Foe by J.M Coetzee

   There are some books to be read, others to be digested, some to be cherished, some to be forgotten and others to be treasured.

“Foe is a finely honed testament to its author’s intelligence, imagination, and skill…the writing is lucid and precise, the landscape depicted mythic yet specific”. This New York Times review and other book critics heaped accolade on the fine texture of the novel. Acclaimed writer and the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Coetzee’s Foe is magnificent work of art to be cherished and treasured.

One's mission

Gene Smith's legacy for the world and humanity...

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28852&article=E.+Gene+Smith%2c+Who+Helped+to+Save+Tibetan+Literary+Canon%2c+Dies+at+74

New York Debate

I was geared up to watch the New York Kalon Trip debate in live through the web cast. And it is very disappointing when the technical difficulties failed my expectation. As the connection failed repeatedly after few rounds of questions  and I missed 90% of the proceedings (fortunately, the entire debate was posted on Tibetan community association website afterward)http://www.tcnynj.org/events.html
 However, the start went smoothly, and this is what I have observed.

In tune with Tibetan custom of respecting the elders, the eldest candidates Tashing Wangdue was called in first. Dr. Lobsang Sangay call in the last.

The firm

When a friend says something is good, and reccomend to you, you take it and experience it yourself. An avid reader of John Grisham's fiction, I was asked to try his another well recieved fiction "The Firm" by a close friend. It was another thriller, with the like of Hollywood bluckbuster. I say that such reading is pure entertainment, and fantasy. The writer knows what sells in modern time. It is money and sex, and action. There are plenty of those element in the fiction, besides suspense and twist in the tale. John Grisham's novel has the underlying themes of virtues vs nonvirtues. The central character represent the writer's conscioustiousness. Someone who is dischanted with the profession of law. Besides the intricate plot and detailed character sketch, Grisham is a writer who holds to certain value. I like his protrayal of honesty, , trust , intergrity, love and friendship over any other mundane things.  Despite of the some unseemingly plot, the author manages to give a sense of practicality and reality to the circumstance, event. When the main protaganist from the novel finally escaped to an Island, and it ended with a realistic possibilities of what future hold for them. No doubt, he is a gifted story teller, and it is sweeping, gripping and breathtaking. Ones you turn the pages, it is hold on your seat, and get going till to the end. ...
I read for knowledge, entertainment and pleasure, and I derived all these from the novel "FIRM"
But then there was another book, that I laid my hand upon, "The Shanghai Girls". It is a heartrending account of a two Chinese girls tryst with distiney. The story is good, but it lacks the literary strength and favour, without which it is pretty distasteful. 

21st Century Monk

His Holiness the Dalai Lama urges Tibetan monks to  be  a monk of the 21st century . I believe no one represent this call more better than venerable Lobsang Moelam, who is the opineer of Moelam Tibetan online dictionary, and many Tibetan scripts.

Tibet in Song

Ngawang Choephel's debute "Tibet in Song" documentary film deserves accolade from film critics and particularly from Tibetan and Tibetan supporters.  On Thanksgiving Day, my buddy and I went to watch the movie on its  final day screening in the Washington D.C . When we reached the cinema hall , only a scattered audience was sitting in the theater. My purpose for going to watch the movie is simply out of curiosity and also to lend my  support to the few  Tibetan artists and filmmakers, who is emerging as a star in a gloomy dark night, and illuminate the audience with its radiance.

Memoir of a Geisha

"Memoir of a Geisha " is Arthur Golden's debut masterpiece. The book caught my eye in the public library and it was purely a personal pick. It is mesmerizing, extraordinary, enchanting and  poetic. I would describe the novel in all the  superlative terms. Running over 434 pages in paperback, it is a terrific novel; that spans the chronological tale of a geisha in a war time in Japan.