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Tag: book review

  • Weird Review of Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Walls

    I just finished this book yesterday, and I’ve got some thoughts about it. It’s been awhile since I’ve read a Murakami book, and I’ve been reading a ton of books in the meantime. So hopefully this book review is a little less biased towards Murakami, even though I’m still a huge fan of his.

    Tons of spoilers

    The City and Its Uncertain Walls, as a novel built over time.

    I read the afterward of the book, as I do with all books, and Murakami talks about how he took a long time to write this book. He had never meant for it to be published as a full book, and during the COVID period, he worked on it slowly again, to become a book.

    The stories do feel as if they were built over different periods of time. Very much like the main character who grows in the different worlds he’s in, the story builds a little more each time the other world is revisited. It’s only revisited twice in that sense, but yet, I sense the parallels and I enjoy them.

    I feel the growth of the story as the story starts out somewhat simple, the summer time love between teenagers, and how it affects one’s own mind into their adult life. In the adult complexities, other adults also have their own quirks based on how they were too. Together, it comes together awkwardly, and sometimes because of the awkward joining of adult stories, it forms a more cohesive oneness. The main character does have love after the summer time love, and it’s not a simple love; it’s complex, as all adults are.

    The Character Building of Murakami Characters in the Murakami Universe

    I don’t dislike the characters, but I do expect them to be a certain way because they’re Murakami characters. They would ask questions pertaining to existential issues, and sometimes they go into their magical worlds because of that. One side does something, and the other side feels the after effects of it. When the Yellow Submarine boy bites the mans ear, and the soothing of the herbal balms in the Town naturally affect the man in the town of Z**. It’s a lady soothing the man, in both sides of the story. I expected this from Murakami Characters, in the Murakami world. I actually thought a little more would happen, but otherwise it did not.

    I actually expected something to happen with the Front Desk lady and the main character, but thankfully nothing happened. The only thing linking them were their experiences with the Old Man. That’s a good enough and clean enough relationship for me.

    And jazz, of course they love jazz.

    The Abrupt End

    I knew this would happen, but it was still sad when it happened. I want to know what happens next, but of course you know what would happen next: the man would be in place of his shadow, in the town of Z**, and he would find the coffee shop lady being the perfect lady for him at that point, having now gotten enough of the girl who brews the tea for him. Yellow Submarine boy would happily be the Dream reader, and the Tea Brewing girl would continue to enjoy her role taking care of him.

    I think with an obvious end, it’s great to just end it like that. In a sense, it’s an old dream you wake up from, and you know how that dream would have ended. That’s what makes it the dream that it is.

    How I appreciate this book (and Haruki Murakami) in 2025

    I haven’t had books with paragraphs dedicated to the scene or personal internal struggles a character has with his emotions, not for a long time. I have some glimpses of that with Sally Rooney books, but the way Haruki Murakami takes his time with it, you know the world is build nicely for you. He wants you to feel the weather change, and the temperatures play a role in hinting what the characters feel. The warmth as comfort, and cold as testing and trying. The way the beasts are talked about but not clearly stated, and you just have to guess what it might be. (Thankfully he just tells you straight up that they’re unicorns, immediately my mental imagery formed it much better.)

    In the line of all the short sentences and really short paragraphs, I enjoy a Murakami book. It’s different and it’s not meant for an audience who wants something dramatic and fast paced. It’s not slow, but it’s not drama every page around. Some scenes are revisited multiple times, but that’s because a person would actually revisit an event in their head multiple times. Some books just won’t have a mental double take, but this book has lots of that. Half a reason for this, I bet, was from the serialized column it came from the first time he wrote it. But I also think he wanted to keep the repetitive element inside, so that it has some of the flavour from before.

    I still like Murakami, he’s all of 76 years old this year. His writing inspires me to start writing, because he started late. There are other writers who started later, but Murakami just has That Spot in my heart as the author who started later, but still made it work extremely well. I can never guess the right time era of his work, it just is very 90’s and in that sense, it’s timeless in its own right.

  • Now Reading: The Forest of Lost Souls by Dean Koontz

    In thinking about what to write, I thought about the book I’m currently reading, and maybe to give a deeper POV instead of my normal short and superficial reviews.

    I’m currently half way through this book, and it’s getting better as the story comes along. A key point of the book is about fortune telling, and the identity formed when someone says something over you. This is not the main story line, but a key plot device. The characters have interacted in some ways with a fortune teller who used to live in their town. And the fortunes told had impacted the young children who later became adults.

    I’m not one for fortune telling, but I do think that what we learn when we are young does set an identity that we take one. Sometimes this push us to do good and better in life. Other times, we’re not really encouraged, and instead we have a bad label placed on us. It’s harder to work through because we are young, and easily influenced.

    It means how I decide to take care of my own kid also matters greatly. How do I reinforce good in her life, for her to choose good next time, and to do good to others too? Maybe just giving her a good label will shape her identity in more ways than I’d imagine.

    At the same time, I have to be very careful about the bad labels. Things said in anger or frustration might be incredibly damning and painful, causing a lot more hurt and pain than help. These are careful boundaries to be aware of and to avoid.

    Another 100 more pages on the book, but that probably means I’ll be done with it by tomorrow. So many books late on the reading schedule.

  • A Weekly Learning?

    My goal this year was to try hit 100 books read. This means I currently read about two books a week, and also means there’s a ton of information in my head.

    Not all of the reading translates to actual learning points. For example, reading whodunnits like Agatha Christie’s Poirot, or Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, my learning is quite specifically observed in the way each author releases the information for you to guess the clues along the way. I read pacing, and I experience it. Something like a chef tasting a whole range of foods, but the learning is within their pallet. They can’t teach you that, and neither can I explain how the pacing and reveals in stories are beneficial. They’re just there and I go through them.

    But I’m also reading through some non-fiction. This ranges from self help, or other journalistic documentation. I try not to touch biographies too much, because I tend to read and formulate conspiracies of sorts. But I would cover some for sure. I do celebrities and icons within my interests. Like, Felicia Day’s autobio has sat on my shelves for a decade I think. There are others about different types of people doing specific things, and I don’t mean Murakami about running, although I might want to re-read that this year.

    I’m thinking of consolidating these thoughts into a weekly blog update, along with my regular life pinning, and hopefully it becomes a little more beneficial for everyone, myself included. I basically want to get back into writing often, but I don’t know if I can commit to daily writing. I also don’t know if I should keep on with self reflection for just my emotional events, or if I should intentionally plan articles. I already do that for work, so I am thinking if my side approach should be different.

    But then again, if I should throw this whole plan out the window, I think it should not be unexpected. You can count on me to have fun doing whatever I’m doing, so if it’s not fun, I’m probably not going to do it.

    All that said, here’s some thoughts I have from Atomic Habits, which I finished reading the past week

    My thoughts on Atomic Habits by James Clear

    There are many good habits and bad habits we’ve picked up along the way, and Clear thinks that building good habits would develop yourself into a better human being somehow. As much as I agree and understand this is a definite possibility for some people, most people would find it difficult to do. Because if it was That Easy, everyone would do it.

    And that is also why everyone is doing it now. Everyone is trying to build their good habits and their million dollar business over a weekend (I’ve already read Million Dollar Weekend, and it was pretty good actually. A good framework to start on, maybe even better than Atomic Habits). All the YouTubers, and self help authors are throwing down references to Atomic Habits, and they’re doing these goals, but honestly, its another new self made person out of the thousands already flooding the world.

    Lamenting aside, this book sells better than Million dollar weekend, because the steps are a lot less intrusive into other people’s lives. It’s not going to ask you to talk to other people; its just asking you to build yourself into the person you want to be, one habit at a time. Anyone can do that, because it’s just one habit. Making habits easy to approach, and to make them enjoyable. Straight up simple stuff.

    I actually did learn some key points. Building your identity based on your habits was something quite unique. I was reminded of Marie Kondo’s Kon-Mari method, which also involves owning the pieces you can imagine yourself looking great in, and throwing the rest away.

    Life involves so many darn obligations at times. As I gear up to be a dad, I hear people telling me what I ought to prepare for being a dad. But those expectations and obligations are not my actual responsibilities just yet. I do think alternatively about roles a lot of the time, because I understand command with a non-traditional approach. This means, I don’t care about the Dad everyone else thinks I should be, I will care about being the Dad Allison will need me to be, and the Dad to support the Mother Clarice wants to be. That will be the role I play, and my habits will cater to that. Taking the point properly, my lifestyle will direct that.

    Along with fatherhood, I am navigating this line of writing, and illustration and visual arts. I am doing both at the same time, but it’s not the same at all. Both require huge amounts of time out of my life. This is where I thought habit stacking would kick in, but Atomic Habits doesn’t really cover your schedule. You gotta work out the principles into your calendar yourself. ChatGPT, help please?

    Anyway, all in all, it was a good book. Good refresher for many life principles. Here are my read-already recommendations (I read these books already, therefore I suggest them as alternatives or supplementary to Atomic Habits):

    • Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
    • Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
    • The Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

  • Review of James by Percival Everett

    I picked up this book after listening to the New Yorker Radio Hour, and they had interviewed Percival Everett about his book, James. The way Perival had came to write the story was after multiple re-reads of Tales of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and he developed the black slave character, Jim, into a full story.

    It is a very interesting book, but unnerving to read if you haven’t watched shows like Django Unchained, or read books like 12 Years a Slave. There is something quite dark about American Civil histories, and these stories give a big voice to it.

    I enjoyed the book because of the portrayal of a thought process in a world expecting you to behave otherwise. It is quite wild to imagine, but the world shown in James is one where black people would talk normally between each other, but when a white person is around, they would speak as if they lacked understanding, and with poor grammar. They spoke with wild exaggeration, just to pretend to be lesser, so the white person would continue in a state of ignorance.

    It was a really good book.

    A big implication for me was how I would expect people to act or think a certain way, and if they didn’t, would I be surprised? What if a Chinese National would speak to me with perfect diction and understanding, would the mannerism throw me off? What if they were more fluent and understanding of English than me?

    That being said, I enjoy throwing everyone else off by speaking Chinese, and reading it through as well.

    Perhaps I understand James different, because it’s a scene from my life. I know how it feels to be expected to sound or talk or behave a certain way, but it’s not me, and I don’t like to pretend otherwise.

    Perhaps, you could catch that glimpse of my life through the book.

    Just maybe.

  • Book Review: Before the Frost

    Just a preamble: I write these reviews on the spot, just like how I write the blog posts. It’s just a little more useful for me to track my reading by writing some of these blog posts, for me to have a gauge of what I thought about when I read. It also helps to develop a better view of what I take in as a person, from my choice of reading to my review of the book.

    Before The Frost by Henning Mankell is a Linda Wallander book. I’ve read quite a few titles by Mankell, and specifically Kurt Wallander – Linda’s father. Kurt Wallander has a series on Netflix too, known as Young Wallander. As with everything else, the books are better.

    This Linda series makes for some alternative thoughts. I don’t really enjoy Linda’s internal monologues and presumptions. Mankell does drive at this a few times, and it comes off a little annoying. It’s actually the only part of the book I don’t enjoy. Throughout this book, there are moments where Linda has dream states, or there are snippets to other moments and flashbacks, and those are totally fine. It’s just Linda’s internal voice I can’t seem to stand.

    It runs into more detective thriller type books, and I can really spend all day reading these. It’s just something about reading how a sequence of events unfolds, and whether a perpetrator is caught, or not.

    Agatha Christie’s Poirot definitely gets it best. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher too. There are many reasons why those two authors have so much readership, and still continue to draw people in. They’re really well written whodunnits.

    I was looking at my library the other day, and Matthew Reily used to have a bigger spot in my reading life. Now with Reacher, the game has stepped up in some ways. Reily’s usual style has maps and contraptions and some science to it. Reacher has just a simple “I hit things, I find things out”. Why does it work so well? Perhaps because it lacks logic, and it just goes for hard hitting action.

    Anyway, I am reading other things too, but it’s just easier to speed through whodunnits. I really speed through them but that’s how I like it!

  • Book Review: Worth Dying For by Lee Child

    Sometimes, I wonder why I read so much Reacher, and it works out consistently. I won’t get disappointed, I know justice will take place, and I guess I know how it would end, no matter how crazy the story gets. Is it predictable? Yeah, sure. But sometimes, if you’re gonna spend a good few hours reading, you want to know how your next few hours of reading will turn out. That’s always Reacher and Poirot for me.

    This story hit on some trigger topics, namely human trafficking. I suppose anyone reading my blog would most probably not read Jack Reacher, so this wouldn’t be much of a spoiler. In any case, humans moving around illegally is really an issue of such systemic frustration. There must be a reason why a human being would feel more threatened in their home state, to determine that moving across country borders illegally would be better than staying in their home country.

    I’m definitely writing this from a place of entitlement and privilege. I don’t think anyone in Singapore imagines being an illegal immigrant anywhere else, even though the cost of living is so high here. We enjoy the safety of Singapore, and also the ideal of meritocracy, where we can earn our keep. We think things should be fair, and that’s how everything should be. But the rest of the world does not work that way. In fact, maybe it’s only in countries like Singapore where we can wiggle away with fairness. And if something is not fair, then we would complain about it.

    But truly, human trafficking is such a difficult and frustrating issue. I have no clue how to suggest help, and it makes me feel sad about humanity. Is there a way out of it? And in my Christian thought, how can the Church, or the Christian change these issues? Or if not, then how do we encourage other world leaders to deal with them?

    Just such a dark world sometimes.

  • Book Review: The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

    I just finished this book today, and I wrote a smaller review on GoodReads already. But it actually made me think and feel quite a lot over the past few days. Here’s a review that’s a little more in depth.

    The premise is the creation of collective consciousness, where everyone shares their thoughts and memories they’ve had all through life. This also allows everyone to hear what they’re thinking, or feeling even. The book follows the main group of people who started it, and their lives over a period of a few decades, including some origin stories. Each chapter is told from the POV of a character, and the end of the chapter links to the next character in an adjacent degree of relationship.

    Within this collective consciousness, there are some who do not agree with it, and they are noted as eluders, because they elude the visibility of everyone else. There is a state or country somewhere, that does not subscribe to it, and is ruled by a general. I might have missed the link of who the general is, in reference to the character developments.

    I sense a deep feeling of shame each of the characters deal with when they uncover or think through their different memories and feelings. There’s this sense of putting up fronts, and also being afraid of what people will think about them. Each of them wanted to be something, or hoped for it. There were moments of hallucinogens, and how it changed the way some of them thought or saw their lives. And of course, its effects on their families after that.

    I enjoyed the portrayal of humanity in its fragile state: people who did not know what they were doing, and struggling to understand the life around them in any desperate way they can. It was quite tragic actually, and painful. But a good book helps you feel those things I guess.

    My favourite chapter was this one where email correspondences were written out between the characters. It was funny to read the back channeling, and the messages aside to and from the different people. It was comedic. There were also gaps where you needed to fill what was happening in real life between the emails, and it made the story telling even more fun. It was a very well written chapter.

    If we could put our consciousness online, and available for all to see, would we? In the book, it proposed the result of having missing persons all found (because you could look at another person’s memories to track other people down), and child pornography was zero-ed (because your thoughts were obviously exposed, so the pervs could not be pervs basically).

    I think a glimpse of it happens now already, with social media and online presences. I actually try to write and share my thoughts openly here, and it’s also because I know very few people read this. I don’t know how I would feel if all my 1,500 followers on Instagram read these posts, or even my Medium posts too. It’s something else when the number is so much bigger, or accessible to strangers.

    Privacy is probably a lot more important to us in real life, and unlikely for us to reach a showcase of privacy to that level. But it’s still an interesting thought experiment to go through.

    I think the book is not bad, quite a fun read. I saw a peek of another person’s review, and they called it the book version of a Black Mirror episode. But we all know Black Mirror is already here in our current world, so I guess this book is just hinting at another possible future nearby.

  • Re Reading: Mere Christianity

    In the past month, I’ve begun to re-read Mere Christianity with one of my friends. It’s a very interesting book that breaks down a lot of basic ideas that I seemed to have taken for granted. Basic principles like Good and Bad, things that we assume, and it’s something brought out clearly again.

    We’re only just finishing the first book, and starting on the second, and for some reason, I feel that the ideas address bigger issues that we’re dealing with in the world now. The timelessness of issues of moral right and wrong, and the relativism that we face in modern day, create more space for disagreements, than to create platforms of understanding. We are more aimless than before, having less of an answer that more people can agree to. The people who stand for their clear cut right and wrong end up dealing with a great deal of questions that don’t help, but delay decisions further.

    Being a part of this generation, I feel like I have to create or develop my own understanding from this. Or to make the one above clearer so that more people can understand or agree or disagree. But I’ll just leave with the promise that I will update again about it, and perhaps, just maybe, I would form a finalized idea and stand about all of this.

    p.s. I hope you can read sarcasm.