Books I Unfinished
What's it about: a bookshop that appears and disappears at will or random, books, people's lives
Quit at: 35%
I may have picked this simply for the cover - it's gorgeous. Perhaps they should have started with a more cheerful story instead of a woman losing her mother. I am unable to find anything interesting about that story, not even the book they mentioned (The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - I did not like that book). I started on the second story and then just didn't want to continue. Each story is linked to a book and the other books mentioned are: Ten nights of dreams by Natsume Soseki, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, and Spring & Asura: Poems of Kenji Miyazawa by Kenji Miyazawa.
Other similar Japanese cozy books I tried to read and quit:
- The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messinal - too depressing, at least the beginning
- The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood - talking cats, coffee, good mix but somehow still boring
- Marigold Mind Laundry by Jungeun Yun, translated by Shanna Tan - I didn't quite like the start
- With the Heart of a Ghost: Stories by Sunwoo Lim, translated by Chi-Young Kim - the first story was okay but dull and I just didn't want to read more.
What's it about: family, escape, travel, abusive husbands
Quit at: 36%
I really did like the first main character (Beth) but the shift toward the other perspectives annoyed me. We're getting four perspectives/viewpoints to the story but still kind of divided because each person had different goals so it's like four stories. What I disliked is that, the other three is not interesting to me, especially the bad guy which I find extra annoying because perspectives from jackasses easily annoys me and sometimes enough to quit the book which I guess it did. Mostly, I don't like how Beth's story keeps getting interrupted to tell another person's thoughts or whatever else is happening to that person which only semi-related to Beth.
I really think if you have a synopsis about a woman's journey to do a certain thing, you should just focus on that person instead of giving us so many other perspectives to split the story.
What's it about: boy, souls, ferryman, death, grief
Quit at: 21%
I just wasn't in the mood to read this. But I think this would read better in paper form because of the illustrations - can't really see them properly in an ereader.
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Books I Read
What's it about: immigrants, identity, poverty, murder
I think the main character (Molly) is too stupid to live. Having been assaulted by men, you might think Molly was weary of men but nope, not a single thought to stay away from them, even followed a stranger off the street when he offered her a job and she got trapped (and saved because of something stupid), went around the seediest part of town questioning shady men, not bothering to assess the danger she might be in. If she had any fears, doubts, sense of danger - they all came too late. Like other heroines, she did not listen when the detective (Sullivan) advised her not to go snooping around. But it didn't matter what situation she was in, she never suffered too long. For example, if she was hungry, she got food, if she was suddenly thrown out and had no place to sleep, she got shelter, if she got into anything that might turn dangerous, she got saved but rarely using her well-educated mind. And for someone on the run supposedly from the police, she drew attention to herself way too much. She would have been killed a few times but being the main character is probably the only reason she wasn't. Basically Molly is a 21st century woman living in a 19th century world. She didn't observe any proper etiquettes between men and women and she never seemed to think like someone from the 19th century.
< Click to Read/Hide Spoiler > After Molly was saved from almost drowning, she and Sullivan almost had sex and the only reason it didn't happen was Molly suddenly remembered she was pretending to be someone else. (Molly had took on the identity of a married woman from the beginning of the book). In the next book, we found out Sullivan's engaged so an engaged man willing to sleep with a married woman is clearly not a guy with a lot of morals and one that I really didn't believe is a good male love interest. Besides, how romantic is it to have sex when moments ago, she almost drowned? When Molly revealed her real identity and being single, she decided to be a proper lady around Sullivan which annoyed me. At the end when the killer put Molly into a trunk, he didn't tie her hands or lock the trunk before throwing the trunk into the water so that she easily escaped. He seemed like a smart man but I guess he wasn't. End Spoiler >
The murder mystery was intriguing while it was on Ellis Island but once it was moved from that location onto the streets of New York City, it all went downhill. From that point, it's just Molly wandering the streets and encountering all kinds of danger while supposedly investigating the murder even though she was destitute. But her wanting to solve the murder to prove to Sullivan she was better than him will never be a good reason (to me) to solve a murder. The ending is revealed in a rushed and the killer is smart but at the same time annoyingly dumb. As for Molly's amateur sleuthing, I think she's still pre-amateur because she doesn't know how to use her mind, however well-educated she was. I can't stand Molly so I will not be continuing the series.
What's it about: women, education, 19th century
These are three short novellas. The first one (Blessing in Disguise) is really the one I wanted to read - a woman pretends to be a man so she could attend college/medical school and she did that for four years without anyone finding out so it's odd that they took four years to finally decide to investigate her. But this was good. The second (An Unexpected Education by Michele Paige Holmes) and the third (Good Heir Hunting by Nancy Campbell Allen) were okay. These are quick romances, if you just want to read something short and easy, they are good for that.
What's it about: neighbors, friendship, cats, teleportation, family, connection
I like the two main characters are named after trees - Alder and Oak- and their budding friendship. The fantasy elements are just too brief and I think if this has been longer, we might have found out the purpose of these elements - they helped the story along but maybe removing one of them wouldn't change the story. The ending is a bit sappy but happy.
< Click to Read/Hide Spoiler >
What's it about: women, ghosts
Although Matsuda's stories are categorized as horror, they aren't scary. The first story (Smartening up) about a woman suddenly getting covered all over with hair stands out but still I don't get the point - does having hair all over your body makes you a monster? Where the wild ladies are referenced a book, Where the wild things are (which I didn't read) but it's a depressing story about a guy missing his dead mother and working in some strange company that may have ghost employees. Most of these short stories just ends abruptly and way shorter than I'm used to. These stories are kind of linked by characters reappearing which didn't really do anything. I guess I don't get these stories, I don't get the subtle nuance but perhaps if I'm familiar with Japanese ghost stories, I may understand them better.
In the back of the book there is a section titled 'Inspiration for the stories' which the author summaries up stories that inspired her stories. I don't want to say these summaries are better than Matsuda's stories but they are more interesting so if you didn't enjoy Matsuda's stories, you might enjoy these summaries.
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Movies I Watched
09 - The Prosecutor - I like this but maybe too many fight scenes but at least the good guys win thought it's still not quite a happy ending. If you enjoy fight scenes, you might like this.
Have you read any good books or seen any good movies lately?
No need to finish a book if you're not interested. There are plenty more out there that might be a better fit.
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