Posts tagged ‘books’

Jun 18

Non 1001 Book Review: After Dark Haruki Murakami

After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Published in: 2004
Translated from Japanese by Jay Rubin
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: 4 stars
Find it here: After Dark

Synopsis: (from the Back Cover): Eyes mark the shape of the city

The midnight hour approaches in an almost-empty diner. Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude is disturbed: a girl has been beaten up at the Alphaville hotel, and needs Mari’s help.

Meanwhile Mari’s beautiful sister Eri lies in a deep, heavy sleep that is ‘too perfect, too pure’ to be normal; it has lasted for two months. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00, a hint of life flickers across the television screen, even though it’s plug has been pulled out.

Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?

Review: If you read our featured author post you will know that I love Murakami’s writing and this book was no exception. From the moment I read the back cover, I had a happy warm feeling in my tummy. I knew this was going to be a good read. The front cover just calls out to you “read me, read me.” The only problem with this book is that it is short. I could have stayed wandering around Tokyo at night much longer than the time Murakami allowed me.

From the opening lines of the book we, the readers, are told that we are voyeurs. We can watch what happens in the city. We can zoom in on bits that interest us, but we cannot get involved. We cannot influence anything. We cannot be heard and we are entirely neutral.

The book is set on a midwinter’s night between the hours of 11:56pm and 6:52am in Tokyo. It revolves around 3 central characters: the beautiful Eri who has decided to sleep and not wake up; her intelligent sister Mari who cannot sleep; and Takahashi a young musician who provides a link between the 2 sisters.

While Eri sleeps her beautiful sleep, Mari stays awake in the city where she encounters Takahashi in a Denny’s restaurant. Their meeting leads her to be pulled into the life of the “Night People.” Night people are those who are more at home after the sun has gone down — the insomniacs, prostitutes, and others who prefer the night.

While there is some action in this book, it’s more about feelings and perceptions than about plot development. There is violence and vengeance, and in true Murakami style there are mystical and magical moments and cats!! How do you know you are reading a Murakami? Because there are always cats.

This is a stylized book and I can easily see it being made into a noir film as the story really lends itself to the visual.

For those who like a proper ending with all the loose ends tied up, this is not the book for you (nor is any other Murakami book). There are several mysterious events that are not explained and are just left dangling when the sun rises. Murakami has created a place that exists only after dark and so until the next time the sun sets the mysteries will have to stay mysteries.

Want to try if for yourself? You can find it here: After Dark

We want to hear from you. Have you read this book? What did you think? Do you like Murakami’s books?

Jun 15

2 Comments

Featured Author: Franz Kafka

Call me crazy, but I’ve always liked Kafka and have appreciated the absurdity of his writing. My recent visit to Prague included a visit to the Kafka museum (photo above) and a walking tour of Kafka’s Prague. I snapped some pictures that I will share with you and I thought it only appropriate to feature Kafka as our June Featured author. What do you think of Kafka’s works? Love them or hate them?
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Jun 13

6 Comments

Final Spring Cleaning Challenge Update & Summer Challenge sign up!

This is the final update I’ll be providing for our Spring Challenge since it is over next week. If you haven’t already signed up for our summer challenge, please do so early since it will start June 21st. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll get.

I will mail hard copies to the first 10 people who request one (they took longer than I thought to make them so I’m limiting how many I make). I have 5 left since most have requested email copies. Once those are gone, everyone else will get a PDF copy. Inside is a list of reading destinations for the challenge!

Now on to the Spring Challenge update. The last two weeks have seemed like a back and forth between Kate and Tracy who are currently tied for first with 23 points. Special props to Kate who powered through Infinite Jest — a fairly mean assignment on my part.

As a group, you’ve read an amazing 135 books for this challenge! Please check your scores to make sure they are correct. You have one final week (until June 20 at midnight) to submit your last book. Here are the current standings.

Standings:
Kate – 23
Tracy – 23
Andrea – 6
Ellen – 6
Nicole D – 5
Becky – 4
Lynsey – 4
Sushicat – 4
Anita -2
Tessa – 2
Brandy – 1
Charisma -1
Sally -1
Tricia – 1

Prizes: The grand prize could go to any of you, although odds favor those with more entries. I will announce the winners on June 21st. What could you win? A box filled with a selection new books from a variety of genres, an amazon gift card, and several book-related items. The first place reader will also win an Amazon gift card and 1 new book. Anita (for being the first person to complete a book) also wins a small prize. And one final mystery winner (who will be announced) will get a copy of Judy Blume’s latest book!

NOTE: If an international reader wins the grand prize, she will receive the equivalent amount in Amazon gift cards and other online redeemable prizes since it might bankrupt me to mail the box overseas. In that case, a second randomly drawn person will be selected to win the box – so an extra person wins. Good luck everyone!

Keep reading to check out all the books you’ve read as a group along with the latest reviews. You might find a good book to add to your own TBR.

Jun 10

11 Comments

The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi

The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi
Publisher: Bloomhill Books
Release Date: June 30, 2015
Reviewed by: Jen
Rating: 4 stars
Pre-Order the book here: The Color of our Sky

This ARC was provided by Bloomhill Books (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

The Color of Our Sky is a beautifully rendered and emotionally powerful book. Set primarily in Mumbai, India, the novel tells the stories of Tara and Mukta, two childhood friends from vastly different social backgrounds whose lives are forever changed by a series of tragic events in their childhood. Mukta is a lower caste girl, the daughter of a temple prostitute, who is destined to the same fate as her mother. When her mother dies, Tara’s father rescues her from her fate by bringing her home to live with his family. The two girls become close until tragedy strikes again and Mukta is stolen from their house and seemingly lost forever. Tara and her father move to America and she grows up believing that Mukta is dead, carrying guilt for her role Mukta’s abduction. After her father’s death, Tara discovers that her father had lied to her about Mukta. Vowing to return to India and find Mukta, Tara embarks on a journey that takes her deep into the world of human sex trafficking.

The novel is told from the alternating perspectives of Tara and Mukta and the narratives weave back and forth in time spanning from the 1980s through present day. As the stories shift back and forth, we learn the fate of Mukta and the truth about the events that led up to her abduction. Heart-breaking but also inspiring, the novel highlights the resilience of the human spirit and the strength of human connection (friendship and family) to overcome unspeakable adversity.
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Jun 8

8 Comments

Read Around the World: Czech Republic

The next stop on our world tour of reading is the Czech Republic! This month’s choice was inspired by my recent trip to Prague along with my recent bout of reading Czech authors. Prague was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. I was also fortunate enough to have time to visit a few locations outside of Prague including Český Krumlov in the Southern Bohemian Region and Terezín, the sad location of a concentration camp. I hope you enjoy some of my photos (at the bottom of this post). Next week, I’ll continue the Czech theme with our featured author post: Kafka.

Jun 5

1001 Book Review: Shroud John Banville

Shroud by John Banville
Published in: 2002
Awards: Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2002)
Reviewed by: Book Worm and Jen
Find it here:Shroud

Synopsis (from Amazon): One part Nietzsche, one part Humbert Humbert, and a soupcon of Milton’s Lucifer, Axel Vander, the dizzyingly unreliable narrator of John Banville’s masterful new novel, is very old, recently widowed, and the bearer of a fearsome reputation as a literary dandy and bully. A product of the Old World, he is also an escapee from its conflagrations, with the wounds to prove it. And everything about him is a lie.

Now those lies have been unraveled by a mysterious young woman whom Vander calls “Miss Nemesis.” They are to meet in Turin, a city best known for its enigmatic shroud. Is her purpose to destroy Vander or to save him—or simply to show him what lies beneath the shroud in which he has wrapped his life? A splendidly moving exploration of identity, duplicity, and desire, Shroud is Banville’s most rapturous performance to date.

Jun 3

6 Comments

The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman

I finally did it! I finished Lev Grossman’s Magician’s Trilogy. Unfortunately, I feel sort of ambivalent about the series. I disliked the first book, loved the second book, and felt lukewarm about the final book. I should preface this review by making clear that I read the first book and listened to the final two books as audibles. I truly hated the audio and this may have colored my view of the entire series.

The Magicians Trilogy is one of those series that people seem to either love or hate. The critics generally love these books but if you look at goodreads or amazons, the ratings seem split. The trilogy is comprised of The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011), and The Magician’s Land (2014). The books follow the story of Quentin Coldwater, a young man who is accepted into an exclusive school for magicians. Over the course of the books, Quentin discovers that a magical land from a fictional series is real. He and his friends become rulers of this land, go on quests, and face the potential destruction of the land. With nods to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and the Chronicles of Narnia, Grossman reworks the stories of these books into a fantasy series for adults that blends gritty reality and fantasy. Here are my reviews for each of the books in the series:
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Jun 1

32 Comments

Love it or Hate it? The Twilight Series

Have you ever noticed how some books seem to drive a wedge between people? You check the reviews and find almost no middle-of-the-road ratings. Instead people either seem to love it or hate it. Well, welcome to the Love it or Hate it post category! Each month, we’ll pick one book to review and two contributors will battle it out to convince you to pick it up or throw it out. Last month we discussed Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. This was our biggest point differential with the Love its taking over 80% of the votes. Many thanks to John (Hate it reviewer) and Book Worm (Love it Reviewer) for their wonderful reviews.
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May 31

May Monthly Recap

We decided to join the bandwagon and provide a monthly recap at the end of each month. That way you can all check out which books were standouts, which were duds, and which ones we plan to read the following month. We’ll end our wrap up with a calendar of book-related events/facts from the Month of May and we’ll look forward to some upcoming June content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read in May and what you look forward to reading in June. Read more

May 28

9 Comments

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Ogawa

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Published in: 2003
Translated from Japanese by: Stephen Snyder
Reviewed by: Jen
Rating: 5 stars
Find it here:The Housekeeper and the Professor

Every once in a while a book comes along that takes you by surprise. The Housekeeper and the Professor was one of those books for me. At only 180 pages the novel is short, simple, but emotionally touching and beautifully rendered. I picked this up because it has started to make the rounds in some of my reading circles. It was worth the buzz.

The book tells the story of a beautiful friendship between a housekeeper, her son, and a mathematics professor. In his youth, the Professor was involved in a tragic accident that resulted in his developing a form of anterograde amnesia. While he remembers events and people from prior to his accident, he is unable to encode new information. Every morning brings new introductions with the same questions. He wears a suit covered with pieces of paper to help him remember important facts. He spends his days immersed in mathematics, solving problems and sending them to various papers. When the Housekeeper is hired to take care of the Professor and his home, she and her 10 year old son become immersed in the Professor’s world of numbers. They grew to love the Professor and they learn to work around his memory deficits.

I found this to be a wonderful book. You can’t help but love the characters, especially the quirky Professor who makes math seem like the most exciting subject in the world. There are many math equations throughout the book but they are easy to follow and understand and they are integral to the emotions and events in the story. Who knew that math could be so interesting? The writing was simple and elegant but unpretentious. Not much happens in the way of plot because this is not a book about fast-paced adventures but rather one about quiet moments and meditation. I cried a little and smiled a lot. This was a special book that makes you contemplate the importance of living in the moment and appreciating the present. I highly recommend this book!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? If not, does it appeal to you?

Want to try it for yourself? You can buy a copy here: The Housekeeper and the Professor