haruki murakami – Page 3 – Cannonball Read 17

Mixed Bag Catch-Up (Books I listened to while painting the house)

Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki

All you Zombies by Robert A Heinlein

The Great Crash by John Kenneth Galbraith

Scary Stories Collection by Alvin Schwarz

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

Somebody's Darling by Larry McMurty

May 25, 2021 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Terminal Boredom – 4/5 Stars A small collection of stories from the science fiction writer Izumi Suzuki. It’s important to note that these stories are selected from a decades long career. This seems to be a first foray into a larger translation project of more of Suzuki’s writing, especially her novels. The stories are mostly subtle, intimate explorations of stories that are running through various science fiction tropes and ideas. These are ideas that are usually fully established in the story before we begin, and […]

Mixed Bag Catch Up

Samarkand by Amin Maalouf

Shiloh by Shelby Foote

Blind Willow Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

May 20, 2021 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Samarkand – 4/5 Stars This book immediately wonder how many novels have Omar Khayyam as a major or main characters. So in this way, being shown in careful detail and with loving care how and why Omar Khayyam is such an important person, cultural touchstone, and inspiration to such a huge part of the world is itself a gift that this novel offers. In addition to this, the sense of adventure in this novel that is created in the opening sections, and then carried over […]

Such a Murakami novel

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

March 22, 2021 by ingres77 Leave a Comment

I seem to always say this, but I don’t really know how to review Haruki Murakami’s books. They’re so inexplicable and enjoyable and uneventful. A Wild Sheep Chase, according to the man himself (in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running), was his “real starting point” as a writer – and that makes sense. Hear the Wind Sing, his first novel, has all the hallmarks of a Murakami novel, but doesn’t quite work as well. He hasn’t really found himself yet, and it […]

On day Turl the constructor put together a machine that could create anything starting with n.

The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem

Guys and Dolls by Damon Runyan

Wind/Pinball 1973 by Haruki Murakami

The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin

My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunket

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

The Blood of Elves by Andrej Sapkowski

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

Flatland by Edwin Abbott

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins

Laughing in the Hills by Bill Barich

Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerney

The Prince by Niccola Machiavelli

Dear America by Jose Antonio Vargas

The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschmeier

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

October 8, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The Cyberiad – 3/5 Stars This is a collection of short stories by the Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. Although it’s a collection, it’s more a series of linked stories almost in the form of a novel. If you’ve read a Stanislaw Lem novel, and I think this is my third, you’ll recognize a cognizant effort to question reality, but also the conventions of science fiction in general. Some of his novels like Solaris are highly metaphysical in nature, while authors, like Pirx the Pilot are […]

I’m on Kauai, in Hawaii, today, Friday, August 5, 2005.

What I talk about when I talk about Running by Haruki Murakami

September 5, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

A short collection of memoir essays by Haruki Murakami about running. What’s most interesting about this collection is how banal he approaches the subject. To be fair, a lot of Murakami novel dwell in the banal by design, so this is not a surprise really, but it really works here. One of the reasons that works is because he actually is a serious runner, but still an amateur. So this is not a memoir by a professional or competitive runner, but of a writer who […]

Short story review dump (Part V)

The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick

The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick

Human Is? by Philip K. Dick

A Kiss With Teeth by Max Gladstone

Let Those Who Would by Genevieve Valentine

Mirror by Haruki Murakami

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet by Richard Matheson

Blood Son by Richard Matheson

August 15, 2020 by ingres77 Leave a Comment

This is something new I’m trying this year, where I review short stories as stand alone stories, not part of anthologies or collections. Here are parts I, II, III, and IV. The Eyes Have It by Philip K Dick (3 stars) This is, so I’ve read, the shortest story in Philip K. Dick’s bibliography. And the copyright doesn’t appear to have ever been renewed, so it can easily be found online. Here it is at Project Guttenberg. It tells the story of a man reading […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

Help Our Mission