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4/5 🌟

This novel begins at a languid pace, mirroring the isolated life of its protagonist, a woman who seems to be merely existing rather than living. As the story unfolds, one empathises deeply with her, feeling the weight of her solitude and unspoken struggles. It is a beautifully written and compassionate book.

This is a sad, and slow read. Irie is a lonely woman who doesn't like the people she works with, she takes a risk to go freelance and we follow her through her journey. There is a lot to ponder in this, she turns to drinking, and she examines her life and her past. She meets a couple of people and contemplates life. It is a very quiet character driven novel that contains a lot of Japanese daily culture and life.

#weekendreads

This weekend I am going to finish the tagged and make progress in
Babel and Malcolm X,
Both of the above are amazing reads but a bit chunky just hoping to make some progress in them.
After these reads I am focusing only on books that might have a chance to be on the Women's Prize for Fiction Long List hoping to predict and get a couple of titles checked off before the list is released!

#booknotes @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

There is a certain cadence to Japanese books and while reading this I am thinking about Japanese Breakfast's Be Sweet both because of the cadence and because the main character is sweet and a bit naive
https://youtu.be/2ZfcZEIo6Bw?feature=shared

“Why does the night have to be so beautiful?…Because at night, only half the world remains.”

Wow! This is the first time I've read this author but it won't be my last! This book made me laugh and cry. So brutally honest when it came to the characters depression and alcohol abuse. Not always an easy read...but it will stay with you long after the last page is read.

Who else likes to read at night? When it‘s calm and peaceful 🌃

I‘ve been making mistakes lately. I‘m reading some nice books, but none of that surprised me, then I decided to read one on my e-reader and it turned out to be wonderful. A hole has opened in my chest! I‘ll have to buy it to write all my favorite thoughts and passages. Even though I haven‘t finished it yet, I already know it‘s gonna be a five-star read.

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This is the second book of Kawakami's I've read after Heaven, & like the previous one it's existential & profound despite it's calm, stoical surface. In describing in wrenching detail the loneliness of a woman in her thirties, Kawakami resists all kinds of easy moralising. She avoids performing a standard psychological deep-dive. We know the protagonist is living through forms of trauma because of her circumscribed life, but not much more.

Just got back from Chicago, and I‘m ready to settle down with a book and a nightcap. Feeling extra tired tonight 🥱

Happily making my way through my current read, but also excited to read these new books I picked up today. 🤗

‘My heart was burdened by unbearable darkness”
Fuyuko Irie is 34, unattached and living a very solitary life. She‘s content with her lonely existence until a vivacious coworker wakes her up to new possibilities. There‘s layers of sadness here but this wasn‘t a depressing read. I enjoyed my time in Japan with Fuyuko. #BorrowNotBuy #Scribd

#FoodAndLit #DoubleSpin

I‘m really liking this strange little book #DoubleSpin #FoodAndLit #Japan
I feel like I‘m getting a good sense of Japanese culture

Fuyuko hardly speaks or connects with other people. She starts drinking after years of abstinence, yet living her life in a disciplined way, each day repeating the one before. I didn‘t understand her at all, kept asking myself why she did (or mostly didn‘t do) the things she did. Yet she made a fascinating character and I loved the Japanese context and Kawakami‘s writing style.

(Pic: Chioggia, Italy)

#WeeklyForecast 30/22

Back from vacation, I need to continue our #NYRBbookclub choice. I am also eager to read the Kawakami so I can read her Chandelier afterwards. I also want to read The Little Snake, a sweet gift from @squirrelbrain
But before all of this I have to finish my current book: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

A really fascinating book about a woman living and working alone in Tokyo, about isolation, meaningful connections, and misunderstandings. I found the MC frustrating at times as I think I was meant to - her journey to self-discovery was slow and painful at times. Ultimately, it‘s a lovely book though. Melancholy and lonely.

A fantastic freebie from Independent Bookstore Day. Kawakami writes with soul about loneliness and modern life.

Our MC goes to a posh department store everyday. She wanders the halls buying things devoid of meaning for her, not caring how much she spends. As we follow her around the store, her emptiness begins to have meaning to the the reader. I sympathized and even pitied her in the end.

I‘ll get this on to you next week @BarbaraBB 😘

A character-study novel about isolation, anxiety, human connection, and modern womanhood. Poetic prose, some lovely passages with dreamlike atmosphere, and with a general sense of melancholy. At times I was frustrated with the protagonist for her passiveness; but as I meandered along with her, I was drawn into her aloneness world, felt sad for her. I didn‘t like this as much as B&E and Heaven, but this is an important, contemplative read.

Why does the night have to be so beautiful?
#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl

I liked this, but I didn't love it like I hoped I would (and kind of expected to, based on her other books). The main character frustrated me. I didn't dislike her, but it's hard for to relate to someone so incapable of talking about things.

I love character studies, and I love the arc Kawakami wrote for Fuyoko. The translated dialogue was spot on, too. It‘s a book where the stars align.

Fuyoko is a quiet freelance proofreader, who retreats into her shell at the smallest disturbance. Enter her boss, who is one of the brashest, most outspoken Japanese characters I‘ve read. She really throws Fuyoko for a loop. Fuyoko befriends a mysterious man and decides maybe she wants more from him.

Current reads. I'm feeling a little scattered at the moment, so I'm not very far into any of these. But I like everything I've read so far!

Her writing/the translation is killing me. I mean that top quote just gutted me. Her characters are so sharp! Kawakami is definitely a favorite now.

I love the way Kawakami writes the raw, often painful experiences of her characters in such a quiet way. She is so matter of fact in her descriptions that it makes it a more emotional experience for me to read her work than I think it would be if her style were more dramatic. I loved this story and Fuyoko in her loneliness and struggle to connect with other people.

Got some great #BookMail from Europa today!! Both of these are May releases.