It’s nice to be back at CBR! Last year I went on a reading rampage, tearing through about 90 books (though I didn’t review all of them). This year, I’m taking a more focused approach. I’m intentionally reading more international and female authors in order to expand diversity of thought and experience, and I’m also tackling longer books. I expect to read fewer books, although I still expect a rich year full of growth, thanks to reading and to y’all. My first book up this […]
Perhaps nothing is certain in this world, but at least we can believe in something.
Killing Commendatore (4 stars) There were parts of this book that brought me back to my favorite parts of 1Q84, but this book doesn’t equal that one in terms of quality, spirit, or impact. Which doesn’t make this a bad book – by any measure – but I don’t think it’s amongst Murakami’s greatest works. The protagonist of this book is unnamed. He’s an artist who’s fallen into portrait painting to make a living. His wife abruptly tells him that she wants a divorce, and […]
Sometimes, rarely, you get precisely what you want in life. This is one of those times.
For reasons I can’t fully explain, this book has always held talismanic powers for me. I’ve walked passed it numerous times in the book store, always intending to read it, but never buying it. Until, one day, I did. But then it sat on my shelf unread, collecting dust, and taking up space in a room infrequently visited but never entirely free of my interest. I went on to read other Murakami books, and loved many of them. But Norwegian Wood has been a consistently […]
“Happiness? He wasn’t even sure what that meant.”
Sometimes a year feels fast, and sometimes a year feels slow. Sometimes a year feels like both! That’s been my year with Murakami. It feels like he’s always been a favorite author of mine, but when I look back, I hadn’t read a word of his until early this year. Now I average a Murakami book every couple of months. This particular book is different than the previous works I’ve read simply because it’s not a novel. It’s a collection of seven stories about, you […]