Windows of the Soulless
340241
I love this book. A great  read from start to finish. I will definitely be looking for more books from this author.
380438
Maybe I'm odd, but I've never found this book depressing as many say it is.  It is beautiful and sad, as existentialism is suppose to be.  I find this book to be rather like a fairy tale, where the normal world is ever so slightly off what is normal.  I would highly recommend reading this book, its good for your soul, I'm sure of it.
2045045
Patrick McGrath's magnificent Ghost Town is a triptych of novellas about Manhatten. The opening story, `The Year Of The Gibbet' written by a man as he waits to die of cholera, in the epidemic of 1832, looks back more than 55 years, to the Revolutionary War of Independence, when he was a small boy, and his mother a Revolutionary fighting against the hated British oppressor, hanging these revolutionaries as subversive traitors.

The opening sentence, in my header will do a circular to the final story (more later)

The central character in `The Year Of The Gibbet' has been haunted by the horrific events around his mother's life and death, and, indeed, haunted by her ghost, and inhabited life of the margins of poverty

"There is little left to tell. Half a century has passed since The Year of The Gibbet, and the war has been transformed in the minds of my countrymen such that it now resembles nothing so much as the glorious enterprise of a small host of heroes and martyrs sustained by the idea of Liberty and bound for that reason to prevail in the end.

But I am haunted."

The second story, Julius, recounts the rise and fall of the wealthy Van Horn family from roughly the end time of the previous story to a period some 50 years later, and shows how class and race prejudice, can damage the lives of both oppressed and oppressor. The narrator of this story looks back at her family history, and the story she wormed out of her mother, when she was still small, about Julius, his sisters, and her grandparents.

The ghosts in this story are the ghosts of `what might have been, if only' which haunt all lives, and the ghosts of former lives, wasted lives, memory, real and imagined, and history itself, pressing on the present.

The women in the middle story live in a time where women for the most part were without power.

"For the story of Julius, so painstakingly assembled by means of the fafding memories of those who knew him, and the ghosts now clustered on my walls and sideboards - do they not all clamor the same sad warning? That love denied will make us mad? I think so"

The third story, Ground Zero, relates the story of September 11 through the effect on the lives of a female psychotherapist, her male client, and his obsession with a very powerful, very damaged woman who uses and is used by her predatory sexuality. The lives of the three, and indeed the lives of all others in the city, are haunted by the before, the during, and the aftermath of the events of September 11. The terror of death, and the confrontation with mortality become conscious and unconscious forces. Sex and death are woven together in this final story.

I wonder about the woman from Battery Park, the one who wanted a funeral for her husband but had no body to put in the coffin........ Did she find closure? Did she,...?

This is a short, and sombre book, beautiful, melancholy and violent

It is part of a series by Bloomsbury, subtitled The Writer And The City, where different writers explore particular cities as jumping off points for fiction
2468396
A captivating sheer mystical piano experience featuring all piano sonatas by Scriabin. You sit down, close your eyes and fly away to nowhere land, where nothing is like you ever imagined before. Spaces beyond space,  timeless moments growing towards eternity. Moments of passionate loving and  splashes of total horror, frightning you to the bottom of your toes. A  mystical vision of times to come, losing all contact with known reality,  forgetting who you were, the dissolvement of personnality, one with all  that flowes, this is not just music, it's a mystical raproachment to things  long forgotten, experience it
3235908
Anima Mundi, "the Soul of the World" nature film would be just a series of beautiful animal clips if not for the Philip Glass soundtrack.

Glass captures the essence of primordial animality as well as the humor and urgent  life pulasting on earth.  Breathtaking, vibrant and at times verging on the erotic, this soundtrack reveals the broad range of Glass's sharp intellect and depth of heart.

A unique listening experience... and alas, out of print.
1130449
This is one of the best books I ever have read. The colorless Tsukuru Tazaki is all over. I hope Murakami get the Nobel Price soon, It is strange that our problems are all alike all over the world. I started to read Stoner to relive my pain to have to leave the colorless.
1873608
I know many people will believe this sort of writing can corrupt your "soul" like the one reviewer claims. Those type people have minds which are aching for the freedom which such a poetic work like this brings. They must resist it due to their asceticism. The bad review can actually be seen as the highest praise! These people fear imagination and the expansion of consciousness, "Clouds" triggers much in the adpets imagination... "Lo! I am already lost to the world!"

If you are free of dogma you should enjoy this work immensely. If you are loaded with dogmas, you will surely drown in these pages.
4269574
Dark and haunting, surreal and poetic, DISINTEGRATION is a masterful piece of neo-noir from Richard Thomas. He takes a common trope -- man haunted by the ghosts of his family -- and makes it his own in one emotionally draining bloodbath.

Writers love to use dreams as a means to reveal exposition. They think they're wearing these clever disguises, but in reality they're naked in front of the classroom. If a writer is relying on a characters subconscious, then perhaps the writer needs to reexamine the plot and come at it from a different angle. Dreams are frequently used to remind the reader the main character is suffering from the loss of a loved one. Unfortunately, this has become a clich in fiction. In DISINTEGRATION, Thomas uses the repetition of a voicemail as an alternative to dreams. There are various chapters sprinkled throughout the novel replaying snippets from the voicemail the main characters wife was leaving him seconds before dying in a car crash. Readers have a hard time relating to dreams, because dreams exist solely in the dreamers head. Voicemails are more tangible and work as a stronger, personal level of sharing grief.

This is just one of the many cool details included in this book. Read this if you're a fan of Chuck Palahniuk, Stephen Graham Jones, William Christopher Baer, and Craig Clevenger. Think MEMENTO. Think LEON THE PROFESSIONAL. Think DISINTEGRATION.
4378008
Bret Easton Ellis is a master of depicting the vast emptiness that can come with too much privilege and not enough soul. I've also read "American Psycho" and "Glamorama", and there is definitely a common thread running through all three novels. People are searching for fulfillment in all the wrong places, and are digging themselves into deeper holes of despair. One of the darkest satirists out there, Ellis injects humor here and there, but his stories are mostly about people you really wouldn't want to know. His female characters are cardboard cut-outs, and the guys are emotionally unreachable. This early work doesn't contain much of Ellis' trademark over-the-top violence and sex, so if you are looking for an early version of "American Psycho", you'll be disappointed. A very interesting read, it is, as Ellis creates a cold, gray, empty world filled with characters who have lost their spiritual selves as well as their souls.
845845
In a departure from her poetry and novels, Corrine De Winter takes us on a rare journey through the looking glass into the fragile soul of a poet. She shares fragments of her life and divulges intimate, often devastating memories, her only rule being that no feelings be wasted. She is her own muse. As readers, we are able to witness a true artist as she retrieves every shattered piece of her oft-broken heart and sews it back together with golden words.
4177550
In Book 5 of The Hawk and the Dove series, Abbot John is still feeling his way in his new position at St. Alcuin's Abbey, where he is devastated to learn of the horrific attack on his mother and sister. Saintly women and healers, the two are accused of being witches, then attacked by a group of violently drunk men. While his sister Madeleine, gang-raped, beaten and left for dead, survives the brutal assault, his mother does not. Accompanied by Father William, John visits Madeleine at the convent where she has found sanctuary. But the encounter is more painful than John ever imagined. His sister, now a shell of herself, glares at him with eyes that sear his soul. Hatred and pain emanate from Madeleine, who blames her brother for her horror and their mother's death. If he had been living with them, instead of leaving to become a monk, the attack would not have occurred. Consumed by guilt and grief, John sinks into despair far darker than the hour before dawn. But God, in His great wisdom, uses an unlikely soul to lead John back into the light.

Father William is no saint, a fact of which he is painfully aware. His journey into a "spiritual" life was more ambition than vocation. In truth, he does not understand the concept of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Becoming a monk was an escape from the home where his painful childhood was spent at the hostile hands of sadistic parents, and a way to acquire power. After years of abusing that power, he and his brothers-in-crime reap what they have sown. Angry villagers burn the monastery, killing all but William and Brother Oswald. In Book 4, William arrives at the Abbey seeking refuge. After much debate, the brothers of St. Alcuin's take him in, an act that softens his soul, giving him a glimpse of the Christ he never really knew. He and Abbot John develop an unlikely friendship, and it is William who is at his side when John crumbles.

William tells him, "This is your sorrow, but it is not your fault. It is the way of the world. People lend themselves to working great evil sometimes. That's how it is. We are made to be able to carry the pain of that, and to recover. But we are not made to bear the guilt. If we try to do that, it crushes us."

With William's help and wisdom, John journeys back to the Abbey, wondering if his crushed spirit can withstand the role as Abbot. Indebted to William for getting him through the worst of it, John agrees to help William find Brother Oswald, the other surviving monk. John had seen him months before, starving and living on the streets. Upon arriving in the village, John and William spot Brother Oswald. At least what's left of him. Brutal villagers had committed all kinds of horrific crimes upon Oswald, including cutting out his eyes and tongue. The two rescue the half-dead monk, bringing him to Madeleine for much-needed surgery. And here God does what goes beyond human understanding. He shines his light into their darkness. As John, William and Madeleine focus on helping Oswald, they find God's grace, healing through the power of his redemptive love.

THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN is the ultimate comfort food. It gently envelops the reader in another time and place, poetically revealing each character's strengths and vulnerabilities, unveiling a story that captivates from beginning to end. Author Penelope Wilcock successfully tackles the tough issues of grief, guilt, childhood trauma, and spirits crushed nearly to the point of no return, entwined with themes of the resurrection and ascension. I eagerly await Book 6.

Reviewed by Susan Miura
2401414
This film is a character study of would-be suicide bombers.  From the bombers' perspective, the main themes are Israel as "occupier", Palestinians as humiliated, "occupation" as perpetuating "resistance", and the human body as the only weapon left to Palestinians.  These are bleak themes, wrapped in the poverty and squalor of decimated Palestinian urban landscapes.

Each of the two would-be bombers expresses doubts about their mission, showing they're reflective, thinking beings, not one-dimensional automatons.  Frighteningly though, neither is distinct in any meaningful way, suggesting any of a thousand men (or women) could replace them.

There are many poignant moments in this film, but the most striking for me is when Suha, a well-educated intellectual woman, asks one of the bombers "what will happen to the rest of us left behind?"  The painful message is that everyday Palestinians who would pursue peace through non-violent means are marginalized by those who believe violence is the only viable terms of engagement with Israel.
4931324
This is a vivid depiction of the unseen spiritual world. Three young women decide to take part in a Wiccan ritual, with no understanding of the evil and dangers of the occult. The episode almost ends the life of Ruby and spiritually and emotionally damages them all. Everyone involved in affected by the spiritual warfare, even those who don't recognize or understand it. The encounter with evil demons makes each one look at his or her faith and beliefs.
4182410
An excellent, soulful book in the vein of The Trial, and Crime and Punishment. Vladimir Nabokov sums my views of this Novella quite well.

In his lectures on Russian Literature Russian born Novelist and critic Vladimir Nabokov argues that, for Tolstoy, a sinful life is (such as Ivan's was), moral death. Therefore death, the return of the soul to God is, for Tolstoy, moral life . To quote Nabokov: "The Tolstoyan formula is: Ivan lived a bad life and since the bad life is nothing but the death of the soul, then Ivan lived a living death; and since beyond death is God's living light, then Ivan died into a new life- Life with a capital L."(Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich: Lectures On Russain Literature pg. 237: Harcourt Edition)
2452825
No one has more talent for writing the otherworldly than Ansul Noor, Doctor and Poet. She has an intuitive eye that penetrates every poetic subject, bringing to life abandoned houses, old portraits and even darkness. Im a fan of her work, as she continues to compose amazing poetry, abounding with unique phrasing and metaphorical imagery.

Sacred Hauntings is an introspective and perceptive volume of soul experiences. The House is the first poem in the collection. It sits abandoned in a garden of neglect where unkind weeds hiss, and the spirit of life in cobwebs is trapped. When an unwary wanderer in the forest dim, raps on the door in uneasy state, whispers of welcome arise from within the house. Come in dear wandererand I shall light a fire for thee. Ansul Noor captures the kinship between old houses and humans exquisitely. She alludes to the living connections between human flesh and earthly objects, in places where the animate and inanimate world merge. She also reveals that old houses like people need tender loving care.

"Oh Dark" is one of my favorite poems in the book. It is cleverly written, reads rhythmically, and rings true. I won't reveal its secrets, but it has a sinister side, as well as a whimsical quality that I just loved. "Oh Dark, you draw us in, and then let us go.

In Epitaph, the poet paints a chilling scene by a tombstone grey where the crow caws relentlessly; a language only souls can hear, and me. Describing her disillusionment with lifes tragic comedy, the poet comes to heartbreaking conclusions: All you see is all there is, and all there is was never there. The poem  touched me deeply.

With uncanny sureness, the poet peels back the facades of life and reveals the unsettling puzzles beneath them. She writes the ambiguity of existence. She asks many great questions. Does death entice because it takes us home? Is the world a quest bound to disappoint? Above all, Ansul Noor exhibits passion. Although the dark side has its allure, she loves life.

I admire Dr. Noors work tremendously. Her intuitive spirit allows her to grasp mystical secrets and slip them into her poetry. Read and enjoy--I highly recommend Sacred Hauntings.
4505602
One does not listen to this album, rather, you are absorbed by it. Each word and note bathe and enwrap you and touch your soul. Such a remarkable voice and writer. We should have a world of Mr. Isakov's!  But then, if we did, he would not be the astonishing genius he that is THIS EMPTY NORTHERN HEMPISHERE.
3541843
Most people believe in Heaven, and some still believe in hell. As a Catholic I believe there is a place for purification of the soul between Heaven and hell. This book writes about encounters with souls cast in that nether land. Not a pulitzer prize winner by any means and not entertaining. It is not meant to be, but for those who believe there is a judgement it is worth reading.