september 2024 reads
September was a whirlwind of a month for a lot of different reasons. I continue to take on treating my plethora of autoimmune disease symptoms and work this month involved a lot more sustained intensive reading (via proofreading and editing) than usual. I also had an expensive mishap with my phone, so lots of stress. This left me with little energy to dedicate to my own reading. Nonetheless, it still ended up being a pretty fulfilling month, so here's to what I hope is the first of many reading logs to come!
I'm going to keep this pretty short because I do plan on writing fuller reviews of anything I've had a particularly good time with (energy and time pending), but I've taken the liberty of writing a short comment for each entry in this log! I may rework the format in the future (and am open to suggestions), but for now, this is what it is. Happy browsing!
Novels, Collections, & Nonfiction
Love is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar
Love is an Ex-Country is marketd as a queer, Muslim memoir. I listened to the audiobook (on Libro.fm), narrated by the author, something I definitely recommend for memoirs. Each chapter focuses on specific moments in her life and she talks about a wide range of topics within that lens. It was simultaneously heartbreaking and encouraging to listen to her recount moments of domestic abuse, sexual discovery, and her experiences as a Palestinian-American.
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
This book was on my TBR for literal years, so I finally signed out a copy from the library and read it. It's a phenomenal debut novel about book eaters, beings who sustain life by eating books instead of food. It's dark and gritty, but also overflowing with love and care. I had a lot of fun with the main characters of this one as they strove to figure out who they were and find where they belonged.
Yokohama Station SF by Yuba Isukari (tr. Stephen Paul)
Another book that has sat on my TBR for years, but I finally read some Japanese SF (though in English)! I was surprised when multiple character perspectives cropped up in this book, but it made the reading experience all the more interesting. It was really intriguing to see how the author approached neural networks and how humans fought against its (Yokohama Station's) expansion. There's a follow-up of short stories that I'll probably pick up at some point.
Goukyusuru Junbi wa Dekite Ita by Kaori Ekuni
I got this book, a collection of short stories, through a subscription service a year or so ago and picked it up because of the short thing. I've recently seen some people complimenting it, but I wasn't really a fan. I don't even remember a single thing that happened in any of the stories. It just wasn't my kind of collection.
Untold Microcosms: Latin American Writers in the British Museum edited by Carolina Orloff
This book is a collection of stories and personal narratives inspired by objects in the British Museum's collection taken from South America and translated from Spanish and Portuguese. Each entry is from a different author-translator team and they all take unique approaches. I don't know a lot about the region or its history, but this collection was really good. It made me want to read more from every contributor, the list of which you can find below:
Yásnaya Elena Aguilar (tr. Ellen Jones), Cristina Rivera Garza (tr. Robin Myers), Joseph Zárate (tr. Fionn Petch), Juan Cárdenas (tr. Christina MacSweeney), Velia Vidal (tr. Annie McDermott), Lina Meruane (tr. Megan McDowell), Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (tr. Carolina Orloff), Dolores Reyes (tr. Frances Riddle), Carlos Fonseca (tr. Frank Wynne), Djamila Ribeiro (tr. Daniel Hahn).
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
Another book I listened to narrated by the author (this time via my not-so-local library). Naomi Klein talks about extremism and how deeply entrenched in our lives it sits, largely unnoticed, in what she calls the mirror world. She approaches this by talking about her experiences being mistaken for "other Naomi," someone I know nothing about who seems to be part of that world. This book was kind of terrifying honestly, but worth taking on. As some wise person once said, "Know thy enemy." And I will also add, "Protect thy friends."
Manga
Sekai de Ichiban TĹŤi Koi Vol. 2 by Mitsuaki Asou
I waited two? three? years for this volume. This one is a Boys' Love story about a self-taught genius musician trying to find his sound and a deaf man. I won't go into it more because this is the second volume, but it looks like at least one more volume is planned. The first volume is currently available in English via Manga Planet.
Smoke Blue no Ame Nochi Hare Vol. 1-5 by Kamome Hamada
This is currently my favourite ongoing Boys' Love series. It's got translator characters and older men who continue to change and dream of the future even as they reach their 40s (who translate). What's not to love? I love it so much.
Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 1-2 by Kamome Shirahama (tr. Stephen Kohler)
Joined the hype and started reading the beautiful witch manga (how I've been thinking of it). I really like the character designs and the world is already extremely compelling after only two volumes. Coco is a really great character. The lettering in the English translation also compliments the style so well. Great work Lys Blakeslee. Can't wait to read further.
I Think Our Son Is Gay Vol 1-5 by Okura (tr. Leo McDonagh, Leighann Harvey)
Complete in a short five volumes, I Think Our Son Is Gay is a compilation of moments in a family where the narrator, the mother of the titular son, contemplates that her son may be gay and what that means. It portrays truly caring moments between all the family members. The whole story was so heartwarming and it was lovely to see how everyone grew.
Updated 10Â months ago