What I’ve been reading (updated whenever I finish a book)
Note: this book recording thing was originally something I did just for myself, so you won’t find full blown book reviews here, just quick thoughts.
Hopefully, you might find new books to read, and new opinions on old favorites.
Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! (Richard P. Feynman)
September 9th
I really enjoyed this book, and I had never expected a scientist to have such an interesting life. I first heard of Feynman from the Feynman learning technique, and I don’t know if that’s what he’s remembered for the most to most people, but if it was, it would be sad because he’s got so many fun stories and adventures.
The last part of the book, where he was talking about cargo cult science, really got me thinking. He was talking about how one of the big things to take away from the science we learn in school, but that no one ever actually mentions and is just kind of hoped that we absorb by osmosis — is the idea of scientific integrity, scientific rigor. I’ve never thought about applying that out of science, but it’s really quite true.
Rating: ★★★★☆
漫画讲透孙子兵法 1–4 （华杉）
August 5th
Great series, it was nice to finally discover what is actually in The Art of War, and I found his philosophy on fighting very interesting. 先胜再战，不战为上册。(Win before fighting, and not fighting is the first strategy) As always, I love reading the historical story examples. I’ve actually started to notice myself thinking about things in a 孙子 way, and I think it can really help sometimes, or at the very least provide an alternate perspective I didn’t have before.
Rating: ★★★★☆
The House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
3rd August
Reading this book can only be described as a hands on, interactive, and (scarily) immersive experience. At first, I was like, eh, kinda boring, who in their right mind chooses academic essay as the format for their novel? And then stuff starts getting spooky. Not downright scary, but really unsettling, enough that I didn’t want to keep that book in my bedroom at night cuz it felt like bad luck. In a way, that feeling of unsettledness is almost worse than being plain scared with obvious monsters and ghosts — because everything is all in the dark, and feels kinda plausible. The discrepancy is so small, the house is just ¼ of an inch bigger inside, it’s almost laughable…until it expanded, that is.
I thought the idea of a house bigger on the inside was pretty interesting, not particularly creepy, but I think it was Johnny’s slowly going mad as he assembled Zampano’s notes that got me. The implication is — you will go mad like Johnny, and when I read this book, I felt like I was doing something illicit.
But I do love how creatively Danielewski breaks apart the format of a novel to unsettle the reader. Words flying left and right, spiralling, shrinking, reflected, burned, everything you can think of. When you encounter that kind of absurd and confusing formatting at a critical moment, it’s really unsettling, which of course, reflects how the characters are feeling. My favourite use of layout was when Navidson went back to the house by himself, and in The Whalestoe Letters (bro those were crazy).
I’ve heard that Danielewski’s other book, The Familiar, is also pretty good, so I’m gonna check it out soon.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Good Wives (Louisa May Alcott)
27th June
Because this was a 2 in 1 book with Little Women, I felt super deja vu reading it, because the movie Little Women has the events of Good Wives in it. It seems strange I should love the March sisters as much as I did in the first book when they have changed so much, but perhaps it’s like the real life love of people: beautiful all the more for how they change.
Man, but I can’t help shipping Laurie and Jo…even if I agree that it’s for the better if they don’t marry, their story makes me jealous and think of a certain someone. To be able to get past that hump in their relationship to become the most chummy brotherly fellows ever…what would I give to have that?
Rating: ★★★★★
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
23rd June
I absolutely adore this book to pieces. This would be the second time reading, AND I’ve watched the movie before, but every event and every surprise is just as heartwarming and touching as the first time, and that is incredible.
I love Jo the best, and man, Jo and Laurie are seriously ~friendship goals~, if I have a friend like that, I’ll be happy.
There was a point where I was upset and crying, and one chapter of this brilliant book got me laughing in no time. Armed with a copy of Little Women and The Little Prince, I feel like I can face anything in this world.
Rating: ★★★★★
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Charlie Mackesy)
16th June
I remember starting this book but never finishing it in a library at Oxford Uni, so I picked this up at the bookstore, and gobbled it all up in one sitting. I can totally see why this might be someone’s favourite book, especially a childhood favourite if your parents read it to you all the time. It is quite sweet and touching, and I loved the illustrations, but it just wasn’t quite my cup of tea. A little bit too jam packed with lines that are too trying to be wise and quote like.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Memory Police (Yoko Ogawa)
8th June
This book is beautiful in such a surreal, eerie way. Especially near the end, when body parts started disappearing…man I got the chills from that. I really loved the parallel narrative of what was happening to the main character (bro, she isn’t named? Somehow that feels fitting, just like in the case of Rebecca (by Daphne du Maurier), her not having a name is another sign of how she’s disappearing) and the story of the typewriter she was creating. The typewriter story really reflected her own situation in many ways, and I really could see the inspiration from the character’s life. Man, that’s so cool, it really shows how well constructed the character is.
The ending felt a little bleak, but also hopeful. For me, what I feel like would happen after the narrator disappeared is that all the people who retain their memories would come out of hiding and rebuild the world again.
Rating: ★★★★☆
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed (Jon Ronson)
May 10th
I enjoyed this book very much. It’s a deep dive into a topic that no one really thinks about much, because it’s so abstract and like, accepted, but is actually really interesting and also strange. Who would think that public shaming is as prevalent now as it was in the olden days, except the power is in our hands? That’s quite crazy, and I found the anecdotes and real life cases in this book a great introduction to this idea. Humorous, witty and thoughtful.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Egghead (Bo Burnham)
May 3rd
I enjoy good poetry,
and Burnham’s stand up comedy.
But Egghead is like…
lukewarm French wine,
Pop Tarts with truffle.
Ehh-mmmmm-EEK!
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Humble Pi: When Maths Goes Wrong In the Real World (Matt Parker)
April 30th
Brilliant non fiction book. Witty, entertaining, and perfectly nerdy for my appetite. Matt’s enthusiasm for maths combined with the very interesting examples throughout the book makes this a super fun read. If you don’t like maths, you will still like this book, I swear.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing (Melissa Mohr)
21st April
Overall, a great book that does exactly what it says. At times, it did get a tad bit on the technical side, but to be fair, I believe this was originally an academic paper, in which case, this book has done brilliantly at making an interesting but somewhat obscure topic accessible to everyone (minus the kids. Don’t read this to your kids. Please.)
Of course, it’s very potty mouthed, and I feel a little like after I watched The Wolf of Wall Street (we don’t need to talk about it) and maybe in need of some eye bleach, but that’s to be expected.
Favourite bit? I was really surprised to learn about how the concept of sexuality was so different in Ancient Roman times compared to now. Like, the way things are today you would think anybody not-straight has been oppressed since the dinosaurs, but I always thought that sounded off, like how can every single culture in this big world have the same view on this thing? And yeah, turns out the Romans thought differently.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Thirteen Clocks (James Thurber)
9th April
I think this is a delightful book, and in the introduction by Neil Gaiman, he totally nailed the feeling of wanting to read the book out loud just to hear how some of the words zing and sing together. I feel like I’m reading a ballad almost, something you might tell at a fireplace with a guitar strumming along.
I love the way some of the words fit together just so, like ‘The Todal looks like a blob of glup’, and the illustrations are quite goofy too, in particular of the Golux (who is the Golux, you ask? Go read it!)
Beyond that, I also love the concept that the Duke thinks he has killed time, and I love how things come full circle in that way of fairy tales. This is the kind of thing I want to read to a turtle, and if someone laughs at me, I will laugh with them.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)
24th March
I found this book in my to read list from ages ago, no idea where I found out it. But damn, this is a great thriller. I can’t quite pin point what it is about this book that intrigues me, maybe the idea of the ghost of Rebecca haunting our unnamed main character (ok, can we talk about the fact the narrator is literally nameless? The only time she has a name is as Mrs De Winter — a derivative of Maxim De Winter, a copy of Rebecca De Winter, not her own name. This is such a good technique the author used to get her point across about the character’s submissive personality), the epic plot twist that turned the tables on Rebecca, or Mrs Danvers intriguingly brooding hate for our second Mrs De Winter.
It was a good story, but it only felt like just a good story until I read another author’s, Sally Beauman, analysis of some deeper ideas and themes of the book (dude, THIS is the kinda stuff we need to do in class), and I was like damn, this book has a lot more juice than at first glance.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Iron Widow (Xiran Jay Zhao)
10th March
Great book, I loved it, swallowed it whole in 2 days. I love that it’s Chinese history and myth based but written in English, like I find that very relatable as an international school kid. I think the concept is pretty cool, and especially cause I know a decent bit of Chinese history, it’s quite fun to read and see some historical figures become remade as fictional characters, and some of it is kinda funny, like her versions of the Four Great Classical Novels. Also, I just love how the characters say “Skies!” as an exclamation, for the Chinese version ‘天啊！’, like that’s just perfect.
As for the feminism that the book is largely about, I mean…I think it fit the historical context the book was based off of, but sometimes I feel like Wu Zetian’s spiels can be a little over the top. But I understand overall, cause it sucked for girls back then.
Also, a lot of ambivalent feelings on the fact that the main character murdered her way to the top and like, that’s considered okay and stuff. I mean, it sure is a fresh new take…?
Rating: ★★★★☆
智齿 (郑渊洁）(Wisdom Teeth by Zheng Yuanjie)
2nd March
Damn bro. This was kinda intimidating at first, cuz the book was chunkier than The Order of the Phoenix, but I’ve made it through it with much to praise! I really liked the concept of wisdom teeth making people geniuses, and I think it’s a very interesting topic to explore, something under the what the heck is talent umbrella.
I think the ending was pretty well done, because it’s easy to have it all rub off wrong and be really discouraging, but it turned out fine and maybe wisdom teeth aren’t the be all and end all. But not gonna lie, when my wisdom teeth grow out, I think I’m gonna be superstitious.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Our Fair Lady — Audrey Hepburn’s Life in Pictures (Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson)
14th February
I can’t remember why I picked up this book — was it just because of a familiar name? I mean, I’ve watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but Audrey Hepburn was still just this big name to me.
But damn boy, I loved this book, gobbled it up in one sitting at the bookstore. It’s just really cool to know the story behind the name, you know? Who knew that she dreamt of being a ballerina and then accidentally became an actor? And I didn’t know anything about her contributions to UNICEF.
Honestly though, from that book, I am officially a fan of her, and I think she’s actually my role model. Like, I’ve never ever said/thought that before (celebrities are humans too, no one should be worshipped etc etc), but from the book, Audrey just sounds like one of the best people to have ever existed. Just such a darling, with an inspiring rise to fame story, and she actually seems like a genuine, down to earth good human being, and is just generally charming. And gee, she is real pretty man.
By the way, it was really interesting to find out about how Hubert de Givenchy was her friend and provided her with so much of her iconic outfits…other than finding out about Audrey, that made me realise that there was once a person, a living human being behind what people nowadays see as a big fancy luxury brand under a big corporation. Like this Givenchy dude made Audrey her own perfume that no one else had access to, like wow, friendship goals. Man, I love biographies.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery (Susan Juby)
3rd February
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The title, which in isolation is kinda cringe, totally caught my eye and did it’s job in the library. While reading the book, I keep on getting this feeling that random elements of the book are real cringe by itself, but it somehow just all works together real well when Juby does it. I picked it up thinking it was like a back to the past, pretty relaxed, maybe Land of Stories kind of book, but then I got sucked into this whole school conspiracy and high school social order and stuff, which is cool too in a different way.
There’s this one part I remember quite well because it’s sooo accurate to today, even though it was published in 2008. It’s the description of one of the ‘Trophy Wives’ (popular girls) in school:
“She’s in eleventh grade and one of those highly complex and attractive girls with a lot of personal issues that she’s extremely open about, such as eating disorders and depression and cutting herself. It’s almost like she’s trying out the problems.”
“She gave a talk at out first assembly so I feel like I know quite a bit about her, including what she thinks of global warming (she’s against it), globalization (against it), feminism (for it), Wicca (for it), and premarital sex (for it). She has also experienced depression, but doesn’t take medication because she doesn’t want to become part of the pharmaceutical industrial complex.”
Like I laughed reading that, because I could totally see this character in real life, and it’s such a sarcastic description that probably wouldn’t pass elsewhere but is fine here cuz it’s from the perspective of a ninth grade boy. Come to think of it, this book is so not a Land of Stories level book, like it’s so much more darker and honest and captures that feeling of how when you enter high school, suddenly, you can’t mention length, measurements, size, color, bananas, leaves, and god knows what other stuff without getting a stupid side eye from someone.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts)
6th Jan 2024
This book is really something special, especially because it’s based on a true story. I didn’t know much about India, certainly not about Bombay, but after reading this, I feel like I’ve been there and breathed the Bombay air. Part of me kinda wants to go and see how much is real. The details are insane! When I was reading, All I had to do was close my eyes and I was there. The only explanation is for Roberts to have experienced and observed the place himself.
The Bombay of this book is simultaneously horrifying and beautiful. The violence, the death, the mobbings, the poverty and suffering in slums, the corruption…it’s not exactly an utopia. But what’s beautiful is that despite this mess, people still find ways to live, to be happy, and this happiness is in many ways more pure and wholesome than those who have a blissful and easy life. The camaraderie and trust between the community of the slum makes me jealous.
I don’t really know what to think of a mafia system being noble, or rightious and good for the people. That’s how the mafia is portrayed in this book most of the time. Sure, I see it, like in the Godfather, but I can’t help but question, how can it be right to do so much harm?
And that’s why I like the main character Lin. He questions things, he feels things (which by the way, is the opposite of Karla, no? Yet he loved her), and he thinks.
I loved the philosophy threaded and intertwined throughout this book, from Khader’s method of distinguishing right and wrong and the idea of tendency towards complexity, to the witty remarks of Karla. I like the part where Lin observed that the slum people talk about philosophy too, just that they don’t call it that. Funny how just having a name for a thing can change what you think of it. Philosophy sounds so distinguished, and let’s face it, just a little stuck up.
Rating: ★★★★☆
The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
16th December
It’s a weird deja vu feeling to finish a book you nearly finished reading once. It’s almost like remembering an event from your own life.
I enjoyed this book very much, especially because of the way the story was presented bit by bit, non linearly and through different snapshots. There’s three different types of perspectives — Eddie’s birthdays which are reliable check ins because they always happen, the present in heaven with the people Eddie meets, and the present on Earth, with the aftermath of Eddie’s death.
Something I like very much is how Mitch Albom reveals some seemingly commonplace or unspecial information through one of those perspectives, and then completely flips the table and adds a truckload more of meaning and consequence to that small thing with another perspective. That must have taken a long time to structure, and I’m trying to see if I can come up with something similar for one of my next articles (omg Rachell’s finally writing again?!!)
Rating: ★★★★☆
The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
3rd December
I love this book dearly. It really makes me feel at peace, and okay, and just calm again. It’s the kind of book I would love to have a collector’s edition of with well loved, dog eared pages, to comfort me in hard times, and one day pass on to a loved one.
Reading it makes it feel all like the material and superficial things and stresses can all just crumble off and I wouldn’t even notice. This line got stuck in my head: It is only with the heart that one can see clearly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
It’s cliche in isolation, but beautiful and completely fitting in the book.
I hear that line in my head every now and then, when I feel myself slipping a little, getting stuck in the hamster wheel of everyday school life.
And the ending was so surprising! I never thought the prince would ask the snake to take him home. And that’s the thing, in that context, it really didn’t feel like an euphemism for anything, and he really was just returning to his planet and his rose.
Rating: ★★★★☆
How to Write Sentences: And How to Read One (Stanley Fish)
13th November
Overall, a little disappointed.
The start was boring, the end got boring, but the middle had me intrigued briefly. I always feel weird giving bad reviews to popular books, but it’s the truth. The biggest irony was that this book slammed The Elements of Style for being too jargon heavy, while also being very saturated with jargon that makes me sleepy. Haven’t read The Elements of Style, but I think both of them could learn from Lauren Ipsum when it comes to simplifying concepts.
I was intrigued at the start because some of the sample ‘beautiful’ sentences reallywere quite memorable and special, and I could totally understand how the author feels like a sentence connoisseur and collector. But the bulk of the book is so…so far away from the world of those beautiful sentences. To be fair, maybe it’s because I can’t care to put the effort into this that the book recommends, like doing the exercise with analyzing good sentences (but I don’t like a significant bunch of their samples).
But enough with that — as mama says — learn the best from each person and you’ll be amazing. I did find what the book had to say on sentence form and structure quite interesting, because I tend to dislike the idea of writing with a structure — it feels like I’m cheating, like what I’m writing is unoriginal and boring. But he has some good points about how learning the rules can help you break them, and sometimes forms, though they are shells and containers, can inspire content. For example, using the structure ‘However, the other side argued that…’ could help you think of an alternative perspective you didn’t consider.
Also, knowing different styles (formats/forms/structures) of writing and conventions means you know how to BREAK these conventions to create an interesting effect. I’ve never considered this side of structures before, but I like it, and I’m glad the book has opened my mind there (and I’m also proud of being open minded enough to accept the idea).
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Gift (Ursula K. Le Guin)
12th November
This was a good book, but wasn’t particulary special, so basically, a normal book. I don’t know, sometimes I feel bad about this, because when I’m reading I can’t stop flipping, but when I’m done, I just feel like it’s a normal book. I mean, should that be part of the criteria for judging a book — the aftertaste? It is to me, anyways.
I’m sure it’s really hard to construct a fantasy world from scratch, but with Gifts, even halfway or more through, I was still getting confused with names of people, domains and places, and sometimes I had to flip back to check what it was (which is hard to find and definitely disrupts the flow of the book).
I do like the twist at the end — that was quite well done, especially since at the very start, Orrec had his doubts and so did I, but it was all disregarded because they went straight for the blindfold.
It is a trilogy, but I don’t really feel the urge to keep on reading, so this is the end.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
5th November
This is the second time I’ve started this book, and this time, I gobbled it all up. I’m real glad that danah boyd article talked about it or else who knows if I would have come back to it? The parallels that boyd drew between our world and the dystopian one in Fahrenheit 451 was really interesting (definetely check out her article!).
There’s a lot of interesting concepts in this book. I liked the way books were portrayed, near the end, when Faber explained stuff to Montag. He was saying how it’s not books themselves that are precious, but the ideas they contain — later on, when Montag escaped the city, this was emphasized in the scholars he met — they WERE books, and I loved the paragraph where Bradbury was all like, Austen, Einstein, Aristotle, all those big boys are right here, because these scholars memorised their work.
In the afterword, Bradbury said another thought provoking thing: in today’s world, even if we’re not literally burning books, we’re burning them by neglecting them.
I was really surprised to find out this book was written in 1953 because a lot of it feels extremely relevant today, like the parlour walls. There’s also less obvious things like how you’re not allowed to stroll or drive below 55 mph, which is a little like how (I think) people don’t slow down and observe things anymore — we’re all just speeding through our life, jumping from one moment to another.
Rating: ★★★★☆
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
30th October
I love this book. I love Liesel, and Papa, and Rudy, and all the characters. I love how Mama has two sides to her, and calls everyone saumensch.
It’s so heartbreaking sometimes — that part where Himmel Street was bombed got me. And can we talk about the fact that it’s narrated by death? Like ain’t that creative? Death adds such an interesting viewpoint on these human affairs, and I like how he’s simultaneously omnipresent and all-powerful, but sometimes more humane than some humans.
Near the end, when Liesel was starting to write her story, I felt a kinship with her — despite so many differences, despite the fact she’s living in freaking Nazi Germany, we both love books, and writing has saved both of us, in some way or another.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
三重门 （韩寒）Triple Door (Han Han)
20th October
This book has taken me a long time to read — 2 months, and near the end, the motive became ‘just finish this goddamn book cuz I can’t face the librarian again to ask for another renew’ and not reading cuz I enjoyed it.
It’s kinda sad, cuz I did enjoy it at the start — Han Han’s wordplay and clever puns often brings out a chuckle. But it does get a little grating after a bit — sometimes his far stretching metaphors and slightly far fetched word play distracts more than adds to the book.
To be sure, it all fits his style and the tone of the book quite well. It’s so cynical, critical and sarcastic. Some of the things he talks about goes over my head, especially Chinese politics, but even so, the feeling I get is that he mocks everything to the point it’s a little confusing and leaves me feeling weird. Like I don’t want to blindly agree, because I don’t know enough about what he’s criticising, so I feel like I’m a sheep laughing with the crowd.
But just when you’re feeling all of that, he’ll pull some trick out of his sleeve, a particularly thought provoking sentence, a surprisingly touching paragraph…the whole mood can change faster than London weather.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Anne of the Island (L. M Montgomery)
29th September
Hm. I’m trying to figure out what I even feel about this book. I enjoyed reading it, definitely, but it doesn’t seem to stand up as well as the first 2 books in retrospect.
Perhaps it’s because Anne has grown up past my experience — she’s 20 already! Maybe, in the same way that Anne of Green Gables wasn’t particularly special when I read it at 10, Anne of the Island won’t be til I’m older.
There were definitely some heart twinging bits, like Diana getting married, and Gilbert, but personally, I liked the first two books better. I don’t know if I’ll read the next one — it’s not in the school library, and I’ll probably forget, but who knows, I might get to it one day, when I’m sitting on the rocking chair, watching the grandkids messing about or something like that.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Anne of Avonlea (L.M Montgomery)
24 September
I god damn love this book so much. Montgomery has actually written a sequel worthy of the original, and I’m getting the third book ASAP.
I was literally crying my heart out on the balcony this morning, and then dancing around the house and smiling so widely — both because of this book. After I read it in the morning, some stuff happened and I ended up crying cause real life seemed so harsh after the beautiful reverie that was Avonlea. And then later, I was reading in a secluded pavilion outside, and this book made the world seem so beautiful. I felt as if the book had the same effect as Anne had in the book — she enlivens everything around her, and the entire world looked beautiful through this lens, and I felt so blissfully happy. I shrieked and chuckled out loud after flipping a page and I really didn’t care what anyone thought of me.
I noticed that one fiery red leaf in the midst of green, watched the bamboo carefully trying to find the cricket, sang and danced without a care in the world.
I felt like a kid again. Seriously, anyone out there nolstagic for childhood, read this, and you’ll feel so much better.
Rating: ★★★★★
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)
15th September
The thing about this book is that there’s no bad guys. Every ‘bad guy’ in this book could be the main character with normal flaws in another one. Even Ursula, even the hunger birds. I think that really adds a flavor of realism to this otherwise dark fantasy. I’m curious how the idea of Ursula came around, because what she does is interesting: she gives people what she thinks they want — money. But it’s like an alien trying to be nice, she does it in the wrong ways, like having it appear in someone’s throat, which is distinctly messed up.
There were some pretty dark bits too, like the father trying to drown (torture?) his own son.
One idea that stuck with me was the idea that stories only mean something if something changes. It’s so true, isn’t it? If you changed the world, but you forgot, or it reverted back, it’s like you could ‘snip’ it out of the timeline of the universe and it might have never happened.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery)
10th September
This is a second read, but it was just as charming as the first time. In fact, I started crying near the end. I don’t know if it was because I had a cold and my nose just happened to be runny, but I think those were real tears, because I understood how Anne felt growing up. It really struck a chord with me, what with going from middle to high school, and that’s all I’ve been thinking about recently.
In some ways, this book reminds me of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, because it has the same type of charming small town, small conflict (in the scale of the world) vibe. I love Anne as a character, and I genuinely would love to have her as my friend. From reading this, it inspired me to change a character in a short story I’ve been writing to bit a bit more lighthearted and whimsical, a bit more like Anne.
You know, something that surprised me was that it seemed quite well known in school. Two people told me they read it, which is already like, two more than I would have imagined, since it feels like a rather old classic.
I’m definitely going to go get the sequels and read it…I must know what happened to Anne and Gilbert…
Rating: ★★★★☆
The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
3rd September
This is one of the rare times when I decided to watch the movie first, simply because the movie is so much more iconic than the book. In hindsight, I should have read the book first. It would have definitely made the movie make more sense and acquainted me with the names at least, which was pretty confusing when watching.
But since it’s the way it is, reading the book later has its own delights too. When I read about stories excluded from the movie, I got the feeling of reading special sequel stories about the characters that others don’t know about.
If there’s one thing that’s most memorable about this book, it’s how on point and disgusting the descriptions of gore are in this book. Puzo knows what he’s doing man. I don’t know if it’s because I was often eating while reading, but more than once, I felt my stomach swirl and the food felt a little too sticky in my throat when some dude died in a terrifying way.
The one part I can not erase from my head is of Fanucci (criminal from village of Corleone) having his throat slit by a gang, not enough to kill him, but to scare him, and of him holding his white silk hat under his throat, catching his own blood as he ran away. And then later, that scar being described as a stretched smile. There’s something so strong about that image, the idea of it…I really wish they included it in the movie.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Less Is Lost (Andrew Sean Greer)
15th August
They say sequels are never as good, but this book lives up to its original. It has everything I loved about the first, especially those delightful metaphors and similes that are just so on point. But if I’m honest, sometimes it does border on purple pose, and I find my eyes glazing over like a Krispy Kreme donut (original, of course). This was a decent sequel, but the first book was still the best.
I love how it’s unexpectedly ridiculous, and how the craziest, dumbest, but also funniest things happen — like the road trip, and Dolly the dog, and his bad German (Noah and the Pan Flute!).
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Drama (Raina Telgemeier)
11th August
This book made me feel okay. Normal. I don’t know where I get it from, or if it’s just completely natural in everyone, but when it comes to crushes and stuff, I have a tendency to suppress or belittle my emotions, to avoid at all costs being a ‘lovestruck girly girl’.
But this book, it made me feel okay. The characters, the way they act, is sometimes so real I find myself smiling and, despite being in the bookstore, I was laughing and saying out loud: “oh my god, that is so relatable!” (btw, I finished this book in the bookstore! Could be the first time, but it was just so good I couldn’t put it down).
While I was reading, I felt something rare, something I don’t find easily anymore these days. It was this feeling of…peace? Self righteousness? Relief? A combination of that. Immersed in the story, so many things just fell away, all the feelings of hypocrisy at my thoughts, worry for my future, tiredness…I felt like a child again. The great irony is that I almost denied myself that, because I was in a kid’s bookstore, and the oldest books they had were for 9-12 year olds, and I scoffed, but still took a look, and turns out, that was what I needed.
I know Raina has good books, and I’ve started one or two of her books, or read the blurbs, but I think this is the first book of hers I finished. And now that I think about it, I can’t help but feel an immense sense of deja vu…I think I’ve read this book before. Perhaps that might explain it - not only was it relatable, it was like returning back to a home I once knew.
Rating: ★★★★☆
《青春》(韩寒）(Youth by Han Han)
30th July
This book is really a collection of his recent bits and bobs of writing, most of them, I think, taken from his Weibo account. A good chunk of it is political, criticizing things like censorship, but then there’s other bits that had some interesting stories I didn’t know about, like the Foxconn suicides.
I found the ones about his opinion on Google and Google Books, and some of his experiences with rally racing particularly interesting. Even as a complete outsider with no knowledge of the racing world whatsoever, it was interesting to find out about things like unfair judging and how he got disqualified cuz his window was open…
One thing — while I was I reading, I asked mom about the meaning of 三毛党, and she was surprised, and asked what book I was reading, and she was like, no wonder you have a bit of a criticizing attitude, cuz 韩寒 is known for his direct, sharp criticisms. I don’t know…of course what you read influences what you think, so maybe his writing has influenced me more than I know.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Flipped (Wendelin Van Draanen)
23rd July
I watched the movie first, and was delighted to find it was a book first. It’s one of those rare adaptations like A Series of Unfortunate Events, where the film manages to capture that same jizz of the book, that upon reading, you feel deja vu.
I think the thing about this book is that it’s quite accurate, and really does capture the craziness and superficialness of childhood crushes. I also loved the dual perspective of Bryce and Juli, especially at the very start, where it, ahem, pardon me, flipped my view on Juli.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Because Internet (Gretchen McCulloch)
20th July
This book was absolutely delightful to read. Combines some of my favorite things — linguistics, which manifests itself whenever there’s communication, and the internet, which is with me all the time.
I think the cool thing is that often, you would think of linguistics as being about the past, or dead languages, but with this book, it is very connected with your daily life on the internet.
There’s just a bunch of things I never knew, like how ‘lol’ is waaaay older than I originally thought (30+ years old!!), and that its meaning has gone from full on laughter to more of a tone softening tool/mildly amused as early as the 2000s.
As a kid who generally would be considered a little bit of a boomer by my classmates, I think this book helped me understand my internet identity a bit better, and while I can’t really relate when people talk about how scrolling reels on Insta is addicting or whatever (I swear, didn’t know what reels were until a few months ago), when the book started talking about the people whose first social media was Google chat — bro that was so comforting, to know that there are others with a similar history with the internet.
And something else is how in the book, it was brought up that the older generation of internet users tend to have different punctuation, like separating thoughts with ,,,,,,, or ……. or …&… instead of a new line. This made me realize that this is what a 4 years older than me friend of mine does sometimes, except I never really noticed it before, but now, it makes some more sense.
I’m going to go reread this book later — I know I’ll find something new to ponder.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
17th July
I’m so late in getting to this book, so it’s good I’m finally reading it, lest I one day decide it’s too childish for me. May that day never come.
Like many classics, you’re aware of the characters and the iconic quotes before you even read the book — I know of the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter…and now, seeing these characters familar from popular culture in their original place, with context, brings about a sense of satisfaction. Finally, I can understand the references!
Aside from that, the actual story itself was refreshingly silly. It didn’t always make sense, was often random and spontaneous, and I kinda liked that. But I also enjoyed how there are elements of deeper themes woven into the children’s story — there are some very interesting characters, like the Duchess, who tries to find morals in everything, and how Time is an actual tangible being, which the Mad Hatter upset, and which is why he is stuck in perpetual afternoon tea. And the fact that you can flatter Time and get favors.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid)
16th July
I picked up this book because of it’s intriguing cover, but stayed because I found myself having a conversation with the book. I love second person prose, like interactive fiction games, so this immediately captured my interest.
Who was ‘I’ in this book? As the narrator told his story, I was piecing him together, but simultaneously, also piecing myself together. I also love how our conversation is sprinkled with details of what we’re doing — it offers a break from the story, but more than that, it tells us more about both the characters, through what they do. Oh, so he’s a stranger, and we’re having tea in Lahore? Okay, I’m looking at the pretty girls passing by? He’s offering to pay the bill? The market is emptying of people? All these details enliven the story and I can truly imagine this whole scenario playing out.
The way Hamid tells the story is beautiful, but it’s also because the actual story (and I just realised in the entire book, I never even find out this narrator’s name, but it doesn’t even matter) is intriguing. It’s a clash of cultures, American and Pakistani. It’s about his career and his personal life, chasing the American Dream, and how things changed after 9/11. And the ending! I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was quite sublime. My first reaction was annoyance at a cliffhanger, then curiosity and satisfaction as my brain jumped to all the possibilities.
Rating: ★★★★☆
When Shadows Fall (Sita Brahmachari)
25th June
I enjoyed reading this book, and I really felt what the characters were going through.
The creative use of poetry, art, and also turning the pages black when it got bad…it all made everything pop out more and added a bit of flavor to the book. I don’t know if it’s her writing style, or the story, but whilst I was reading, the whole time I felt like in a not so impossible world, I could be Kai, or Orla, or even Zak or Om. One wrong turn, and everything crashes, stability is just so fragile.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Blue Book of Nebo (Manon Steffan Ros)
June 21st
Judging by the cover and title (shut up), I didn’t think this would be the kind of book it was. It’s very intimate, you know? Gentle, in a way.
Especially because we’ve recently been doing the Geography project on what my life will look like when I’m 75, this was an interesting perspective on the future if it was destroyed by nuclear war.
In a way, it reminds me of the feeling I got reading Tom Sawyer — longing for a nonexistent past of living in the countryside and blissful childhood, you know? Escape from society, sneaking out of the house at night sorta vibes. I like how this book turned the usually negative views surrounding global apocalypse and turned it into this relatable yet fresh longing even me, a 14 year old city kid, could feel.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien)
17th June
Technically, I’ve gone halfway-ish through the whole Lord of the Rings series before, but that was in Y5, and halfway through one of the thicker books, I just gave up.
Now I’m back! At first, I didn’t really think this high fantasy thing was for me — dragons, elves, dwarves, cool, but not really my thing. There’s also something about the writing style…it sort of reminds me of a bookworm kid writing in a style that is trying to seem mature?? Something like that. But I couldn’t just give up, because even just for the sake of understanding the cultural references, I wanted to finish it. And by the end, I didn’t mind the book at all. Not bad. I’m going to read the rest later on, let’s hope I finish the series this time! And the movies too, the librarian was like ‘sacrilegious’ when I said I haven’t watched them.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Needle (Patrice Lawrence)
11th June
Short and sweet, but I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this book.
I’m split between writing a disclaimer. Because on the one hand, like, duh, this is my opinion, from my view, but on the other hand, I feel like I do need to make clear that I’ve never really felt racism towards me, so I can literally only imagine what it feels like. But then again, that’s the default assumption made for most fiction books, right?
The main thing I feel is that the racism themes are a little forced. I’m sure that it has an impact on Charlene, but I don’t think it’s the main thing. Like, I don’t really get her thing against saying sorry. Saying sorry, even if you don’t mean it, so you can see your sister, surely that’s worth it? I guess it could be an act of defiance, but to me, it just feels illogical. I do think the author addresses this a little, since near the end, there’s something about Charlene being referred to a councillor.
I guess it could also be a positive feedback loop, where because of other people’s perception of her, she slowly becomes what they think of her. There were definitely some of those vibes when she ran away from the foster home.
But overall, I don’t feel like any of these predicaments are particularly…touching? Of course, it’s inevitable that some people get it better in this world, but that’s nothing new. Blake was wrong, but so was Charlene.
See, here’s another problem. These days, everyone’s so scared to accidentally say something mildly racist/sexist/homophobic/whatever is going on right now. And that leads to a lot of marking non-racist stuff as racist when it’s really dumb when you think about it. Just because you mention race doesn’t make it racism. And so I can feel that in me right now, because I’m wondering if this entire entry is a result of unconscious racism? Because from one view, I could be disregarding Charlene’s experience of racism and calling it expected or normal as an excuse to not address it.
I don’t know, there’s just so many ways you can twist things.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Call Me By Your Name (André Aciman)
Finished 10th June
I’m not entirely sure why I decided to read the book. I enjoyed the movie, forgot about it for a bit, and then fell in love with the movie soundtrack out of nowhere and started learning it on the piano. I think I’ll go watch the movie again — I’m sure I’ll find something new now that I’ve read the book.
Upon reflection, I think I’m strangely drawn to books about gay romance? I don’t know, but there’s just something about it I find intriguing, like how after going through some books I’ve read this year, I realised that I’ve got a thing for suicide related books too. It’s just interesting.
As always, when reading this book, I kept on applying the feelings to my own life. And the irony about my ‘love life’ struck me, and I saw how there’s this loop where I have a crush on someone, think and over think I’m in love or whatever, and then some time later, a month, 3 years, I realise that no, I was an idiot, and how could I have ever wanted them? And now that I realize this, I can’t help wondering if that’s what I’ll think in a couple of years of the current one?
And so, in a way, I understand Elio, the way he thinks. What he said about anticipating and imagining the pain of losing Oliver in an attempt to lessen the inevitable blow…yeek I’ve never even realised that, but I do sometimes think like that. The constant conflict of interest, over analyzing everything Oliver does, all of that felt very real. It’s funny, looking back at my notes from watching the movie, the main thing I said was that I felt like I didn’t have enough experience to understand the movie in its entirety, yet a mere few months later, reading the book, I’m like, relatable bro.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart (Louise Finch)
Finished 27th May
This was the book I was looking forward to the most in the Carnegie Medal nominees — I just love the premise, and the characters and setting is all school stuff, so it feels more relatable.
One of the things I like about this book is the ending. As I got near the end, I started wondering if it was gonna be one of those oh so inspirational live everyday like you can never redo it type endings, but thank god no, it went the realistic/fate is a bastard route — in the end, Spence didn’t get his best redo, but one where he messed up him and Clara. There doesn’t seem to be a reason that that attempt was the final one, because like life, not everything has a reason.
Also, are we gonna talk about the fact we went from an annoyed guy pissed off at a car destroyer to crushing on her hard? I don’t know, maybe this is like every romance ever, but I’m kind of impressed that happened, literally through living the same day over.
Okay, and the girl rating. I don’t why, I don’t feel personally offended by the girl rating stuff? Like, it’s crass, sure, but it’s not special? If anything, I almost feel like girls’ toxic rating of boys is like an underestimated thing. Like, girls can be god damn toxic too no joke, some of the things you hear…but I guess in the big picture rating girls is still a bigger thing. But on the other hand, it feels a little wrong that I feel somewhat numb to this, like I’ve heard too much similar things I can’t be moved anymore.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Medusa (Jessie Burton)
Finished 23rd May
This doesn’t usually happen, but when I was reading this book, I was caught in the story (or was it the need to finish the book before the next book club meeting?), but after I finished reading and looked back on it, it didn’t seem particularly good. Like a quick, flashy type of book. Which is potentially a very shallow interpretation of this book, because as was proven when we all talked about it, there were a lot of interesting and meaningful conclusions and thoughts people had on it.
It’s just that when I compared this book to say, The Song of Achilles or Circe, it doesn’t feel like a particularly special retelling of a Greek myth, you know? I feel like there wasn’t enough time for Medusa and Perseus’ relationship to grow, so Perseus’ death/betrayal didn’t hit as hard as it could have.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Song Of Achilles (Madeline Miller)
Finished 14th May
Okay, not gonna lie, I’m surprised. It was a bit of a slow start, but after a bit, I couldn’t put it down. It’s kinda funny I picked up this book after listening to the song Achilles Come Down, and seeing all the comments about this book, but not even because I’ve read (and enjoyed) Miller’s Circe before.
As a fan of Greek mythology, it was real cool to see a retelling of this tale from a completely different view. I don’t know why, but it was also refreshing to see nothing about Achilles’ heel. It’s like…this dude’s freaking heel is more famous than his feats, it’s time to bring the attention away from that.
Of course, Patroclus and Achilles’ forbidden love is also a big part of the story and it was interesting to watch their relationship grow. The ironic bit is that Patroclus was also a prince and so if he didn’t get exiled then he would have been an equal to Achilles, and Thetis might not have hated him so. But then, if he didn’t get exiled, he might have never gotten to know Achilles.
It’s that thing, where you know the main characters will die, yet their deaths still surprise you. In a way, it doesn’t matter what prophecies the Fates spew, it doesn’t change anything.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Growing Up In Transit: The Politics Of Belonging At An International School (Danau Tanu)
Finished May 8th
Reading this book has been a tough experience. First off, there’s the way it’s written, being an academic piece of work, sometimes the vocab makes me want to throw the book down and go to sleep. Normally with fiction, I can guess the unknown word meanings, but with a non-fiction book like this, I really have to search it up so I don’t make a completely wrong assumption and conclusion. Oh yeah, while we’re at it, I’m not gonna pretend I understood everything in this book…some stuff did go over my head a little.
And onto the actual content. It’s very…new? It feels on the border of revolutionary, and even though the concept of transnational kids isn’t new, this community and the literature on it literally existing is new to me. Although there’s a lot in the book that’s about serial migration which I can’t relate to, there are still a bunch of things, like the feeling of being displaced from all cultures, which I totally get.
I keep on thinking back to the conversations we used to have on the dinner table, where mother would go like “你是哪里人？(Where are you from?)”, and we could only really answer “地球人 (We’re Earthlings)”. Sad but also a little funny.
And especially these days when I’m exploring my identity a bit more, cuz writing and existential crises, and because of this book now, I often find myself just questioning a bunch of stuff, and realising that I don’t really know myself. I never really realised that international kiddos in international schools, including me, have a really different culture from, say, the local kids. Like, I knew it subconsciously, but I never thought about it properly.
Throughout the process of reading this book, I keep on noticing myself trying to see Danau’s observations in my school. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Because I don’t feel like my school promotes internationalism as much as TIS (the school in the book), I think it might not be as obvious. But there are certainly some hierarchies in place between different groups of students. It’s an ongoing observation.
There was also an argument about how internationalism is really just packaged Western ideals. This was pretty well supported in the book, so I agree overall, for the case of TIS, and probably also for my school. I don’t know why, but I don’t feel particularly surprised by this, because even in Chinese class, when we were talking about globalization, one con brought up was that some cultures will dominate others. But still, it’s a good thing somebody’s explicitly pointed this out for international schools.
Although I would have appreciated it if this book wasn’t so academic, I do appreciate its existence, and also my friend recommending it to me. Just knowing that this community exists, that here are many people like you, is comforting. I shared it with another friend too for this reason, because if she ever feels lost on a search for herself, this might help.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Trigger Warning (Neil Gaiman)
Finished May 2nd
Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, and I love Good Omens. That has got to be one of the best books of all time.
I stumbled on this book in about as weird a way as possible — my brother wanted me to borrow Smoke and Mirrors for him, but I couldn’t find it, so I got this book instead. But then, on second thought, I thought it might not be that good of an idea to give a book literally titled Trigger Warning to a 10 year old kiddo…so I ended up reading it instead.
My favourite story from this book is probably The Sleeper and The Spindle. It was only at the end when I realised this wasn’t just another Sleeping Beauty inspired story, but plot twist, it’s a Sleeping Beauty + Snow White inspired story. But seriously, that was real cool, and made me see some surprising similarities between the story, like what is up with women falling into eternal sleep and having to be woken up by a kiss?
Another one I liked was My Last Landlady, because it was an amazing coincidence that I read that while I was upset by the beach. “People come to the beach to forget their problems.” I felt like the story was talking just to me.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
《告白与告别》（韩寒）(Till Then by Han Han)
Finished April 12th
I first heard about Han Han from mom, and he just sounds like someone with such a cool life — like who on earth is a professional race car driver, author, blogger, singer and movie director?! Too cool.
This is the first book I’m reading from him, and I really enjoyed it (it’s mostly behind the scenes about the movie The Continent, but there are some fun tangents too). First off, this is the first time I’ve dived into the production of a film, and that in itself is interesting, especially as a media student.
It felt satisfying to read about the things we do in media and know they do it in real life film production too, like storyboarding, a massive planning process, location scouting etc. Even though our budgets and final films are miles apart, the process has so many similarities that you can’t help but relate.
In terms of behind the scenes content about the movie, it was fun to see the ‘blooper’ pictures, find out about all the chaos behind the polished movie, and hear from different people’s (actors, director, sound producer, storyboarder etc) perspectives. Finding out about all these things make the already touching and funny movie feel even more human.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
We Were Dreamers (Siu Liu)
Finished April 6th
I really didn’t expect to connect with this book as much as I did. IDK, maybe it’s just that I didn’t expect a good actor to also write well too?
It’s also that I’ve never considered my family to be stereotypically Asian…I think my parents are pretty lenient and reasonable. But even if my parents don’t hit me, there are some things that felt comforting to read about in this book, to know that someone else knows what it’s like. One bit that was so relatable was Simu using his parents soft spot for books to get him ‘fun’ books like novels and comics, instead of texbook/studying type books. I’ve never even thought about that before, but that’s definetely what Past Rachell was doing.
It was also very interesting reading about how Simu went from an accountant to an actor. With these kinds of big career transitions, it’s easy to imagine a magic lightbulb moment ‘I wanna be an actor!’, but Simu’s story shows how much work and effort (and luck) it actually takes.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
《狼图腾》 (姜戎）(Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong)
Finished March 29th
I’m kind of glad I used this book for the Chinese book report. Normally, I don’t think I would have gone through that much thinking and analysis on a fiction book, but in this case, it would have been a waste of the book. It’s so much deeper than it seems and a lot of the beauty is below the surface plot and story.
Though it sometimes feel like every topic under the sun has been written about, this book actually has a fresh premise and is about Mongolian culture, the Mongolian grasslands and way of life, how wolves are interlinked with them, and also a criticism of China and heck, sometimes literally all of civilization.
It’s a weird feeling to see the entire history of humanity and civilization through a completely different lens. It’s like, you didn’t even know this lens existed, forget even considering looking at things through it. I’m talking about nomading vs farming culture, which is one of the key conflicts in the book. Especially as a Chinese kid, and China being a model example of an empire built on farming, this was a very interesting alternative perspective.
And of course, we need to talk about the wolves, the stars of this book. Even before picking up 狼图腾, I’ve had an interest in wolves, though mostly in a superficial way. Like, they look cool, are smart and all, but this book really made me appreciate them in a deeper way. After reading, they mean so much more now…wolves have literally shaped human history.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Toshikazu Kawaguchi)
Finished 4th March
This is the second English translated Japanese book I’ve read, and I think I’m warming to this new genre. I never used to read translations other than really classic ones like Don Quixote, but it’s exciting to open yourself up to a new realm of literature.
Normally, you time travel with fancy machines, superpowers, but this book is refreshing; you time travel with coffee. It’s about a special cafe that allows people to travel back in time, though you must return before the coffee gets cold, and your actions in the past will not change the present, among other rules.
I really like this concept, and the book tells the interconnecting stories of three time travelers, all going to the past for different reasons. It’s touching and sad at times, but occasionally also made me burst out laughing.
It’s a pretty short read, but it leaves a sweet aftertaste, and leaves you wondering about all the what ifs and maybes if you could just enter that little retro cafe and time travel with them too.
Rating: ★★★★☆
The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media (Brooke Gladstone)
Finished 20th February
Let me get right to the point: this is such a good non fiction read that I’m re-reading it, right after the first time.
I don’t know how I had the luck to stumble on this book, as it’s not only engaging and entertaining, but also ties in a lot of what we’ve been learning in all subjects for the past year or so, such as WWII, bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, objectivity in journalism, the Cold War etc.
I find it delightful when school academic knowledge actually proves useful, like when I was reading this book. Not only that, it provides an alternate perspective on what we’ve been learning, which is always good, since school lessons are often basically the teaching speaking, so it’s refreshing to hear (or read), from someone else.
It’s especially related to journalism, which we’ve been learning about in English. I love this deeper dive into it, from a journalist’s point of view, and all the new and interesting things I learnt on the way.
It’s definitely made me more conscious about how I consume media and content. I’ve been actively trying to not get stuck in an echo chambers for opinions, and researching what opposing sides think. I don’t know how long this will last, but hopefully, forever, because this is a skill and awareness that everyone living in the modern age should have.
Beyond that, it also provided an opportunity for some introspection. What media do I consume? What am I biased towards? Do I avoid content that oppose my beliefs?
I don’t have all the answers, and certainly not all the solutions for the problems, but awareness is the first baby step towards some.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Less (Andrew Sean Greer)
Finished 3rd February
This book is beautiful, the way tears on a lover’s face is beautiful (or, the romantic idea of it, anyways. Who am I to know?). It’s funny, the type that makes you snicker in public without restraint. But it is also emotional, despite the humor, and sometimes, because of it.
Never have I encountered such creative, fitting and beautiful metaphors as the ones I found in this book. Every student leaves school thinking they have mastered the simile and the metaphor, the literary techniques that they first flirted with, then got tired of. But when I look at the metaphors in this book, only then do I realize how long of a way I have left to go.
My favorite one from this book:
“Freddy put on his red glasses, and in each aquarium a little blue fish swam.”
It takes a moment for you to realize the meaning, but when you do, it’s the feeling of cracking a cipher, solving an equation: it’s satisfying, and the next time you see tears, you see them as little blue fish…
When I was reading, I kept wondering how is it that I could relate to Arthur Less, when he is a 50 year old American gay man, with a life and world I couldn’t possibly know, and I, a 14 year old student. Such is the power of Greer’s writing.
There is a lot in the book about being older, middle age, things that I imagine I can understand, but who knows if I really do. Perhaps one day, when I have white streaks in my hair, I will come back to this book, and be comforted by this story, reminiscing the first time I read it.
All in all, an amazing book in every aspect, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Usborne Philosophy For Beginners (Jordan Akpojaro, Rachel Firth, Minna Lacey)
Finished 29th January
It’s a great non-fiction book that does exactly what it claims — introduce beginners to philosophy, and the different strands of philosophy. My brother gave it to me for my 14th b-day, and he couldn’t have chosen a better time, because I just happened to have a philosophy assignment which this book helped me to complete. Not to mention, it also helped me understand deontology a lot better (cause it was a bit confusing in class).
I enjoyed the casual illustrations, and the overall curious, chill vibe the book has, and I definitely recommend it if you’re trying to get into academic philosophy!
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography (Neil Patrick Harris, David Javerbaum)
Finished 25th January
As a fan of interactive fiction and Choose Your Own Adventure books, I was delighted when I heard of this book. Biographies, a traditionally linear and fact filled genre, merged with the choice and delight of Choose Your Own Adventure books? Sign me up.
This autobiography sure lived up to my expectations. It’s full of Neil’s honest humor, and has lots of creative bits too. There’s recipes, magic tricks, cartoons and even a crossword. Writing a new type of book like this definitely has loads of challenges, but I think that it’s all been very well executed. Even though the book has many diverging paths (Putting the “u” back in “aUtobiography”, what do you expect?) which are fictional, it’s written such that you can normally tell which parts are real, and which aren’t (Jumping into lakes full of piranhas and Neil dying grotesquely are using giveaways, but there’s also the fact that any realistic-ish tangents always end somehow and lead back into the main story line, which is just awesome planning).
Away from the interactivity, the actual contents of this memoir was very interesting too. I first watched Neil in the Netflix show A Series of Unfortunate Events (great show btw), but this book dives into his entire past career that I had no idea about, and was really interesting to read. Sometimes, it feels crazy that this book is talking about very real people, and very real things…some of it feels straight out of a movie.
Who knows, maybe one day, Choose Your Own Autobiographies will become a thing. I sure hope they do, and if I ever have the need to write my own memoir, that’s definitely what I want to do!
Rating: ★★★★☆
The PreHistory of The Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit (Gary Larson)
Finished 28th December
This is a sentence I always wanted to use, and finally can today: I accidentally read this book (idk about you, but that sounds like a great opening sentence for a mystery book).
But seriously, I did. I was just cleaning out a really messy cabinet, and instead of cleaning, accidentally ended up reading, with the excuse that ‘this is a book about comics and comedy, and I sometimes draw comics and try to include comedy in my articles so this is definitely time well spent instead of procrastinating tidying up that cabinet…😬’
Anyways, I’m glad I did because I actually did learn some things about cartoon drawing, and chuckled a lot throughout. I quite enjoy Gary Larson’s really weird, sarcastic humor (maybe it reminds me of myself). It’s really weird that I even read this book, cause it’s about a comic strip I’ve never heard of until I picked up this book, which I doubt is how most people come across it.
I got it in a garage sale a few years back — 9 year old me was like “that book is big and thick and looks pro, I want it!”
Rating: ★★★☆☆
野犬女皇 （沈石溪）(Queen of the Wild Dogs by Shen Shi Xi)
Finished 22th December
Originally, I didn’t really feel like reading this book (the bland cover design might have a part in this…), but in the end, it seems that I’ve underestimated Shen Shi Xi. My favorite book of his will always be Dream of a Wolf King (Chinese title: 狼王梦), but this book has some great plot twists, especially that final sacrifice.
Sometimes, I feel that we humans, as an entire species, are so self centered. Everything that happens, we brutely link back to ourselves (like how in English class, we’re currently analyzing the poem The Panther by Rilke. To me, this poem feels all about the panther, but the ‘right answer’ is to link it to human society…why can’t we just appreciate animals by themselves? Why must it always be about us?).
This is perhaps one of the reasons that I like this author’s animal books — he reminds me that there are countless worlds out of the human one that are more than metaphors for us, that are their own independent universe. Under his pen, every animal can take center stage.
Chinese version: 一开始，我有点不想读这本书（也许是因为封面设计还有总体的感觉都有点……无聊），但最终，看来是我低估了沈石溪。我最喜欢的沈石溪小说永远都会是《狼王梦》，但这本书也不错 ，故事中的各各转折都很刺激，特别是最后白桃花壮观的牺牲。
有时候啊，我真觉得我们人类也太自以为中心了，把一切都想回自己（像在我们现在英文课上在分析的诗: The Panther 。说着说着，我们最终总是会把那只黑豹想成人类的比喻。动物又不是为人类活着，为何总是要联系到人类呢？）。但我喜欢沈石溪的书的其中一个原因，就是因为他笔下的动物真的是栩栩如生的，不只是一个人类的比喻，而是活在他们自己的世界里。
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Who Could That Be at This Hour? (Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler)
Finished 17th December
I came to the All The Wrong Questions book series after reading A Series of Unfortunate Events (ASOUE), which I really enjoyed.
All The Wrong Questions is about the young Lemony Snicket, which I think is a pretty cool idea, since ASOUE never really explained what’s up with him. So far, this book has ended on a cliffhanger, but hopefully, it’ll be picked up again in the next book.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (Mark Haddon)
Finished 3rd December
I like it. It’s an actual fresh perspective for me, to look through the eyes of an autistic kid, especially since I’ve never really had reason to care about autism before (I mean…that’s sounds a bit wrong, but it’s just that I never knew anyone autistic, and never had a need to find out about it). In a way, Christopher is like the opposite of me — he cannot empathize with others, cannot understand emotions, but I, well, over empathize.
Another thing — about the formatting of the book. I love how there are pictures, diagrams, different fonts, and smiley faces included in the book. It makes it more fun, as if a kid could have wrote it. I feel like there’s a thing where having a book without pictures is considered more like a ‘proper book’, so I really appreciate that this book understands the value of diagrams and images, used in harmony with words.
Oh, and of course, all the Sherlock Holmes references are great (It’s really cool how the author used a throwaway observation in Sherlock Holmes for the title and the concept of the dog plot…good writing inspires more good writing), especially since I’ve recently been reading, watching and thinking about Sherlock Holmes a lot.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)
Finished 29th November
What a book. As far as non-fiction books go, this is definitely one of the best ones I’ve read this year.
From the first chapter, I was hooked. The idea that your birthday, of all things, can have such a big impact on education, especially as seen in sports, sounds ridiculous and is really hard to believe. But Gladwell presents his facts well and leaves no room for doubt, just fascination.
The bias that this book strives to break is one that feels especially engrained — that self made people ≠ they worked they hardest (though of course, effort does play a role). When you look into the lives of these successful people, it’s really a fascinating combination of opportunities, background, culture and sometimes, just luck.
I love how this book addresses concepts that people don’t tend to think are connected to your success, such as culture. We find it uncomfortable to say that a culture has weak points and strong points (even though it’s true), and that leads to an ignorance of how big a part that your culture plays in your life.
All in all, great book, I definitely recommend it, and I have no doubt that I’ll be referring back to this book for my future articles.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Finished 23rd November
It was particularly satisfying to finish this book, cause I tried to read it once a few years back and couldn’t understand enough to get through it.
And now I’ve finished and enjoyed it! I’ve read only Jane Austen’s Emma before (which was also very interesting), and I think I’ll be looking forward to reading more of her works in the future.
What surprised me was that even though I sort of knew the story line (it’s like Star Wars — even if you’ve never watched it, you just know that line ‘Luke, I am your father.’ It’s kind of annoying that for a lot of popular stories, we know the plot twist and not the story), and I sorta of knew that Mr. Darcy was going to end up with Elizabeth. But nonetheless, Austen managed to surprise me with other things, like the Mr Wickham side plot.
And the fact that I read a good chunk of the book while my crush sat in front of me probably enhanced the atmosphere…or at least made me relate with Elizabeth 😳😆😛
Rating: ★★★☆☆
(honestly, I was very tempted to give it a 4 star, because it’s such reputed classic, but when I looked for my honest opinion, I think this is the right call. The old fashioned language was at times a bit of a barrier).
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Patrick Süskind)
Finished 9th November
I don’t know man. This book, on the one hand, is kind of intense and gory and sexual and stuff, especially that last part…I was eating a sandwich when I read it, good thing I didn’t choke. Maybe it’s just cause I’m 13 or something, I don’t know.
On the other hand, I quite like the concept. Smell, such an underestimated sense, is really the star in this story. I think what really strikes me about Grenouille (main character) is how much he hates humanity…and also how cold his actions are (yet, they are only because of the terrible childhood/life he had, so in a way, it was almost to be expected).
His murders so devoid of empathy for his victims. It’s not that he’s evil — he would be if he empathizes with them but still kills them — it’s really that he doesn’t get it.
I think I might watch the movie adaptation later on.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
China Rich Girlfriend (Kevin Kwan)
Finished 30th October, 2022
The sequel to Crazy Rich Asians. It was a complete coincidence that I borrowed this book — I was trying to write the entry for ‘Framed!’, and just spied it on the bookshelf out of the corner of my eye. It’s good — I swear, I’ve spent most of today reading it.
I did a very quick search on it, and apparently ‘Kwan was urged to write the sequel by his publishers after the initial success of Crazy Rich Asians.’ In that case, he did an impressive job, and this sequel actually lives up to the original book, in terms of plot, characters, and the general these-guys-are-so-rich-it’s-bonkers vibe.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Rating reference:
★☆☆☆☆ — meh/bad. Wouldn’t recommend to future Rachell.
★★☆☆☆ — ok. mildly interesting, but nothing too special. Still won’t recommend to future Rachell.
★★★☆☆ — pretty good. Might recommend to future Rachell.
★★★★☆ — real, good quality book. Will recommend to future Rachell.
★★★★★ — what Harry Potter was to Y4 Rachell (this might help you get an idea — I’ve read 43 books this year, and nothing’s been a five star yet.)
