Jonathan Peto > Recent Status Updates

Tthe author quotes someone mentioning a poetry anthology I read and reviewed here, Japanese Death Poems. Maybe the read my review?! More importantly, I'm still enjoying the example poems and her elaborating text!

The examples have been a great way to read poems by poets I don't know, and the the essay bits that introduce and/or follow the poems are thought-provoking and/or fun,.

It is not often that my main reaction to a story is that it was strange, but The Maiden in the Manger by Abe Kazushige hit me that way. Kinda cringe too.

I finished Mogera Wogura by Hiromi Kawakami. The ending was disappointing, but it did not stop the story from being good.

It did not take long for this story to mostly not resemble the other Hiromi Kawakami story I was thinking of!

The first chapter gets us off to a great start. And luckily, I am reading this book with a group of colleagues at my school, so we are taking her advice to work with a group right off the bat.

The story I'm currently reading is by Hiromi Kawakami. It reminds me of another story I read in another anthology, and I just realized that Hiromi Kawakami wrote that one too! The similarity isn't ruining the experience for me so far.

The main character, Julia, is quiet. She's an observer though. She may be a little too passive for her own good, and I'm not so sure becoming more assertive is her character arc. I shall see, I guess.

I'm trying to read this somewhat quickly. The main character, Julia, may be less distinct than some of the people she's describing. She's self-conscious for sure. And nice just now to Gina, a girl at camp who seems to have even less "power" than Julia, so that's good. If you don't like the mean girl trope though, avoid this book. The mean girls come on stage in chapter 4!

I'm not sure that it is a good thing to be reminded what it is like to be a teenager lol!

I didn't see where The Silent Traders was going until the end. The narrator and her children see some abandoned cats in the park. That connects to a few other idea/images. The narrator might feel a tad sorry for herself, and that might be understandable. I'm undecided.

The third story, The Silent Traders, is by Yuko Tsushima. Time passes fast. The narrator was a child, now she's a single mom. So far, the narrative also focuses on a park and the abandoned pets there. I'm enjoying it!

I like the narrator, Chloe, and Sienna too, but I have a feeling if I was in the story, when I was a teenager, I would click more with Ramona!

I picked this up during the summer while doing the Pioneer Valley Bookstore Crawl, which I just realized I didn't win! There was only one bookstore in the Crawl that I had never been to: High Five Books in Florence. I bought this there and chose it because the author lives locally. So far it is winner. I've enjoyed the references to UMASS and RISD and appreciated the diversity.

The third story, Genjitsu House, by Masayo Koike, is a winner. A woman, in her thirties or early forties, visits a friend who is around the same age. They haven't seen each other recently because the friend has been busy taking care of a baby she had out of wedlock.

This is so worth a look. I just finished the chapter about play. Such a great refresher and reinforcer.

I'm reading/browsing quickly as a review...

That second story by Banana Yoshimoto, called "A Little Darkness" in English, involves a young woman thinking about her parents. Surprisingly, very good!

The second story in this collection is by Banana Yoshimoto. I believe I read Kitchen, but I don't remember it at all. So far though, I'm really enjoying this story, which is about a young woman tagging along on her father's business trip to Buenos Aires.

The first story is by Haruki Murakami. One great thing - I knew most of the kanji. However, the narrator bugged me. He may have actually mansplained! Then the story ends without the girl sharing her thoughts. It was supposed to be a love story, I think.

The first story is by Haruki Murakami. One great thing about it was I knew most of the kanji in it. However, and perhaps I shouldn't sound like such a feminist, the narrator bugged me. He talked too much. He may have actually mansplained! And the story ends quickly instead of letting us hear from the girl, which seemed unfair and a bit clueless, Haruki Murakami.

One more story to go. I may just read the English and skip most of the Japanese. I'm ready for a new adventure.

The Smile of a Mountain Witch by Minako Oba takes an interesting turn. We learn about her childhood!

I'm finally finished the story about Hiroshima, which was great. It is a close up view of surviving and enduring the day of the bombing. The next story, which I'm a few pages into, is called The Smile of a Mountain Witch - so very different!

Hiroshima, City of Doom by Ota Yoko is long but very very good. It may end up being my favorite in the whole book. It is fascinating to read a writer's first person account of surviving the bombing.

I haven't read too much recently, because I need to be able to concentrate and the current story is a long one about the bombing of Hiroshima. It is weighty. I thought I might not force my self through a 50 pager like this, but what I've read so far has been very well done, with an interesting panoramic view and history of the city for the first pages. It begins as an essay, but clearly becomes a non fiction account.

I hope to finish this collection before the year ends. And I plan to stay engaged and mindful while doing it! So far, I highly recommend it.

I've read an entire novel in Japanese by Kawakami Mieko, so this long story shouldn't have been trouble. Unfortunately, it was a little too long, at least for me. Again though, I'm less capable when reading in Japanese. An epiphany ending that utilizes an image...? Meh.

The fifth story, by Kono Taeko, was also a winner! Repeated kanji due to similar situations about a highly interesting conflict between an odd narrator and a stranger in the elevator of their residence building.