it's been a long time, long time now

Day 09 - A Book you’ve read more than once: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

 

Images sourced from Opera gloves  and the La Times (with the exception of the book cover)

I love Iris Chase. Partially because I have this really strong mental image of her. I read this book in black and white, with smoke spiralling from her fingers into the corners of the room. I envision pearls and class and ennui dripping from her eyes.

Truthfully, I'd read pretty much anything she wrote. I have about 5 or more of her books, all nestled in my bookshelf. It's hard to decide which one I love the most, considering the fact that I've read several of them more than once, but A Handmaid's Tale and the Penelopiad are definitely up there, too.

Day 9 - A Song By A Band You Stopped Listening To, But Started Again

Beirut - Cherbourg

There was a stage where all listened to were these trumpets and violins and Zach Condon's... voice. I linger over this last word because I can't find a word to describe it adequately. It's world-weary, hardened with the age of the years, heartbreak and culture, which is oxymoronic considering how young he is. He saw me through Italy the first time:

- and the second (3 years later). It saw me through high school and graduation and pretty much everything that be shoved under that umbrella. In retrospect, it's funny how naive I was while listening to this the first time. A couple of years later, and it seems as if some sort of veil has been lifted - that there's new nuances to every string, that every word has a different meaning, but it means just as much to you as it did before. 

And these two go hand-in-hand.