11/22/63 by Stephen King

The past is obdurate.

The more you try to change it the harder it fights back.
When it’s changed a new timeline is made. A new string.
One or two strings and everything is okay. The more that get added the more confusing it gets. “the sound of too much harmony created by too many strings.”

Time travel is dope. It just is.
Marty McFly and Doc Brown, Dr. Samuel Becket and the Quantum Leap Excelerator, The fifth season of Lost!!!

But this isn’t just a story about time travel or John F Kennedy. It’s rooted in science fiction, but the inbetween is full of heart. Full of characters with wounded pasts. Full of Redemption???
…and the dancing
Did I mention the dancing?

It was also nice to visit with some old friends from Derry.

“For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don’t we all secretly know this? It’s a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark.”

So since reading this and doing the art I finished Tom Perotta’s “The Leftovers” which was also pretty awesome. I’ll be posting the art for that soon.
In the meantime I haven’t started reading anything else. I have a few possibles but nothing that I’m jumping up and down about so please feel free to pass along some recomendations.

To buy this original painting (watercolor and ink, 8.5×11″)
$100 US/ $105 Rest of World (shipping included)
CLICK HERE

Until next time….

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

It’s no wonder I liked this book. It’s all about death.
It’s the one certain thing there is in life.
It will happen.

Don’t panic.

But somewhere there is a deathless man. A man that defies what it means to be alive.
Yet when people are confronted with the deathless man they are terrified. So horrified by his presence that they put him in a coffin, weigh it down so he can’t get out.
why?
Why are we so afraid of death?
Then there’s a wager. A bet lost. With the debt to be paid on that day of days. The last day.
It’s a story about a girl who loses her grandfather, and the events that lead up to his death.
His childhood in a village that is terrorized by an escaped tiger that he desperately wants to find. A relationship with the tiger’s wife, a child bride of the abusive town butcher, as well as his run-ins with a man that is unable to die.

So, that’s it for my three day book blog blitzkrieg (or what historians will later refer to as “BBB”). I’m half way through with the new Stephen King, which I reiterate, is sooooooo good!! When I’m done with that I’ll do a drawing and post it. Check back.

If you would like to own the original of The Tiger’s Wife you may do so RIGHT HERE

extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer

“Humans are the only animal that blushes, laughs, has religion, wages war, and kisses with lips. So in a way, the more you kiss with lips, the more human you are. And the more you wage war.”

Oskar’s a nine year old boy trying to find the lock that matches a key belonging to his father who died on 9/11. The story is told from three different perspectives; Oskar, his grandfather, and his grandmother.
The grandfather writes these beautiful letters to his son who he has never met.
The grandmother writes the details of her life to someday give to Oskar.

I wanted to get to this book before I see the movie.
I figure once I see it I won’t be able to differentiate between the idea of the character in my head vs the actor portraying that role.
I didn’t want to just do a portrait of Tom Hanks.
Not that there’s anything wrong with Tom Hanks. It’s just that the last thing my apartment needs is another portrait of Tom Hanks. (insert creepy music here)

The original painting is for sale HERE

Check back tomorrow for “The Tiger’s Wife” by Tea Obreht.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The other night I was looking out the window at the moon, and because of the way the moonlight hit the glass it appeared as though there were two moons.
One just below the other
I began thinking of air chrysalis’ and little people.
I wondered when exactly it was that my timeline jumped from 2012 to 2Q12.
Had I hear Janacek’s Sinfonietta at all recently?

To be honest that’s when I had the idea for this blog. I enjoy books. I love a good story that sucks you in and makes you miss a character or a place once the book is done.
and in that moment, looking out the window I missed the world of 1Q84.
So I decided to make this…

So what’s going to happen here is I’m going to read a book and then draw a picture about that book. If I read a book and hate that book it get’s no picture.
I have three drawings completed including this one. Tomorrow I’ll post “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer and Tea Obreht’s “The Tiger’s Wife” on Saturday.

All original paintings are for sale ($100 US/Canada shipping included $105 rest of world). They’re all 8.5×11″/ watercolor and ink
Speaking of which do you want to own my 1Q84?? If so it’s available HERE…..

Check back tomorrow for “Extremely Loud…”. Also I’m in the process of reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King which is INCREDIBLE so far. His best book in years, so look for that in the not so distant future.