21.Nov.2010 Megumi: Documentary Manga on Abductions by North Korea
Before Megumi I never knew about the existence of “Documentary Manga” so I took the book out of the Japanese Foundation Library shelf with high curiosity. As what the title says, the manga is a true account of the abductions of Japanese people by the North Korea. Revolves around Megumi Yokota (横田めぐみ) who is one [...]
13.Nov.2010 The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Prior to reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being I was never quite sure what the book was about. It seemed to be one of those books that is hard to summarize. I would describe it as a book on relationships and sexual escapades with the backdrop of Czech politics. Main characters are Tomas the womanizer [...]
04.Nov.2010 Mori Ōgai and Gyogenki
When I saw The Classics Circuit was having a tour on Meiji-Era Japanese Classics, I was intrigued. However apart from Natsume Sōseki and Ryunosuke Akutagawa, I had a big WHO? moment. I had not heard the rest of the people on the list. One name did ring a bell, and I checked the books I [...]
18.Oct.2010 Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen
I am never a fan of war stories. I avoid them like a plague. I don’t exactly hate them, just have very little to no interest in them. Unfortunately war stories with mice made little difference to me, as Mouse Guard was far from rocking my boat. The illustration is very beautiful and the mice [...]
02.Oct.2010 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
I’ve been intrigued by The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie since it was featured on the First Tuesday Book Club late last year and how it is often included in the various book lists (e.g. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Guardian’s 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read). Coincidentally, Muriel Spark is an author [...]
19.Sep.2010 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Once in a while you would find a book that defies all your preconceived notions of how a novel should be. I think One Hundred Years of Solitude falls in this category. While a novel normally has a beginning, middle, and an ending, with some kind of climax no matter how little the peak is [...]
08.Sep.2010 Room by Emma Donoghue
Arrived back in Sydney on Sunday and it’s been super frantic catching up with life. I have a couple of unfinished reviews in draft, but to keep up to date with the recent events for once, I’m going to talk about Room NOW. If there were a modern book fairy, it must work like this: [...]
18.Jul.2010 The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
This must be the bleakest graphic novel/manga I have ever read. I was intrigued when I saw this copy at Sydney Japanese Foundation Library. The book is designed and edited by Adrian Tomine (whose Shortcomings I have yet to read), and includes Tomine’s introduction. Yoshihiro Tatsumi is known as “the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics”. [...]
13.Jul.2010 Ivan the Fool by Leo Tolstoy (Short)
Russian literature is something I’m completely unfamiliar with. So when The Classic Circuit announced Tour on Imperial Russian Literature, I knew I had to partake in some way. I wouldn’t have enough time to read a full-length novel (what with Russian novels all look so freakin thick), so I was looking for short stories. I [...]
03.Jul.2010 Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
Love in a Fallen City was picked by Claire for our Asian Book Group. It’s a perfect selection after The Good Earth, because both women wrote in the same era, both about China. Buck is even mentioned in the Introduction by Karen S. Kingsbury, the translator. “[Chang] tried , with little success, to break into [...]