So this was a strange little book. Not only did I not know who recommended it to me (I know I’ve seen it around but it’s not in my TBR list so I have no clue), I’m not even sure how I found the book because I thought all the library books I got this… Read More Book Review: The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
As I hit the two-thirds mark of The Tale of Genji, I realised that some of the characters here were echoing things that I saw on the Internet (especially about entitled people/dating) and for the first time, understood why The Tale of Genji has stood the test of time. Before this, I was just generally… Read More 3 Things in The Tale of Genji that still exist (infuriatingly)
This is my second Detective Kaga book (I previously read Malice) and I think this is what’s going to turn me into a Higashino Keigo fangirl! I mean, I loved the Galileo series, but more for the TV adaptation than the books. Newcomer is a murder mystery – a woman has been found dead in… Read More Book Review: Newcomer by Higashino Keigo
I figured that it’s been some time since I read something by Endo, so when I dropped by Library@Orchard, I decided to borrow the Samurai. A part of me regrets not finding this book earlier because it is such a powerful read (I really think Endo does amazing work when his stories are set in… Read More Book Review: The Samurai by Endo Shusaku
This has been on my TBR list for a while (I think because of Bookstagram? Or maybe I saw it in one of the blogs I follow? Maybe both?) so when I finally managed to go to the library earlier this month when they re-opened, I hunted (and found!) a copy to read! I was… Read More Book Review: The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
I cannot say that I’m studying Heian Japan without reading as many of its most important works as possible, even if it is poetry. The Tales of Ise is a collection of 125 narrative-poems consisting of a short narrative + poem(s), all loosely based on the life of Narihara, the model lover. While I might… Read More Book Review: The Tales of Ise translated by Peter MacMillian
Rereading Silence at the start of the year reminded me that there are a lot of books by Endo that I haven’t read. There’s quite a lot there hasn’t been translated, but I found a copy of The Final Martyrs in the library and decided to make that my first Endo Short Story read (I… Read More Book Review: The Final Martyrs by Endo Shusaku
I stumbled on this in the library but since I loved Galileo (which was based on his books), I decided that I had to read it. It’s been some time since I read Japanese fiction translated into English, but I think I’ve been missing out. Malice is a murder mystery about the murder of bestselling… Read More Book Review: Malice by Higashino Keigo
The Japanese Discovery of Chinese Fiction is one of the library’s latest ebook acquisitions and hence featured in the “new arrivals” section. That section is also pretty prominent in the Overdrive app, which is how I found, and promptly downloaded, the book. It’s not The Tale of Genji, but I thought it might be interesting… Read More Book Review: The Japanese Discovery of Chinese Fiction by William C Hedberg
I had this while reading the unabridged version of The Tale of Genji and it was honestly a lifesaver! I’m so glad I managed to find a copy of this and The Tale of Genji at the same time. The Reader’s Guide can be broken into three parts: Part 1 is titled The World of… Read More The Tale of Genji: A Reader’s Guide by William J. Puette