"Sakamochi clapped his hands a few times and admonished, 'All right, all right, all right, quiet down, everyone!' The uproar quickly subsided, and he continued. 'Okay, I'll explain. We've had you come here for one and only one reason'. Then: 'Today, you're all going to kill each other'. This time, no outburst came. The students … Continue reading Review: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
" 'Not even I know all the rules', says the old officer under his breath. 'There are things that cannot and should not be explained. But there is no cause for concern. The Town is fair in its own way. The things you need, the things you need to know, one by one the Town … Continue reading Review: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
I've officially been 30 years old for three weeks! For the amount of build-up that inevitably accompanies those milestone birthdays, it's been a relatively uneventful few weeks since the big day. Similar to the profound sense of change that is always a part of New Year celebrations, I had a feeling that everything would be … Continue reading Monday Musing: 14/10/18
"The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it's a kitchen, if it's a place where they make food, it's fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. White tile catching the light … Continue reading Review: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
"One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility linked to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of … Continue reading Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
I am undoubtedly a Murakami convert. I finished Kafka on the Shore with a strange sense of uncertainty, ambiguous on my feelings about the novel. Rarely am I faced with this situation. But I was certain about one thing - that Kafka was fundamentally unlike any other novel that I had read. As I sat … Continue reading Review: 1Q84 Books One and Two by Haruki Murakami
It is extremely rare for me to actively avoid a certain novel on the basis of difficulty. I enjoy a challenge and believe, for the most part, that reading should require us to push certain boundaries. In my view, those books that we steer away from because of personal prejudices or concerns are those we … Continue reading Review: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Book Habit 