The Seaside Library

Author: Truman Capote Acquired in: 2020 The book I possess is a collection of four short stories, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Diamond Guitar, House of Flowers and A Christmas Memory. Among all of these, Breakfast at Tiffany's is the most intriguing. The main character Holly Golightly is a bewildering mix of charm and eccentricity that flutters the hearts of numerous men about their business in busy New York. Beneath all that smartness and cigarette smoke, the reader may feel that she is just a poor attention-seeking teenager, wanting freedom but also affection. On many days, when experiencing 'the mean reds' or ‘angst’ in the narrator’s terms, she fantasises about Tiffany's, a posh and proud jewellery store, where nothing unexpected or disastrous ever seems to happen. House of Flowers is one of the other pieces of fiction included and narrates the story of Ottilie, a woman living in the bustle of a town finding love with Royal, who lives in the mou...

Author: Louisa May Alcott Acquired in: 2019 The book that enthralled many youngsters over more than a hundred years and has been adapted into award-winning films, Little Women is a well-loved classic that everyone should at least read once. Set in the American Civil War, the book tells how a mother and her four daughters, each with polar temperaments, deal with the hardships that wartime presents. The March sisters; Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, are young girls striving to fulfil their dreams. But dreams aside , the older sisters work to provide for the family, albeit grudgingly, for their jobs are not light or enjoyable. Beth stays at home, too shy to go to school, but determined to make home a happy place, assisted by kittens and dolls. Amy is just a child, who loves sweets and talking ' commy la fo'  ( comme il faut ) , and is especially concerned about her 'snub' nose and walks around with pins on her nose to make it Grecian. Over this medley, presides kind Mrs ...

Author: Graeme Simsion Acquired in: 2020 When you read books of a particular series out of order, you tend to lose track of the proceedings or find the other preceding books predictable. The problem was that I could not buy the Rosie trilogy in order: first the last book, then the first one and the second one is still on my wish list. Regrettable but not a big dampener. Having read the last book first, I knew the base of the story and read through it as if it was a flashback. And the flashback turned out to be quite entertaining. Professor Don Tillman is a geneticist who has a schedule for everything; from cleaning his bathroom to his daily meals. In the thirty-nine years of his life, Don could not find a compatible partner, partly because of his over-analytical nature and partly due to tactlessness. Hence, he embarks on the Wife Project. Handing out meticulously created questionnaires, he tries to find the perfect woman: non-vegetarian, non-smoker, moderate drinker, possesse...

Author: Joseph Heller Acquired in: 2020   If you are looking for a book that is as insane as the whole World Wars were, Catch-22 is what you need. This is not a conventional World-War-righteous-patriot novel or a World-War-untold-suffering memoir, it’s a macabre depiction of what went on in the heads of countless soldiers during the war. Captain John Yossarian is an aviator and he is paranoid. To elaborate, "As far as Yossarian could recall... somebody was always hatching a plot to kill him. There were people who cared for him and people who didn't, and those who didn't hated him and were out to get him." Yossarian even begs th e camp doctor, Doc Daneeka, to declare him unfit for combat on the ground s on insanity. And now, we meet The Paradox, Catch-22. It specifies that anybody who is mentally unstable can be grounded, he only has to ask. But the catch is that if the person does ask, it shows that he possesses a rational mind because he is concerned f...

Author: Kathryn Stockett Acquired in: 2018 As the first post for The Seaside Library, I wanted to write about this book, even though I’ve actually read it two years ago. That period of time is very important to me: it was my first experience of public exams during which the prevalent emotion can be related to getting stuck on a railway track and then hearing the train’s whistle. Whew. What got me through the inferno was chocolate and books, such as this one. The book had an aura of reassurance; even the title was appealing when I saw it in the store. The Help is a book I will read again and feel the same riot of emotions I felt on my first journey through the book.  Eugenia or ‘Skeeter’ Phelan (skeeter- slang for insect or mosquito; it is a reference to her leggy appearance), an odd-ball among the denizens of Jackson, Mississippi, has always found comfort in the arms of her old nurse Constantine. All of a sudden, the loving relationship they shared was shatter...