Welcome to Litsy!

IRL bookclub pick. One member bailed and “hated” it, the rest of us agreed Oyamda effectively achieved her purpose in describing the inane dehumanizing impact of the corporate world.

Don‘t expect high action or deep character development. That is not the point. 😉

One of my new year‘s resolutions is to read a Japanese novel each month. This is my first and it wasn‘t great.
It‘s two short stories. The first is about a couple having sex for 4 days in a so called Love Hotel on the brink of the Iraq War. That one is pretty good although I don‘t get it completely.
The second is about a woman who stays in bed for a whole day, thinking of her home and her husband. That one I didn‘t get at all 🤷🏻‍♀️

#WeeklyForecast 01/25

I am reading Wolf at the Table, which I am enjoying. Next will be the tagged book. In 2025 I want to read at least one Japanese book a month.
And because I am still off work I hope I‘ll find the time to start the Rooney, a good beginning of the new year I hope!

Hi! It‘s been a while. I‘m enjoying some reading time starting Statues in a Garden for the Author Spotlight Series I host, then an audio copy of Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-Yang, translated by Sora Kim Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae for book club. I‘m still feeling the glow of our 1st trip to Japan so I want to read Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Then I am dipping in & out of an essay collection by Elisa Gabbert.

These are slow stories that twist the mundane into something unsettled and uncomfortable. Maybe it‘s the relatability of the domestic that renders porous the barrier between what is ordinary and what is horrifying. A terrible kind of horror that is not scraping at doors, howling in the night, but growing inside us like mould. 1/4

@BookishMadHatter !! Thank you so much for this wonderful #AllHallowsReadSwap !

I‘m so excited for both books (they‘re perfect!) and the candies are awesome (yes, I‘m a Smarties pig). How did you manage to colour coordinate this so well? 😆 I love it all!

Thanks again to @MaleficentBookDragon for hosting another great swap! 🎃

#AHRS

Cozy, gently humorous and quite thoughtful. What a cool way to showcase the important part nostalgia and food play in our lives. While at times hopeful, it never crosses into saccharine.

Lovely

From today‘s Outdoor Reading With Schnauzers session. I think novella-length is my sweet spot with Yukio Mishima. I got tired of SPRING SNOW, a novel, a fair ways before it ended and none of the shorter pieces in this collection wowed me, but I really enjoyed both the novellas included here.

Koishi & Nagare run a small cafe that also operates as a food detective agency, working to recreate formative recipes from their customers‘ past.

A wonderfully cozy follow to the 1st book. More insight into the father/daughter pair that work together, & more thoughtful discussions of how food/grief/memory/family can be entwined, & such delicious descriptions of food, I felt like I needed to find a ramen place as soon as I finished!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗