Recent Read and Movie/TV

I have just finished reading two books. The first is The Museum of Innocence by Turkish Nobel Laureate, Orhan Pamuk. The second book is Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila. Waiting for an Angel was one of the literary works we had to read in my first year at the University, but back in the days we never read these books to really enjoy it, we only read just to pass our exams and most times do not even get to read them, once we get a review online.

Books
Musuem of Innocence
It is a perfect spring day in Istanbul. Kemal, a wealthy heir, is about to become engaged to the aristocratic Sibel when he encounters Fusun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. As they break the taboo of virginity, a rift opens between Kemal and his lovingly described world of the westernized families of Istanbul with their opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, dining-room rituals, picnics, their mansions on the Bosphorus infused with the melancholy of decay.


For nine years Kemal will find excuses to visit the other Istanbul, a house in the impoverished backstreets that Füsun shares with her parents, enjoying the consolations of middle-class life at a dinner table in front of the television.  His love for his distant relative will take him to the seedy film circles of Istanbul, cheap bars, sad hotels, a society of small men with big dreams and bitter failures.

It will make Kemal a compulsive collector of objects that chronicle his love story and his obsessive heart’s reactions: his anger and impatience, his remorse and humiliation, his miscalculated hopes of recovery, and his daydreams that transform his Istanbul into a city of signs and spectres of his beloved with whom he can only exchange meaning-laden glances, stolen kisses in cars, movie houses and park shadows.

All that will remain to him, certainly and eternally, is the museum he creates, a map of a society’s rituals and mores, and of one man’s broken heart.

Waiting for an Angel

Synopsis
Lomba is a young journalist living in Lagos under Nigeria’s brutal military regim. His mind is full of soul music and girls and the novel he is writing. Yet when his room-mate goes mad and is beaten up by soldiers, his first love is forced to marry a man she doesn’t want, and his neighbours decide to hold a demo that is bound to lead to a riot, Lomba realizes that he can no longer bury his head in the sand. It’s time to write the truth about the reign of terror.

Movie
Sparkle

I finally got to watch the movie Sparkle, starring the late Whitney Houston and Jordan Sparks.
Three soulful sisters rise out of Harlem to become music hottest singing group in this rags-to-riches tale of glitz, glamour and the high price of fame. Against the vibrant grooves of Curtis Mayfield, these divas explode onto the scene with off-the-hook harmonies and a sexy style that catapult them to superstardom-but not every fairytale has a happy ending. When success leads to excess, one sister’s star will fade, while another’s will sparkle.

TV
Chicagolicious
I am not really a fan of reality TV but I love Chicagolicious....it has got way more class and less drama than its sister show, Jerseylicious. I love everyone of them, my favorite of all is MaCray and the barber Howard is so hot.

♥ Lara

Anonymous

7 comments:

  1. Ok, I should watch Chicagoliscious. Jerseyliscious just made me laugh a lot.

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  2. I love how you described Sparkle, it was a really lovely film. Whitney made me cry in her last song. I hope to read the books some day, but don't watch most reality shows.

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  3. I see you are off to a good book reading start this year, nice!

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  4. Habila's 'Waiting for an Angel' is beautiful, but I m just as guilty as only reading a review. I promise myself to read the book now. Great books and encouraging step to reading more.

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  5. I've seen Sparkle. I enjoyed it and I like Helon Habila. Good writer. You just reminded me that I have a book waiting for me. Procrastination is not good.

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  6. Lara u need to watch jerseylicious, iit's hilarious.

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  7. Hello Lahrah,

    Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. The virtual world truly enables everyone to experience a varied of culture through other people's blog :)

    I would love to get to know you better by reading your future entries. Would you like us to be each others' follower?

    ReplyDelete

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