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
“Every animal needs its own territory and humans are no exception. My plans were clear at an early age. By the time I was fourteen I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I intended to live somewhere wild and supremely beautiful.” Opening lines of The Sheep Stell Although written and published… Read More Book Review: The Sheep Stell by Janet White
I would like to introduce you to the book you should be reading instead of Memoirs of a Geisha. Because not only is Memoirs of a Geisha incorrect, it was also based on Iwasaki Mineko’s life (just that Arthur Golden mis-represented things by portraying certain events negatively instead of positively, etc etc. You can read… Read More Rereading: Geisha of Gion by Iwasaki Mineko
So this was my book club’s latest pick! I don’t read much memoir, so I was excited to dive into this! The Cost of Living is what Levy calls a “living memoir”, capturing a period of time after her divorce. So the first thing to note (and this is something the whole book club agreed… Read More Book Review: The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
Since I started reading the Sherlock Holmes stories, I thought it would be fitting to read more about the man who wrote the stories (no, not Dr Watson). Since I don’t believe the conspiracy theory that Holmes and Watson actually exist, it’s time to read about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Man Who Would be… Read More Book Review: The Man Who Would Be Sherlock by Christopher Sandford
After my positive experience with Tall Order, I decided to continue reading Singaporean memoirs and autobiographies, choosing Son of Singapore as the second book I’d read. While I hadn’t heard of this autobiography before, it has excellent reviews online and more importantly, is from the voice of an ordinary Singaporean, not a politician or one… Read More Book Review: Son of Singapore by Tan Kok Seng
So… I know that I’ve read this (all the way back in 2013). But a friend of a friend was giving away books and when I saw this in the stack, I remembered that I fairly enjoyed it my first round and asked if I could give this and one other book a new home.… Read More Rereading: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
It probably can’t be said enough but I am a sucker for countryside-themed stuff (I actually enjoyed Escape to the Country and was disappointed when it was taken off Netflix). So when I saw the subtitle “In Pursuit of the Rural Dream”, I thought this would be the perfect read as I’m cooped up at… Read More Book Review: My Good Life in France by Janine Marsh
I’m always on the lookout for tea-related books and when I saw Nicole’s review of Infused by Henrietta Lovell over at Tea for Me Please, I was intrigued. I’ve read quite a few nonfiction books about tea and its history, but this is the first time that I’ve read about a memoir about a life… Read More Infused by Henrietta Lovell
This is another timely book that, oddly enough, helped me to further develop the ideas sparked by Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. In The Year of Less, Cait Flanders embarks on an ambitious project: Not to buy anything outside what is approved. This doesn’t just impact her savings, it helped her to identify triggers for her… Read More The Year of Less by Cait Flanders