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The Glass Room | der Glasraum | Simon Mawer’s novel offers a different  perspective of World War II and the Holocaust. The book is about the Landeuers, a wealthy family, who build a modern home outside of Vienna only to have to flee when the war breaks out. I’d never really thought about what the rich,and especially the well-off Jews — sacrificed and did in the unfortunate circumstances of war, revolution and persecution.

Some lines to remember:

The wrongness or rightness of the future is a matter of the purest contingency. Viktor has always worked on the principle that the future is there to be handled, manipulated, bent and twisted to one’s own desires but now he knows how untrue that is. The future just happens.

Everyone loves deceit. Without deceit there would be no art.

Love seems a relative quality, not a unitary thing that can exist independent of an object. Love for, love of, never just love. There are different grades of love, different shades of love, difference scents and tastes of love. It is not like happiness or misery, qualities that seem dull and limited. Love is limitless…

thedeadline:

“Top of the Morning” at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square!

Journos writing books #loveit

Where’d You Go Bernadette | A funny epistolary satirical novel, and a must-read if you are from or have ever visisted Seattle, the Pacific-Northwest, or in general want to make fun of the tech world and the culture that comes with it.

Some funny tidbits from Maria Semple’s novel:

It was hilarious to see these macho guys from Mexico sitting in chairs and knitting out in the sun. They loved it, though. They’d play their ranchera music on the radio and gossip like a bunch of ladies.

When your eyes are softly focused on the horizon for sustained periods, your brain releases endorphins. It’s the same as a runners high. These days, we all spend our lives staring at screens twelve inches in front of us. It’s a nice change.

The way you might fear a cow sitting down in the middle of the street during rush hour, that’s how I fear Canadians. To Canadians, everyone is equal.

Hallucinations — Turns out hallucinating is not something just for the psychotic and drug abusers, but lack of sleep, certain conditions such as migraines, epilepsy and narcolepsy, and many blind people have visions with a clear, lucid mind.

In Oliver Sack’s latest book we find out that he did a lot of drugs, which is awesome to hear from a 70 year old respected psychologist and writer, and also that novelist Amy Tan experienced hallucinations once.

As discussed in the book, here’s a peek into some of the visuals created during a migraine.

And here’s a cool quote from someone describing their trip on LSD:

A smudge on the wall is an object of limitless fascination, multiplying in size, complexity, color. But more than that, one sees every relationship it has to the rest of the universe; it possesses, therefore, an endless variety of meanings, and one proceeds to entertain every possible thought there is to think about it.

NO AND ME | Journey to Paris and visit the underbelly of the city where homeless teens roam train and metro stations and spend all day waiting for a shelter bed.

This is a YA novel translated from the French and ironically enough I found it on the street which is how Lou finds No one day…

When I was three or four I used to think that ages reversed. That as I got bigger my parents would get smaller. I could imagine myself standing in the living room, frowning, my index finger raised, saying in a loud voice, ‘No, no, no, you’ve had enough Nutella.’

Grammar is a wonderful way of organising the world how you’d like it to be.

bookshelfporn:

Library Kiss #1…Happy Valentine’s Day book lovers :)

library love