THE HIDDEN FORCE – Novel, by Louis Couperus

THE HIDDEN FORCE The Hidden Force is also much more than a book about the chasm between white Westerners and warm-blooded Orientals. This problem plays an important role-Van Oudyck’s beautiful wife gives in to adultery but later becomes covered with red betel juice which unknown assailants spit at her in a classic bathroom scene, as if she has transgressed into …

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BRIGHT PRIMARY COLOR – Franz Marc and the use of bold, bright colors

FRANZ MARC 1/4 – Not only was his work highly appreciated during his time, and extremely short career, but to this day, he is considered to be one of the most influential painters to come out of Germany, for the unique style. His father was a professional landscape painter, and in 1900 Marc began to study at the Academy of …

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WHEN THE MUSIC BECOMES POETRY – Lukas Graham: 7 Years

LUKAS GRAHAM: 7 Years Once I was seven years old my momma told me. Go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely. Once I was seven years old. It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger. Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker. By eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor. Never …

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OUTLANDER – Romance, by Diana Gabaldon

OUTLANDER The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach, an “outlander”, in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border …

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IN MY LIFE AS A FOX – Poetry, by Leta Semadeni

IN MY LIFE AS A FOX In my life as a fox I was everything and everything, I was even light to bite, I was the sun of my immaculate face. I did not know my name, and it was just constantly there, where the leg touches the ground. In my life as a fox, I was hungry and the …

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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE – Romance, by Jane Austen

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Jane Austen was able to investigate and tell the most varied nuances of the human soul to the point that her novel is engaging and well today in 203 years away. Her books can be viewed most simply as eerily good romance novels, more broadly as sharp critiques of nineteenth-century vanity, cruelty and folly, and–broadest of all–as …

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PRAYER – Poetry, by Kathleen Jamie

PRAYER Our baby’s heart, on the sixteen-week scan, was a fluttering bird, held in cupped hands. I thought of St Kevin, hands opened in prayer, and a bird of the hedgerow nesting there, and how he’d borne it, until the young had flown, and I prayed: this new heart must outlive my own. (Kathleen Jamie)    

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OF LOVE – Poetry, by Ahmad Shamlou

OF LOVE The one who says “I Love You”, is a sad fiddler, who has lost his song. Only if Love itself, had a tongue! A thousand, blissful hoopoes, laugh inside of your eyes. Thousands of silent canaries, stay still in my throat. If only Love itself, could have a word! The one who says, “I Love You”, is a …

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LIE AND TRUTH – Poetry, by Pornpen Hantrakool

LIE AND TRUTH There was a mysterious land; its long southern parts extended to the great sea. No one knew much about it. People in the land had a strong belief that they lived in a unique land of peace and wealth. So, ever happy they were and they had a positive habit of smiling. This beautiful myth misled them …

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IN THE LAND OF DON QUIJOTE DE LA MANCHA – Travel to Consuegra, Spain

If you have planned your trip to Spain, remember that there is a path – the ruta de Don Qujote – which retraces the places described by Cervantes, that is, the ability to linger just off of each of the twelve mills (all arranged on the rocky Colle Calderico, all baptized with names extracted from the work of Cervantes). Coming, …

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WHEN A BRANCH CROSSES OVER THE WALL – Poetry, by Jung Kut-byo

WHEN A BRANCH CROSSES OVER THE WALL When a drooping willow branch crossed over the wall, it may not have been her work alone. If the distant root, whose face she hadn’t seen even once, and the flowers and leaves–who had put their flesh together and washed their hands of each other, hadn’t supported her as one body, the branch …

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