My first book of the year is another book club read with the Japanese Lit GR group. Ariyoshi seems to be one of the favourites among the members and the group has read another of her book – The River Ki, which I missed, so this is my first Ariyoshi. First published in 1966, […]
Categories
2017 Wrap Up
2017 was not a bad year for reading, but I started my English Lit degree in October, and since then I completely lost control of my reading time, and only caught up in the last 10 days of December, because I stayed home and didn’t go traveling like in the past years. Apart from my […]
My last book of 2017 is The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki (if you want to be pedantic, it’s Jun’ichirou – which implies him being the first born son, but I couldn’t find much information on this). At 530 pages it’s no mean feat for me, and actually took me 2 months to finish. But […]
I first discovered Moomin when I moved to the UK. For some reason Moomin never made its way to South East Asia, or even Australia, though it seems to be big in Japan. I immediately found the hipo-like creatures to be adorable, and went to buy some merchandise – mug, soft toy, postcards, shirt, notebook, […]
Categories
The Sound of Waves – Yukio Mishima
The Sound of Waves is the first of Yukio Mishima’s book to be translated into English, and I can see why. For the fans expecting the darker, more brooding version of latter Mishima might be disappointed. This is Mishima when he was not yet cynical, the world was still a nice and simple place, and […]
Categories
Miss Julie – August Strindberg
I read Miss Julie (written in 1888) before the London performance at the lovely Jermyn Street Theatre in Piccadilly. This is my second time going to this tiny theatre, first being the The Dover Road, and it remained as charming as ever. Miss Julie is the first play I read by the Swedish playwright August […]
I finally made a jump and started an English Literature degree with The Open University! It’s long distance learning, so I don’t have to quit my job. Their program is designed for people with life commitments like job or family. It takes 3 years full time to complete this degree, but I’m doing part time […]
Categories
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
I visited Anne Frank’s House in Amsterdam back in 2011, the first time I came to Europe, and had been meaning to read the book since. I finally did, thanks to audio book. I listened to the 70th anniversary edition above, read by Helena Bonham Carter, and it was perfect. I really liked her reading. […]
I totally forgot that August was WITmonth or Women in Translation Month, but I did actually read the right books. I read Lispector’s Hour of the Star, and I just finished Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Clarice Lispector seems to be the go-to author for women in translation books. This is my […]
Categories
Game of Thrones 3D Mask Book – Direwolf
I was offered by Carlton Books one of the Game of Thrones 3D Mask and and Wall Mount Books. I chose Direwolf from the House of Stark (of course). I hadn’t done any handcraft thing for a while and had to buy a couple of glue tubes. (I do recommend getting a good strong glue […]
