Japaneseliterature

The City and Its Uncertain Walls | Haruki Murakami

I'm not really a Murakami fan, per se. The only book I've read by him thus far is Norwegian Wood, which I did enjoy! But his newest book apparently deals with a library, and I couldn't resist that! 🤭📚🩷

35 likes3 stack adds

BoleyBooks

The City and Its Uncertain Walls | Haruki Murakami

Now Available! 🥳🎉📚
The City And Its Uncertain Walls- Haruki Murakami

Book Review- https://www.boleybooks.com/?s=Uncertain+walls

#boleybooks #thecityanditsuncertainwalls #harukimurakami #bookbeast #netgalley #bookbuds

27 likes

squirrelbrain

Mina's Matchbox | Yoko Ogawa

pick

Quite different to the other Ogawa books I‘ve read, this was very sweet and whimsical and not very ‘challenging‘ or complicated at all.

Tomoko, aged 12, is sent to live in her Uncle‘s opulent mansion, where she makes friends with her cousin Mina who is one year younger and in delicate health.

It did read like a children‘s book at times and I loved it whilst reading it, but it‘s immediately gone out of my mind since I finished it.

squirrelbrain Have you read this one yet, Barbara? @BarbaraBB (edited) 4d

sarahbarnes This is on my list - I‘m intrigued even though it does sound so different from her others. 4d

BarbaraBB I haven‘t! I bought a copy in Manchester but haven‘t gotten to it yet. Curious about it after your review! 4d

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squirrelbrain I think you‘ll both like it, even though it‘s rather different! @sarahbarnes @BarbaraBB 4d

willaful Is there “Secret Garden“ inspiration? 3d

squirrelbrain No, I don‘t think there is @willaful - no-one is cantankerous and, although Mina is ill, Tomoko doesn‘t ‘rescue‘ her. 3d

60 likes6 comments

HardcoverHearts

Tokyo Express | Seicho Matsumoto

Hi! It‘s been a while. I‘m enjoying some reading time starting Statues in a Garden for the Author Spotlight Series I host, then an audio copy of Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-Yang, translated by Sora Kim Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae for book club. I‘m still feeling the glow of our 1st trip to Japan so I want to read Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Then I am dipping in & out of an essay collection by Elisa Gabbert.

Librarybelle Welcome back! 7d

HardcoverHearts @Librarybelle oh thank you!! 7d

TheKidUpstairs I'm loving all these covers 7d

HardcoverHearts @TheKidUpstairs I love it when coincidence is also aesthetically pleasing! 7d

25 likes4 comments

Amor4Libros

Diary of a Void: A Novel | Emi Yagi

bailed

This just didn‘t hold my attention…

dabbe #hailthebail! #betterbooksahead 🙌🏻 1w

Amor4Libros @dabbe YAAS! 🙌🏽 1w

38 likes2 comments

BarbaraBB

The Gate | Natsume Soseki

so-so

Sosuke and his wife Oyone lead a quiet, monotonous life in a shabby rented house in Tokyo. Although they live isolated due to past events, they are still relatively happy. However, when the events of the past gradually catch up with them, Sosuke is faced with a dilemma. How much obedience do you owe to those around you and what are the consequences when you choose to listen to yourself?

youneverarrived Sounds interesting! 5d

61 likes1 comment

BallroomsOfMars

The Diving Pool | Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder

pick

These are slow stories that twist the mundane into something unsettled and uncomfortable. Maybe it‘s the relatability of the domestic that renders porous the barrier between what is ordinary and what is horrifying. A terrible kind of horror that is not scraping at doors, howling in the night, but growing inside us like mould. 1/4

BallroomsOfMars I love how the stories give just enough detail to grasp some dimension of character, some sense of context, but what remains untold raises more questions than the words give answers. There are no conclusions, just maybe, maybe, and the reader is made culpable as they imagine what might hide in the narrative gaps. The reader has some agency in how they join the dots, and the horror — the size of it, the muckiness — becomes their responsibility. 2/4 1w

BallroomsOfMars Days after finishing, I keep thinking about the freedoms and dangers of invisibility. How, overlooked and unwitnessed, a person can slowly warp out of shape with the world. They can pass through life as observer only, detached from life like a ghost, their sense of culpability corroding with their sense of self. 3/4 1w

BallroomsOfMars I find myself thinking about why the two sisters are living together despite one being married and pregnant. About grapefruit segments, glistening and skinned. About the slow ooze of honey from a split comb. About whether a body, hollowed by absence, collapses in on itself in the vacuum of loss. 4/4 1w

1 like3 comments

Amor4Libros

Diary of a Void: A Novel | Emi Yagi

Too many library holds that I am excited to read are coming in at once, so I need to rearrange my reads (such a problem to have, I know 😅) I‘m so intrigued by this one!

46 likes1 stack add

BarbaraBB

The Gate | Natsume Soseki

#WeeklyForecast 46/24

I‘ve found my escape in another John Marrs, and am halfway through now. Next will be this Japanese #NYRB book, also comfort reading!

squirrelbrain Glad you‘ve found some solace in a book! 2w

sarahbarnes The NYRB sounds very intriguing! 2w

61 likes2 comments