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Breasts and Eggs
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
117 posts | 88 read | 2 reading | 95 to read
'So amazing it took my breath away' Haruki Murakami, international bestselling author of The Wind-up Bird Chronicles Breasts and Eggs explores the inner conflicts of an adolescent girl who refuses to communicate with her mother except through writing. Through the story of these women, Kawakami paints a portrait of womanhood in contemporary Japan, probing questions of gender and beauty norms and how time works on the female body. Breast and Eggs is a thrilling English language debut from Japan's brightest young talent, Mieko Kawakami.
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review
IndianBookworm
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

This book centers around Natsu, her elder sister Makiko and Makiko's daughter Midoriko. The book is about the female body as much as it's about the female mind.
I really liked the characters and how the story was written. The pace was nice too. But, somewhere in between I felt a bit disconnected from the story. A great book but I think it could have been written better. Or the essence was kinda lost during translation.
4/5🌟

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LatrelWhite
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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🎧Audiobook 💗💗

BookmarkTavern I have the exact same bookmark! 💕 4mo
LatrelWhite @BookmarkTavern Reading rainbow🌈 ☺️❤️ 4mo
16 likes2 comments
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LatrelWhite
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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❤️❤️this book! What are your favorites from this author?

15 likes1 stack add
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batsy
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

Having read all of Kawakami's novels translated into English (just the novella, Ms. Ice Sandwich, to go), I can say that I'm a big fan. I was surprised by the depth of Breasts and Eggs, the level of scrutiny it employs in dissecting age-old norms taken as human truths. But I shouldn't have been surprised; she does the same in Heaven & All the Lovers in the Night. A book that I'll be thinking about for a long time. Brilliant & uncompromising.

batsy I feel suffocated when mainstream media tries to equate womanhood with all things "girly" as decided by corporations & embodied by celebs, so reading actual literature by women writers that give an unsparing, unsentimental look into what it means to be a "woman" in a particular society is always a gift, a lesson, & a revelation. The solitary aloneness of Kawakami's characters get to me; her novels wrestle with the contradictions of modern life. 9mo
youneverarrived Brilliant review! 🤍 I rated it a so-so but it‘s still vivid in my mind. 9mo
batsy @youneverarrived Thank you! It raises so many points, some that I disagree with, some that challenge my own beliefs. I feel like I'll be thinking about it for a long time, as well. 9mo
See All 12 Comments
Ruthiella Agree with @youneverarrived ! I liked the first part; found the second part tedious but still have strong memories of it. 9mo
Megabooks I loved this! It is so rare that aspec people get good representation in literary fiction. 9mo
BarbaraBB Such a good book. Good to see it again, it‘s been a while! 9mo
batsy @Ruthiella The second part is quite a bit more ruminative, in a sense. I can see why it might feel too long. 9mo
batsy @Megabooks Yes, I definitely appreciated that! It's very good. 9mo
batsy @BarbaraBB I hope there's many more English translations in the works! 9mo
BarbaraBB Me too, she‘s so good 9mo
Centique Such a great review! This book got under my skin and i put it down for a while. But im so glad i picked it up again. I can still picture the three of them in the flat and in the train station. I must read it again. I loved Ms Ice Sandwich - but have to read more from her! 9mo
batsy @Centique The relationships depicted, between sisters, aunt and niece, mother and daughter, and between friends, were so real and unsentimental. That was a standout for me. I've seen good things here about Ms Ice Sandwich so I'm looking forward 💜 9mo
95 likes3 stack adds12 comments
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jack777
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
Mehso-so

Read the full book, not the novella. It was interesting. Definitely delves into the inner lives of women with an unflinching gaze. Parts were beautiful (eggs cracking over their heads in the kitchen, the ferris wheel scenes). But it was fairly long and I definitely struggled to finish it. A worthwhile read though.

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Night_Reader
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

4.5/5 🌟

An interesting and fabulous book about womanhood and motherhood, featuring a number of intriguing characters and diverse points of view. It illustrates that in life, there is no absolute right or wrong; rather, there exists a multitude of perspectives.

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IndianBookworm
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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"If you want to know how poor somebody was growing up, ask them how many windows they had."

@ShyBookOwl
#FirstLineFridays

Parvez The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
13mo
12 likes1 comment
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Kitta
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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No entry for this story in litsy so I‘m tagging another of her novels.

This translated short story is haunting because the depression of the main character is palpable. It feels familiar, those thoughts of death - not so much a longing but a “what if I just died today?” feeling.

She spends her days wandering a department store. Buying, browsing, not really feeling or facing her grief.

It‘s interesting and well written. A pick for sure.

BarbaraBB I really liked this one too. 1y
20 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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susaanestraada
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami

“It feels like I‘m trapped inside my body. It decides when I get hungry and when I‘ll get my period. From birth to death, you have to keep eating and making money just to stay alive. I see what working every night does to my mom. It takes it out of her. But what‘s it all for? Life is hard enough with just one body. Why would anyone ever want to make another one?”

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susaanestraada
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami

i am literally makiko, midoriko, and natsuko. i am all of them and they are all me.

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lumbricuslibri
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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I read 16 books in July!

I‘ve read more in a month before but it‘s been years. I‘m happy. 😊

Tagged book is my favourite of the month.

BarbaraBB Do 28 and 29 July books belong together? (edited) 1y
lumbricuslibri @BarbaraBB Hi!! Did you mean 21 & 22? Because if so, then yes! 😁 Fable & Namesake, it‘s a duology by Adrienne Young. 1y
BarbaraBB Yes I did! They looked so similar it was too good to be true! Nice 😀 1y
42 likes3 comments
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lumbricuslibri
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

I love this so much. I borrowed it through Libby but now I want to buy a copy just so I can hug it.

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lumbricuslibri
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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So don‘t let anything get you down.

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lumbricuslibri
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Amen!

dabbe 🤣🤣🤣 1y
39 likes1 comment
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Maeve1
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

25th July 2023 🐣

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lumbricuslibri
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami

Happiness is the base unit of consciousness, our single greatest motivator. Saying "I just want to be happy" trumps any other explanation.

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anushareflects
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

This was a very unique read/listen. A story that really departs from the usual descriptions of Japan as being sex obsessed (Murakami, looking at you). It is a contemporary story delving into the various facets of womanhood in Japan. It explores important themes with great sensitivity. It was like reading someone‘s diary. A good, thoughtful read

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usmanajmal44
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami

Has Anyone read "Breasts and eggs" or "Heaven" by Japanese Author Mieko kawakami? What is your first impression of her Writing?

BarbaraBB I love her style and both of these books. Especially Heaven. It is sad though 2y
2 likes1 comment
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Liz_M
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

These two stories are narrated by Natsuko, an impoverished writer from a working-class background. Both stories are fascinating explorations of womanhood, especially comparing her experiences and societal barriers with American attitudes and societal norms. I loved her tagged book, but these stories are grittier and drearier. Instead of her novella‘s spare prose, a sprawling 400-pages, with some parts written in a hard-to-translate Osaka dialect.

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 2y
28 likes2 comments
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Centique
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

I struggled with reading this book last year and so I tried it this time on audio. A different time & a different format really helped. I enjoyed Kawakami‘s writing and the character of Natsu and I felt she addressed fertility, sexuality and women‘s life experiences with a directness that was refreshing &, in terms of my reading, unique. I found the novel choppy in parts and I‘m not sure that I always got the point she was trying to make. ⬇️

Centique It was a bit like a fever dream at times! Still extremely memorable and I take away images of Natsu‘s childhood poverty and Midorikos journal that I don‘t think I‘ll ever forget. 2y
Centique Flowers from my nieces house where I stayed last week 💕 2y
BarbaraBB Glad you gave it another chance! 2y
See All 7 Comments
TrishB I haven‘t got to this yet. 2y
LeahBergen What pretty flowers! 2y
batsy Nice review! I'm very eager to read this. 2y
Centique @TrishB @batsy I‘ll be very interested to see what you two think of this! It‘s one of those books which might benefit from a bit of discussion. 2y
71 likes2 stack adds7 comments
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JillR
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

Translated Japanese fiction exploring what it is to be a woman, a mother, a parent; touching on career crises, financial stalemate and being overlooked in the workplace due to age? Yes please! I didn‘t always “get” some elements of this, but I‘m loving exploring contemporary Japanese women-authored fiction. I love the pared-back writing style. I also have lots of love for this cover.

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bianka
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

‘ why is it that people think this is okay? why do people see no harm in having children? they do it with smiles on their faces, as if it‘s not an act of violence. you force this other being into the world, this being than never asked to be born. you do this absurd thing because that‘s what you want for yourself, and that doesn‘t make any sense ‘. 5/5

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TrishB
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Tagged book.
(Clive) Barker
Bladerunner
Blondie
Bedshaped (Keane)
#manicmonday #letterb

vivastory Bladerunner 👏 2y
Leftcoastzen Yay ,Bladerunner! 2y
CBee Hubby loves Blade Runner! Thanks for playing 😊😊 2y
CBee @TrishB thanks for reminding me how much I love Keane! 😊 2y
55 likes4 comments
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Mogoeg
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

I liked it but I agree with other reviewers - it's too long. It was apparently a novella that was expanded into a novel, but I think it would work better as two shorter novellas. I liked the first half very much, but the second half dragged until coming back around in the end. It is very much a book about the female experience - for better and (more usually) for worse - in contemporary Japan. It left me with a lot to think about.

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itsyvetperez
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Mehso-so

Interesting book but, it felt like it's much longer than it actually needed to be.

- 3⭐️

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cant_i'm_booked
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

Picked this book because I loved the title and the book cover (and it got a good word from Murakami). But it‘s a great piece of body lit, with all its female protagonists and their inconsistencies/hesitancies about their desires and goals, which I found true to life and refreshingly genuine. It is about messy women trying to navigate messy lives with messy bodies: it all leads to some incredibly poignant moments. Backdrop LP: Sun Ra‘s Disco 3000.

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TrishB
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Megabooks Loved this! 3y
sarahbarnes Me too! 3y
lauraisntwilder Me too! 😊 3y
See All 7 Comments
squirrelbrain Phew, thought I might have missed it but it‘s still on offer today! 3y
Cathythoughts Good deal ! 👍🏻❤️ 3y
TrishB @Megabooks @sarahbarnes @phyhill that‘s good to know 👍🏻 3y
TrishB @squirrelbrain @Cathythoughts it came up on a Facebook advert! 3y
66 likes1 stack add7 comments
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MeatPiie
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

? October 2021
A really good read!
It takes on many subjects which I hadn't really thought about before (artificial insemination, plastic surgery, adoption, birth), so I sometimes had to put the book down and just think what my own opinion was before confronting it to the book.
I would say it's a really "womanly" book, as I've seen many men say that they didn't understand the book…

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sophies_little_library
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Mehso-so

This book has an extraordinary sense of place, the heat of Tokyo permeating every scene and elucidating moments of real emotional lucidity. It‘s really a book in two halves: a short story about sisterhood and family, and a longer exploration of the themes, set a decade later. As such, there is less a plot than a series of variations on themes, which at times form unexpected, delightful connections, and at times feel repetitive and forced.

tokorowilliamwallace Thanks for the informative characterization. 3y
10 likes1 comment
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VRM1975
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
Pickpick

.

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youneverarrived
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Mehso-so

This took me so long to finish, it‘s definitely a slow burner. There‘s some memorable scenes and interesting views on artificial insemination, motherhood, beauty standards and relationships. The two parts seem so separate, I liked them equally and as stand alones but they didn‘t quite make sense as a novel for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

EvieBee Great review, and it‘s a chunky book too! 3y
BarbaraBB I wanted to love this one but didn‘t as much as I hoped. 3y
Cathythoughts It is a slow burn .. I really liked it though 3y
See All 8 Comments
youneverarrived @EvieBee thank you, I didn‘t realise how long it was with reading it on kindle, I never look at page numbers on there! 3y
youneverarrived @BarbaraBB same, I was a bit disappointed. Expected to love it. 3y
youneverarrived @Cathythoughts I can see why you liked it. I thought I‘d enjoy it more than I did. 3y
vivastory I completely agree with your review. I think of this as linked novellas, rather than a novel 3y
youneverarrived @vivastory yeah that‘s what it felt like 3y
52 likes8 comments
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sparky89
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami

"So I look away and try to rid them from my mind. But that only makes it hard to tell if I've escaped my demons or invited them to stay."

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MidnightBookGirl
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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I'm joining #LitsySummerCamp this week! I'm off the next two days, so I thought that would make for a good start. Thanks to @ImperfectCJ for hosting this super fun event!

ImperfectCJ Hooray! Great to have you at camp this week! 3y
35 likes1 stack add1 comment
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MidnightBookGirl
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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My August #BookSpinBingo picks. A mix of TBR and Book Club Reads. I'm ready for Summer to be over though, so I can focus on my Fall reading!
@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y
37 likes1 comment
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AlizaApp
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

The first section was excellent: a Japanese woman considering whether to get pregnant via IVF on her own has a visit from her sister, who is obsessed with plastic surgery. But the second section, set further in the future about the same family, felt overly long. Worth the read anyway.

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Hooked_on_books
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

I liked this look at gender and sexuality focused on Japanese women. I think some good issues are covered here, but I would have liked to have seen more balance—more of the supporting characters to contrast the main character and more balance around the issues rather then such heavy focus in the second half on decisions about children. It started to feel a bit repetitive by the end.

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NeorahGarcia
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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I LOVED this book! I‘m loving Japanese literature!

Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. #japaneseliterature #japaneseauthor #japanesebooks

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Pinta
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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^^p 50, weird dream in the steam of the public baths. Of course Murakami loves this book, same style of dreamscape mashed w/ obsessive, self-absorbed narrator. Homunculi, puberty, laughter, discomfort with sexuality.

P46: nipple hierarchy “Who wants their nipples to be cute or pretty? You‘d think that, in the world of nipples, it‘d be the strong, dark, big ones that would reign supreme. Maybe someday they‘ll have their moment. But probably not.”

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Pinta
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

It‘s the narrator. The breezy, urgent, unforgiving tone. This is one I would have wanted to read in the original. Translators make it very readable, but where‘s the playful Osaka dialect she keeps referencing? Not that I‘d know how to render it.

Female bodies and INSISTANCE like Ferrante or Cardinal. Money struggles. Family. The shock and the pull of fertility. Such a strong voice, if also hard and clinical. Annoying and unputdownable. 2020

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Flaneurette
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

I liked this book but it took me forever to finish, I just never felt compelled to pick it up but I did love all the food talk and seeing a different representation of Japanese society than I typically do. Also got to genius on the Nyt spelling bee without looking up hints! Maybe I‘ll go for queen bee today

Suet624 Nice work in both accomplishments. I couldn‘t get through this book and I am nowhere near a genius on those puzzles. 4y
45 likes1 comment
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shadowspeak17
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Here‘s my #booked2021 first quarter wrap up! I skipped around, as usual, and managed to get through more prompts than I expected, so I‘m quite pleased. 😊 I enjoyed all of them too, except Boca Raton, but at least that one was short. 😅

#SFWrittenByAWoman: The Space Between Worlds
#TranslatedIntoYour1stLanguage: Breasts and Eggs
#HearHere: Just Mercy
#RelatedTo911: The Only Plane in the Sky
#Under150pages: Boca Raton
#LatinxAuthor: Little Eyes

Cinfhen Woohoo ❣️❣️❣️You have until midnight, April 3 to fill out the first quarter form to be entered in our drawing ?
https://bit.ly/3b7rK1E
Well played ✨?
4y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Great job! And confirming we have your drawing entry. 🎉🎉 4y
41 likes2 comments
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jackday
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
Mehso-so

Read the full book, not the novella. It was interesting. Definitely delves into the inner lives of women with an unflinching gaze. Parts were beautiful (eggs cracking over their heads in the kitchen, the ferris wheel scenes). But it was fairly long and I definitely struggled to finish it. A worthwhile read though.

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BarbaraBB
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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We're going our separate ways, in the tournament 😀. In the #LitsyToB21 Piranesi won against Leave the World Behind (again with a convincing majority), in the official #ToB21 Red Pill was finally kicked out by Breasts and Eggs!

We're almost there, I will annouce our Zombies 🧟‍♀️ later today and another form for voting. The official #ToB21 Zombies are Piranesi and The Vanishing Half, completely different from ours again!

Cinfhen I‘m glad Red Pill is gone but I‘m sad to see Leave go 😢 4y
Readerann I‘m liking our Litsy tournament better! 4y
Kalalalatja Nooooo.... but at least Red Pill is gone! 4y
See All 6 Comments
Megabooks I‘m really happy with the official decision today! 4y
Ruthiella I‘m sad to see Red Pill go! But hopefully Kunzru will have more opportunities with subsequent novels. B&E did not resonate with me at all, so it‘s interesting to read what others got out of it. 😀 4y
kwmg40 So glad to see B&E continue in the official ToB! 4y
63 likes6 comments
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emilyhaldi
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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I think I‘ve read 50 pages in the last week. Lately I just cannot find the concentration to sit down and read!!! Trying to park myself here on the side porch and make some progress.. 🥴

Adventures_of_a_French_Reader It happens sometimes... My advice would be to create the moment: set up a nice reading place, with a nice drink, and disconnect from the digital world, while trying to prepare your mind in advance to that set time of reading. It helps me, especially when life happens. But it is also important sometimes to just be kind to oneself, and not feel guilty about things we end up not doing. 4y
TheLibrarian 100% what @Bookish.juju said! 4y
BarbaraBB I wonder if this book will tempt you back into your reading mojo 🤷🏻‍♀️ 4y
emilyhaldi Love this advice! @Bookish.juju It definitely helps me to establish a cozy area with an allotted time and a nice drink doesn‘t hurt ☕️ I made a little progress yesterday, doing to try again today! 4y
Reviewsbylola I had that problem too. Good luck! 4y
69 likes1 stack add5 comments
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BarbaraBB
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Today's match in the #LitsyToB21 was Shuggie against Piranesi. We were very clear in our preference: Piranesi has won with a big majority, only @Cinfhen @Kalalalatja @Hooked_on_books and @cariashley voted for Shuggie. In the offical #ToB21 there was a complete different match: Breasts and Eggs was up to Telephone. Their winner is Breasts and Eggs, @Megabooks you must be so happy with that outcome!

Cinfhen How different our TOB is playing out! I know Piranesi was beloved on Litsy but it was too whimsical for me/ I much preferred the grittier VERY REAL 4y
Cinfhen I liked both B&E and Telephone and would have been happy either one advancing... I think B&E has potential to go far!! 4y
BkClubCare I was very impressed with the judgement today. Really brought out new things to think abt both books. 4y
See All 13 Comments
Megabooks I am definitely happy with today‘s judgement (on both counts), but our discussions here about Telephone made me appreciate it more. 4y
Readerann Well, I guess I will have to commit to reading B&E now. Next year, I‘m going to try to get a jump on reading the shortlist. This year, I had bought some of the longlist books and was focused on finishing those first. I‘m happy about Piranesi! 4y
BarbaraBB @BkClubCare I agree, so many good things. 4y
Kalalalatja No, Shuggie 😭 I‘m happy with B&E advancing because I haven‘t read Telephone, but B&E wasn‘t as memorable to me as either Shuggie or Piranesi, so I‘m sad neither of them are in the running in the official #ToB any longer 4y
emilyhaldi I am STILL reading B&E... slow going the past week 🥴 4y
BarbaraBB @Kalalalatja One or both will probably return in the zombie round! 4y
Hooked_on_books I actually didn‘t like Shuggie all that much, but have no interest in reading Piranesi, so I didn‘t have much invested in today‘s judgment. 😆 I find the official ToB judgment interesting. I plan to read both those but haven‘t yet and kind of expected it to go the other way. 4y
kwmg40 I‘m happy that Piranesi is continuing in our ToB. I have mixed feelings about the official result. I really liked B&E but I‘m halfway through Telephone right now and feel that it may end up as one of my favourites. 4y
BarbaraBB @kwmg40 I know what you mean about Telephone. It grows on you. One of my favorites too. When you‘re finished hop over to @Cinfhen review of it, below which we compare the different endings of the book. Fascinating 📞 4y
kwmg40 @BarbaraBB OK, will do! I‘ll be interested in hearing about the different endings. 4y
58 likes13 comments
review
BookishTrish
Breasts and Eggs | Mieko Kawakami
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Pickpick

This book took me months to read and yet I kept coming back to it. I liked the way this book examined women‘s relationships with their own bodies and fertility. As a story it was pretty good, but the exploration of the theme is really what makes it. I‘d have liked less mundane detail in parts.