paigeweb's reviews
98 reviews

Philoctetes by Sophocles

4.0

Looking at everything, I discovered nothing was here except suffering — of this, there was a great abundance.

You're silent. And I — I exist no longer.

Helen in Egypt by Hilda Doolittle

4.0

Meet me in timeless-time along the shadowy Nile.

Helen in Egypt is the newest member of my pantheon of books that are unlike anything else, wholly unique.

Was it a trivial thing to have bartered the world for a glance?

the thousand-and-one, mine.

Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe by Elizabeth Campbell

Greed in the guise of righteousness 

Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective

4.25

To quote the 1994 inscription penned inside my copy: "nonescence is realative."

And Calvino is always a great time.

Ninety-Nine Stories of God by Joy Williams

3.0

vignette of a vignette 

The Besieged City by Clarice Lispector

3.0

Vision as creation; perception as possession. Seeing = Being. 
"The only means of contact was looking."

Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector, Benjamin Moser

5.0

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

4.0

My only complaint is that the first part wasn't longer and the second part wasn't shorter, but maybe that's reflective of a The Handmaiden bias...

Cities That Shaped the Ancient World by John Julius Norwich

2.5

Inevitably sacrifices depth for breadth. I would have preferred a format that allows greater exploration of a smaller selection, but I suppose that's entirely subjective.

The Chandelier by Clarice Lispector

3.0

Didn’t connect to this as much as I have to Clarice’s other works, but was really touched by her exploration of  themes like childhood memories and the mixed feelings that encompass leaving and then returning to a family home.

How horrible, pure, and irrevocable it was to live!