Reading Material

I love books.

It's as simple as that.

When I was little, mum would put me to bed and I'd promptly turn on the torch under the covers so I could read more. I still find myself going to bed at insane hours (notwithstanding my job) just because I have to finish this or the other book.

And whilst many extole the brilliance of writers like Don De Lillo, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Chuck Palahniuk, Ann Rice, Haruki Murakami, Khaled Hosseini and even J.K. Rowling (granted, all brilliant authors worthy of their status), I wanted to mention some books (and writers behind them) that have struck me as quietly magnificent, not showy or expected. Just because they strike a chord.

Gail Jones (Sixty Lights) - Gail teaches literature/cinema/cultural studies at the University of Western Australia (my uni), and that is how Stuart came to know of her brilliant books. I read Sixty Lights, and love how Gail pursues and develops the characters....I fell in love.

(see a review here: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/18/1092765003194.html?from=storyrhs)

Maryse Conde (The story of the cannibal woman) - Not sure if she's famous outside of Australia, but given she won the 2005 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for this masterpiece, I should hope so.

(see: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/books/review/Schmidt.t.html?ref=review)

Danzy Senna (Caucasia: a novel) - A debut from Danzy Senn about black, white and those in between. Daughter of an Afro-Mexican poet father and Irish-American mother, this book is rich, vivid and deserves the awards it was bestowed.

(see: http://www.socialism.com/fsarticles/vol22no1/book.html)

Gail Tsukiyama (The Language of Threads) - I was introduced to Gail Tsukiyama by a friend in uni who lent me The Samurai's Garden. I fell in love with the her writing, the simple yet heart-wrenching manner in which you were pulled into the story, and at once attracted to the simplistic style of writing employed by Japanese writers (see: Tsukiyama, Murakami, Ha Jin) that is not only effective but magical, innately insightful, painfully sharp and mostly intoxicating.
(see: http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0312267568.asp)


Ha Jin (Waiting) - Winner of the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2000 Pen/Faulkner Award, its author Ha Jin is a professor of English. He writes deceptively simple tomes; precise and historical, and manages to tackle love stories effortlessly and devastatingly.
(see: http://www.hackwriters.com/Hajin.htm)

Amitav Ghosh (The Hungry Tide) - A tale paralleling the wilderness of the Sunderbans and that of the human spirit (you like? :), Amitav is an Indian-Bengali author, who I stumbled upon when I bought this book at a book sale. I love his struggle/passion for national pride and identity and the gradual reveal of what makes us tick and people's histories.
(see: http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2004/08/short-review-of-amitav-ghoshs-hungry.html)


p.s. I didn't hand pick the reviews, just googled the books and took a quick look. Hope you get a chance to read these fab books/authors, or if you already have let me know what you think!