Rainbirds

First of all, can we just acknowledge how beautiful the cover is? The title says "Rainbirds" but you get goldfish on the cover. I love it!

I sense a lot of Murakami's style in this debut novel; the quietness, weird people, weird dreams, the moon, jazz (!), and pasta (!). Oh my God, it's like she really pushed herself to be Murakami's minion! I was waiting for a talking cat to make an appearance to complete the Murakami's pattern, but thank God it didn't happen.

I also feel that some of the scenes are simply incoherent, the flow is just wonky there.

I gave 2 stars for this. In a nutshell, don't bother spending time with this book. Read a Murakami instead and you'll get a better experience.

I feel bad because the author is Indonesian-born Singaporean and I'm supposed to cheer for her. I hope that she finds her own style in her second book. Please just leave Murakami in his own world - there are many other concepts to explore.

At Mrs Lippincote's

Elizabeth Taylor is Jennifer's favorite author and she recommended her to me. I've never read any of her works, so I decided to check it out and start with her first novel. At Mrs Lippincote's is a story set in 1945. We follow the Davenant family - Roddy, his wife Julia, son Oliver, and cousin Eleanor settling in this rented house.

It took me a while to get used to her style. I felt that it reads more like scenes than a novel. However, I loved Taylor's sharp and witty delivery, and all the references to literature works. She brought the characters to life that they are so relatable even to the current era.

My favorite character is the 7-year old Oliver. He is a bookworm as described here:
Oliver Davenant did not merely read books. He snuffed them up, took breaths of them into his lungs, filled his eyes with the sight of the print and his head with the sound of words. Some emanation from the book itself poured into his bones, as if he were absorbing steady sunshine. The pages had personality.

Catch-22

It took me 2 months to finish this book. Heller was an amazing writer; he came up with the story and then broke them into tiny jigsaw puzzles, messed them up, and linked the pieces together into this amazing book!

I am glad that I stayed on. The first part was a struggle as he introduced so many characters with no background, and then I realized that the background came later... and slowly I could see the big picture. The humor helps, too!

The Eighth Day

A lady kidnapped her lover's baby, joined a cult, and was always on the run until one day she had nowhere to run anymore. The victim naturally grew up as a troubled young lady searching for her identity.

I like how the author presented us with the both sides of the story; all the aches, longings, and struggles to understand why their lives ended up this way.

Mitsuyo Kakuta is popular among the ladies in Japan, but not well-known outside the country. I really appreciate how she tackled women and family issues in 80s Japan in this book.