I recently re-watched the movie Big Fish, and since I enjoyed the quirky and somewhat melancholy vibe of the movie, I thought I’d read the book that it was based on. That book was not available via the library but this one was, a non-fiction book on the author’s admiration of his brother-in-law, and how he reacted to said brother-in-law’s suicide.

Suddenly dark, I know.

But reading the book you can easily pick up on the same quirky vibe and emotion-centric writing style that I sort of sensed in the movie. There is some great story-telling, which really brings back to life William Nealy, the husband of the author’s sister.

He led a fascinating life (actually everyone in this book did) and only later did the author discover that things weren’t quite as wonderful as they seemed behind the scenes. We never know what is really going on inside someone’s head, and it can be especially surprising what someone that has been idealized might actually be dealing with.

This book has both light and dark, the good news in the beginning and the bad news at the end. So while I really enjoyed the happiness and soul searching at the beginning it was tough going to get through the end of the book. Sometimes I felt that the issues that the writer was bringing up were better dealt with in private – but in the end most of the people they involve were already dead. Maybe their issues could help other people – and I think that is why the book exists in the first place.

So I’m glad I read the book, and it has given me a chance to reflect on my own past and when I used to journal (right here on this site!) nearly every day after coming to Japan. I took some time to go back through old posts and get reacquainted with that version of me – I like him a lot! He is funny, flexible and full of curiosity. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through old journals and hate what you see.

I still think I’ll keep an eye out for Big Fish, but this was a pretty intense read. Next I am reading The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler.

This book was a weird mixture of fiction and non-fiction related to the theme of travel. The author is quite famous in Poland apparently, and this collection is the first of her work that I’ve read.

Starting the book without knowing the format allowed me a sense of wonder while reading. Which of these stories are true? Are these memories of the author or simply short stories that she wrote during her travels? Eventually the reader can sense the rhythm of it – but it takes a while and is a unique reading experience.

The author seems to be fascinated with the preservation of organs and body parts separated from their owners – and I learned a lot more about plastination that I ever really wanted to know. This focus on organs floating in preservative is a dark theme throughout the book. So if you’re into that then this is the book for you!

The writing is shot through with an intangible element of cold war gray – a sort of darker view of things and there is little to no joy to be found in these stories. There is a sense of the author putting together a plate for the reader, and whether they enjoy that plate or not is on them rather than the author.

As a fellow traveler there was a lot I recognized – especially the descriptions of the airports and flying through the darkness over some unknown country below. I enjoyed the writing here when it focused on something I am more familiar with.

This apparently is a translation from the original Polish, and if that is true then it is either a phenomenal translation or a horrible one. The English is beautiful and extremely well thought out. Rarely do I read a translation that feels so natural – so I wonder if it is really what the author intended or not. Either way it was wonderful to read.

Finally there was a great passage written about an old professor, dying from a stroke and massive damage to his brain, and the description of the blood flooding his brain and drowning his memories one by one was something that I’ll never forget:

But the crimson inner ocean of the professor’s head rose from the swells of blood-bearing rivers and gradually flooded realm after realm- first the plains of Europe, where he had been born and raised. Cities disappeared underwater, and the bridges and dams built so methodically by generations of his ancestors. The ocean reached the threshold of their reed-roofed home and boldly stepped inside. It unfurled a red carpet over those stone floors, the floorboards of the kitchen, scrubbed each Saturday, finally putting out the fire in the fireplace, attaining the cupboards and tables. Then in poured into the railway stations and the airports that had sent the professor off into the world. The towns he’d traveled to drowned in it, and in them the streets where he had stayed awhile in rented rooms, the cheap hotels he’d lived in, the restaurants where he’d dined. The shimmering red surface of the water now reached the lowest shelves of his favorite libraries, the books’ pages bulging, including those in which his name was on the title page. It’s red tongue licked the letters, and the black print melted clean away. The floors were soaked in red, the stairs he’d walked up and down to collect his children’s school certificates, the walkway he’d gone down during the ceremony to receive his professorship. Red stains were already collecting on the sheets where he and Karen had first fallen and undone the drawstrings of their older, clumsy bodies. The viscous liquid permanently glued together the compartments of his wallet where he kept his credit cards and plane tickets and the photos of his grandkids. The stream flooded train stations, tracks, airports, and runways – never would another airplane take off from them, never would another train depart for any destination.

This book was an odd read, a different tone from what I’m accustomed to, but overall I thought it was not a bad book.

Next I am reading This Isn’t Going To End Well by Daniel Wallace.

Sort of a space opera and sort of a teen angst novel – this one is hard to describe.

At first I really enjoyed the main character of this book – her rebellious nature and determination to do what she wanted to do rather than what others directed. Unfortunately the evolution of the character from angry young person to messiah made me start to dislike her tone of supremacy and fate,

Once I lose interest in the main character it is hard for a book to recover for me.

There is a strong “Young Adult” vibe throughout the book despite the sex and swearing – breaking up into teams and discovering new powers and doing what we want despite what society (in this case, the old veterans and stuffy rich people) want.

There is some good writing here, but the characters are all a little transparent, simplistic points of view, and there is an odd preoccupation with the use of pronouns (can’t they have evolved a more elegant solution than preferred pronouns on a name tag over thousands of years?).

So I don’t think I’ll be continuing with the series – but it was worth a try. Next I am reading Flights by Olga Tokarczuk.

Learning a bit more about Korean culture – from an angle that I haven’t seen before. When we visit Korea we are often passing beauty shops, people wearing post-surgical braces and bandages, and have seen the unrelenting focus on appearance in the media surrounding K-pop idols and music stars.

Thanks to a unique blend of circumstances this book was able to be written and the writer could confront this issue head-on. There is a lot to unpack here, and plenty of cultural landmines to avoid. Somehow it all worked out well for us, the readers, and we could really get a good look at what kinds of things are at work behind this huge beauty industry.

The scale is wider than just Korea, however, and I liked how the author frequently brought things back to America or other countries. It was extremely well-researched, with footnotes and sources, and thanks to this it is all easier to believe. Because really, the intense focus on one’s outer appearance seems unbelievable. The effects that your appearance has on your family, career, and everyday life are significant and pretty much unavoidable in Korean society.

With social media comes an even wider audience to view your outside to make judgements on your inside. The writer takes a social media-focused lifestyle as a given here, and so people that aren’t so addicted to posting online will probably have less interest in what it all means personally.

The book is written for any kind of reader but I really felt like the writer was speaking to a female audience more often than not, and so for me I had less at stake than a woman reading this might. Sometimes I felt the writing tending to extrapolate what is happening in Korea a little too far and wide in an effort to create a sense of urgency or relevancy, but maybe that comes from writing as an NPR correspondent. A little less hyperbolic tone might have been better for a book rather than an article. But I’m glad they took the time to address the issue and all the ramifications here.

Excellent book – and I’ll be keeping my eyes open next time we’re visiting Korea! The next book I am reading is The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang.

I was through the first third of this book when I heard that the author had passed away at 89 years old. I’m sort of late to the party when it comes to McCarthy’s writing, and I think I’ll probably end up reading his books in almost the reverse order of their release. I was sorry to hear that one of my favorite authors was gone.

Just like his other books that I have read, this one is full of beautiful prose and really well-written (and often funny) dialog between characters. The two brothers in this story have a great relationship and the way they speak reflects that. In addition the descriptions of nature in the quiet moments of travel are outstanding. Small details remind me of when I did more hiking out on my own – the rustles of wind through reeds near the river described here sent chills down my spine.

This book is also pretty dark and takes a good unflinching look at the dark sides of men. The brutality isn’t quite as much as other books of his that I’ve read, but it certainly isn’t light reading by any account. But there are some light moments and signs of goodness here, although they are few.

It is always emotionally draining to read these books, but worth it for the beauty and deeper thoughts on humanity. Once again I’ll wait a while before I read some more of his work.

Next I am reading Flawless by Elise Hu.

Giving my impressions on a book is a little more difficult when I’m reading a translated version. Some of it comes from culture differences, or perhaps from the different expectations from readers.

This book felt like you were peeking inside the mind of a Japanese worker. The main character of this novel wants a job that is as easy as possible, and the story doesn’t get much deeper than that.

Why are they working? What is their goal here? To have an easy life? Why not quit outright and have a really easy life? What’s the point of it all?

This book addresses none of the issues above, and instead spends an inordinate amount of time with idle thoughts about lots of extraneous information and detail that don’t really contribute to any sort of tension or resolution. It was hard for me to understand if this is representative of a culture or instead just a vapid person.

This was translated into English by a Brit, so I could pick up some new British English words (stockists, bedsit, etc.) so I got a little benefit out of the book. But for me it just wasn’t consequential enough of a story to recommend it to anyone.

Next I am reading The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.

We really enjoyed the meals we ate during our short visit to Sri Lanka just before the pandemic broke out. Besides the iconic Ministry of Crab we also went to some places that focused on traditional foods, and I got this cookbook as a way to explore some of the spice blends and see the patterns of ingredients for Sri Lankan dishes.

The book is written by a restaurant owner in Australia with a Sri Lankan background, and they are clear on what they consider “traditional” and what things are their own sort of spin on a dish.

A couple of small gripes – the ingredients are given in grams/ounces, so it makes it a little hard to go shop for 165 g of white onion. How much does a white onion weigh? Or the say to roll some dough into a size that is about half of a rock melon. Now I have to go research rock melons and their average sizes.

There are also quite a few special ingredients (“just go to your local Sri Lankan market”) and some special tools you need (especially for the hoppers). While these steps might be practical in Australia it is different here in Japan. Stuff like this just adds extra work to make the recipes.

But there are a lot of delicious looking recipes here and I’m looking forward to making some of the curries, the kottu roti, and maybe if I can figure out a way to do the egg hoppers I’ll try them out too.

Let the coconut milk flow!

An eye-opening look at what happens when a white sociologist goes “undercover” by medically tinting his skin darker, undergoing UV tanning treatments, and then traveling around the Deep South of the USA in the mid 1950’s.

First of all, he gets the medal for bravery – there is racism everywhere. Naked, clear and aggressive – it is hard to imagine that this was what black people had to put up with in those days. Unfortunately it feels sometimes like even now the USA hasn’t come very far since then.

A lot of the events that happen in this book were hard to believe (in a good way). The sudden hatred and degrading comments out of nowhere, the dangers of walking alone through a white neighborhood, and not being allowed to use facilities because of the color of his skin. Luckily the author doesn’t get aggressive back, and calmly logs all of these things to report later.

But one criticism I had was that a lot of the events that happen in this book were hard to believe (in a bad way). The timing of things was always perfect – one right after another. The racists described show up at just the right time in his story, and do their evil deeds right when he needs to illustrate his points. I know these bad things happened – but it is hard to believe that they all happen in neat and orderly way that happens to fit nicely into his narrative. In the same way, the black people in this book are uniformly kind and seem to be 100% good people – full of kinship and good values. Things in this book just felt a little too black and white, if you’ll forgive the expression.

Regardless it was an interesting book to read, especially the afterwords and seeing the fallout from the publishing of the book. I wasn’t quite sure about the author’s methods, but he certainly was fighting the good fight here.

Next I am reading two books at the same time, Lanka Food by O Tama Carey, and There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura.

This is the second book in the Slow Horses series, and while not quite as interesting as the first book it was still quite enjoyable.

There is still a brisk pace, with witty comments. It is written in the same unique style, shifting characters within the same chapter and trying to intentionally mislead you with various mini-cliffhangers.

Also again we have the cutthroat interagency rivalry and most of the same characters that were introduced in the first book.

But some things are different – there are some actors outside of British government at work here, there is a surprising death, and a few references to the current political climate.

Sometimes the dialogue comes off a bit clunky, and the story strays occasionally too far into the realm of unbelievability, but it was fun to read. These are great books for a long airplane ride and I look forward to making my way through the series.

The next book I am reading is Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin.

This was one of the best I’ve read so far this year. Earlier I had asked some AI Chat bots what books I should read based on A Gentleman in Moscow, and finally one of them recommended this book, which managed to do many of the same things well.

The book is centered around an older character that is getting used to life on his own after his wife’s death, and the story is sort of a love story but also about remaining flexible, polite, and positive. There is a bright beam of kindness throughout this book, even in the face of racism, classism, and violence. The small town setting in rural England was similar to other books I’ve read recently, but everything here felt more real and quite a bit more entertaining.

Getting into this character’s head provides us with his very gentlemanly point of view, but also shows us the merits and limitations of his lifestyle and the code he lives by. He has thoughts and opinions on just about everything around him, but seeing where he decides to voice those thoughts and where he decides that something is just not for him without commenting was interesting to read. There is a lot here that shows how to live in a more welcoming and positive way, without being preachy.

And these comments and thoughts are surprisingly deep and full of wisdom. I’d enjoy reading this one again just to reflect on what the Major thinks about this and that. The author really found a voice here and it was a pleasure to read.

If I had to criticize anything, I’d say the ending felt a bit more dramatic than it really needed to be, with some turns that I was not expecting. But really I enjoyed almost everything about this book and hope to find more characters like this one out there.

Next I am reading Dead Lions by Mick Herron.

I just wrote this review a minute ago, and thanks to problems between WordPress and Jetpack it was lost. Tools that were once free are being updated to focus on trying to extract money from the users, making them increasingly frustrating to use, and so it is tough to sum up the all the words I just wrote just wrote. Ugh.

This book was quite a sad tale of an English man who started out with a pretty good life and somehow ended up watching things from the sidelines for the remainder. He receives a letter from someone who did him a kindness years ago, and sets out across England to visit – on foot.

Most of the book was interesting for me because it featured a solo journey, and despite being fiction I liked the adventure of it. But near the end that aspect of the story changes a bit and so I was much more into the first part of the book than the last.

I guess the goal of the book is to give humans a little more humanity, and certainly we can use all the help we can get these days. However there is a lot of sadness and regret in this story, and the final (sort of) redemption at the end doesn’t really balance it all out for me.

There are two other books featuring characters from this novel, and I just can’t see how they wouldn’t be as sad or sadder than this tale – people taking a passive view of their life and failing to communicate with those around them. I don’t think being English is really an excuse for this kind of behavior – but maybe that’s because I’m an American.

I’m hoping for a happier take on things with my next book along a similar vein, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

This was a fun, modern mystery novel written in a very tricky, clever way. Mystery/detective novels seem like a unique genre to me – they have rules that shouldn’t be broken, they should be fair with information and they should give you a story that you haven’t heard before.

This book completely demolishes the “Fourth Wall” and the protagonist of the story speaks directly to you, explaining the decisions that he has made in telling this story and I thought it was a creative approach to the genre.

I might say that the story was overly complex – but these days I think it would be hard to tell a compelling mystery simply. Despite the complexity I never felt like the writer was being unfair, just that some pretty far out situations had to happen to make the story work, both in the present and in the past.

So, a well-written, creative story that reads perfectly on an e-book. I’d recommend this one to anybody interested in classical murder mysteries – they’ve come a long way!

Next I am reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. Why are so many book titles these days including character names, I wonder…

Recently I read a book that profiled Rachel Carson and gave a short biography about both her personal and professional life. Rather than read Silent Spring, I chose this book since I thought a broad view of the ocean connected nicely with some other books I have read recently.

The more you read the more you see connections and things fitting together, which I have found to be an unexpected benefit.

The Sea Around Us is extremely well-written and beautifully describes the ocean from various perspectives. It is not merely about the fish swimming around inside it but it contains the history of it, the tides, the waves, the currents and the mysterious depths. There is a ton of research in this book, and it is broadly educational in a way that my school textbooks weren’t. The writer has a way of describing what is important not with statistics (although they are included occasionally) but instead with the heart and the imagination.

While it is a pleasure to read the fact remains that this book was published back in 1951 – meaning that the science and the discoveries contained within are roughly 70 years out of date. Whenever I read that “scientists still don’t know…” it meant that by know they probably have a much better idea. Off I’d go to the internet and find out what the state of research is. This happened so often that it became a bit burdensome.

The book is also somewhat North American-centric, and although the oceans make up most of the earth it seems that the writer is focused on an American reader. The condition of the world’s oceans are of interest to everyone on the planet – it would have been nice to have a more worldly view.

These negative points were the only things preventing a full enjoyment of the book – it is a little hard to recommend it to someone as it is fairly long and in-depth. There is probably a more up-to-date work out there more worthy of a reader’s time. However the excellent writing and unique tone made the read worthwhile for me.

Next I am reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shafer.

You know the idea that when you step out of the environment you’ve always lived in and look back you can see things you haven’t noticed before? One of the effects on me when leaving the USA to live overseas was the ability to observe things that I was oblivious to while living there.

This novel takes that premise to the next extreme, following an alien’s visit to Earth to observe (and interfere) with local life. By being an outsider the narrator can comment on things that we humans may take for granted.

The story is Britishly clever, and throughout there are nuggets of learned wisdom and plenty of advice – some given explicitly (and ever-so-slightly preachy) and some offered indirectly (which may be easier to swallow for some).

My criticism for this was only in the startlingly quick conversion of the alien narrator – he seemed to see the humanity of humans in a remarkably short time. But realism is not the goal here, and if you can set that aside you’ll find the book enjoyable and a well-needed poke at humanity.

Next I am reading The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson.

I recently read an article that said that Ace Atkins was handing over his Spenser writing duties and concentrating on his own series rather than extending Robert B. Parker’s series. I had tried reading his version of the Spenser books a long time ago – so I thought I should see what it was like now.

The good news: it was good to be back in Spenser’s world. The same characters inhabit this Boston, old ones from Parker’s days and new ones created by Atkins. This story was paced well, had plenty of interesting locations (especially bars and restaurants), and of course Spenser’s smart-ass sense of humor.

I still think that Parker’s “less is more” approach to dialogue is better, especially between Spenser and Hawk. Atkins’ jokes sometimes land awkwardly for me and overall the dialogue just isn’t as fluid and snappy as before. In addition this book has an odd sort of side story involving Hawk, that seems to be trying to open up a new series or book just for him. It was not placed subtly and felt like a potential money grab to me.

In the end I enjoyed the read, and it had me going back to read Finding Rachel Wallace, one of my favorites from Parker. It just felt more authentic and intelligent – but I can’t pin down exactly what the difference is.

Next I am reading The Humans by Matt Haig.