Reading Lists for March 2018

What do you plan/want to read the coming month?

Daniel

デボラ、眠っているのか？：Deborah, Are You Sleeping?

夜空の呪いに色はない

断片のアリス

Jennifer

ビリギャル

ラッフ(漫画)

Kafka

新世界より＜中・下＞

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Review - ビリギャル / Biri Gyaru

学年ビリのギャルが1年で偏差値を40上げて慶應大学に現役合格した話 (aka ビリギャル) Jennifer - A new word I learned with this book was ビリ which means "the last" or "at the bottom". This case it's a story about a gyaru (gal) who's at the bottom rank of her school, increases her scores by 40 points in 1 year and gets into Keio University . This is a true story. It's a piece of non-fiction written by the juku teacher who taught Sayaka (our gyaru) and pushed her to get her grades up and get into one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. At the start of the book we meet Sayaka in the moment she meets Tsubota ( 坪田) Sensei. He asks her some simple questions but is amazed by her creative answers. The start of the book looks at the holes in her basic knowledge and understanding of the world. When I say lack of basic knowledge I mean very basic knowledge. Tsubota Sensei asks her to draw a map of Japan and she draws a circle. She doesn't only realize there are ...

Currently Reading - 新世界より＜上＞ / From the New World (1/3)

Kafka - Shinsekai Yori/From the New World is split into six sections, titled: 若葉の季節, 夏闇, 深秋, 冬の遠雷, 劫火, and 闇に燃えし篝火は. I've just come to the end of part one, "Season of Young Leaves" and I thought I'd share my thoughts. "What would happen if humans developed telekinetic powers?" Everything seems happy-go-lucky on the surface, but children are disappearing, and no one seems to take notice. These ideas taken by themselves may be a bit hackneyed, but I was most drawn in by the book's presentation. From the New World is presented to us as a memoir, a cautionary tale from the 'new world' to an even newer world and an investigation of a past now lost — all at the same time. While there are a couple of anachronisms, and I have to wonder how the narrator was able to remember some (info dump) things she shouldn't have been able to understand at the time in full, the writing itself hews fairly close to this pretext. I have been vague so f...

Review - 新世界より / From the New World

Kafka - As I stated in my earlier review of part 1 of 6, From the New World is presented to us as a memoir, a cautionary tale from the 'new world' to an even newer world and an investigation of a past now lost — all at the same time. Now I would also describe it as a rich metaphorical painting of society, but this author's world is filtered through Saki, a more conservative narrator, so the metaphors don't feel as forced as they would be fed to us directly. The unsettling atmosphere that ties this world and Saki's worldview as she becomes forced to challenge it is this novel's best asset. It's the main reason I wasn't able to put the book down for long. However, I do not mean to say that the plot itself isn't full of suspense and intrigue. The plot goes back and forth between mystery and action, and unlike many stories today, very many people die. There are no guarantees. The only ones you can be sure live to see the end are the narrator, an...

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