I had a business trip to Suzhou and Shanghai and was too ambitious about how much reading time I had, which is why I started River Town in China but finished it in Singapore. River Town is a memoir of Hessler’s two years in Fuling, a small town on the Yangtze river. Hessler was there… Read More Book Review: River Town by Peter Hessler
I found this book while looking for other books that Dorothy Ko was involved in (she wrote the excellent Cinderella’s Sisters) and was instantly intrigued by this memoir by a crown princess of 18th century Korea. Ko wrote the foreward to this translation, which is how I found it. To make things more interesting, Lady… Read More Book Review: The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong translated by JaHyun Kim Haboush
I was scrolling through my TBR list when I came across Rootbound. Since I re-read Rewilding fairly recently, Rootbound’s subtitle: “rewilding a life” appealed to me and I decided to give it a go. Despite its subtitle, Rootbound isn’t about rewilding one’s life in the sense of letting nature take over. Instead, this is a… Read More Book Review: Rootbound by Alice Vincent
It has been some time since I talked about Studio Ghibli, so it’s time to remind everyone that Studio Ghibli makes amazing films by talking about Mixing Work with Pleasure, Toshio Suzuki’s account of his time spent at Studio Ghibli as a producer and company president. If you want to see some of his calligraphy,… Read More Book Review: Mixing Work with Pleasure by Toshio Suzuki
I have been following Joanna Penn for a while as her podcast on being a self-published author is one of the biggest podcasts within the subgenre. When I heard she was holding a Kickstarter for a new book – one themed around travel – I was instantly intrigued. And it didn’t hurt that the Kickstarter… Read More Kickstarter Book Review: Pilgrimage by J.F. Penn
I chanced upon this in the library and since I’m always slightly ambivalent about Instagram and other social media, I thought it would be interesting to read this and see what life is like for an “instafamous” person. The Accidental Influencer is the story of Bella, who creates a satirical wellness account “deliciouslystella” and achieves… Read More Book Review: The Accidental Influencer by Bella Younger
Here’s another book that has been on my TBR list for a while! I heard of William Dalrymple when This Nook Is For A Book posted about From the Holy Mountain, also by Dalrymple all the way back in 2020! I thought it sounded fascinating and finally borrowed City of Djinns from the library. Subtitled:… Read More Book Review: City of Djinns by William Dalrymple
People have been telling me to read this book since 2021. But because I’ve got a long TBR list, and because this book doesn’t sync to my kobo, I’ve procrastinated on reading it. However, after my IRL bookclub/food discussion club chose this as our next book to read, I decided it was time to pick… Read More Book Review: 17A Keong Saik Road by Charmaine Leung
I found this book on NetGalley, and even though I read more manga than graphic novels, I requested it because of its subject matter. I’m fascinated by True Crime, and the fact that it was subtitled as a “memoir of a true-crime obsession” made me think it would be a cross between Gone at Midnight… Read More Book Review: Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell
Despite the fact that I’m a huge fan of Japanese tea, I’ve only attended a tea once, as part of my finishing school course. With the brashness of youth, I agreed to be the 正客 (main guest) and with a lot of prompting from the teachers and guest lecturers, somehow made it through the ceremony.… Read More Book Review: Every Day a Good Day by Noriko Morishita