altlovesbooks
"The world is full of ways and means to waste time."
I didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed A Wild Sheep Chase unfortunately. It felt like there was less of a plot in this one, and Murakami laid on the magical realism really thickly. I'm not even sure I really understood most of the themes by the end. As such, this one felt more like A Day in the Life of a Protagonist than anything else, where he drinks a lot, pines after a receptionist while also looking for his girlfriend(?), ogles a 14 year old girl for an uncomfortably long period of the book, and deals with a flaky former classmate with a surprising amount of tolerance. There's only the thinnest amount of plot threads snaking through this one, and Murakami's writing wasn't enough to keep me interested in what was going on all of the time.
As far as I'm concerned (and maybe I'm blaspheming here), you don't need to have read either of the first two books in this series to read either A Wild Sheep Chase or this one. Even AWSC could theoretically be skipped without missing too much of what's going on in this one, as beyond the repeated location of the Dolphin Hotel and one scene with the Sheep Man, there's not a lot of overlap. Maybe I would see more overlap if I were better at seeing complex themes and such, but whatever.
I'm glad to have read it, but it's very clearly one of Murakami's earliest books.
"The world is full of ways and means to waste time."
I didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed A Wild Sheep Chase unfortunately. It felt like there was less of a plot in this one, and Murakami laid on the magical realism really thickly. I'm not even sure I really understood most of the themes by the end. As such, this one felt more like A Day in the Life of a Protagonist than anything else, where he drinks a lot, pines after a receptionist while also looking for his girlfriend(?), ogles a 14 year old girl for an uncomfortably long period of the book, and deals with a flaky former classmate with a surprising amount of tolerance. There's only the thinnest amount of plot threads snaking through this one, and Murakami's writing wasn't enough to keep me interested in what was going on all of the time.
As far as I'm concerned (and maybe I'm blaspheming here), you don't need to have read either of the first two books in this series to read either A Wild Sheep Chase or this one. Even AWSC could theoretically be skipped without missing too much of what's going on in this one, as beyond the repeated location of the Dolphin Hotel and one scene with the Sheep Man, there's not a lot of overlap. Maybe I would see more overlap if I were better at seeing complex themes and such, but whatever.
I'm glad to have read it, but it's very clearly one of Murakami's earliest books.
Three stories about three people who run into the magical Full Moon Coffee Shop right when they need it most in their lives. The shop is run by bipedal cats who serve them food and drinks intended to help them work through their problems, and also reading their star charts along the way.
Right off the bat, I'll say there's a TON of astrological talk, so much so that this book felt less about the (flat) characters and more about fitting in discussion about Mercury in retrograde or whatever. The three characters all have some tangential relationship to one another, but their stories by and large never overlap, making things feel a bit choppy and segmented. There's an epilogue of sorts at the end to show you how things end up with each character which was nice, but by and large I wasn't very invested in their stories along the way.
I did enjoy the vibe of the coffee shop itself, but the shallow characters and weak plot(s) made this a miss for me.
Three stories about three people who run into the magical Full Moon Coffee Shop right when they need it most in their lives. The shop is run by bipedal cats who serve them food and drinks intended to help them work through their problems, and also reading their star charts along the way.
Right off the bat, I'll say there's a TON of astrological talk, so much so that this book felt less about the (flat) characters and more about fitting in discussion about Mercury in retrograde or whatever. The three characters all have some tangential relationship to one another, but their stories by and large never overlap, making things feel a bit choppy and segmented. There's an epilogue of sorts at the end to show you how things end up with each character which was nice, but by and large I wasn't very invested in their stories along the way.
I did enjoy the vibe of the coffee shop itself, but the shallow characters and weak plot(s) made this a miss for me.
Added to listFictionwith 98 books.
Added to listHistorical Fictionwith 76 books.
Added to listAudiobooks Readwith 163 books.
I sort of thought the "secret healing powers" would play a more prominent role in a book about, well, healers, but I was surprised at how little it actually had an impact on things.
We have two points of view in this story; Louise in present day, navigating a lifelong friendship-maybe-more with Peter, when a car accident brings Louise's latent healing powers to life. Now she's wondering from her mom and her grandmother why nobody told her, and what this means for herself, her future, and Peter going forward. We also have Helene in WWII France, Louise's great-grandmother, also navigating the complexities of her healing powers as they conflict with the religious school she attends. When a battle brings her to the side of a wounded allied soldier, Helene has to decide where to draw the line when she learns that everything has a cost.
This is very much a women's fiction story with some magical realism elements. The healing aspect comes up frequently, but still manages to take a back seat to Louise's family drama and Helene's struggles within her religious school. Which, while fine, made this more of a fluffy read than I was expecting. I also thought that, despite the two POVs being from the same family, there was very little overlap, making this feel more like two separate stories than two halves of a whole.
There's some good discussions here about caregiving and end of life decisions, but because of the author's nursing background, it felt almost like the author was talking to the reader directly in parts, almost clinical. It was a little distracting to go from the flat writing about the characters to in-depth, clinical terms and concepts regarding healthcare and death.
The healing is also the worst-kept secret on the planet, because the insistence from the family to keep it a secret is at odds with the fact that it felt like everyone else around the main characters knew about it already. Ending spoilers here: I'm not sure why Louise lied to Peter so much during the story about her powers and what happened during the accident, when everyone in their small town basically knew about them anyway. What's one more person? It would have alleviated a lot of Louise's problems.
If you're looking for a general fiction book about family troubles, this may be your jam. If you read the synopsis and were intrigued by the healing powers, maybe give it a pass.
I sort of thought the "secret healing powers" would play a more prominent role in a book about, well, healers, but I was surprised at how little it actually had an impact on things.
We have two points of view in this story; Louise in present day, navigating a lifelong friendship-maybe-more with Peter, when a car accident brings Louise's latent healing powers to life. Now she's wondering from her mom and her grandmother why nobody told her, and what this means for herself, her future, and Peter going forward. We also have Helene in WWII France, Louise's great-grandmother, also navigating the complexities of her healing powers as they conflict with the religious school she attends. When a battle brings her to the side of a wounded allied soldier, Helene has to decide where to draw the line when she learns that everything has a cost.
This is very much a women's fiction story with some magical realism elements. The healing aspect comes up frequently, but still manages to take a back seat to Louise's family drama and Helene's struggles within her religious school. Which, while fine, made this more of a fluffy read than I was expecting. I also thought that, despite the two POVs being from the same family, there was very little overlap, making this feel more like two separate stories than two halves of a whole.
There's some good discussions here about caregiving and end of life decisions, but because of the author's nursing background, it felt almost like the author was talking to the reader directly in parts, almost clinical. It was a little distracting to go from the flat writing about the characters to in-depth, clinical terms and concepts regarding healthcare and death.
The healing is also the worst-kept secret on the planet, because the insistence from the family to keep it a secret is at odds with the fact that it felt like everyone else around the main characters knew about it already. Ending spoilers here: I'm not sure why Louise lied to Peter so much during the story about her powers and what happened during the accident, when everyone in their small town basically knew about them anyway. What's one more person? It would have alleviated a lot of Louise's problems.
If you're looking for a general fiction book about family troubles, this may be your jam. If you read the synopsis and were intrigued by the healing powers, maybe give it a pass.
Added to listAudiobooks Readwith 161 books.
Added to listBooks About Bookswith 14 books.
Added to listHistorical Fictionwith 75 books.
As I listened to this book, I kept hopping between 5 stars for the writing and 3 stars for the story. I ultimately decided that good writing doesn't save a disjointed story, but I wish I could have rated this one higher for the writing alone.
Alma Cruz is a writer of untold stories -- that is, despite being a writer of some renown, she still has bits of stories unfinished and unpublished that she feels compelled to put to rest. Rather than shove them in a shoebox and hide them in a closet, she constructs a literal graveyard for her finished stories on some inherited land in the Dominican Republic. She hires Filomena as her groundskeeper to maintain the land in her absences, and tells her to stop and listen to each story once a day. So, while keeping the grounds clear and maintaining the sculpted headstones, she starts pausing at one grave a day, and to her astonishment, she starts hearing these characters' stories. Not the incomplete snippets Alma wrote, but entire family stories involving intrigue, romance, infidelity, and death.
There's so many POVs in this book. Alma. Filomena. The characters from Alma's books (primarily Bienvenida and Manuel). Side characters sometimes get a chapter. We hop back and forth between characters in the present and in the past, making things feel very fragmented. There's a lot going on backstory-wise amongst everyone, but you really have to be good at keeping stories straight to stay oriented in this book. Despite all this, the prose is fantastic, and honestly was what kept me going throughout the book.
Great prose but too many POVs and too much to keep track of for me to rate much higher.
As I listened to this book, I kept hopping between 5 stars for the writing and 3 stars for the story. I ultimately decided that good writing doesn't save a disjointed story, but I wish I could have rated this one higher for the writing alone.
Alma Cruz is a writer of untold stories -- that is, despite being a writer of some renown, she still has bits of stories unfinished and unpublished that she feels compelled to put to rest. Rather than shove them in a shoebox and hide them in a closet, she constructs a literal graveyard for her finished stories on some inherited land in the Dominican Republic. She hires Filomena as her groundskeeper to maintain the land in her absences, and tells her to stop and listen to each story once a day. So, while keeping the grounds clear and maintaining the sculpted headstones, she starts pausing at one grave a day, and to her astonishment, she starts hearing these characters' stories. Not the incomplete snippets Alma wrote, but entire family stories involving intrigue, romance, infidelity, and death.
There's so many POVs in this book. Alma. Filomena. The characters from Alma's books (primarily Bienvenida and Manuel). Side characters sometimes get a chapter. We hop back and forth between characters in the present and in the past, making things feel very fragmented. There's a lot going on backstory-wise amongst everyone, but you really have to be good at keeping stories straight to stay oriented in this book. Despite all this, the prose is fantastic, and honestly was what kept me going throughout the book.
Great prose but too many POVs and too much to keep track of for me to rate much higher.
Added to listFictionwith 96 books.
"This all has got to be, patently, the most unbelievable, the most ridiculous story I have ever heard."
Well, not my least favorite Murakami book to date (that'd be 1Q84). Started slow and puzzlingly, but managed to pull me in by the halfway point.
Our protagonist (from the first two Rat books) has a bit of a business problem. When designing a travel brochure, he unthinkingly uses the image his friend Rat sent him months previous of an idyllic hillside, mountain in the background, and sheep scattered on the grass. A mysterious man contacts him to demand he locate one of the sheep in the photo, a special sheep with a star on its back. What follows is a weird romp in rural Japan involving a sheep professor, a girl with unblocked, exquisite ears, and a guy in a skinsuit/sheep costume.
Yeah, typical Murakami, right?
I won't begin to summarize the themes of this book, because it's very literary and I'm pretty sure a large chunk went over my head. I enjoyed the fever dream of tracking down the sheep though, and thought this was a great follow on to the previous two books in this series. It really shows how far Murakami had come as a writer by the time he got to this book. It's very trippy, and really only for people who know what they're getting into with Murakami.
"This all has got to be, patently, the most unbelievable, the most ridiculous story I have ever heard."
Well, not my least favorite Murakami book to date (that'd be 1Q84). Started slow and puzzlingly, but managed to pull me in by the halfway point.
Our protagonist (from the first two Rat books) has a bit of a business problem. When designing a travel brochure, he unthinkingly uses the image his friend Rat sent him months previous of an idyllic hillside, mountain in the background, and sheep scattered on the grass. A mysterious man contacts him to demand he locate one of the sheep in the photo, a special sheep with a star on its back. What follows is a weird romp in rural Japan involving a sheep professor, a girl with unblocked, exquisite ears, and a guy in a skinsuit/sheep costume.
Yeah, typical Murakami, right?
I won't begin to summarize the themes of this book, because it's very literary and I'm pretty sure a large chunk went over my head. I enjoyed the fever dream of tracking down the sheep though, and thought this was a great follow on to the previous two books in this series. It really shows how far Murakami had come as a writer by the time he got to this book. It's very trippy, and really only for people who know what they're getting into with Murakami.
Added to list2025 Favoriteswith 9 books.
"We always sit at the plank."
This is like if my favorite author, Guy Gavriel Kay, wrote Game of Thrones without gratuitous sex scenes and almost all political intrigue. Which is to say, yes please, more of this for me.
Navola is run by its bankers. Davico, son of Devonaci, is coming of age as part of the di Regulai family, shrewd, powerful merchants who have pull everywhere. Devonaci is a master businessman, and Davico spends all his days growing up comparing himself to his father and coming up short. But time doesn't care if you're not ready, and Davico finds himself thrust more and more frequently into the types of political intrigue he hates. His adopted sister, Celia, however is steeped in intrigues, and finds herself more than capable of navigating the twisty Navola mind. When things come to a political boil, though, Davico's naiveness may be his and his family's downfall.
Right off the bat I'll say that this isn't a book for just anyone. It's like...literary fantasy? Not a whole lot happens immediately, or at all. Some action-adjacent things happen around the 50% mark, and then again for the last quarter of the book, but by and large this is a character-driven political fantasy seen through a vaguely Italian lens. That appealed to me, but probably won't to an average fantasy reader. Yes there is a dragon (or...a part of a dragon, I guess), but I wouldn't call it a central character. The last quarter of the book is brutal though, and made me experience a large enough mental WTF that I spent a chunk of my cruise holed up in my cabin finishing the book to find out what happens.
My only hangups really was the ending and how the author basically (major ending spoilers here) wrote Celia out of the book. Yes, she does put in an appearance, but I was rather put out at how quickly/easily Davico washed his hands of her betrayal. I feel like something of that magnitude needed longer to marinate. But even that wasn't a large enough of an issue for me to not enjoy things thoroughly.
Recommend this for fans of Guy Gavriel Kay, and political/character-heavy fantasy.
"We always sit at the plank."
This is like if my favorite author, Guy Gavriel Kay, wrote Game of Thrones without gratuitous sex scenes and almost all political intrigue. Which is to say, yes please, more of this for me.
Navola is run by its bankers. Davico, son of Devonaci, is coming of age as part of the di Regulai family, shrewd, powerful merchants who have pull everywhere. Devonaci is a master businessman, and Davico spends all his days growing up comparing himself to his father and coming up short. But time doesn't care if you're not ready, and Davico finds himself thrust more and more frequently into the types of political intrigue he hates. His adopted sister, Celia, however is steeped in intrigues, and finds herself more than capable of navigating the twisty Navola mind. When things come to a political boil, though, Davico's naiveness may be his and his family's downfall.
Right off the bat I'll say that this isn't a book for just anyone. It's like...literary fantasy? Not a whole lot happens immediately, or at all. Some action-adjacent things happen around the 50% mark, and then again for the last quarter of the book, but by and large this is a character-driven political fantasy seen through a vaguely Italian lens. That appealed to me, but probably won't to an average fantasy reader. Yes there is a dragon (or...a part of a dragon, I guess), but I wouldn't call it a central character. The last quarter of the book is brutal though, and made me experience a large enough mental WTF that I spent a chunk of my cruise holed up in my cabin finishing the book to find out what happens.
My only hangups really was the ending and how the author basically (major ending spoilers here) wrote Celia out of the book. Yes, she does put in an appearance, but I was rather put out at how quickly/easily Davico washed his hands of her betrayal. I feel like something of that magnitude needed longer to marinate. But even that wasn't a large enough of an issue for me to not enjoy things thoroughly.
Recommend this for fans of Guy Gavriel Kay, and political/character-heavy fantasy.