This past week, I finished reading The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh. I’m still reading Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. And I started reading The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. [See the answers to yesterday’s quiz at the bottom of this post.]

Book Review: The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh

The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed that it kept my interest the entire time I was reading it. There were a lot of twists and turns in the novel that I wasn’t expecting. I also enjoyed the fact that it broaches important topics for the reader to work out for themselves, such as: What effect can a big lie truly have on individual lives? In what ways does love force you to question your own sanity and capabilities, and what you believe to be true? How much power can guilt have? What is the nature of love and how do you know when it’s real?

Overall, the characters of this story were vivid and relatable, even if you’ve never been in a similar situation as them before. I ended up rating it four stars out of five. I would recommend it to those readers interested in getting lost in a surprising narrative that is more subtle in its delivery. I must admit, however, at times I thought the pacing of the overall story didn’t seem quite right. Hence why I didn’t give it a full five stars. It was still worth the read though!

Current Read: The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

This seminal work offers a lot to unpack, so it’s taking me a bit of time to parse through. Her thought process and writing are something to marvel at, that’s for sure. It’s also incredible how poignant this work is, still today.

Here is one notable passage from what I’ve read so far:

“In other words, neither oppression nor exploitation as such is ever the main cause for resentment; wealth without visible function is much more intolerable because nobody can understand why it should be tolerated.” (page 4)

I hope to finish this book, and have more notes about it, by the end of next week. It’s worth taking the extra time to read this one.

Current Read: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

Over a decade ago, I read My Year of Meats by Ozeki. As I started reading this novel, memories of that former work came flooding back to me. She has a very unique and engaging writing style; it’s direct but has a softer blow than one would expect. This novel definitely has one hell of an opening too. While I’m not too far into the novel yet, I have a feeling that I won’t be disappointed by it. Her writing style is captivating and beautifully weird and human.

Follow me on Goodreads to keep up with what I’m reading this coming week.

Answers to Quiz: Can you match these opening passages to their famous works?

Link to the quiz.

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
4. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
7. The Stranger by Albert Camus
8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
9. Paradise by Toni Morrison
10. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
11. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
12. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
13. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
14. Middlemarch by George Eliot
15. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White