Welcome to Litsy!

❄️Story that follows 3 gen of women & explores mom/daughter relationships.
❄️1st 2/3 started off very strong & promising, w/lovely storytelling & purple prose.
❄️Intricate examination of pro & anti cultural identity in a postwar era.
❄️Unlikeable narrators.
❄️Last 1/3 was filled with uncertain progression & storytelling, making it drawn out & unnecessarily confusing.
❄️Easily could‘ve been shorter & better flowing.
❄️Quite a few loose ends.
❄️3/5.

Current reads. 📚

• Picking Bones From Ash - JPN Historical Fiction that‘s multigenerational about a piano prodigy who had a complicated ‘ship w/her mum.

• The Boy in the Earth - JPN psychological thriller about a emotionally damaged taxi driver having an existential dilemma.

• The Nightingale - A WWII fiction tale of two sisters & the many contrasts of their lives in occupied France.

#litsygram #currentreads #diversebooks #historicalfic

Eventually I want to do a video review of this for my YouTube channel, but in the meantime- this book has touched me deeply and given me a better understanding of Buddhism and Japan. It, also, gave me a mirror into my own soul and experiences, helping me see a new strength within myself. Plus the story is just amazing. If you love travel or strong female leads- this would be the first book I'd recommend.

"The entire world seemed to concentrate for a moment inside my body, a frail host for the emotions that were possible."

"'A young woman can never have too many flowers,' he said, and I thought to myself how easy it seemed to be for men to have ideas as to what a young woman should or should not have."

"...Fudō looks angry because he hates illusions. He gets mad at all the little demons running around the world who make us sick and stupid. That's the wonderful thing about Asia. So much angry art. People like to think that Buddhism is about inner calm. The truth is, sometimes it is necessary to be angry. Intolerant."

"Amsterdam was a real city, as real as Tokyo. But everything was so different, and so interesting, it was difficult not to feel as though I had fallen into a storybook and was watching characters come to life."

This book has such a rich engrossing rhythm and characters! +_+ Must keep reading!

Picking Bones from Ash follows a mother and daughter separated by geography, culture, and time. Satomi, raised in a remote Japanese village, is pushed by her own mother to capitalize on her talent for the piano and faces an identity crisis that will lead her to sever family ties. As a young girl, Rumi discovers that objects speak to her, a skill that leads her to a temple in the Japanese mountains in hopes of settling a restless spirit.