Stats:

Books read: 13 (7 Fiction, 6 Non-Fiction)

Unique Authors: 13 (9 Men, 4 Women)

Average Rating: 4 (3.93 Fiction, 4.08 Non-Fiction)

warning: some spoilers may be contained in the following reviews

Novelist as a Vocation - Haruki Murakami

These are a series of essays Murakami wrote on his experiences as a novelist for the last 40+ years. They range from discussions on literary prizes, how he conjures up characters, the importance of maintaining physical health in order to maintain stamina to write novels, and his views on the educational system in Japan. I found them to be pretty hit or miss. Note: These essays don’t provide the reader with meaningful advice on how to become a writer, they’re just Murakami’s musings on a number of things adjacent to writing. 3/5

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin

I now adore Gabrielle Zevin. I wanted to read something else by her after reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and this novel looked promising. A.J. is a cantankerous, widowed bookseller who is on the verge of drinking his life away. Through some chance encounters, he learns how to open himself up to love again. This work is also Zevin’s homage to books and reading - each chapter begins with A.J.’s review of a short story, all dedicated to his daughter. I found it to be sentimental in all the right ways. 5/5

A Mathematician’s Apology - G.H. Hardy

1st part is C.P. Snow writing about Hardy’s life, which is good context for the 2nd part.

2nd part is Hardy’s argument for why he considers pure mathematics to be a worthwhile pursuit

One of the points he invokes that resonated with me was about the beauty of math - it’s also a beauty that transcends the physical world which makes it unique and strikingly pure. I kind of want to pick up a math textbook and discover things myself now. 4/5

What is Tao? - Alan Watts

This is a short introduction to Taoism. I think I got the gist of it, but as is true of many Eastern schools of thought, an analytical approach to understanding is insufficient. Might pick up the Tao Te Ching at some point to get a feel for the source material. 4/5

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

This was my least favorite book by Ishiguro so far. The premise is pretty interesting - it covers the lives of a few schoolchildren at a boarding school as they grow up, but with a gut wrenching twist. My issues were that I thought he could have done some more world-building instead of the vague picture he paints about why things are the way they are (although I guess it’s probably kind of intentional given it’s a first person narrative from one of the schoolchildren who grew up sheltered from the truth), and that the characters were a bit flat and unrelatable. 3/5

Central Places - Delia Cai

I stumbled upon Cai on Twitter, when one of her tweets showed up on my feed. I found out she was releasing a book in a month, so I decided to pick it up when it came out. This novel is about an Asian-American woman, Audrey, who has this seemingly perfect cosmopolitan life in NYC and is about to get married to this rich, handsome, white, photographer from the city. They both venture back to her hometown in rural Illinois so he can meet her parents for the first time, but the visit makes things unravel in her and their relationship. I enjoyed the foray into the confused and morally ambiguous mind of Audrey. 3/5

What’s our Problem? A Self-Help Book for Societies - Tim Urban