It's February already and it's snowing in Tokyo!! Aside from that bit of news, it's time to share with you all my reading choices for the month of January. Hope you enjoy them:
HOW TO PAINT A DEAD MAN by Sarah Hall - Hall's second book, "The Electric Michelangelo" was a Man Booker Prize Finalist, which I haven't read and probably won't be reading anytime soon if her books are as similar as this one. There's nothing wrong with her prose. The book is beautifully written. It's just that I couldn't get into it. The "Sunday Telegraph" had this to say - "Invigorating...This deeply sensual novel is what you rarely find - an intelligent page-turner which, perversely, you also want to read slowly to savor Hall's luscious way of looking at the world." Really? I found it to be more like a sedative and was in need of some methamphetamine so I could finish it as fast as I could. I was nearly lulled to sleep on many occasions. The story centers around the lives of four people - a dying painter who only paints pictures of bottles, a blind girl with an overly protective and extremely religious mother, a landscape artist, and an art curator - who's lives mildly intersect. It was just so boring I can't even remember what the story was really about. Sometimes I wonder why I read books that I have absolutely no interest in.
TOKYO VICE : AN AMERICAN REPORTER ON THE POLICE BEAT IN JAPAN by Jake Adelstein - An intense story written by a former reporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun Newspaper, not to be confused with their English language equivalent of the Daily Yomuiri, which has a circulation of over ten million daily. As per the books title, Adelstein takes us on a tour through the Tokyo you don't read about and rarely see in the news. He gets his start as a cub reporter, working with the police in Saitama Prefecture, which he and others before him call the "New Jersey of Japan". You will be fascinated by the dog breeder murders, a Mama-san murder and the ATM machine burgluries. Then the story gets even more intense as Adelstein is transferred from Saitama to Shinjuku’s Kabukicho area, the red light district of Tokyo. Here he writes about his dealings with the Yakuza, the Lucille Blackman murder, and human trafficking. For a more detailed review, follow the link to “Asia by the Book” and check the reviews.
DEAR ANDY KAUFMAN, I HATE YOUR GUTS! By Lynn Margulies and Bob Zmuda – Do you all even remember Andy Kaufman? He did these crazy skits on Saturday Night Live and became popular on the series Taxi as a character called Latka Gravas. Although I don’t recall this, in November of 1979, Andy wrestled some woman on Saturday Night Live and made history by making fun of the fairer sex and challenged them to a wrestling bout and said if any woman could pin him in a wrestling hold, he would shave his head bald, give the women $1000 and would also marry the woman. Andy received over a thousand responses. This book is a collection of some of the letters he received, along with a picture of the person who sent them. They are facsimiles of the actual letters and some of them are pretty darn hilarious.
ON THE BEATEN PATH : AN APPALACHIAN PILGRIMAGE by Robert Alden Rubin – When I think of pilgrimages, the first thing that comes to mind is the Camino de Santiago in Spain, or the Templar’s Trail from Dijon, France to Jerusalem. Or at least something related to religion. But not all trails have to be religious in meaning. New Zealand has their tramping trails. Well, the U.S. has thruhiking and one of the most popular trails is the Appalachian Trail that extends from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Kahadin in Maine. Rubin quits his well paying job and leaves his wife at home to make the walk. In his own words, he was having a midlife crisis. Instead of buying some fast car or having a fling with some young woman, he decides to walk the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. It’s a good thing he has a really caring and understanding wife.
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS by Jon Ronson – George Clooney stars in the new film with the same title but the original story is so crazy that it has to be true. This is one of those books that really make you believe “truth is stranger than fiction”. Ronson digs deep to find out if it was true that the army had once trained men to kill goats by just staring at them. Or be trained to walk through walls (I’m really not making this up). The army wanted to create a force of warrior monks who could kill by non-lethal means. This small group of men were called the “First Earth Battalion”. Some parts of the book are still too far-fetched to believe such as the CIA recruiting Uri Geller (he of spoon-bending fame). I can’t wait to see the movie.
WHERE THE MILD THINGS ARE : A VERY MEEK PARODY by Maurice Send-Up – The movie version of “Where the Wild Things Are” is still playing in theaters around town and I had just re-read the original 48-page story last month, so I couldn’t pass up reading this parody. I couldn’t stop laughing either as mild-mannered Mog gets scolded by his parents for petting a kitten, as they tell him not to play with his food. Mog sets off an adventure in the dullest car made, which happened to be an AMC Gremlin and travels to Dullsville where he meets a host of dull people who elect him to be their king. Definitely not for kids (unless they also have a twisted sense of humor). Of course, you might want to read the original again, so you actually understand the parody.
BANKRUPT by Phillip Toledano – Oversize photography book of companies that have gone out of business. Interesting concept but kind of sad. Pictures of memos stating there’s no need to come to work, barren desks, boxed-up computers, empty rooms.
THE PRICE OF BUTCHER’S MEAT by Reginald Hill – This is the first mystery I’ve ever read by Hill but found it to be quite entertaining. Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel is recuperating at the Avalon Clinic in seaside resort called Sandytown. But there were so many characters who were interrelated it was kind of hard to follow at first. What you need to know for this story is that there were two powerful people in Sandytown who want to put it on the map as “The Home of the Healthy Holiday”. The first is Lady Denham who seems to be the Queen of this area as she is one of the most wealthy citizens of the town. But when she’s found dead at a “Hog Roast” , it’s just the start of the town’s troubles. Apparently, the main character Andy, also called the Fat Man, is the protagonist of a series of mysteries. This is what the Tampa Tribune had to say, “He may not be the most famous British - mystery author…but Reginald Hill may be the very best.”
世界の空港 ～Airports～ - A portable photography book published by PIE Books of the world’s airports. JFK in New York, Incheon in South Korea, Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, Heathrow in London, etc. I was kind of bummed the Sea-Tac International Airport wasn’t included but you can’t have everything. But the book does include the airport island of Male Airport in the Maldives and the airport with the world’s scariest runway, Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten in the Carribean. This is just one book in a series of four (so far) – the others being the world’s stations, the world’s churches, and the world’s doors.
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID : DOG DAYS by Jeff Kinney – The continuing adventures of middle school student Greg Heffley. From the book itself: It’s summer vacation – the weather’s great, and all the kids are having fun outside. So where’s Greg Heffley? Inside his house, playing video games with shades drawn. Greg wants to enjoy the ultimate summer vacation – to have no responsibilities and no rules. Of course his mother doesn’t see things the way Greg does. Sometimes I wonder if this is what Calvin of “Calvin and Hobbes” would be like if he grew up. You know what I think would be great. If Jeff Kinney would collaborate with Rachel Renee Russel and have the Wimpy Kid, Greg Heffley meet and fall for Nikki Maxwell from the Dork Diaries. Now that would be entertaining. Always looking forward to reading about the misadventures of both characters.HAPPY READING!
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