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What I Just Finished Reading
The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison
I’ve read this book cover-to-cover at least once a year since it was published. It delights every time.
神様 – 川上 弘美 (Kamisama – Kawakami Hiromi)
Unlike the other Kawakamis I’ve read, many of the stories in this collection are interwoven, either tangentially (narrators seem to live in the same apartment building) or more tightly, with characters appearing or referenced in multiple stories. There’s less eeriness and downright dread than in her other collections as well, and many of the stories deal allegorically or even directly with real world issues rather than real world emotional states. There’s also a sweetness to many of them that I found really affecting.
Surprisingly, the sweetest and most grounded stories were my favorites in this volume. “Starlight Is Long-Ago Light,” about the protagonist’s friendship with a shy young boy who lives in the same building, was the absolute standout for me. It’s meditative and melancholy, and the characters’ psychologies are beautifully portrayed. The slightly more allegorical “The Start of Spring”, about a woman’s inability to make a clean break from a one-sided relationship was also really, really well done. And the stories that bookend the collection, about the narrator’s friendship with a bear (she’s not sure what species) that lives in her building, function—at least for me—as an excellent depiction of what it’s like to be a gaijin somewhere.
End verdict: there isn’t a single story in this collection I wouldn’t read again. Really well written; really stellar book.
What I Am Currently Reading
Transcend – Scott Barry Kaufman
I’m just three chapters in to this examination of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and so far it’s been uniformly well-written and enjoyable.
These Women – Ivy Pochada
If the first two chapters are anything by which to judge, Pochada’s going to rile up a hornet’s nest of race, class, and gender issues before this novel’s done.
Ghost Tales vol. 4 – Youn Ji-woon
This is an Indonesian translation of a Korean manhwa adaptation of Chinese Song Dynasty stories. My brain takes one look at all of this and says, Je refuse. The mishmash of time periods, languages, and cultures makes for a read that’s challenging well beyond what the manhwa's actual content would suggest. Nevertheless, I persist.
蟲師 6 – 漆原 友紀 (Mushishi vol. 6 – Urushihara Yuki)
This week, I tackled the first story in the collection, about a young woman who’s able to see mushi that inhabit the upper reaches of the heavens.
What I'm Reading Next
I picked up a copy of Ron Chernow’s George Washington: A Life, which I made it about halfway through in 2013, and Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw.
これで以上です。
The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison
I’ve read this book cover-to-cover at least once a year since it was published. It delights every time.
神様 – 川上 弘美 (Kamisama – Kawakami Hiromi)
Unlike the other Kawakamis I’ve read, many of the stories in this collection are interwoven, either tangentially (narrators seem to live in the same apartment building) or more tightly, with characters appearing or referenced in multiple stories. There’s less eeriness and downright dread than in her other collections as well, and many of the stories deal allegorically or even directly with real world issues rather than real world emotional states. There’s also a sweetness to many of them that I found really affecting.
Surprisingly, the sweetest and most grounded stories were my favorites in this volume. “Starlight Is Long-Ago Light,” about the protagonist’s friendship with a shy young boy who lives in the same building, was the absolute standout for me. It’s meditative and melancholy, and the characters’ psychologies are beautifully portrayed. The slightly more allegorical “The Start of Spring”, about a woman’s inability to make a clean break from a one-sided relationship was also really, really well done. And the stories that bookend the collection, about the narrator’s friendship with a bear (she’s not sure what species) that lives in her building, function—at least for me—as an excellent depiction of what it’s like to be a gaijin somewhere.
End verdict: there isn’t a single story in this collection I wouldn’t read again. Really well written; really stellar book.
What I Am Currently Reading
Transcend – Scott Barry Kaufman
I’m just three chapters in to this examination of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and so far it’s been uniformly well-written and enjoyable.
These Women – Ivy Pochada
If the first two chapters are anything by which to judge, Pochada’s going to rile up a hornet’s nest of race, class, and gender issues before this novel’s done.
Ghost Tales vol. 4 – Youn Ji-woon
This is an Indonesian translation of a Korean manhwa adaptation of Chinese Song Dynasty stories. My brain takes one look at all of this and says, Je refuse. The mishmash of time periods, languages, and cultures makes for a read that’s challenging well beyond what the manhwa's actual content would suggest. Nevertheless, I persist.
蟲師 6 – 漆原 友紀 (Mushishi vol. 6 – Urushihara Yuki)
This week, I tackled the first story in the collection, about a young woman who’s able to see mushi that inhabit the upper reaches of the heavens.
What I'm Reading Next
I picked up a copy of Ron Chernow’s George Washington: A Life, which I made it about halfway through in 2013, and Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw.
これで以上です。
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