“Happiness can reach a pitch so great that any further happiness can’t be felt. Pain, despair, humiliation, disgust, and gear are no different.”

What a beautifully dark and heart-wrenching tale this was! Like other Stefan Zweig novels that i have read even this had a strange impact on me. I felt restless while reading this. Neither i could continue reading nor could I stop. I loved the way how he forces his readers to get involved with his characters and their story even if they don’t want to which is evident in his writing he stresses every word, every sentence till the reader gets the hang of it.

Christine a simple girl working in a post office in a small village is ignorant of any kind of luxuries that exists in life till she receives a letter from her aunt and uncle to join them in Swiss Alpine resort to give them company for a while. But the moment Christine steps in her new life her old self is dead instantly. It becomes difficult for Christine to be the same old person that she was even after returning from her abrupt vacation and that’s when her life becomes a living hell. She feels caged. Neither she could fit into her current life nor could she get out. She feels a constant embarrassment to lead her life. Her every thought, her every move was heart breaking to read. But the curiosity of what step Christine takes next kept me glued to this story as it was unpredictable. And then she meets Ferdinand, a war veteran who is as unhappy with his life and the society as Christine is and somehow their coming together disturbs both their lives entirely. Although the ending is abrupt yet I couldn’t have asked for any better ending than that because personally i was not prepared for a closed ending as I didn’t wanted to know what Ferdinand and Christine ended up doing together.

Must say I love this author and I am sure of reading all his works, essays, short stories, novellas and anything that he has ever written. His prose is like poetry to me.

Seriously, I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that I've been gone for all but two weeks! Not being on here for that long only exacerbated my disbelief of how long I've been feeling bad.

After an amazing short vacation with family and meeting a new friend (and lots of new books involved as well!), I came home and promptly got sick. I've been fighting it ever since and had no energy to do much of anything - not even much reading. Finally shook that off and then had to take care of stuff that had piled up.

Anyway, all that to say I'm sorry I've been nonexistent on here and have missed out on some awesome books, I'm sure. However, trying to go through everything I missed would be a nightmare. So starting today, I'm back, hopefully for quite awhile and I should be posting reviews and more during the next few days.

It's so good to be back on Booklikes, life's been dull without it.

I'm breaking this into two parts, as both come to mind when I see this phrase.

Best ones that shows what a Graphic Novel can do:

American-Born Chinese: This simply could not have been told in such a comprehensive way nor in such a touching way by any other means. The fact that the bright colors and comic aspect will draw readers in who would never read this type of book otherwise is a huge bonus.

Man, this is hard! I don't actually read a lot of short story collections, as I tend to be hit or miss with most of the stories, even with something I really like.

The only one I can think of that I've liked for years is The Mammoth Book of Sherlock Holmes Adventures and though I finally own a copy, I haven't been able to work myself up to a reread yet.

The first one that came to mind, oddly enough, was The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which I don't know that consider as really fulfilling the statement.

For me, the two books that pair words and pictures together the best are The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Maus. Hugo Cabret was mind blowing; seeing how seamlessly the artist melded the artwork, pictures, and text together. It comes as close as I've ever seen to being a movie you can hold in your hands. 

Maus is...a difficult read but one you really should try. The author/illustrator inserts himself in the story as he illustrates his parent's life during the Nazi's rule. With the Jews portrayed as mice, Nazis as cats, etc. the elements have a visceral element that can still be read without the illustrations becoming too much. Even then, there are very difficult points in the story but it's one that needs to be read.