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Bryan

Books: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

This book was another one I went in blind on, and this time it turned out to be a good thing. Now I know the theme of the book (at least on the surface) but it was fun to discover that on my own. And that made it easier to delve a little deeper and discover some other themes.

The book follows the narrator who is a (overly) snarky design student that turns their life over to social media in an attempt to capitalize on their brush with a very, very rare event. There is a lot of social media featured in this book, and since I am a person that is not a big fan of the media as a whole, sometimes it was a little tedious to get through all the critical considerations that influencers go through when posting.

But the themes underneath the story is where I found more interest. There are thoughts on fame, cultism and power in here, and I think these nicely fit in with society today – social and political issues being at the forefront in some countries.

I also got the same sort of vibes I got when I read Ready Player One. That book (and perhaps this one) was pretty divisive for various reasons but both books feature puzzles, a hunt for clues, and a worldwide competition to find the needle in the haystack. I think maybe I detected a callback to Ready Player One in this book – a dream sequence in an arcade that had a quarter on the machine.

So while I wasn’t a big fan of the main character I enjoyed the book, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel.

But next I am reading The World Walk by Tom Turcich.

Books: London Rules by Mick Herron

The Slow Horses series of books is always a good read, written in a style that is by now familiar. There is tension and excitement as events speed up, but the author is also not afraid of setting up some pieces in the background so you can watch them come into play much later (sometimes in subsequent books).

While I enjoyed this book as much as the others, you could feel that the author was trying hard to ramp up the clever lines (mainly from Jackson Lamb) to the point where it got a bit much. Almost as if were a dry humor competition.

A lot of the events from this book are taken from real headlines (around 2017) so there may be a risk of dating itself out of comprehension many years hence. But certainly that won’t be anything I’ll be worried about at the time.

I know this is fiction, but even with the realistic characters and events some stuff was a little far-fetched. Hopefully in the next books the author will take it down a notch and take a more measured (subtle?) approach.

Still, not a bad book in the series. Next I am reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.

Books: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

I had heard somewhere that this was one of the books that makes you re-evaluate how you think about something – in this book’s case the topic is death.

It was available at the library so without much thinking I checked it out. Quickly I realized that it seemed to be written for young adults, and the writing of the teen dialogue and the vocabulary they were using was pretty cringeworthy. “Yo, that was mad dope” etc.

But I pushed through that and although it was distracting throughout the book I was looking for the deeper message here. Unfortunately the message was pretty simple – seize the day because life could end before you know it. Maybe this message resonates more with younger people who believe they’ll live forever, but it didn’t have much effect on me. Maybe because I am closer to death than the average teenager?

But one good point was that the book didn’t hesitate to look death square in the eye, since it was the main topic of the book it could hardly be taboo. Since the characters knew they were going to die soon they could also speak plainly about it when I think probably most people don’t have opportunities to discuss this stuff with their friends or family. So at least here it was getting the thought process going and maybe it will lead to some positive outcomes for some people who would have rather set the topic aside for “later”.

Next I am reading London Rules by Mick Herron.

Books: The Devil’s Picnic by Taras Grescoe

Here’s an interesting idea for a book. The writer picks some substances that are banned in various places around the world, and then visits each place to try to learn more about why they are banned. The twist here is that he isn’t just talking about them, in (almost) each place he tries out the banned substances to see what the fuss is all about.

This makes for some occasional childish situations – chewing gum on the train in Singapore, for example – but is far more interesting when he tries coca leaves in Bolivia or absinthe in Switzerland.

One drawback about reading this book is that since it was written about 20 years ago a lot of the situations and bans may have changed. One example – he describes the area around Oslo central station as strewn with junkies and broken syringes, trash and police and hopelessness. But we were there a month ago and it was the complete opposite, a peaceful clean area that was not unlike any other train station in Europe or even Japan. Apparently a lot has happened in 20 years, so the info I was getting from the book needed to be taken with that in mind.

The book theme shifts slightly towards the end as the writer spends a lot of time (and pages) cogitating about the philosophy of banning substances and what situations warrant it, the war on drugs, and the goals of a nanny state.

I thought the author had a very reasonable viewpoint – that as long as a person is making a rational choice and that choice is not causing any harm to others then it is the responsibility of society to let them do it. There are some exceptions to this, and the author lays out the argument in detail. I liked his philosophy, and his admission that it is probably difficult to pull off in the real world.

The book ended differently than I had expected when I started the book, but I like the more intellectual shift that it made and this content more than any of the other stories will make the book worth reading even after another 20 years or more.

Next I am reading They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

Books: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

This book is really sort of an extended short story, but it really packs in plenty of details, undercurrents and history. The stakes of the story appear at a leisurely pace, and I enjoyed waiting for them.

I suppose that this could have been drawn out, with some extra scenes stuck in there with fireworks between conflicting characters or dramatic revelations and tearful declarations – but the author dialed this down to the perfect amount.

The message of this story was received without it being overly preachy and I appreciated the calm, quiet approach here.

This was the second book that I’ve read by the author, and I enjoyed both of them very much. I’ll be on the lookout for more.

Next I am reading The Devil’s Picnic by Taras Grescoe.

Books: Where You Come From by Saša Stanisic

One of the better non-fiction books I’ve read so far this year. The book is written in an unusual style, and even though it is translated from German to English, the writing is natural and clever.

Starting with the author’s childhood growing up in Yugoslavia and escaping the country as it exploded into civil war, the story follows him and his family as they try to get by as refugees in Germany, and then as their family is divided to different parts of the world.

The story shows the challenge for refugees forced to fit into wherever will take them, and how those challenges brought out the best in some and the worst in others.

I liked the unusual format – not a linear story but not a wacky time jump thing that is hard to follow, either.

The author has done some fiction so if I can find a translated version I am eager to read that and see what it is like.

Next I am reading Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan.

Books: Big Fish by Daniel Wallace

This is the first work of fiction that I’ve read by the author – I had enjoyed a non-fiction book a while back, and thought since I liked the movie Big Fish I should check out the book.

The film is a bit different from the book, but I thought that having seen the movie it actually improved my feeling of the book. Although they were different they weren’t mutually exclusive.

The story in the book was a little more intimate and I enjoyed how it was written. The structure of the book is unconventional – and in this case I thought it worked out quite well given the storybook nature of the main character.

More details into the stories that are told here would have been welcome. After a long story about how the main character met and married his wife she sort of faded away in the rest of the book.

And although the ending was really good (as was the movie’s ending), I thought that the strings of the story weren’t tied off quite as much as I’d have liked.

But I did get to read a ton of jokes, both good and bad.

Next I am reading Where You Come From by Sasa Stanisic.

Books: The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft

This book was a struggle to get through. I’ve found that I don’t like books that use absurdity or outrageous characters/behavior to hold your attention – and unfortunately there was a lot of that in this book.

I liked the idea of it at first, kind of a whodunnit in the forests of Poland with a group of translators struggling to figure things out. But it gets weird quickly, and it is full of people doing silly things which I guess was an effort to entertain the reader.

This was a long book, and towards the middle of it I started questioning if it was worth going on.

After finishing the book I can say now that it wasn’t.

Live and learn, I guess. Next I am reading Big Fish by Daniel Wallace.

Books: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

An enjoyable take on the legend of Achilles, and what went on (possibly) behind the scenes. More than a historical retelling, it is closer to a love story, and it manages to add to the legends of Achilles without dumbing it down.

The writing of the author is just as good as I remember, and it moves the story forward without getting in the way. The focus is on the telling of the story, and we see it from a different point of view this time.

Since the story is so well-known there aren’t too many twists, but for someone coming to it for the first time this would be a rollicking ride. Through most of the book I was trying to figure out they would get through the ending, but the compromise that was made didn’t feel like cheating.

One complaint I have was that there was so much going on unseen in the world of the gods, and the way it was related back to us felt clunky and unnatural. I would have liked to have seen them in action more, but the author chose to focus on a few mortal characters rather than on the gods on Mount Olympus.

It is a rather short novel, so it was hard to stop turning the pages knowing it wouldn’t take long to get through. Excellent book!

Next I am reading The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft.

Books: A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke

Partly a mystical fairy tale, partly a travelogue of the world’s (mostly) unknown secrets, this book should have been right up my alley. Not only is it largely concerned with travel, but it contains a secret mysterious library with secret doors that connect across the globe. I’m not sure why I didn’t like the book more.

It certainly isn’t a bad book – the writer has an engaging style and the prose is easy to read and has a lighthearted approach to descriptions. The natural world and the animals that live within it are especially well done.

But what I found myself concerned with was the point of this journey that we are on. The main character embarks on it with very little introspection, and considering the time they have on the road alone, you’d think they’d have more thoughts and theories on it than they do. We usually hear about her joy and adventures not firsthand but in her memories, which makes us wonder if she is really out there living or just plodding on to stay alive. Most of the interesting introspection is left for the end of the book.

We are asked to believe in some magic, and once we accept that proposition it makes the “real-life” magical moments that the main character discovers less, well, magical. She talks of amazing things that she has witnessed in her travels but they are less amazing when coming from someone with a mysterious magical curse.

Still, the concept of the interconnected library, the thoughts on travel and what it means, and the metaphors throughout are interesting enough for me to enjoy the book. Not sure if I can recommend it for everyone, though.

Next I am reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I really liked her book Circe, so I’m hoping this turns out even half as good.

Books: The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

I was starting to get into this book, set in a unique time and place for fantasy books – the era of the Spanish Inquisition – but as the main character started to “awaken” to a sexy dude with eternal life I realized that I had read something like this before. Oh yeah, this is the same author that wrote Ninth Wing, a groaner that I had somehow finished last year or so.

How did this book get into my backlog? I guess I have to be more careful. But it made me think a little about what I liked about this book. The writer has a great skill with writing prose and pushing the story forward at the right pace. There are few slow points and we get right to the next big event. I was also happy that this isn’t the first in a series, which is so common in fantasy books.

But the magic system was pretty unclear, and I couldn’t help thinking why our hero needed to be afraid when she had so much power at her fingertips. The romance angle was predictable and didn’t seem necessary, and unfortunately many of the characters were pretty shallow and one-dimensional.

But I finished the book, hooray me. Next I am reading A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke.

Books: Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

In the end I really enjoyed this book, but the sort of campy/folksy start had me wondering if I really wanted to continue this book or not. The early stages of the book set the time frame in history, and tries to show the irreverent and odd characters that make up the population of the Greek island.

But once we get through this, the story takes its time and tells a story from many points of view. The writing felt lyrical and focused on the beauty of life on the island, and unfortunately later it is contrasted with the lifestyle of the residents during war time.

The story arc of Madras, the young fisherman, and how he turned out after the war was especially heartbreaking, but this book is filled with heartbreaking moments. Scenes from the Second World War related by various characters are absolutely brutal. The character of the goatherder was used for laughs now and then, but reading about his lifestyle had me reconsidering mine.

I like stories like this that span lifetimes, and we see how small things connect to others later in life, and how decisions turn out for better or worse.

Personally I thought the ending of this one, and what eventually happened between Corelli and Pelagia felt sort of unnecessary or tacked on, but I can see how some might feel it was a necessary full circle.

Although the book was a little preachy at times I enjoyed reading it, and was surprised to find that it was written so recently. I’m not sure I want to read it again in the future – so much heartbreak is hard to take.

Next I am reading The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo.

Summer Trip 2024

Last weekend we returned from our summer travels in Europe, and once again it was a great time checking out some new places for us.

The way this trip came together was that we wanted to visit some of the southeastern European countries we hadn’t been able to visit during COVID, especially to see Sofia, Bulgaria. Kuniko had a student working at a ballet in Romania, and we both wanted to see what Serbia was like.

Because of the rising temperatures in both Japan and Europe in the summer time, we thought the second part of the trip should be a visit to Norway and Sweden. We had really enjoyed summer in Finland before, and I have really wanted to see the fjords of Norway at some point. 

So we figured out the logistics and pulled off the trip. It went very smoothly, involving airplanes, buses, a boat, and lots of trains..

As usual I took lots of pictures (that are still being sorted) and wrote in a journal as we went. You’ll find the descriptions of our trip below, from the oldest at the bottom of the page up to the latest posts at the top. Enjoy reading!

Day 14 – Stockholm, Sweden / Istanbul / Osaka

We tried to sleep in as long as possible as it was our last day of our trip, a long travel day. We enjoyed the hotel breakfast once again, and watched a Japanese family of four managing their two little kids with skill. The dad gave the kids a boiled egg for them to peel while mom got her food – the eggs kept them busy and quiet.

After breakfast we went up to our room to chill out and try to use every last minute before the check-out time of noon. We were surfing the web and playing video games and I realized that the hotel WiFi was broken – it was switching on and off – so in this way I burned through most of the remaining data on my eSIM without realizing. Bummer! 

We had a do not disturb sign on our door but despite that someone knocked, and when I answered the door two housekeepers looked shocked and apologetic. Maybe a mix-up, but maybe they just wanted to get a jump on cleaning. Either way, they were early and we were still entitled to stay. I was just trying to be horizontal for as long as I could.

Finally we checked out and stored our suitcase in the hotel’s locked storage room while we went for lunch. We had a target restaurant that looked good, but when we got to the area it seemed hard to find. Eventually we realized it was downstairs inside a shopping center, and it looked super busy. So we went back outside and looked around.

Every time we travel in Europe we see kebab places – and we love kebabs, but it always feels like a wasted chance when we could eat the local food of wherever we are. But since we tried and failed, it seemed like a good time to get a kebab. There was a busy kebab place nearby that had an automatic kebab meat slicer running – high tech! I had a kebab wrap, which Kuniko had a falafel wrap and they were both excellent. We drank lingonberry soda with them, and it was a big, messy meal but very delicious.

Back at our hotel we went to pick up our bag from the storage room. I joked with the staff by asking if we could take any one we wanted, and he joked back that he recommended the bigger suitcases for more loot. But seriously, we could have taken anything and they wouldn’t know whose was whose. Weird system.

From there we got back on the Arlanda Express (using the savings trick we learned coming in) and we were able to do early check-in at the airport. The kiosk was a little weird and wouldn’t print out my boarding passes, but at the desk everything was fine. 

We went through security and on to a bar for drinks and to recharge our devices. We had a great corner seat at a big mainly empty place, so we killed a couple hours using our phones, reading, playing games, and drinking beers. 

Closer to our departure we stopped at a really stylish bar/restaurant for sparkling wine, and had one of the best meals of the trip – a big open-faced shrimp sandwich. It was so good! Much higher quality than typical airport food.

We caught a three hour flight from Stockholm to Istanbul, and had a little time to kill in the airport as we awaited our connecting flight. We knew better to drink Prosecco here, and we weren’t super hungry after the snacks on the plane. So we just chilled out by the gate until the line started moving to board. 

We sat next to a high school aged Japanese girl, part of some kind of group of other school kids scattered throughout the cabin. She kept to herself during the flight, and Kuniko and I could do some serious sleeping. Once again we were able to sleep through about eight of the eleven hours on the plane before arriving in Osaka. 

We got lucky with immigration, our suitcase and customs so that we caught the next bus to Kobe, and then from there we took a train to Nishi Akashi and a taxi back to our home, as is our tradition. All our souvenirs survived the trip, and we had a cold bottle of champagne waiting for us in the fridge. 

It was another great summer trip for us. We really like the vibe in Europe and exploring new countries there is a great way to escape the summer in Japan. But as we look to the future there are only a few more countries left unexplored in Europe, and as we get older we might want to look around some other places, too. We might change things up next year – who knows?

Day 13 – Stockholm, Sweden

We slept a solid 9 hours, maybe the days and days of walking around are starting to catch up with us! 

Our hotel breakfast was one of the better ones of this trip, with a good layout that is designed to handle a lot of people. We enjoyed eating our eggs, fruits and yogurt at a relaxing pace, along with some unusual juices that really hit the spot. 

We started that day by heading on foot across town to the Vasa museum. As we crossed town we had a lot more chances to see all the beautiful buildings, especially on the waterfront. The air was cool and the weather was beautiful – hard to imagine what kind of humid hell people were going through back in Japan. 

There were not so many people at the museum as we arrived just at the opening time, and we used online tickets to enter. The Vasa museum centrally displays the 64 gun warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. It was salvaged and restored, and the museum is beautifully designed to give you a feel for life on the ship, and see all the details that went into building it. Just looking through had me thinking of Master & Commander. 

Once we finished with the museum we walked around the area to take pictures, especially of the compelling buildings. There were plenty of trees and it was a very natural setting. 

From there we set out in another direction and found ourselves at the Ostermalm’s Food Hall, which was our kind of place. Full of local ingredients, meat, fish and vegetables, this was a gourmet heaven. Luckily we arrived with full bellies otherwise we’d have maxed out our credit cards.

In a department store nearby we browsed through all the candies looking for souvenirs for our students back in Japan. There were endless varieties of Swedish black salted licorice (an acquired taste) but also some more palatable options so we stocked up there. I was surprised to see so many candies from other Scandinavian countries – not so many local to Sweden. 

We dropped off our souvenirs back at our hotel and then went to lunch at Bistro Bestick. It was quite close and promised traditional Swedish food. The staff were curious about Kuniko, and surprised that I spoke Japanese. At first they spoke to me in Swedish so I guess I blended in. 

We started with bubbles and then had a great lunch: Reindeer meatballs, and some cured salmon in sauce with potatoes, egg and salmon roe. It was a great meal, and we were really getting our meatball cravings satisfied. 

Off we went to see the Parliament House, and there were more tourists out on the streets by now. We walked through the grounds of the Parliament House and back behind to the Royal Palace, half of which was under renovations. Nearby was a culture festival with live music, and we saw many food trucks lined up. I noticed that all their menus and signs were only in Swedish, so meant for locals, not us. There was a fair amount of security guards walking around the area, too.

At Kuniko’s request we visited the Nobel Prize museum, and it was worth the stop. The exhibits showed a background of the winners, and sometimes some personal memorabilia indicating the Eureka! moment that helped them make the connections that earned them the prize. Some were pretty odd – a jar of a favorite kind of peanut butter, for example. Overhead there was an automated track system with little runners that carried a banner for each of the Nobel prize winners. Each one had a chance in rotation to go around the room introducing the winner. It was unique and fun to watch.

Finally we walked back to the hotel for a little rest and to do some journaling. Mostly we hung out in the hotel bar to await the cleaning of our room, and we played shuffleboard a few times, too. Eventually our room was cleaned so we went up for a short nap to build up energy for the evening.

For dinner we walked to Knut Upplandsgatan, and sat outside the restaurant in the beautiful weather. Some great dishes here, including Plate from the North: a sampler of moose sausage, vasterbotten cheese, smoked deer heart (yum!), reindeer steak, prosciutto cured with pine needles (excellent!). Also crayfish tails on dark rye with radishes and shoestring potatoes. We were also served spiced bread and butter mixed with whey. 

When we first arrived one person set us up at the table, and while we talked another guy suddenly came up with a notebook and said hello, and I thought that it was somebody looking to conduct a survey. But it turned out that it was our waiter, and he had been just a bit tentative (perhaps wondering what language to open with). Later he said that their sous chef is from Japan, but unfortunately we didn’t get to meet them. With dinner we had a nice South African Cabernet Sauvignon – we ought to go visit there sometime!

After dinner we got some lingonberry caramels that were excellent – unfortunately we couldn’t find them in stores anywhere. But we did more walking around to explore new areas. We did a little more shopping at an upscale supermarket, and Kuniko bought salmiak tablets for her coworker. We walked to a nearby church (Gustaf Vasa), and then saw a metro station and on a lark bought tickets. There was no machine, but a very nice lady sold us tickets from a window, and I was struck again about how nice everyone was to us on this trip. 

As we approached the gate to the station with our tickets a bunch of police were marching a young woman away, don’t know what was going on there. 

We traveled from that station, Odenplan, to old town Gamala Stan. The train ride was smooth and in a modern design, but not really that special. But at least we had a chance to ride a train in every country on this trip. 

We walked around old town again, this time there were fewer tourists as the tours were finished and it was dinner hour. Slowly we worked our way back towards the central area, but sat on the waterfront a bit. A young family were fishing for their dinner – the wife and husband both had poles while a little kid played nearby, crying quite loudly. Another fisherman thought he had something, but he only pulled up seaweed. 

We went to Radisson Blu’s bar for a final cocktail, with the bartender winking (a little excessively) to each customer before making the drinks. Kuniko had a tropical twist which was tasty but the egg white merengue was a little too sweet. My drink was a ginger/basil/cucumber refresher that was very nicely made. 

Finally we went back to our room and crashed out, the end of an active day of sightseeing and eating.