Margaux

3.5 stars

I would have given this book a higher rating if only the last couple of pages have been different. I really love Murakami's writing especially through the lens of Alfred Birnbaum's translation, but I just could not understand why the story ended as it did (with the happenings between Toru and Reiko I mean). Damn, I was ready to give it 5 stars up until the ending killed it.

Be that as it may, I still really enjoyed the story especially the parts with Midori as well as when Toru was just living inside his head. As expected I can best relate to characters going through loneliness and isolation so it wasn't surprising that I like this book. However, my favorite Murakami book remains to be The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It was just more fluid, more dream-like, more resonant for me than any of his other works. It's also one of those books that I constantly think about and vividly remember reading. I guess I was expecting more along the same lines when I read Norwegian Wood even though I knew beforehand that it does not really have magic realism elements. I should really learn to manage my expectations. After all, I really enjoyed reading it and was really hooked by the beautiful writing. It just did not hit the spot for me.

This story just hurts so good. I can't believe I waited so long to finally read this novel. It's funny what spurred me to read this now was because it was mentioned a couple of times in the last book I read which was Norwegian Wood, which I did not even like that much. Contrary to that though, this book is so well-deserving of all the praise.

I do think I'll be needing time to process my thoughts on this one, but I would really love to re-read it just to see how my perception of it changes, knowing the events leading up to the end. Right now I just feel too dejected to write a level-headed review except to say that I'm really glad I read this now in my 20's. I probably would not have appreciated it as much if I read it in my teenage years.

Probably a 2.5 but upgrading because I agree with her views on library funding and the welfare state in general. Her essays about growing up in poverty were also quite touching. Plus, Moran is a very very funny woman, though some of the essays sometimes border on the silly side. Good thing I listened to this on audio so I was only half-listening when she writes about fish or the royal wedding or British politics (of which I know nothing about). Still a very enjoyable read if you get her brand of humor.

I am predisposed to agree with the author on the subject of climate change and am very interested in learning more about the regulations (or lack thereof) in our current system and about what we can do as individuals to help alleviate the impending crisis. However, Naomi Klein overstates her case and it is very easy to get bogged down by all the gloomy prognostications with no real solution in sight. Granted, I am just a few chapters in, but as a puny individual living in a third-world country, it just got me enraged and practically hopeless.

I might just check out the accompanying documentary instead.

I will be thinking about this book for a long time...

Some of my favorite lines:

She was learning something about grief, that it begins with a great blow, but heals with a thousand tiny strokes.

“We are all dying,” he said. “We just forget that when nothing is trying to kill us.”Tales and memories, however inaccurate, are all we have. The things I have owned, the people I have loved—these are all just ink in notebooks that my mind stores in trunks and takes out when it is bored or lonely. It is necessary to keep track of things [...] It is the recording of things, in our memories if nowhere else, that makes them real.

As with any collection, this one's a mixed bag. While the stories cover a range of themes—mostly dealing with the struggles faced by black women in America—some of them are dealt with in quite a heavy-handed way. The latter ones epecially, read like non-fiction that I'll often forget I'm reading from a fictional character's point of view (and I'm not talking about the one originally written as an introduction in Ms. Magazine). I guess the author has a very strong voice, to the point where I conflate her with her characters.

There were a few standouts though (again, in my own opinion). Nineteen Fifty-five, the opening story deals with the commercial exploitation faced by black musicians and was supposedly inspired by the life of Elvis Presley and Big Mama Thornton. While How Did I Get Away with Killing One of the Biggest Lawyers in the State?... is an unnerving revenge story dealing with abuse. Another of my favorites in this volume is The Abortion which was a visceral examination of the hard choices women make about their own bodies. I also particularly like the last story, Source which is about a lifelong friendship between two women who deal with race in very different ways.

Overall, I'm glad that I've read this collection. It is an important work and is especially relevant to the current political landscape in America. I just couldn't distinguish between Ms. Walker and her characters which is a probably a failure of my own imagination as much as hers.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat and is the very definition of a riveting read. I really like the author's writing style, with just how clearly she paints a picture in my head and make me squirm in my seat during the most intense scenes. I never felt so squeamish while reading a book as when reading the more graphic scenes in this one. However, this is not your straight-up crime novel, as it is also a biting social commentary on the darker side of Japanese society, particularly gender inequality and the life of the urban poor. Though the last chapter left me cold, I could not help but feel spent and emotionally exhausted after finishing the book. It was really a fascinating read and I'll definitely be checking out more of Natsuo Kirino's works.

This graphic novel is just pure perfection—from the gorgeous watercolor art to the quietly evocative stories which form the (somewhat unconventional) narrative.

The story is about Brás de Oliva Domingos, the son of a famous Brazilian writer, who writes obituaries as his day job while dreaming of becoming a novelist like his father. The narrative is told in short snapshots interspersed during different times in his life: age 32, age 21, age 47, age 76... What makes it really compelling is the way in which each story ends. But you will have to read the book to be able to fully appreciate what the authors (who are twin brothers!) have done with the structure of the whole story. Although it seems likely that you would have been spoiled already if you dig around enough before you read the book.

I could not recommend this highly enough, and I will surely be re-reading this soon.

So I finally finished this book... after putting it down for more than 3 months. I read it because Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea was one of my unexpected favourites this year and I wanted to read some of his short stories. I could say that it was well worth the read, if only for the story “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” which really struck a chord with me. I also liked “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” which are actually quite similar since they have the same setting and even share some plot devices.

So, what took me so long to finish this book when it was only a mere 154 pages? Well, I did not particularly like the Nick Adams stories and I was practically falling asleep every time I read one. In fact I would have forgotten that I was still reading this if not for my goodreads list.

In sum, the stories in this collection are a hit-and-miss for me which explains the 3-star rating. I find that I love when Hemingway writes about loneliness and desolation as portrayed so succinctly by the following quote:

“...It was not fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it was all nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada...”

Needless to say I'll definitely be reading more of Papa's works in the future.

This is such an emotionally draining book to read at 5 AM. Everyone is either dead or irretrievably broken. No one is unscathed well probably except Plutarch Heavensbee, come to think of it. I just feel so hollow and spent after reading it. Mostly because of how messed up the world is, how everyone is just a pawn in the political machinations of those in power throughout the whole book that I'm left wondering about the point of it all. Also, the fact that Peeta will never be the same again was extremely upsetting. I think I'm going to be depressed for awhile.

I really enjoyed reading this book although I think the whole concept and world building was better than the writing/execution. I don't really understand the philosophical underpinnings meant by the author either, but I was completely immersed in the world that it hardly mattered while I was reading it. I deem it a mark of a good writer when I'm able to empathize with characters without fully understanding the motivations for their actions (I don't get their fascination with animals, but I still root for them anyhow)

I did not really expect to like this book because of the mixed reviews I read so I was happily surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I'll definitely be checking out more of this author's works in the future.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I love the very atmospheric writing which details the setting and forms a very clear picture of a character's surroundings. I also love how each mystery is resolved in a chapter or two and are quite realistic unlike other books in the same genre. However, what kept it from being a 5-star book for me was the ending. I just felt that everything was tied so neatly at the end that the resolution to the overarching mystery felt kind of a cop out. Despite this however, I still want to read more about Mma Ramotswe's life and adventures as a lady detective. Now, if only I could find the next book in this series...

This is the best history book I've read in quite some time. Having mostly read history from a Western point of view, reading this gave me a better understanding of world events that have led us to where we are now. And while it is true that “history is written by the victors”, I find it invaluable to have a different perspective in interpreting historical events.

From the very beginning, the book relates a steady stream of epic battles, characters and lessons in world history, taking care to place all in their proper context. It offers a sweeping view of events from the time of the prophet Muhammad through the fall of the Ottoman Empire, to the crushing defeat of the Six Day War and beyond. It contends that far from a “clash of civilizations” that has raged on and off since the Crusades, today's conflicts and those of the past are “better understood as the friction generated by two mismatched world histories intersecting.”

The author is Afghan-American so while he doesn't condone the atrocities wrought by various radicals and religious extremists, he does situate it in a much broader historical and societal context. He is no apologist either and the book doesn't shy away from the darker side of Islamic history, down to the bloody infightings that have plagued Islam ever since its foundation.

Simply put, this book is an essential part of any attempt to understand the movements and events behind the modern-day hostilities shaking Western and Islamic societies and I highly recommend it to everyone interested in broadening their knowledge of the world.

Ilan Pappe on the genocide in Gaza:

‘Even the Nakba, which was an unimaginable catastrophe, does not compare to what we are seeing now – and what we are going to see in the next few months.

We are, in my mind, in the first three months of a period of two years that will witness the worst kind of horrors that Israel can inflict on the Palestinians...

‘We are witnessing the end of the Zionist project, there's no doubt about it.

‘This historical project has come to an end and it is a violent end. Such projects usually collapse violently. And thus it is a very dangerous moment for the victims of this project – and the victims are always the Palestinians along with Jews, because Jews are also victims of the Zionism. Thus, the process of collapse is not just a moment of hope, it is also the dawn that will break after the darkness...

‘Collapse like this, however, produces a void. The void appears suddenly; it is a like a wall that is slowly eroded by cracks in it but then it collapses in one short moment. And one has to be ready for such collapses, for the disappearance of a state or a disintegration of a settler colonial project. We saw what happened in the Arab world, when the chaos of the void was not filled by any constructive and alternative project. In such a case, the chaos continues.

‘One thing is clear: whoever thinks about the alternative to the Zionist state should not look [to] Europe or the West for models that would replace the collapsing state. There are much better models which are local and are legacies from the recent and more distant pasts of the Mashraq (the eastern Mediterranean) and the Arab world as a whole. The long Ottoman period has such models and legacies that can help us taking ideas from the past to look into the future.

‘These models can help us build a very different kind of society that respects collective identities as well as individual rights, and is built from scratch as a new kind of model that benefits from learning from the mistakes of decolonialisation in many parts of the world, including in the Arab world and Africa. This hopefully will create a different kind of political entity that would have a huge and positive impact on the Arab world as a whole.'

From https://www.ihrc.org.uk/it-is-dark-before-the-dawn-but-israeli-settler-colonialism-is-at-an-end/

5 Questions to ask yourself:

1. Where in your life or your work are you currently pursuing comfort, when what's called for is a little discomfort?
James Hollis recommends asking of every significant decision in life: “Does this choice diminish me, or enlarge me?” ... you usually know, intuitively, whether remaining in a relationship or job would present the kind of challenges that will help you grow as a person (enlargement) or the kind that will cause your soul to shrivel with every passing week (diminishment). Choose uncomfortable enlargement over comfortable diminishment whenever you can.

2. Are you holding yourself to, and judging yourself by, standards of productivity or performance that are impossible to meet?
What would you do differently with your time, today, if you knew in your bones that salvation was never coming—that your standards had been unreachable all along, and that you'll therefore never manage to make time for all you hoped you might? ... let your impossible standards crash to the ground. Then pick a few meaningful tasks from the rubble and get started on them today.

3. In what ways have you yet to accept the fact that you are who you are, not the person you think you ought to be?
The attempt to attain security by justifying your existence, it turns out, was both futile and unnecessary all along. Futile because life will always feel uncertain and out of your control. And unnecessary because, in consequence, there's no point in waiting to live until you've achieved validation from someone or something else.

4. In which areas of life are you still holding back until you feel like you know what you're doing?
It's easy to spend years treating your life as a dress rehearsal on the rationale that what you're doing, for the time being, is acquiring the skills and experience that will permit you to assume authoritative control of things later on. But I sometimes think of my journey through adulthood to date as one of incrementally discovering the truth that there is no institution, no walk of life, in which everyone isn't just winging it, all the time.

5. How would you spend your days differently if you didn't care so much about seeing your actions reach fruition?
... it's worth asking: What actions—what acts of generosity or care for the world, what ambitious schemes or investments in the distant future—might it be meaningful to undertake today, if you could come to terms with never seeing the results?

Excerpts From: Oliver Burkeman. “Four Thousand Weeks.”

I enjoyed the first two parts of this book but was rather disappointed by the underwhelming ending. The setting is very vivid, with the scenic location really setting the tone of the story. Some parts are also quite unexpectedly funny, although the narrative lost its focus and the latter part of the book felt quite disjointed. Still quite an easy and enjoyable read if you're interested in the time period discussed and if you want to read about the importance of intellectual freedom and the potency of literature.

I think I might have enjoyed this better if I read it before The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Like one reviewer has pointed out, I feel like this is a second rate version of that work even though this has been published later. They do have similar themes and plot devices like missing people, the separation of reality and dreams, even the setting of Greece! The narrative also felt a somewhat disjointed at times, especially when switching points of view from K to Sumire. Although this doesn't take away from the poignancy of the emotional themes explored in the novel, the writing did feel a little clunky in some parts.

On a positive note, the story did end up in hopeful and (more) concrete way than the rest of the Murakami books I've read so far (and there were a lot less sex scenes which quite bothered me while reading Norwegian Wood).

As with any book he writes, Murakami never fails to capture the feelings of alienation and loneliness that has been the trademark of his writing. My particular favorite is the following

“So that's how we live our lives. No matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing that's stolen from us—that's snatched right out of our hands—even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. We draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. Repeating, often adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. Leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness...

will be a real treat!

I enjoyed this for the beautiful language, but sadly found the character development quite lacking. In the end, I did not feel like I knew the characters at all which kept me disengaged from the story.

The novel is divided into five sections and told through three separate narratives. One thread is told through the point of view of Daniel–the grieving father of twins Lucy and Levi. His wife died after giving birth to their children. In the beginning, we follow Lucy after having left home due to some mysterious circumstances. She has newly arrived in Vancouver where she runs into several enigmatic characters and ends up working as an assistant to the owner of The Holy Circus which showcases bizarre acts that couldn't easily be explained by reason or science. In the latter half, we meet her twin Levi as he navigates his new life as an art student in Montreal and as he deals with the sudden disappearance of his sister. All this is interspersed with Daniel's letters to his wife through time as he mourns for her death while single-handedly raising their children. So while Lucy's story is the driving force keeping the narrative forward, in the end I found that I empathized more with Daniel which is probably because his part of the story is told through first person, thus giving us more access to his thoughts and motivations.

While I get that this is a novel based on a well-known myth and some elements of fairy tale—that things don't really have to be explained or even to make sense, I think too much stuff have been left unexplored. I'm not just referring to the (supposedly) supernatural stuff that happens in the novel but also the relationship between Lucy and Levi and to a lesser extent, that between Lucy and Phineas, the mysterious owner of the circus who seems to know more about Lucy and her personal struggles than a typical boss might. We do find some answers in the end but I still I feel like I'm missing a whole lot, just thinking about it. I just wish that the story has been given more room to unfold so we could get to know the characters and their backstories better.

Nonetheless, I'm giving it a solid three stars for the poetic prose and the creative use of mythical/supernatural themes. Recommended for those who enjoy fragmented narratives told through beautifully restrained language.