Some of Nora Ephron's 'What I wish I had known' - in her book : I Feel Bad About My Neck And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman

People have only one way to be.

Buy, don't rent.

Don't buy anything that is 100 percent wool even if it seems to be very soft and not particularly itchy when you try it on in the store.

The world's greatest babysitter burns out after two and a half years.

You never know.

Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five.

Keep a journal.

Take more pictures.

If the shoe doesn't fit in the shoe store, it's never going to fit.

Back up your files.

Never let them know.

If only one third of your clothes are mistakes, you're ahead of the game.

Galileo's Daughter

I have been reading this Dava Sobel's novel which brought to light the schism between Science & Religion existing in the seventeenth century. Galileo was working on his scientific theories of earth's rotation around sun after discovering telescope and this opened a clash with catholic doctrine of earth centered world and hence the Church (Vatican). The novel moves between Galileo's grand public, academic life and his daughter's (Suor Maria Celeste) sequestered world as a nun in a convent. It illuminates the Florence of Medicis and the papal Vatican existing at a time when great architect Bernini, Pope Urban and art patrons such as Cardinal Barberini (of Galleria Borghese) were co- existing. Some lines i liked- 'I discovered in the heavens many things that had not been seen before our age' 'They show a great fondness for their own opinions rather than the truth and use biblical passages they cannot comprehend to condemn worthy theory which they have not read' 'Theology is conversant with loftiest divine contemplation and occupies regal throne among sciences by dignity. But her professors should not arrogate to themselves the authority to decide on controversies in professions which they have neither studied nor practiced'

The Metamorphosis

I really liked this short novel masterpiece by Franz Kafka (translation from original german) in its treatment of mutability of life, isolation, alienation through an absurd transformation of the protagonist into a monstrous beetle. Everything else that follows after this is portrayed with convincing logic and details. The shift in relations with the world, the self, the gradual indifference of people that constituted his world and his ultimate release are so well written. His work's said to be symbolic of travails in his own personal life. Some of the memorable phrases i liked -
'Just don't stay in bed being useless'
'Eating soon stopped giving him the slightest pleasure, so, as a distraction, he adopted the habit of crawling crisscross over the walls and the ceiling'
'Who in this overworked and exhausted family had time to worry about Gregor any more than was absolutely necessary'
'Was he an animal, that music could move him so'
'He would have announced this to everyone last Christmas-certainly Christmas had come and gone?'
'His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's'

Shadow lines

This novel by Amitav ghosh set in a period of post partition Bengal switches back and forth in time and places and is mainly interweaving of reminiscence, fiction and fact. It earned him the Sahitya Academy award. Ghosh indirectly talks about the shadows (or secrets) we want to keep from others and the shadows that we cast (or reflection) and want to show to other people..both may or not be the accurate reflection of us. The nonlinear time switching reminded me of the William Faulkner novel 'The Sound and the Fury' I read back in college.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

This is my second Kundera novel after 'Ignorance'. The characters were read and forgotten but what came alive was the fraility of actions, time, doing. What seems to be burdensome and irrevocable as a past action, history now passes onto us as something that happened once and has no power of repetition and will not exist tomorrow. The moment is the only truth which make you feel the 'unbearable lightness' of your existence. 'Einmal ist keinmal' - what happened once might as well not happened at all , lays out the tone of the book. The speculations of the communist run Czech-the effect of russian invasion on the life of eastern europeans is well depicted.