Type Away Cait

"We Used to Live Here" is a spine-chilling horror novel about guests overstaying their welcome at a house settled in the rural mountains of Oregon. Written by Marcus Kliewer and published in 2024, the book opens with a seemingly normal family of a father, mother, 2 boys, and a girl who knock on the door of a home owned by Eve and Charlie, the new residents who just moved in. The father, Thomas, claims that he used to live there many years before and he'd like to show the kids around where he grew up.  Eve and Charlie just purchased the property and got a pretty good deal for it. With Charlie not home and Eve being a pushover, she invites the guests in. Once they arrive, strange occurrences slowly unravel. The daughter goes missing and Thomas begins acting strange. Once you start the book, you won't be able to put it down.  Throughout the story, the author provides archival documents about the history of the property and paranormal occurrences related to the home. The ...

Simone De Beauvoir is best known for her works such as “The Second Sex” and “The Woman Destroyed,” but little is known of her novellas, including "A Misunderstanding in Moscow." Set in the 1960s Nicole and Andre are an old married couple from Paris who go to Russia to visit Andre's daughter, Macha, from a previous marriage. On this trip, readers will observe how despite being married for years, Andre and Nicole grow apart and have become strangers. The ever-changing Russia and dialogue about the politics of the Cold War serves as a comparison to that of the marriage between Nicole and Andre in which they have in a way unfamiliar to each other and themselves. There are misunderstandings and confusion between the East and West just as there can be in families. De Beauvoir writes what Andre reflects:      Perhaps they would enable socialism to triumph, but their version of it would bear no       relation to the one his parents, his comrades, and he himsel...

(Reading Diaries #2 was published on my blog before Reading Diaries #1. This diary entry is labeled as such as this was written before Reading Diaries #2. This was also written before it was announced that a new adaptation featuring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie is going to be made.) The first time I ever read "Wuthering Heights" was October of 2022. This is one book that really stuck with me and is by far my favorite work of gothic literature  ever. I recently purchased a copy of "Wuthering Heights" —more specifically, my second copy— at a bookstore in Galway.  I can't put into words of a single feeling to describe what it was like to read one of my favorite classics on that wet Autumn October day on the bus ride from Galway to Dublin, glimpsing between the pages I'm reading and admiring the sky out the window as it darkens and turns to evening.  Despite the very limited time I got to view the countryside landscape of Ireland from a bus passenger's pe...

photo credit: Cait Malilay Nov. 2024 (from the unpublished drafts) "Love in the Time of Cholera." I've had this book for about 4 years now. It was sitting on my shelf unread until last Spring. I annotated the heck out of it, yet I still have yet to complete it. Here I find myself, over a year later, and still haven't returned to it. After a little over 200 pages in, I stopped because, well, I felt that the plot was just moving way too slow and the story was getting a little too repetitive. In sum, it's basically about a guy named Florentino Aziza, who is a hopeless romantic that becomes intoxicated by the beauty of Fermina Daza. He was only 18 years old. He becomes so obsessed with her, follows her, and despite her choosing a far wealthier man who is a doctor over him, he reserves her heart for her over a span of 50 years. However, that isn't to say that he hadn't had his fair share of love affairs (622 to be precise). The first time I heard about "Lo...

  New York Times bestselling author Dustin Thao (left) celebrates the release of the paperback version of "You've Reached Sam" with his first ever book tour with booktuber Jack Edwards (right).   photo credit: Cait Malilay BROOKLYN, Ny. — New York Times bestselling author Dustin Thao celebrated the release of the paperback version of "You've Reached Sam," on July 2 with a Q+A hosted by booktuber Jack Edwards, at Barnes and Noble, located at 194 Atlantic Ave.  This was Thao's first ever in person book event in the U.S. "It's sort of about getting a second chance to speak with someone you've loved and lost," he said. The 2021 young adult fiction book centers on 17-year-old Julie, whose life falls apart when she loses her best friend and boyfriend Sam. She calls his cell phone one more time just to listen to his voicemail, but to her surprise, he picks up on the other line. When asked about the inspiration behind "You've Reached...

photo credit: Cait Malilay ***TRIGGER WARNING:** This book contains descriptions of physical and emotional abuse, and pedophilia.  Consent is a powerful and raw 2020 memoir written by Vanessa Springora. Written 3 years after the launch of the #MeToo Movement, the 285-page novel recounts her experience as a 14-year-old in a relationship with an older man, a well-respected writer, who Springora only refers to as "G." Springora first encountered Gabriel Matzneff, 50, at a dinner party that was full of literary intellectuals.  She writes that her mother, who works in publishing, mistakenly thinks that he is interested in her, but no. Her mother is far from his type. He prefers teenagers and even younger, some as young as eleven. Didn't she know that? After all, that's what his works are all about. He admits his sexual experiences in the writings that are published by the company her mother works for.  "A father, conspicuous only by his absence, who left an unfathomab...

photo credit: Cait Malilay "Though hundreds of thousands had done their very best to disfigure the small piece of land on which they were crowded together, by paving the ground with stones, scraping away every vestige of vegetation, cutting down the trees, turning away birds and beasts, and filling the air with the smoke of naphtha and coal, still spring was spring, even in the town." - (Tolstoy 5) "Resurrection" was Leo Tolstoy's last written novel published in 1899. Told in the third person perspective, the book centers on a nobleman named Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, whose values are tested when he by chance reconnects with someone from his past, someone he once loved and betrayed. The book's first chapter has strong similarities to that of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" with its opening passages of a prison and society focused on the fate of a fallen woman.  We are introduced to Maslova, also known as "Katusha," who i...

  Christopher Plummer, the director of Rockland Community College’s Cultural Arts Theatre and co-founder of the Rockland Shakespeare Company , will never forget one of the very first horror movies he watched as a kid: “The Exorcist” (1973) , directed by William Friedkin. “‘The Exorcist’ terrified me in a way I can’t properly convey to you or quantify,” he said. “I watched it since many times and I remember distinctly seeing it as a child, but that was one movie that very very much scared me and I don’t get particularly scared at films.” Plummer —who is a distant relative of the late actor Christopher Plummer, known for iconic films such as “The Sound of Music” (1965) and “Knives Out” (2019) — discusses the evolution of horror movies and what elements constitute a great horror flick.  Read full article here.

The Finkelstein Memorial Library hosted a Zoom book discussion on the New York Times bestseller,   “King: A Life,”   with author   Jonathan Eig   and   Mondaire Jones , a former Democratic representative and Congressional candidate for New York’s 17th district, last Thursday. " I wanted readers to encounter a more fully human Martin Luther King Jr: one with flaws, with doubts, with fears, one who’s even more inspiring because of his imperfection,” Eig said. Read full article here.

photo credit: Cait Malilay Emily Shan is a New York City public school teacher, stay-at-home mom and author and creator of Jojo Adventure Books , a bilingual children’s board book series that’s written in Cantonese and English. Launched in September 2022, the series is based on real adventures, both big and small, of her daughter Jojo. “At the same time, I’m creating the resources for ourselves as well as families who want to be able to pass down that Cantonese language to the next generation and hopefully future generations beyond that,” Shan said.  What inspired her to launch this project is that while she was shopping for children's books, she noticed that a lot of them were more catered toward Mandarin-speaking families. Mandarin and Cantonese are tone languages. "Cantonese has six to nine tones, whereas Mandarin has four to five. You’ll see Cantonese written as traditional Chinese characters, whereas Mandarin will typically be written in simplified Chinese characters,...

Did you know that August is Women in Translation Month?  According to WomenInTranslation.org, this movement is "a global effort centered around the idea that women who write in languages other than English deserve to be widely read and appreciated."  While I was at Reimagine Asian Fest in New York City, I had the pleasure of meeting Emily Shan. She is the author and creator of "Jojo Adventure Books," a children’s board book series that’s written in both Cantonese and English.  What inspired her to launch this project is that while she was shopping for books for her daughter, Jojo, she had trouble finding bilingual books for a Cantonese audience.  In this very special 10th edition of "Conversations With Cait," Shan shares with us the story behind Jojo Adventure Books, her personal journey with the Cantonese language, and the importance of preserving our heritage.  Be sure to check out her Instagram page below to learn more about the series.  When you sup...

  I hope everyone's having a wonderful summer! 😎  My sunshine state of mind is soaking up the sun with a good book and an iced fruity drink.🍓 Instagram

  photo courtesy: Kristen Higgins, Nanuet Public Library children’s librarian Sam Sambrato shares what she loves most about working in the teen services department. “I feel like I have days where I get to be goofy and I get to be fun,” she said. Read full article here.

  photo courtesy: Katrina Hohlfeld Katrina Hohlfeld shares what she loves most about working at Valley Cottage Library, a place that she considers a second home.  “I just knew some really amazing librarians growing up, and now I get to work with some of the same librarians that inspired me to work in this field,” she said. Read full article here.

photo courtesy: Cavalier House Books @chbbookstore / Instagram DENHAM SPRINGS, La. — Michelle Cavalier describes her fifth grade year as the "greatest reading year" of her life, a time of "childhood civil disobedience." It was the year that she was first introduced to Lois Lowry's "The Giver," but after a parent complained of its content, it was removed from the classroom. When the teacher realized that the class was passing around the novel and reading it in secret, she offered them the choice to read the new book,  Sounder by William H. Armstrong , or continue reading "The Giver" and take a test.  "I can still feel how excited we were, really feeling as though we were doing something powerful and secret, and when I look back on it, it truly was a turning point for me as a reader and an individual," she said.   "'The Giver' is a novel about empathy and the power of memory and stories; about how when we allow fear and ...

photo credit: Aldona Pilmanis, Nyack Library Head of Youth Services Morgan Strand says that what she loves most about working for a library is giving back to her community.  “We just try to form connections in the teen room, lifelong connections,” she said. Read full article here.

photo courtesy: Broadway Books website PORTLAND, Ore. — Kim Bissell will never forget when she learned of an opportunity that any bibliophile couldn’t resist. In 2014, Roberta Dyer, co-founder of Broadway Books , located at 1714 N.E. Broadway, was looking for someone to fill in as co-owner with Sally McPherson. “When the opportunity arose in my neighborhood bookstore, I live about five blocks away from the store, I jumped,” Bissell said. Broadway Books, which was originally an old furniture store, first opened in 1992 by two best friends Dyer and Gloria Borg Olds. After Olds retired, McPherson became co-owner with Dyer in 2007, and seven years later Dyer was looking to do the same. An avid reader, active in author visits and book fairs and well-known in Portland’s book community, Bissell was the perfect person. Home to Powell’s City of Books , the largest bookstore in the world, Bissell describes Portland as a “literary city.” “It makes a nice stop for authors who are touring to g...