Foot and Fire

The Republic of Imagination (America in Three Books) Azar Nafisi Hardbound, 328 pages I loved her in Reading Lolita in Tehran because she reminded me not to be a passive reader and to appreciate fiction more, especially when I am in my reading stage when I devote most of my readings on non-fiction, memoirs and autobiography to be specific. I have a long list of readings after Lolita. Her stories in Lolita captivated me because of the fear and danger attached to her founding a reading circle in a totalitarian Iran. Her hunger for readings made me appreciate my freedom to read and I took it upon myself as responsibility to read more. And here comes this book. This is not as fast-paced and as interesting a story as Lolita but Author Nafisi made me rethink here of my reading. In my reading infancy years, reading excites me with stories of varied settings but when I have already made some travels, my reading interests shifted to culture and nonfiction and as I mature as a reader, I...

The Soloist Mark Salzman paperback, 285 pages As anyone can gather by now, I am into nonfiction. But from time to time, I get to pick up novels like this one called The Soloist and I was surprised that I loved how the author engaged me in the journey of self-examination by a child-wonder cellist who suddenly lost his luster without rhyme or reason, and now transitioning himself into becoming a mentor of an awkward child-wonder. I thought I'll get only a story on mentoring but actually, it is about resignation to the passage of time, of talent, of people in our lives and embracing the new possibilities, meeting new faces and mentoring. It is almost an absorbing soliloquy for me despite there are other characters molded in the story such as in the courtroom trial when Renne did his jury duty and when his tutorial started. When Renne finally said his piece towards the end, I was also ready to hear him. This is one quietly convincing and powerfully though-provoking novel on s...