Hello, summer! And hello my fellow book lovers!
and this month's reads got a theme to it as dapping my fingers into Japanese Literature
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*might contain light spoiler*
*read with caution*
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
Categories: Fiction, Contemporary, & Japanese Literature.
“In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.”
this collection of stories is just an incredibly, beautifully, and absolutely unique collection! although is it a slow pace, but it accurately explains everything happening in the cafe (like a fly on the wall, watching and listening to everything at this happening.)
one of the stories did overwhelm me with so many emotions and tears and I still kept reading!
⭐5/5; the character developments and connection with them left me captivated and still crying for more!
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Men Without Woman: Stories by Haruki Murakami and translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen
Categories: Fiction, Contemporary, & Japanese Literature.
‘Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.’
I heard and read so many positive reviews about this author, and this book did not do justice as I did not enjoy the entire collection, the only stories that I really enjoyed are 'Yesterday’, 'Scheherazade’, and 'Drive My Car’. Though it is a sad story collection of men and loneliness;
there are many things that got lost in translation that lost (in my opinion) the meaning and the core morale of the stories.
⭐2.5/5; each star for each of 'Yesterday’ and 'Drive My Car’, and a half star of 'Scheherazade’
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This month was a fun read as it was outside of my comfort reading zone!
Thank you for reading and please stay safe, readers!
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