Welcome to Litsy!

I loved some stories and others made me ill like old school RL Stine. I love the author‘s imagination. She‘s weird and I love that about her stories. But I probably wouldn‘t read the book again which gives this a rating of so-so.

Last book of the month // not even 5 pages in and I‘m already 😳

This short story collection, while classified as literary fiction, definitely has some horror elements. Murata explores cannibalism and wearing people‘s skin, bones and teeth. It‘s from the perspective that cremation and the care for bodies after death is strictly a cultural phenomenon, which she subverts. She subverts sexual norms as well in a story where people feast on a dead person then have sex with a stranger in public. Weird but good.

I really enjoyed about half the stories and the other half...not so much. I *wanted* to like all of them, but I felt like there were a lot of repeated ideas, themes, and storylines from her novel Earthlings that were executed better in the novel.

A collection of 12 very surreal and unsettlingly stories. Murata definitely has an imagination. She seemingly takes taboo ideas around relationships, sexuality, food and the human body and spins her tales around these.
A collection of 12 very surreal and unsettlingly stories. Murata definitely has an imagination. She seemingly takes taboo ideas around relationships, sexuality, food and the human body and spins her tales around these.

July wrap-up! A pretty good month for reading.

Books: 22
Pages: 5,252
Longest: Reprieve (406)
Shortest: All-New Wolvering (34)
BIPOC authors: 12
Female & Enby authors: 18
LGBTQ books: 9
Favorite(s): Life Ceremony and Delilah Green Doesn't Care

I loved this collection from the author of Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings. It's just as wonderfully strange and full of unique characters to fall in love with. Definitely some cannibalism too, so do with that what you will 😅 Some standout stories included the title story, A Standout Matetial, Two's Family, The Time of the Large Star, and Hatchling.

My kind of Saturday 😍

Baby toes + book

"Peering closely at the corners of her eyes or mouth, she could see within them flesh the color of blood. She had never thought of these things as her own, but now they felt like charming creatures that had slipped inside her. Did hermit crab shells also think so fondly of the life-forms that crept inside them?"
-"Puzzle"

"The next thing I knew, I was kneeling on the floor, gripping my cell phone. I badly wanted to call Yamamoto and ask him if it was true that he had died."
-"Life Ceremony"

"I believed that eating meant being brainwashed by the particular world of the food, and I just couldn‘t bring myself to ingest food from my sister‘s unstable, fictitious world."
-"A Magnificent Spread"

Despite (or perhaps because of?) the cannibalism and other assorted taboo-breaking, I loved Life Ceremony just as I expected to. Murata remains a must-read-no-matter-what author for me! Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/life-ceremony-sayaka-murata/

Have been anxiously awaiting these pieces of book mail! Bathe the Cat is unbelievably adorable, and I'm two stories into Life Ceremony and loving it.

This set of short stories….creepy, touching, funny: as expected from Sayaka Murata. The different stories were all fun and enjoyable, and I think one was a follow up to Convenience Store Woman?

Catching up on posts. We‘ve been moving into a new house so it‘s been a little crazy. I‘m a huge Sayaka Murata fan. Her books are so hilarious, brilliant, and uncomfortable. 😂 I love how she‘ll make you question all of the “norms” in society - the most basic human instincts - in the funniest ways. This collection is marvelous.