A modern fairytale – ‘From Little Tokyo, With Love’ by Sarah Kuhn – aimed at Teen/YA readers. I don’t normally pick up much from this genre, however this book was really something very special, and I’m so glad that I got the opportunity to read it. I wish I’d had this novel when I was a teenager. 「From Little Tokyo, With Love」は、おとぎ話をモチーフとして物語が展開する、ティーン / ヤングアダルト向けの作品。作者のSarah Kuhnは日系3世のアメリカ人です。ヤングアダルト系の本はあまり積極的に手に取らない私ですが、この本は心から出会えてよかった。自分がティーンエイジャーの頃に読みたかったなと思う1冊です。 The protagonist, Rika-chan, is a Japanese-American orphan girl living in LA with her cousins’ family. While her cousins are obsessed with princesses and rom-coms, she is proud of her judo skills, and believes she is not a princess type at all. She feels like she…
‘People From My Neighbourhood’ is a new collection of translated short stories by Hiromi Kawakami , published by Granta Books in the UK! This is a collection of mini stories about the people in an unnamed place.All the stories are about 3 pages long and are interconnected. I really enjoyed how the stories sounded ‘ordinary’ and ‘likely’ while at the same time the events in this book were all unusual and quirky. The book was full of characters with unique personalities, detailed with minimal descriptions, but I felt like I still got to know all of them quite well! Kawakami’s storytelling made me feel like it’s not strange at all…
I’d have to say I’m usually rather more a baking person than a cooking type. Normally I don’t bother to cook nice meals, and instead prefer to pay to get great quality restaurant food. (Though I really enjoy baking special biscuits for myself!) With that in mind, giving this cookbook a try was a bit of a challenge for me! The recipes are all easy to follow, covering fancy meals to daily dishes. I tried the Carbonara (Page 166). It requires only a few basic items, things we’d usually have in our fridge anyway. It turned out to be very quick and easy to make, so I can definitely see…
Megha Majumdar’s ‘A Burning’ was my first time reading a book set in contemporary India. I’ve visited the country twice in the past and loved experiencing its culture on both occasions. However, this book felt like it really took me to parts of Indian society I’d previously had very little knowledge or awareness about. The story starts with a narrative by Jivan, who has been arrested for assisting with terrorist activity. She’s an ordinary girl who just happened to once post somewhat anti-government material on Facebook. This is later used as ‘evidence’ of her oppressive attitude, and the trigger for her involvement with terrorists. Her life in prison, her trials,…
We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan is such a gripping book about family history, culture and moving between two countries: The UK and Uganda. The protagonist Sameer works for a law firm and is in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, caught up between a busy career and his relationship with his parents. As a business newcomer and working in the City myself (obviously WFH for nearly a year now though), as well as growing up with my parents – who hold quite traditional values – back in Japan, his struggles felt very familiar to me. The author captured these kinds of ‘moment’ very vividly; those times…
I think your job is something everyone struggles with to some extent. The type of work, the hours, relationships etc. I enjoy my job, but even I feel like I want something easier or perhaps ‘more fun’, sometimes. 仕事って、誰しも何らかの不満や悩みを抱えているものだと思います。それは仕事の内容にかもしれないし、労働時間や人間関係かもしれない。仕事を楽しんでいるつもりの私ですが、時々もっと楽な仕事や、もっと面白い仕事があるはずだ…なんて思ってしまう時もあります。 I first read this book in Japanese when I had just started working in London. I was really struggling to get used to a whole new environment and was exhausted with thoughts of how I needed to commit to the job and prove to others that I could do things well. But this book really ended up making me feel better, telling me – as the title says – There’s No…
Have you ever felt like negative memories have trapped you; happy memories overtaken, deep in your thoughts? ネガティブな記憶に追い込まれてしまうような気持ち、幸せな記憶が塗り替えられて、考え込んでしまうような気持ち… This book reminded me of the times I’ve been caught by dispair, feeling trapped within society, within my own mind. この本はそんな社会に閉じ込められるような、自分自身の心の闇に留まっているような、「絶望感」を思い起こします。 The spider illustration used throughout the book – gradually forming a complete web towards the end – made me ponder what the author was trying to say by including these images. 各章のはじめに付いている蜘蛛の絵は、段々と蜘蛛の巣を形作っていく。これには著者のどんな想いが込められているのか。 The story is written in a beautifully poetic style, composed of very small chapters made up of short scenes. I read through the whole book as if I was enjoying a collage of fragmented memories! 詩的な美しい文章で書かれている本作、短い各章の中にさらに小さなパラグラフで印象的なシーンを描いています。まるで記憶の欠片を覗き見ているような感覚です。 This book is…
I just came across a book that I think will be one of my favourite books this year! ‘Clap When You Land’ by Elizabeth Acevedo is aimed at a YA audience but was such a gripping book, even for adults, I just couldn’t put it down. It’s written in a colloquial verse style and beautifully phrased. ‘Clap When You Land’はドミニカ系アメリカ人作家のElizabeth Acevedoによるフィクション。ヤングアダルト向けですが、大人が読んでも惹き込まれます。全編が口語調の詩のように書かれていて、まるで音楽のようなスタイルです。 The story starts off with an airplane crash, inspired by a true incident just a few months after 9/11 happened. Most of the passengers were Dominican. 9/11の直後に起きた実際の飛行機墜落事故をモデルに書かれたフィクション。乗客はほぼ全員がドミニカ共和国の方だったそう。 It’s a story about two sisters losing their father, one in the US, one in the Dominican Republic. They find out about…
I was luckily part of #HowMuchOfTheseHillsIsGold#Readalong .This book was set in America’s Western gold rush period but came from the very unique angle of writing about a family of Chinese descent and the struggles of immigrants and cultural heritage.This was a topic I had never heard of before, and this book felt like it helped me learn a new page in world history.The author’s writing is very beautiful, in particular the landscape as seen through Lucy’s eyes felt so real. With lots of metaphors and quite abstract writing, it was sometimes a bit difficult for me to clearly understand what was going on, however, the more I read, the more I loved…
It’s such an interesting book about how stories are written, created and told. Very subtle and beautiful but really comical at the same time.The mystery part of this book was very beautifully written, but I personally think this book is not necessarily for mystery fans, it might be more appealing to literary fans. To avoid potential spoilers, I’m not going to write a detailed synopsis here, but the story starts at the library of rejected books, where unpublished manuscripts are stored. The young editor finds an extraordinary masterpiece hidden in the shelf! Who wrote this? – the book was so gripping and I found myself wondering all the way through…
#TheDutchHouse was such an interesting book that hooked me straight into the story of an unfortunate life of a family and a house.The characters were all so powerful, but at the same time, I thought every one of them was super unlikable!!! After finishing this book, I cannot stop imagining how the house would look like, and the portrait of Maeve… How do we consider people’s relationships with their house, such as the bonds and emotion with the physical structure and how it will become part of the history of the old buildings all around it… Participating in the #Readalong has always been fun, but especially for this one, exchanging the ideas of…
I was part of the #HamnetReadAlong and enjoyed this book so much that I had to write a little review about it (which I don’t normally do for the readalongs!!!) This book was about the beautiful love and loss of the family of famous playwright William Shakespeare. Written through the eyes of his wife Anne Hathaway, it perfectly captured the relationship between parents and children, siblings and relatives in fine detail. In this book, Shakespeare’s name is never mentioned. The effect of this is to better spotlight Anne, and brings a completely new perspective to the reader. Also, it’s worth noting that in the book Anne is called Agnes and the title…