres, eras, and countries. Here’s the list:

14. Anne Maria Nicholson – Weeping Waters (1 Mar)
15. Diana Gabaldon – Outlander (3 Mar)
16. Diana Wynne Jones – Fire and Hemlock (6 Mar)
17. Franz Kafka – Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Penguin Modern Classics, trans. Michael Hoffman) (10 Mar)
18. Gaston Leroux – The Phantom of the Opera (Dover, trans. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos) (13 Mar)
19. Philippa Gregory – The Other Boleyn Girl (13 Mar)
20. David Gaider – Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne (17 Mar)
21. Kate Quinn – Mistress of Rome (22 Mar)
22. Henry James – The Golden Bowl (26 Mar)
23. Janet Fitch – White Oleander (31 Mar)

And now, the “reviews”:

Continue reading »

Reviews: 13 books from Jan/Feb! (Heyer, Zusak, Dickens, Nietzsche, McEwan, Rushdie, Tolkien, Austen, etc)

05 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by Samantha Lin in Booktastic

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

era: 20th century, era: regency, era: victorian, reading: challenges (2014), reading: far and wide, reading: fun book reviews, text type: autobiography, text type: non-fiction, text type: novel, writer: austen, writer: dickens, writer: mcewan, writer: nietzsche, writer: young adult authors

I started my little bookfest in late January, and didn’t think it would go far—until, a week and five books later, I realised that hey, I can read books for funfunfun! In an attempt to have some sort of structure in these reviews, I’ll be organising my thoughts about fiction into four categories, which is essentially adapted from Aristotle’s take on tragedy in his Poetics (yes, I’m boring and completely unoriginal—thank goodness for the basics!).

So, here’s a list of the books I read in Jan/Feb (with finishing dates):

1. Georgette Heyer – Arabella (30 Jan)
2. Julian Short – An Intelligent Life (1 Feb)
3. Georgette Heyer – Cotillion (2 Feb)
4. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief (3 Feb)
5. Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics, ed. Richard Maxwell) (7 Feb)
6. Mark Haddon – A Spot of Bother (10 Feb)
7. Friedrich Nietzsche – Ecce Homo (Penguin Classics, trans. R. J. Hollingdale) (11 Feb)
8. Ian McEwan – Solar (13 Feb)
9. Sarah Rees Brennan – Unspoken (14 Feb)
10. J. D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye (21 Feb)
11. Salman Rushdie – Midnight’s Children (24 Feb)
12. J. R. R. Tolkien – The Hobbit (24 Feb)
13. Jane Austen – Persuasion (Penguin Classics, ed. Gillian Beer) (27 Feb)

And, my thoughts on them (with the cover images corresponding to those of my copies):

Continue reading »

2014 Reading Extravaganza and Challenges

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Samantha Lin in Booktastic

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

reading: challenges (2014), reading: fun book reviews

27 December 2014: I finished both challenges! :D

Original post: Due to a change in life circumstances, I’m now able to tackle my massive mountain of fun books, aka non-academic related shinies. In the last two months, I’ve read 22 fun books—twenty-two! This is super exciting because ever since I decided to get serious about English literature, I never got to actually enjoy English literature as a reader, and not as an academic or researcher or someone-with-their-brain-perpetually-turned-on-while-words-are-present.

I’ve been keeping track of these books along with my general thoughts on them, and instead of hogging all the ranting and the gushing, I’m going to share them with the big, bad, scary Intermenet. And, seeing as I’m doing all this reading anyway, I thought it’d be fun to sign up to two rather funky challenges—so here we are!

The Colour Coded Challenge (hosted by My Reader’s Block)

1. A book with “Blue” or any shade of Blue (Turquoise, Aquamarine, Navy, etc) in the title.
2. A book with “Red” or any shade of Red (Scarlet, Crimson, Burgandy, etc) in the title.
3. A book with “Yellow” or any shade of Yellow (Gold, Lemon, Maize, etc.) in the title.
4. A book with “Green” or any shade of Green (Emerald, Lime, Jade, etc) in the title.
5. A book with “Brown” or any shade of Brown (Tan, Chocolate, Beige, etc) in the title.
6. A book with “Black” or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc) in the title.
7. A book with “White” or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc) in the title.
8. A book with any other color in the title (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, Magneta, etc.).
9. A book with a word that implies color (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Paisley, Stripe, etc.).

1: “Blue”: Midnight’s Children by Salmon Rushdie
2: “Red”: Written in Red by Anne Bishop
3: “Yellow”: The Golden Bowl by Henry James
4: “Green”: Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig
5: “Brown”: Julia’s Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
6: “Black”: The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
7: “White”: White Oleander by Janet Fitch
8: “Other”: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
9: “Implied”: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister


The Alphabet Soup Challenge (hosted by Escape With Dollycas Into a Good Book)

A: Arabella by Georgette Heyer
B: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
C: Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
D: Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider
E: Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche
F: Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
G: The Golden Bowl by Henry James
H: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
I: An Intelligent Life by Julian Short
J: Julia’s Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
K: Kokoro by Natsume Soseki (trans. Meredith McKinney)
L: Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig
M: Midnight’s Children by Salmon Rushdie
N: Nicomachean Ethics (part two) by Aristotle
O: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
P: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Q: The Queen’s Captive by Barbara Kyle
R: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
S: A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
T: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
U: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
V: A Very Accidental Love Story by Claudia Carroll
W: Weeping Waters by Anne Maria Nicholson
X: The Xenophobe’s Guide to the English by Antony Miall and David Milsted
Y: You & I by Emily Gillmor Murphy
Z: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig


I’ll keep this list updated as I devour the books, and will also post my reviews/thoughts/analyses/ramblings related to the pleasures of reading funfunfun books!

[Wordless Wednesday] 22 August 2012

22 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Samantha Lin in Wordless Wednesday

≈ 6 Comments

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photography: objects

[Inner Senshi Book Club] Round 4: Flowers From the Storm

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by Samantha Lin in Inner Senshi Book Club

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

hosted by: angel

(Again, sorry about the late post—I need to stop making mid-month travel plans!)

The “Inner Senshi Book Club” is an online book club where five book lovers of different backgrounds and tastes across the world take turns at selecting and hosting a book each month. Individually, we are (in alphabetical order): Aimee, Angel, Meghan, Samantha L, and Samantha R. Together, we present you a whole range of books, complete with our responses to a rotating list of set questions. For more information about us, check out this introductory post.

A new book is selected on the 15th of each month, and our thoughts are posted roughly four to five weeks later. We hope you can join us in our reading shenanigans! (The book club derives its name from the five soldiers of love and justice from the Japanese manga and anime series, Sailormoon. We are just as kickass, and if all goes to plan, twice as well-read.)


This month, our book choice is: Laura Kinsale – Flowers From the Storm (as chosen by Angel)

I want you to consider:
Which person–real or fictional–do you think will consider this book one of their favourites? Why do you think this is?

Samantha R is interested in knowing:
Did you have a favourite character in the book? If so, what was it about this character that drew you to them? Or in reverse, were there any characters that you particularly disliked, and why?

Meghan is wondering:
If you could rewrite any part of the book, what would you change?

Angel would like you to think about:
Was it easy or difficult to identify with the narrator and why?

Aimee’s question for you is:
How believable were the character relationships in the book?

This month’s host, Angel, has two bonus questions from which to choose:
– Flowers from the Storm isn’t the quintessential romance novel, what with its focus on disabilities, religion and tolerance. What do you think the romance genre added to the discussion of these issues as Kinsale wrote them?
– One major theme in this story is the loss of control and agency, e.g. Jervaulx’s stroke rendering him unable to think and speak properly and Maddy’s role as a woman in the Quaker church preventing her from making certain important decisions. How well does the novel deal with the hurdles both characters face and (if you think the problems have been solved) does it make for a satisfying conclusion?


Our book club will begin reading Flowers From the Storm until 15 September. Stay tuned to our reviews and discussions for last month’s book, Cat’s Eye.

Aimee @ Penmanship Smitten | Angel @ Mermaid Vision Books | Meghan @ Coffee and Wizards | Samantha R @ As Read By An Aspiring Receptionist

[Wordless Wednesday] 8 August 2012

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Samantha Lin in Wordless Wednesday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

from the united kingdom of awesome, photography: objects

[Inner Senshi Book Club] Round 2 Review: Melinda Marchetta – Looking for Alibrandi

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Samantha Lin in Inner Senshi Book Club

≈ Leave a Comment

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hosted by: samantha r

True to my Inner Senshi persona of Sailormoon (known to be notoriously late and unreliable), I am more than fortnight late in posting my response to last month’s Inner Senshi Book Club title, Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi. (This tardiness is primarily due to my frantic churning of a Masters dissertation as well as moving from England to Ireland, but I still like the Usagi/Sailormoon reason better.)


Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi is a coming-of-age story set in Sydney, centred on Josephine Alibrandi, an Italian Australian in her final year of high school. I’m going to jump straight into the discussion questions, so here we go!

Continue reading »

[Wordless Wednesday] 25 July 2012

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by Samantha Lin in Wordless Wednesday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

photography: objects, writer: moore (thomas)

Moore, Thomas, Irish Melodies: Edition for Ireland (Dublin: James Cornish, 1857).

[Inner Senshi Book Club] Round 3: Cat’s Eye

19 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Samantha Lin in Inner Senshi Book Club

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

hosted by: meghan

Once again, I’m late in posting this due to having no computer access mid-month (this time, Spain is the culprit). I must apologise in advance for being late mid-August as well, as I’ll be on a plane to Australia…!

The “Inner Senshi Book Club” is an online book club where five book lovers of different backgrounds and tastes across the world take turns at selecting and hosting a book each month. Individually, we are (in alphabetical order): Aimee, Angel, Meghan, Samantha L, and Samantha R. Together, we present you a whole range of books, complete with our responses to a rotating list of set questions. For more information about us, check out this introductory post.

A new book is selected on the 15th of each month, and our thoughts are posted roughly four to five weeks later. We hope you can join us in our reading shenanigans! (The book club derives its name from the five soldiers of love and justice from the Japanese manga and anime series, Sailormoon. We are just as kickass, and if all goes to plan, twice as well-read.)


This month, our book choice is: Margaret Atwood – Cat’s Eye (as chosen by Meghan)

Samantha L wants you to consider:
How do the structural features (such as narrative mode and genre) shape the meaning of the text? If ineffective, how do you think this could be improved?

Samantha R is interested in knowing:
Did the book meet your expectations, or were you disappointed? Why or why not?

Meghan is wondering:
Do you feel the cover reflected the story well? Why or why not?

Angel would like you to think about:
How well does the writing style serve the story? How does it fail to uphold the narrative?

Aimee’s question for you is:
How well does the setting contribute to the story? (Would a different setting have affected the book significantly?)

This month’s host, Meghan, has a bonus question:
Discuss some of the ways the protagonist’s identity are revealed to the reader. What role does identity and gender play in this novel?


Our book club will begin reading Cat’s Eye until 15 August. Stay tuned to our reviews and discussions for last month’s book, Looking for Alibrandi. In the meantime, check out our thoughts on Mary Shelley’s Mathilda!

Aimee @ Penmanship Smitten | Angel @ Mermaid Vision Books | Meghan @ Coffee and Wizards | Samantha R @ As Read By An Aspiring Receptionist

[Wordless Wednesday] 18 July 2012

18 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by Samantha Lin in Wordless Wednesday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

an australian in europe, photography: food

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