Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
This book is mostly about the growing pains of a fifteen year old boy,
Kafka Tamura, as he runs away from home, in a vague attempt to grow up
and find himself. The book features quite a bit of death, sex and
violence, but also a library, poetic visions, music and art, as we
follow Kafka's journey towards manhood as well as the poignant journey
of a strange old man called Nakata, who can talk to cats and knows a lot
of weird stuff, even though he's quite backward and childlike. This is
the first fiction book I have read for over a year, it didn't
disappoint; it was mostly sheer escapism.
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide
This is a sweet book. You get to know a bit about the Japanese economy
and housing crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as how a
small cat can come to mean so much to an aloof, literary couple. The
book was poignant rather than happy, it had a touch of sadness about it,
as the march of technology and big business rides roughshod over a
dwindling amount of city green spaces. It was also a quick read, it only
took a week out of my life.
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
I got on well with this book, which is interesting as the main character is always going on about preferring books to people. The story concerns a young Swedish woman who arrives in an American small town, Broken Wheel, and almost inadvertently opens a book shop. The book features many soothing descriptions of everyday life and many quirky characters. The book has a happy enough ending and I felt it was a very comforting read.
I got on well with this book, which is interesting as the main character is always going on about preferring books to people. The story concerns a young Swedish woman who arrives in an American small town, Broken Wheel, and almost inadvertently opens a book shop. The book features many soothing descriptions of everyday life and many quirky characters. The book has a happy enough ending and I felt it was a very comforting read.
This book will save your life by A.M. Homes
I found this book a little difficult in places, it was a bit fast paced and mad. I think its madness and weirdness were partly to do with its Los Angeles setting. Towards the end of the book I started understanding it more and began to get its message. The
protagonist's life starts off clean and orderly and by the end of it it is messy and unpredictable, he is, almost literally, in the middle of an ocean in a rowing boat with no oars, but he also, finally, realises that the meaning of his life lies in being
useful to others, not cutting himself off and being totally self-absorbed.
The reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent
This is a sweet, down-to-earth story that concerns a worker in a book pulping factory who falls in love with a lavatory attendant, whose diary he finds on a memory stick left on his commuter train. The story contains many intriguing characters. The hero
entertains his fellow commuters by reading pages salvaged from the books he pulps, before reading pages from the lavatory attendant's diary to his rapt audience. His main companions are his goldfish and an ex-factory-worker who lost his legs to the book pulping
machine. I found the book to be strangely heart-warming.
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
This book has been promoted as a mood boosting book, but I think there is a lot in it that is quite sad and disturbing. It concerns a woman in a remote town in Canada who finds the diary of a Japanese girl washed up with the debris of a tsunami. The Japanese girl is living a troubled life in a small flat in Tokyo with her suicidal father and her overworked mother, she is having a terrible time in school but finds some strength from an old Buddhist nun and the memory of her kamikaze pilot son. The book did have much that was wise and insightful in it and left me with a lot to think about.
This book has been promoted as a mood boosting book, but I think there is a lot in it that is quite sad and disturbing. It concerns a woman in a remote town in Canada who finds the diary of a Japanese girl washed up with the debris of a tsunami. The Japanese girl is living a troubled life in a small flat in Tokyo with her suicidal father and her overworked mother, she is having a terrible time in school but finds some strength from an old Buddhist nun and the memory of her kamikaze pilot son. The book did have much that was wise and insightful in it and left me with a lot to think about.
1. We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson
2. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
3. The Hoarder by Jess Kidd
4. Wabi-Sabi by Francesc Miralles
5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
6. The mindful path to self compassion by C.K. Germer
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