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Bullydog's Book Club 3
9 years ago
General
What I'm reading this week:
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
One of my favorite books, and among my favorite movies, Memoirs is a beautifully written fictional account of a geisha's life in the final era of Kyoto's geisha district, right before the height of World War II. Golden's proselike descriptors and similes incur the traditional Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic, and I really love that. However, this is still a fairytale version of Geisha life, and it shouldn't be taken as fact.
Wringer by Jerry Spinelli
Another of Spinelli's lesser known works which should be among his greatest. Wringer follows a boy's growth into double-digit ages and the fear that he associates with that - because in his little hometown, ten year old boys become wringers, whose duty it is to break the necks of pigeons after they are shot at the annual Pigeon Day. It's an amazing story of personal growth, discovery, and hiding oneself among friends who demand that you be a certain way.
Let Dai
A Korean manga, called manhwa, that is among my favorites to this day. This one's difficult to get ahold of in libraries, but if you can swing it, please consider picking it up. It's dark, thoughtful, tantalizing, terrifying and above all too close to the drama of real life. The cast of characters is as vast as, oh say Days of Our Lives, but the focus is on Jaehee Yoo, a good boy high schooler who has never strayed outside his bubble; and Dai Lee, a dangerous and fearsome gang leader whose sights are set on Jaehee and the girls who call him their friend. A beautiful and desperately sad boys' love set in modern-day Seoul.
Loveless
This one was quite famous back in the mid-2000's when Tokyopop owned the rights to its English publication, but in about 2007 it went on hiatus, had an anime that tried to wrap up the storyline (and did it miserably), and disappeared into the ether. Now completed under Yen Press, Loveless is back with all the catboys and catgirls you could want.
I like Loveless, I really do - but I personally believe it has far too much going on that could all be made into different stories. Catboys who lose their ears with their virginity, bound couples who fight with spells forged in prose, the mysterious death of a brother and the man he left behind, a secret organization who for some odd reason meets in the chatrooms of a video game... These are all nearly entirely separate storylines that could be made into books of their own. I'd read one just about the cat ear thing. But since Loveless has so much going on in it, it's easy to lose sight of what the story is truly about.
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Most everyone knows this one, and are desperately waiting for this supposed Netflix series they're making. I own all 13 books, but they're in storage somewhere and I wanted to read them again, so here I am at the library. Snicket's tongue-in-cheek writing and the way he portrays the smart children amidst bumbling adults is truly comical. I love the way he writes his characters and makes them all so very interesting, even if they're boring as sin.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
One of my favorite books, and among my favorite movies, Memoirs is a beautifully written fictional account of a geisha's life in the final era of Kyoto's geisha district, right before the height of World War II. Golden's proselike descriptors and similes incur the traditional Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic, and I really love that. However, this is still a fairytale version of Geisha life, and it shouldn't be taken as fact.
Wringer by Jerry Spinelli
Another of Spinelli's lesser known works which should be among his greatest. Wringer follows a boy's growth into double-digit ages and the fear that he associates with that - because in his little hometown, ten year old boys become wringers, whose duty it is to break the necks of pigeons after they are shot at the annual Pigeon Day. It's an amazing story of personal growth, discovery, and hiding oneself among friends who demand that you be a certain way.
Let Dai
A Korean manga, called manhwa, that is among my favorites to this day. This one's difficult to get ahold of in libraries, but if you can swing it, please consider picking it up. It's dark, thoughtful, tantalizing, terrifying and above all too close to the drama of real life. The cast of characters is as vast as, oh say Days of Our Lives, but the focus is on Jaehee Yoo, a good boy high schooler who has never strayed outside his bubble; and Dai Lee, a dangerous and fearsome gang leader whose sights are set on Jaehee and the girls who call him their friend. A beautiful and desperately sad boys' love set in modern-day Seoul.
Loveless
This one was quite famous back in the mid-2000's when Tokyopop owned the rights to its English publication, but in about 2007 it went on hiatus, had an anime that tried to wrap up the storyline (and did it miserably), and disappeared into the ether. Now completed under Yen Press, Loveless is back with all the catboys and catgirls you could want.
I like Loveless, I really do - but I personally believe it has far too much going on that could all be made into different stories. Catboys who lose their ears with their virginity, bound couples who fight with spells forged in prose, the mysterious death of a brother and the man he left behind, a secret organization who for some odd reason meets in the chatrooms of a video game... These are all nearly entirely separate storylines that could be made into books of their own. I'd read one just about the cat ear thing. But since Loveless has so much going on in it, it's easy to lose sight of what the story is truly about.
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Most everyone knows this one, and are desperately waiting for this supposed Netflix series they're making. I own all 13 books, but they're in storage somewhere and I wanted to read them again, so here I am at the library. Snicket's tongue-in-cheek writing and the way he portrays the smart children amidst bumbling adults is truly comical. I love the way he writes his characters and makes them all so very interesting, even if they're boring as sin.
