Hiroshima May 20, 2007
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Nonfiction.Tags: Hiroshima, John Hersey
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—4—
Hiroshima by John Hersey tells the story of August 6, 1945, the day of the first atomic bomb, through the eyes of six survivors: a clerk, a physician, and widow, a German priest, a surgeon, and a pastor. Told in journalistic style, this novel shows the horror of that day and the weeks and months to come, the long-lasting effects of the bomb, the human loss, and the heroism of the survivors.
4/5
Blindness May 20, 2007
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, General Fiction.Tags: Blindness, Jose Saramago
2 comments
—3.5—
Jose Saramago’s work Blindness tells the story of a city hit by a blindness in which no one is spared. At first the blind are confined to an old mental hospital, where one woman with her sight leads her fellow inmates, and witnesses the horror and depravity of a broken down society. Among her are an ophthalmologist, a man with an eye-patch, a woman with dark glasses, and motherless boy, and a faithful dog.
Blindness is a commentary on the breakdown of systems and societies, as well as the weaknesses of human-kind when they are at their most vulnerable. The language is beautiful but haunting. At first, the almost complete lack of punctuation makes the novel difficult to read, but soon the flow becomes entirely natural and fitting for this story.
3.5/5
New York Times Bestsellers 5.16.07 May 16, 2007
Posted by sadiejean in Randomness.add a comment
HARDCOVER FICTION
Top 5
1. SIMPLE GENIUS, by David Baldacci
2. THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION, by Michael Chabon
3. THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN, by J. R. R. Tolkien
4. THE WOODS, by Harlan Coben
5. RANT, by Chuck Palahniuk
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Top 5
1. AT THE CENTER OF THE STORM, by George Tenet
2. EINSTEIN, by Walter Isaacson
3. GOD IS NOT GREAT, by Christopher Hitchens
4. ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE, by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver
5. PAULA DEEN: IT AIN’T ALL ABOUT THE COOKIN’, by Paula Deen with Sherry Suib Cohen
Intro: Blindness May 14, 2007
Posted by sadiejean in Current Read Comments.Tags: Blindness, Jose Saramago
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“The amber light came on. Two of the cars ahead accelerated before the red light appeared. At the pedestrian corssing the sign of a green man lit up. The people who were waiting began to cross the road, stepping on the white stripes painted on the black surface of the asphalt, there is nothing less like a zebra, however, that is what it is called. The motorists kept an impatient foot on the clutch, leaving their cars at the ready, advancing, retreating like nervous horses that can sense the whiplash about to be inflicted. The pedestrians have just finished crossing but the sign allowing the cars to go will be delayed for some seconds, some people maintain that this delay, while apparently so insignificant, has only to be multiplied by the thousands of traffic lights that exist in the city and by the successive changes of their three colours to produce one of the most serious causes of traffic jams or bottlenecks, to use the more current term.”
Blindness by Jose Saramago