the road by cormac mccarthy

• finished 24 sep 2019
• this was absolutely haunting. chilling. infinitely lovely. it's a story about a father and son in a barren apocalyptic wasteland, "each the other's world entire". maybe it's bc i've been on a batman kick lately, but this really hit home. particularly i could see bruce and jason as the father and son, but also jason and a young damian. i'm glad i bought it. i think everyone should read it, despite its bleakness. there are so many wonderful lines in it that still go through my head even now.

pachinko by min jin lee

• finished 03 aug 2019
• a really really insightful and sad read about a korean family living in japan throughout the 20th century. it provides a very real perspective on the dynamic between koreans and japanese at the time, as well offering questions about culture, one's link between identity and nation, gender, language, etc. i honestly expected to cry going into this book, but i didn't, surprisingly. i did come to care deeply for this family and every person in it, however. min jin lee makes use of time skips very liberally and i had to pay attention to the time given at the beginning of each chapter. i found the narrator, which was third person omniscient, to be quite detached, which is why it was slightly harder for me to become as emotionally invested as i was reading, say, a thousand splendid suns. but i still think the story is unique and tragic and really great.

senlin ascends by josiah bancroft

• finished 24 jul 2019
• "Self-published several years ago to next to no notice, Senlin Ascends has a second chance to enrapture readers by way of its wide release this week—and enrapture them it surely shall. ... Incredibly creative in its conception and no less confident in its crafting, Josiah Bancroft’s dazzling debut concerns a couple on a honeymoon that goes to hell in a handcart when their destination of choice disappoints. This pair, though, haven’t popped off to romantic Paris or plotted some vibrant adventure in Venice: rather, they’ve travelled to the Tower of Babel, a monolithic column in the middle of Ur said to be a “great refuge of learning, the very seat of civilisation” and the source of any number of wonders."" (source)
• one of the most fun reads i've had in a while!!! most of the time i stick to historical fiction, simply bc good sci-fi and fantasy are hard to come by. however, thanks to reddit (and the phenomena of word-of-mouth), i got this book from the library and was immediately hooked. the world is like nothing i've ever seen, with the most reluctant and unlikely protagonist since bilbo baggins. this book is full of twists and turns that i seriously did not see coming. HIGHLY reccommend supporting this author! this is going on my to-buy list-- once i get my own place, that is, and can fill it with books.

norwegian wood by haruki murakami

• finished 6 apr 2019
• this was masterfully written, no doubt, and it spoke profound volumes on death, love, sex, loneliness, manhood, friendship, etc. but in the end it made me feel hollow and unsatisfied. i dont know if this is due to the translation or narrator's voice or just murakami's authorial choices, but the sex scenes were described so clinically that i was sort of repulsed. however, i still enjoyed it, wanted to keep reading, and would read again simply because i am sure i missed many things on my first read