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Posts tagged ‘Japan’

Jan 10

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The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

Those of you who have followed the blog for a while already know that Murakami is one of my favorite authors so it’s probably no surprise that I picked a Murakami novel as my first read of the year. 2024 was less than stellar for me from a reading perspective. Work burnout and life stress left me with little energy and motivation to read (outside of our Booker feature) and even less time. So I go into 2025 hoping for a better reading year and I always enjoy a good Murakami novel. Did this book live up to my expectation? keep reading to find out.

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Jun 26

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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

thousand autumnThe Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Published in: 2010
Literary Awards: Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2010)
Reviewed by Jen
Rating: 3.5 stars
Find it here: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

After reading Cloud Atlas, I avoided all other Mitchell books for many years for fear of being disappointed. Cloud Atlas is one of the books that made it into my list of favorite books which is no small feat. I have over 600 books on my Shelfari bookshelf and only 10 of those books have made it onto my list of favorites. Typically when I love an author, I seek out all their books but I felt differently about my first experience with Mitchell. Cloud Atlas was one of those books that was notable for me because it was unlike anything I had ever read. It was intelligent but in an unpretentious and highly accessible manner. While Cloud Atlas was a great and engaging story, it was the unique way that Mitchell played around with narrative structure, timeline, and genre that made the reading experience so wonderful for me. So when I turned to read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, it was under the shadow of unrealistically high expectations. Read more