A Solar Eclipse and Homer’s Odyssey
“Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.” ~Victor Hugo In light (or dark) of the solar eclipse happening today, I wanted […]
Haruki Murakami & Magical Realism
Book Oblivion Academy’s newest course is here. I’m writing to let you know that the enrollment for Murakami & Magical Realism is officially open. In this fully online course, we unpack the genre of magical realism while exploring three of Haruki Murakami’s strangest novels: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Wind-Up Bird […]
Haruki Murakami and Raymond Carver: Literary Comrades
“Life and death matters, yes. And the question of how to behave in this world, how to go in the face of everything. Time is short and the water is rising.” Raymond Carver Raymond Carver (1938-1988) is an American author from Washington state; he is a master of the short fiction genre. His subtle use […]
Amor Towles on Mastering Your Circumstances in A Gentleman in Moscow
The American novelist, Amor Towles, wrote A Gentleman in Moscow, a remarkable story that centers on the Count, an aristocrat confined to a luxurious hotel during the tumultuous political climate in Russia in 1922.
Announcing Summer Book Club
A Gentleman in Moscow – Summer Book Club We have some exciting news for summer book club, but first – Happy Summer! Now I realize a lot of you are all over the world, so it may or may not be your summer. Nonetheless, I hope you will continue to devour good books with us, […]
Miasma in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History
Miasma in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History “To many men… the miasma of peace seems more suffocating than the bracing air of war.” ~George Steiner By Jessica S. Manuel A little while back, we began thinking about the fatal flaw, that showy dark crack running down the middle of life. Richard, our protagonist in Donna Tartt’s […]
The Sweet Sorrow of Purging My Bookshelves
I’m excited to introduce you to Kate from Parchment Girl. Kate is wild about books and fits right in here. A reader’s drama is usually contained within the pages of a book, but I’m willing to bet you’ve had to face the same dilemma as Kate as your pile of books starts to block the […]
In Search of Lost Time Reading Group
Have you always wanted to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust? Myself and a handful of other ambitious, literary enthusiasts are setting out on what a friend termed, “A Reader’s Everest.” Over the next two and a half years, we are reading this seven volume, 4,215 page tome and using a reading […]
The Best Reviews of Men Without Women
The Best Reviews of Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami Did Haruki Murakami’s newest collection of short stories, Men Without Women, arrive on your doorstep this week? My Murakami community is pretty dedicated, so I’ve seen my Instagramfeed flooded with photos of the new book, friends have added it to their Currently Reading shelf on […]
The Fatal Flaw in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History
The Fatal Flaw in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History Aristotle coined the term Hamartia which literally translates “to miss the mark” or “to err”. We’ve come to understand this term as the fatal flaw and find it in most tragedies, especially Greek tragedies. Basically, there is a reversal of fortunes that needs to take place in the plot. It’s […]
Announcing Spring Book Club
Spring is in the air! Hopefully the sunshine will grace you with its presence and you’ll be able to sneak outside with our Spring Book Club pick – at least for a few pages. As you know, we pick books we think you’ll enjoy AND that we’ve never read. We’re not always sure what we’re in […]
My Favorite Female Authors
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.” ~Mary Wollstonecraft By Jessica S. Manuel Today is International Women’s Day. I feel the same about today that I do about Earth Day: we should celebrate our female accomplishments everyday. Nonetheless, I want to carve out some mental space to […]
Introducing the Reading Beyond Murakami Course Series
I’m excited to introduce a brand new way to engage with Haruki Murakami’s mind-bending stories. The Reading Beyond Murakami Course Series is a systematic approach to understanding the author in a whole new way. Life-long learners will delight in learning and re-learning what makes literature so profound. The first course launches March 20 and is an in-depth look […]
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting | Go Beyond Laughter
Beyond Laughter in Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Today we explore what it means to “go beyond laughter” as Kundera writes in the last section of the book. Warning: we ask more questions than we answer. The narrative called Border might be the most intriguing part of the book, which might be […]
10 Books I Can’t Wait to Get My Eyes on in 2017
10 Books I Can’t Wait to Get My Eyes on in 2017 “And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke By Jessica S. Manuel As if the new year isn’t exciting enough, we have 10 incredible new reads on the horizon to build anticipation all year […]