Revenge

Title: Revenge (original title: 寡黙な死骸　みだらな弔い) Writer: Yoko Ogawa (tr. by Stephen Snyder) Publishing House: Vintage Date of Publication:  January 2nd 2014 (first published 1998) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Why was everyone dying? They had all been so alive just yesterday.’’ Yoko Ogawa creates a dark wonder of sadness, loneliness and unsettling desires in Revenge, a collection…

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone

Title: Ghosts of the Tsunami Writer: Richard Lloyd Parry Publishing House: Jonathan Cape Date of Publication: August 31st 2017 Rating: 5 stars ‘’By the time the party came to an end, it was already becoming cloudy, but there was no wind. Not a single leaf was moving on the trees. I couldn’t sense any life…

Convenience Store Woman

Title: Convenience Store Woman (original title:コンビニ人間) Writer: Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) Publishing House: Grove Press Date of Publication: June 12th 2018 (first published July 27th 2016) Rating: 5 stars ‘’It is the start of another day, the time when the world wakes up and the cogs of society begin to move. I…

Ραβδιά και Kόκκαλα

Τίτλος:Ραβδιά και Κόκκαλα (Sticks and Bones) Συγγραφέας:David Rabe (μετάφραση Δέσπω Διαμαντίδου) Εκδοτικός Οίκος: Δωδώνη Έτος ΄Εκδοσης: 1977 (πρώτη έκδοση: 1972) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Έχω να παραδώσω παιδιά στα σπίτια τους στο Σικάγο, άλλα στη Βοστώνη, Τρέντον, Ντένβερ, και Κλήβελαντ, Ρένο, Νέα Ορλεάνη, Γουάτς, Ατλάντα. Κι όταν επιστρέψω, θα έχω νέα παραλαβή, θα’ναι όλα τα παιδιά…

Three Bedrooms In Manhattan

Title: Three Bedrooms In Manhattan (original title: Trois chambres à Manhattan) Writer: Georges Simenon (translated by Marc Romano and Lawrence G, Blochman Publishing House: Penguin Classics Date of Publication: July 30th 2020 (first published 1946) Rating: 5 stars ‘’It wasn’t on purpose that he sat down beside the woman. He realized it only when the…

Hotel Iris

Title: Hotel Iris (original title: ホテル・アイリス ) Writer: Yoko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Snyder) Publishing House: Vintage Publishing Date of Publication: April 7th 2011 (first published 1996) Rating: 5 stars ‘’He first came to the Iris one day just before the beginning of the summer season. The rain had been falling since dawn. It grew heavier at…

The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and Other Short Stories from Japan

Title: The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and other Short Stories from Japan Writer: Rebecca Otowa Publishing House: Tuttle Publishing Date of Publication: March 24th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Well, don’t. You’re a foreigner. You have to understand it’s not our business. We don’t interfere. It’s the Japanese way.’’ Thirteen exquisite stories written by an American…

Pride and Prejudice

Title: Pride and Prejudice Writer: Jane Austen Publishing House: Penguin Clothbound Classics Date of Publication: November 6th 2008  (first published January 28th 1813) Rating: 5 stars ‘’There is a stubbornness in me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others.’’ The greatness of what I consider to be Jane Austen’s finest…

Corazon Aquino (Little People, Big Dreams)

Title: Corazon Aquino (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara, illustrated by Ginnie Hsu Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication: August 4th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’One must be frank to be relevant.’’              Corazon Aquino Cory was born in the beautiful Philippines, the country of a Thousand Islands. She loved…

Ulysses

Title: Ulysses Writer: James Joyce Publishing House: Vintage Date of Publication: 1990 (first published February 2nd 1922) Rating: 5 stars “Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.”  16 June 1904. Leopold Bloom wanders the…

It Would Be Night in Caracas

Title: It Would Be Night In Caracas Writer: Karina Sainz Borgo, translated by Elizabeth Bryer Publishing House: HarperCollins Date of Publication: October 15th 2019 (first published March 7th 2019) Rating: 5 stars *ANY political comments will be deleted. I do NOT discuss politics or religious or social issues with strangers. If you attempt to do…