The Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers & the Power of Trees
“What do all good stories do… They kill you a little. They turn you into something you weren’t.”
Tag: Fiction
Finnegans Wake (1939) by James Joyce & the Great Irish Novel
“We may come, touch and go, from atoms and ifs but we’re presurely destined to be odd’s without ends.”
Share the knowledge:
The Remains of the Day (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro & On the Nature of Dignity
“And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.”
Share the knowledge:
In Search of Lost Time, Vol. II: Within a Budding Grove (1919) by Marcel Proust & the Fairy Wood of Love
“The reason why a work of genius is not easily admired from the first is that the man who has created it is extraordinary, that few other men resemble him.”
Share the knowledge:
13 Reasons Why (2007) by Jay Asher & the Power of Words
‘You can hear rumors,’ I said, ‘but you can’t know them.’
Share the knowledge:
The Stories of John Cheever (1978) by John Cheever & the Creation of Fiction as Art
“Fiction is art and art is the triumph over chaos.”
Share the knowledge:
His Bloody Project (2015) by Graeme Macrae Burnet & Questions of Innocence
“I opened my eyes and watched the droplets of water fly up like sparks from a fire.”
Share the knowledge:
On Becoming a Novelist (1983) by John Gardner and the Art of Fiction
“On some subjects—for instance, writers’ workshops—one is tempted to pull punches or rest satisfied with oversimplified answers; but I’m assuming, as the primary reader of this book, an intensely serious beginning novelist who wants the strict truth (as I perceive it) for his life’s sake, so that he can plan his days of technique, theory, and attitude; and become as quickly and efficiently as possible a master of his craft” (p xxii).
Share the knowledge:
The Truth behind the last 100 Years of the Pulitzer Prize in Novel & Fiction
We are, however, all too familiar with the penchant judges and editors have for writers located in the coastal regions of the United States. From the list, the affiliated universities relating to the winners’ education and/or employment were found to be primarily located in the eastern coastal region of the United States: namely the New England Region and the Eastern Coastal Region which had an incredible 92 associated wins, the bulk of those coming from institutions in the state of New York (thought provoking); California, on the west coast, had an accredited 7 wins. Predictably and regrettably, since New York State and its institutions had the most associated wins by far for any state or region, the Pulitzer Prize in Novel/Fiction becomes, without question, the least diverse of all the book awards inside the United States of America.
Share the knowledge:
Death’s End: Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3 (2010) by Cixin Liu & the End of Humanity and the Universe
“It’s not even accurate to call it the past, for the events related in these pages didn’t occur in the past. The details that have been preserved are already abundant. Sealed in floating bottles, they will hopefully reach the new universe and endure there.”
Share the knowledge:
*** 200th Post *** The Good Earth (1931) by Pearl S. Buck & the Great Chinese Novel
“And he remembered as one remembers a dream long past how O-lan rested from her work a little while and fed the child richly and the white rich milk ran out of her breast and spilled upon the ground. And this seemed too long past ever to have been.”
Share the knowledge:
Nutshell (2016) by Ian McEwan & Dreams had in a Mother’s Womb
“But lately, don’t ask why, I’ve no taste for comedy, no inclination to exercise, even if I had the space, no delight in fire or earth, in words that once revealed a golden world of majestical stars, the beauty of poetic apprehension, the infinite joy of reason.”
Share the knowledge:
I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around (2016) by Ann Garvin & the Woman who Didn’t Want to Grow Up
“The big question in my mind is not if your mom is coming back. It’s if Pete is, and if I’ll get a chance at having someone like you.”
Share the knowledge:
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013) by Haruki Murakami & The Imaginary Reality
“Maybe I am fated to always be alone, Tsukuru found himself thinking.”
Share the knowledge:
The Dark Forest: Remembrance of Earth’s Past #2 (2008/2015) by Cixin Liu & The Future of Humanity
“Suppose a vast number of civilizations are distributed throughout the universe, on the order of the number of detectable stars. Lots and lots of them. Those civilizations make up the body of a cosmic society. Cosmic sociology is the study of the nature of this super-society” (p 12).
