Author: kym

the book consists of two parts, each corresponding thematically with breasts and eggs. in the first part protagonist’s sister was obsessed with getting a breast enlargement surgery, and in the second part protagonist herself was obsessed with getting pregnant.

of course, this is gross oversimplification of all the themes that the novel touches upon. the reader gets to know natsuko’s dreams, fears, traumas of the past, and hopes for the future. there is struggle to find meaningful job, pondering what it means to be lonely these days, why people should and should not have children. one book, so many thoughts.

other works of mieko kawakami are on my to-read list after reading “breasts and eggs”. thankfully, quite a few of them are translated from japanese to english.

obviously, “iron widow” is written for a specific audience, but which book isn’t? so, while i’m very much into this book, i can imagine that someone would be bored or annoyed by (see my opinions of “the antropocene reviewed” and “noise damage”).

from the ‘technical’ point of view, “iron widow” sits firmly within boundaries of the young adult fiction, which is not meant as criticism. you get exactly what it says on the tin, aka the blurbs are not misleading (doesn’t happen often enough in my opinion).

it’s a story of a girl running away from a horrible home situation and trying to build a new life from scratch. at first i was almost bracing myself for a tragedy, to the extent that i asked my friend whether the book has happy ending. it does.

apart from the story itself, one of my favourite things in ths book is how casually sci-fi and supernatural elements are treated. it’s a wild mixture yet no one bats an eye, and people just roll with the existence of space travels and soul deals with demons.

also, i like how the cover image makes sense only after you read the novel.

i would recommend this book to anyone who likes sci-fi, isn’t transphobic, and wants to restore a little bit of faith in kindness of strangers.

it’s one of his most approachable books, being “just a love story”, but the reader still gets murakami’s distinct voice, the one that utterly confuses and bewitches you.

for me “norwegian wood” is an endlessly re-readable book. i’ve read it first in russian translation several times, and now moved on to english translation (will i ever be able to read any other version?).

add this novel to your to-read list if you want to know heartbreaking beauty, unfathomable logic, bottomless tragedy, and one fabulous kobayashi midori (she’s my favourite).

p.s.
steev, i hope this helps 8)

with this book ishiguro further reaffirms my opinion that he’s of the rare type of writers who write differently in every new book. “the buried giant” is nothing like “never let me go” or “remains of the day” or any other book of his.

this time he seems to try his hand at a fable-tale mixture.there are knights, dragons, mentions of king arthur. signifiers are all present, but the plot breaks out of the mold. the protagonists don’t reach the goal that was posted at the start, the curse is lifted for worse, and the knight ends up defending the dragon.

you might say “oh well, postmodernism again”, and i’d reply “yep, you got in one”. as much as we are tired of it, when done well, postmodernist novel is a delight, and kazuo ishiguro delivers on that front.

this book is three out of five = liked it. if you are not into tales with plot twists, you can safely put “the buried giant” aside. but if you are (or a fan of ishiguro’s), then your time won’t be wasted.

but even if you never heard about arwa before, trust me, this book is worth your attention.

“strong female lead” is a non-fiction that examines and challenges mainstream assumptions about leadership. this is not another book that tells you to try harder or emulate your middle-aged male boss, but it’s not all touchy-feely and happy-clappy, if you allow me this colloquialisms.

arwa’s style is easy to read, to comprehenend, and to digest. it strikes the balance between being approachable and having hard evidence for the claims made.

on my five point scale, “strong female lead” gets full marks, and i wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants to become a better leader, no conditions applied. you don’t have to be a woman to find this book useful.

jens and i ran across each other at the university where we both doing masters degree; as every published author should do, he mentioned that he just had a book published. my dear readers (all ten of you) can easily guess that conversation flowed effortlessly from there.

“gayme changer” stands out thanks to being a business book about successfull lgbtq+ people. no othering, no sob stories, no doom and gloom. it was refreshing, honestly.

when setting that aside, the book itself is aimed at a specific audience looking for business strategy related literature, but not written in the impenetrable style of michael porter & co. if you are such reader, you already know it. then, i wholeheartedly recommend you to read “gayme changer”. if you are not, then you can still be happy on behalf of lgbtq+ people in corporate world 8)

the novel is written in second person, which is a rarity, especially for the long-form. generally i am sceptical of second person narration, but here it was executed brilliantly. instead of feeling like the book was monologuing at me, it was slowly wrapping the story around me, making me identify with the protagonist at a very fundamental level. by the time i realised that the protagonist is actually not a very nice person, albeit troubled, i already felt like i’m walking in her shoes, and thus was willing to extend way more empathy.

i recommend you to read this book if you want to learn about a massively different life, compared to your own, on the safe presumption that you are not a woman living in zimbabwe and struggling with major mental health problems exacerbated by poverty.

i was on my way to paris in march 2022, waiting for boarding in the budapest airport. when i found a free seat, there was a book on the chair next to me, with the a piece of paper sticking out that said “take me. read me. pass me on!” how could i resist such call to action? (didn’t read it during the holiday – i was too busy enjoying france, and wrapped in tokyo ghoul drama in the downtime)

i tried the book later (in april, when firmly back to budapest). it’s a recount of the author’s failed musical career. i see why people rate it so high on goodreads: the narrator has sense of humour, distinct style, and, unsurprisingly, nearly perfect pacing.

unfortunately, as the subject itself doesn’t interest me, i haven’t finished it. i pass this book on hoping that next reader will enjoy it.

this book strikes a good balance between plot advancement and character development, which is somewhat a rarity in fantasy genre. and given that both aspects are fresh and unfamiliar, no wonder that it got so much praise.

despite my distaste for the ending, i plan to read the sequel – i’m very charmed by xiala, and curious of her fate.

this is the book i wish i have written myself.

this is a complete surprise.

i remember exactly how i’ve found this book. it was the list of best covers of 2020 at lithub.com, found via kottke.org. one glance at the cover and i desperately wanted to add it to my collection.

“natural history” is one of those multi-layered stories, when several threads tie up in one messy knot at the end. you know it from the start, so that’s not the surprise. the story brought me joy not because of any plot twists or some other surprises (when i said “complete surprise”, i meant entire book). the appeal is in the lace of faces, places, and events. words wash over you page by page, and soon you are fully submerged into the world where nothing really makes sense (making it not that different from actual reality) but everything is connected.

i really don’t know how to talk about “natural history” without spoilers. and i don’t know who else might like it, as well. so, don’t expect a recommendation from me this time. take a gamble instead.

in essence, this is a novelised dungeon rpg, down to details like self-updating maps, respawning monsters, and teleports at the end of caves. as someone who has platinum trophy in diablo III (sony ps4 version), i sure appreciated the setting. the only difference from rpgs i played was in the objective. the protagonist got turned into a skeleton, and now is on the path of transforming back into a human, or at least something closely resembling it.

unfortunately, it was only the first book in a long and winding journey back to humanity, and while i enjoyed the book as a nice break from the gloomy stuff on my shelves, not to the extent of picking up next volume.

having picked it up after a review in the guardian i expected an ironic meta commentary on society, the millennial style of comedy. and it did start this way. but then the rest of the book happened, and it was decidedly not comedic.

what i liked:

1. attempt to make it informative
2. footnotes

what i didn’t like:

1. amount of solipsism.
2. the tone of the book was aiming for gravitas and falling short too often.
3. having listened to the same content as podcast first. i couldn’t shrug off the feeling of reused content without much improvement. i’d even say that these essays go better as podcast.

i might have appreciated this book more if i were younger and north american. it didn’t help that the book was overhyped in my informational field. everyone and their pibling was praising it, so inevitably, my expectations were raised high.

on the book itself – natalie haynes probably forgot that her book could be read outside of england. every first cultural reference (and there were so many of them) meant nothing to me, despite my relatively good (for a foreigner) knowledge of it. therefore, i’m sure i missed quite a lot of humour (see my question in the paragraph above).

despite these annoyances, i liked the book for its informational value. the premise – greek myths are almost always retold and interpreted by men, who are too happy to ignore women in them – stands strong and i hope more authors will dedicate their time to this – it’s a rich field.

well, i guess i grew stronger since. because the relentless despair and anger i pick up from these stories affects me differently than it did in the past.

the world sucks for the protagonists of zz packer’s stories. there is not a drop of beauty or poeticism in it. the world sucks, and sometimes you can’t do anything about it, other than feel and share their pain.

read this as an antidote to cloying happy-clappy positivism.

you like weird?

read this.

and that’s it. nothing else.

i will be re-reading “the employees” many times, i know it.

thankfully for all readers, on top of carrying childhood trauma by euripides, stephen fry is a talented writer with a very distinctive sense of humour. he makes full use of fourth wall breaking, adding narrator’s commentary, and some pratchett-esque usage of footnotes.

“heroes” is a great light reading if you are already familiar with all the weirdness of greek mythology. but if it’s your first exposure, then be warned – pegasus being born out of medusa’s neck after perseus chopped off her head is not the weirdest thing you’ll read in this book.