Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
In one of those “I wish I had all the time in the world” fits I occasionally throw, I wish I could learn Japanese. My aptitude for languages is terrible; I’ve never tried learning anything remotely far east Asian. But I want to do it just to read Natsuo Kirino’s amazing books in their original form. Like her stellar work Out, which was one of the best things I read last year and would have been the best thing I read most other years, Natsuo Kirino […]
Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings
This book is on the Army Chief of Staff Reading List so I read it when it became available. I’ve read a lot of WWII both in my life and in over the last few years. As this is professional reading, I suppose the kind way to phrase it is that I am over-saturated with WWII at the moment. I was a history major in college, I’m in the military, and my father was described by John Mulaney this week on SNL – he is […]
Mob Psycho 100 Volume 1 by One
I was speaking with a coworker about a Netflix show he had seen a few episodes of. It was Mob Psycho 100. I found book one and thought “Why not? I only have a couple thousand other books, what is one more to read?” Beside it was something I had never heard of and it sounded interesting. Plus, I have wanted to read more manga. I can boil down this review to three words: One unique story. Yet, another way to describe this book is […]
Under the Broken Sky by Markio Nagai
I was taught that if writers have a negative comment about what they are reviewing, they should start with a positive comment. However, I am going to be a rebel and start with the negative: If I have one complaint about Under the Broken Sky by Markio Nagai it is that the language is too modern. The contemporary voice of the narrator occasionally took me out of the (historical) moment, making me backtrack to get back to Manchuria mid-1940s. Now that is over, the good […]
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
I watched the movie, Memoirs of Geisha, many years ago and remember being a little disenchanted by it. I have vivid memories of the beautiful kimono and well-done settings, but the plot itself has largely escaped me. I always meant to read the book that inspired the film to see if I’d like it better, and since we have a far-and-away square, how much farther away can I get from my home than Japan? I was excited to delve into this story until I saw that it […]
