Everything to do with books! Mostly book reviews, but occasionally, I have the non-review bookish post too.
I’m writing this a bit earlier than normal because I will be heading out for a book club dinner tonight and I am sure that I won’t have energy to write before I come back. So before I go out, let me tell you about what I’ve been reading. I started the weekend with The… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 25 – Weekend Roundup
After reading Kiku’s Prayer, I moved on to Silence, arguably Endo Shusaku’s most famous work. It’s thought-provoking, more depressing than Kiku’s Prayer, and also more controversial. If you’ve not read Silence, you can get a feel of this book from the trailer for the marvellous adaptation by Martin Scorsese: As you can tell, this book… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 23 – Silence
As planned, I have finished Kiku’s Prayer and as expected, it was a rough ride. In the last half (third?) of the book, we see Kiku and Seikichi suffer unimaginable torture of body and spirit. Kiku, in a desperate attempt to relieve Seikichi’s actual torture, sells her body to bribe a corrupt official. Seikichi is… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 21 – Kiku’s Prayer Part 2
Hello again! I took a day off blogging yesterday because I was really tired and decided that instead of just recapping my day, I would try writing a discussion post – it’s the one that you saw earlier today! And doing that was actually really energising, which helped me regain the momentum for today. As… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 20 – Kiku’s Prayer
I just saw the news that Elizabeth Gilbert has cancelled the publication of her latest novel because it’s set in Russia, a move that was criticised by Ukrainians as being insensitive to them. That immediately got me thinking: Can we read books with “bad” themes? Or to put it a different way: “is it acceptable… Read More Discussion Post: Can We Read Books With ‘Bad’ Themes?
I’m back again! I am seeing this pattern in which I do not post on Saturdays because I’m really just not at the computer on Saturday. I did, however, have a good reading day since I finally finished the third Thursday Murder Club book and a good chunk of Jane Austen, Game Theorist. Today, I… Read More June ’23 Rereading Day 18 – Jane Austen, Game Theorist and Some Strange Medieval Advice
Hello! We are halfway through the month and my dreams of being extra-productive blogwise have not yet materialised. But the good thing is that these off-the-cuff posts are really therapeutic for me – feels like I’m allowing myself to be a bit more spontaneous/messy in the blogging aspect. Anyway, there was a horrendous traffic jam… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 15 – The Secret Life of Cows & More Jane Austen
I’ve had a nice pocket of time today to read (since I was coming back to Singapore) and so I managed to finish Wilding by Isabella Tree! It’s a fascinating book that looks at what can happen when we let nature take its course instead of trying to force land to yield increasing amounts of… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 14 – Wilding by Isabella Tree
Hello hello! I have been very sporadic with the blogging but I am reading! I’ve finished Mansfield Park and enjoyed it just as much as the previous times. A few thoughts: After I finished Mansfield Park, I immediately started on Rewilding by Isabella Tree. I remember really enjoying the book when I first read it… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 13 – Mansfield Part Part 2
After not really reading (or rereading) yesterday, I have started on another old favourite today – Mansfield Park! I remember someone saying that Fanny Price is Austen’s most unlieable heroine, and that is something that I’ve never quite understood because I do quite like Fanny. But more on that later. First, I want to talk… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 11 – Mansfield Park Part 1