Library update #1
To read
Title: Collapse : how societies choose to fail or survive
Author: Jared Diamond
(Recently) Read
Title: Superfreakeconomics
Authors: Steven Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Rating: ★★★★✩ - 4/5
Summary review: A very easy to read, accessible book that lends itself to sharing fun factoids in conversations. Though some reviews do warn that the writers have made thinking errors in the data and so it should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, very enjoyable.
Title: The priory of the orange tree
Author: Samantha Shannon
Rating: ★★★✰✩ - 3,5/5
Summary review: I admit I had a long pause somewhere in the middle because I lost interest. I had to force myself to get back into the story, but once I got started I finished it at once. I would have liked this more if the ending was not so rushed. The final fight had so much potential but felt like a movie script that fell flat. Lovely cover though.
Title: Convenience store woman
Author: Sayaka Murata
Rating: ★★★★✰ - 4,5/5
Summary review: Oh yes, this one hits the spot. I love some good Japanese writing about interesting character and how they perceive the world. At the end, the way the main character observed the world influenced the way I was looking at the world. As a good book should.
Title: Strange weather in Tokyo
Author: Sayaka Murata
Rating: ★★★★✰ - 4/5
Summary review: Originally called 'the briefcase'/'Sensei no kaban'. This novel fits a rainy day when you feel nostalgic and mellow. It made me look up some mentioned dishes and the ending grabbed my by the throat by its sudden conclusion. Again a lovely Japanese novel that finds greatness in the simple everyday relationships between people. The two main characters have an interesting chemistry.
Title: Tokyo Express
Author: Seicho Matsumoto
Rating: ★★★✰✩ - 3,5/5
Summary review: A short detective novel that slowly builds to a nice conclusion. Remembering all the names and trainlines made it difficult to follow, which made the 'discovering' part a bit of a chore. The final reveal relied on some guilty conscience rather than undeniable evidence but it did not feel like it fell flat. I do want to read some more of this writer.
Given up on
Title: Milk and honey
Author: Rupi kaur
Rating: ★✩✩✩✩ - 1/5
Summary review: It's probably a personal thing, but I am starting to get annoyed by poems that feel like the writer just hit the space bar at a convenient point in the sentence. It is starting to feel cheap and though I love a good simple poem that can make you feel all kind of things, this one was not it for me. After holding onto it for a year, opening and closing it again it went to the donate pile. Which is new for me, because most of the poem bundles I buy I keep holding onto for when I want to revisit them.