Henk > Recent Status Updates

One thing is sure, Kuang does morally ambiguous cutthroat girls best

Let’s get this show on the road. So far loving all the snakiness, including Meteorologically hell didn’t seem much worse than an English spring and all the comments on academia, which in Kuang’s take is basically hell.

“Thomas conversed with himself” - Sorry, the only thing I can think of while reading that is Jujubee telling someone “Just say talk” https://youtube.com/shorts/PERLn36pwi...

Seeing David Mitchell tonight in London’s Southbank Centre for 20 years of Cloud Atlas and I am so excited! 🤩🇬🇧💗📚

Getting ready to move and sorting out books and thinking which ones you’ll take with you is capital letters STRESSFUL! 😣

Part one done ✅
The EMOTIONS 😭
Is the freedom to potentially destroy oneself true freedom according to Hanya?

Watch out social media, the white witch strikes again - LOL, Kuang is clearly having fun in these faux social media responses

This pancake scene is the sh*t, I have the feeling this is going to be a darkly entertaining and fun read! 🥞☠️🙎‍♀️

Seeing David Mitchell today in Paradiso, Amsterdam! In for a treat 🤩

Happy new year! 🍾

Honoured to be part of Shawn the Book Maniac his latest bite-sized book chats!: https://youtu.be/Tev6ppqZCt8 (talking about Bernardine Evaristo her latest book Manifesto from around 9 minutes in).

Unlike anything I’ve read before, a worthy potential Nobel Prize if more than a bit unaccesable

Oh wow, Jeff Vandermeer in his booktalk with David Mitchell announced a 4th part to the Southern Reach series 🤩

Reads like a breeze, and the work problems are very relatable

Love it, interconnected stories working together to say something profound about art and love through time

Obama visiting a concentration camp with Angela Merkel and Elie Wiesel, holding a speech in Cairo as outreach to Muslims and reflecting on his actions versus the timeframe of the pyramids: can the contrast with his successor be greater?

Absolutely loving the launch event for Kazuo Ishiguro’s new book and the interspersed questions of Daisy Johnson, Bernardine Evaristo and David Mitchell!

Progressing as slowly as the Japanese ambassadors traveling through Mexico to Spain 🇯🇵 🇲🇽 🇪🇸

Primaries where a million internet viewers of a compilation video to vilify someone is a lot; 2008 feels a long time ago

Maybe a tad bit heavy on the positive messaging but delightful in worldbuilding and general level of fantastical creativity; Nevermore sucked me in on this wintery day

Highly readable and nicely building on from my memories of reading Becoming and These Truths

A very interesting historical fiction tale about a mission to Rome from feudal Japan, curious to see the mayhap that comes from the ambitions of the priest involved

How does Mitchell not know how to write bitterballen properly, no Dutch character like Jasper would not know that 🇳🇱

Well I clearly now very little about medieval Europe and there are a lot of popes but this book keeps the reader quite well entertained and informed without going overboard on details or historical context.

Still this doesn’t really pull me in and the introduction of St John and his sisters is a bit sudden after 2/3 of the book being focused on Mr Rochester and his house

Loving all “Mitchelverse” references to Cloud Atlas (with Jasper listening to the Sextet), The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (ancestor to one of the band members), Ghostwritten (with Bat Segundo and the Mongolian), The Bone Clocks (Gravesend and Aphra Booth). These “cameos” in a way are even more satisfying then the 60’s music world ones, of which I have little knowledge.

Mitchell his writing is a warm bath, I picked this up thinking I needed something I was sure to find enjoyable. The first two chapters full of the serendipitous formation of the titular band do not disappoint but the subject matter is not really my interest so lets see how it develops.

Fascinating reading 📖

De tekst is vol van metaforen die geworteld zijn in het boerenleven, alles wat er gebeurt wordt bezien vanuit een lens van uiers, kalveren of stront. De verteller heeft ook voldoende trauma’s achter de kiezen, zoals het ontdekken van een zelfmoordenaar rondom de mond- en klauwzeer crisis en seksueel misbruik in zijn eigen verleden.

Still a quarter to go and we are already at the last tzar Nicholas II; I feel the balance in this narrative is rather of in a way