If you could go back, who would you want to meet? That is the burning question and main theme of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s bestselling novel Before the Coffee gets Cold. In an old basement cafe in Tokyo, one can magically go back in or forward to any point in time. However, several rules must be followed:…
When it was first serialized in 1867, Emile Zola’s novel Therese Raquin was considered scandalous and “putrid” by critics, and no wonder, as the novel describes the sordid adulterous and murderous activities of the eponymous character and her lover. A relatively slim novel, the story starts with Therese’s strange circumstances, raised by her aunt as…
Our unofficial book club chose Fernanda Melchor’s novel Hurricane Season to read during the Holy Week/Easter break despite its less-than-holy theme. Set in Mexico, Hurricane Season begins with the death of a mysterious figure in a small village known locally as the Witch. As the story unfolds, the life and identity of the Witch as…
So, the second book in the Wheel of Time Series, The Great Hunt, reveals a lot of information withheld in the first book but adds more questions to the overall mystery of Rand al’Thor and the pattern. I’m going to keep this summary as brief as possible. The second book picks up pretty much where…
This was one of the books I “discovered” through NPR’s 2020 book concierge after applying certain filters, and it was an enjoyable albeit sad read. The book focuses on poverty, religious conflicts, child labor, kidnappings, class/caste distinction, and the poor living conditions in slums or bastis in India through the eyes of various children, including…
I have more or less neglected this blog, and more than once was even tempted to delete it completely. Though I am still reading books and can’t leave the house because of the pandemic, I have been pretty busy with work and don’t have a lot of time to blog. I did not “review” any…
I’ve wanted to read Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time for a while, but I thought it would be nearly impossible to find all the books in the 15-book series. However, thanks to a reading buddy who reminded me that I had such aspirations, I attempted to search for the books and start the series.…
After more than 10 years and two failed attempts, I finally finished Umberto Eco’s murder mystery The Name of the Rose. Published in 1980, The Name of the Rose is the retelling of a Benedictine monk about a series of strange events that he and his master Brother William investigated while traveling through a Franciscan…
I don’t read YA or children’s books much, but I couldn’t bring myself to read a “serious” book after Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, so I finally decided to read my copy of Diana Wynne Jones’ fantasy novel Howl’s Moving Castle. I admit that I bought a copy of this book only because of the anime…
Arthur Less is a nearly 50-year-old gay man and former partner of a Pulitzer prize-winning writer who travels the world to forget a past lover and avoid having to go to his wedding. Such is the story of Andrew Sean Greer’s 2018 Pulitzer prize-winning novel Less. A middle-aged writer who had (barely) attained his 15…
The Misanthropologist 