Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Despite being a fan of Japanese fiction, I am apparently out of the loop because I had never heard of this book, which is apparently a worldwide bestseller, before it became a book club choice. This book was right up my street. I won't describe the plot or anything, but to sum up, it grapples with the eternal question of what you might change if you could go back in time. 

Although this is a novel, apparently the author is a playwright, and this was originally a stage play. I think that showed in many aspects, but it also probably contributed to the very quiet and calming feeling I had when reading. Recommended. 

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

March's book club choice is timely and devastating. The title comes from slain rapper Tupac, who used the acronym THUG LIFE (meaning "the hate u give little infants f---s everyone"). He's absolutely right. Hate begets hate and it creates cycles of abuse and horror that keep going and going.... and are very difficult to escape. 

This book personalizes this cycle by showing how the main character and her community react when she sees her friend murdered by cops. The story feels very immediate and personal and we are able to see why and how the characters react as they do. Recommended. 

Side note - somehow I missed the movie that was made of this book, I will have to check it out. 

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Have you ever been sure you've read a book, but when you went to re-read it, nothing seemed at all familiar? So it was with this book, which I would have sworn I read years ago (long before this blog). After watching the recent mini series, I thought it would be good to re-read. While reading, I kept waiting for that moment of recognition - and it never came! Of course, some things seemed familiar because I had just seen them depicted on the screen, but.... Maybe I only thought I read the book? Who knows. 

In any case, there isn't much I can say about this book that hasn't already been said. Many of the concepts and events seem slightly dated, as they are products of the time in which the book was written, but at the same time the universal themes (including, in my opinion, "what does it mean to belong") always apply. It's a classic for a reason and well worth a read. 

Color-Coded Reading Challenge 2021

 Bev at My Reader's Block hosts this fun challenge, which you can read all about and sign up for here. Over the years I have really enjoyed finding books to fit this challenge, with brown being the most challenging overall. I'll update this post with links as I fill in the categories.

Read nine books in the following categories:

1. A book with "Blue" or any shade of Blue (Turquoise, Aquamarine, Navy, etc.) in the title/on the cover. Searching for Sylvie Lee has a blue cover

2. A book with "Red" or any shade of Red (Scarlet, Crimson, Burgandy, etc.) in the title/on the cover. The Moving Pictures has a predominately red cover

3. A book with "Yellow" or any shade of Yellow (Gold, Lemon, Maize, etc.) in the title/on the cover. The Poison Squad has a yellow cover

4. A book with "Green" or any shade of Green (Emerald, Lime, Jade, etc.) in the title/on the cover. The cover of The Woman before Wallis shows a green dress 

5. A book with  "Brown" or any shade of Brown (Tan, Beige, Sand, etc.) in the title/on the cover. I'm using The Henna Artist for this one, since Henna is usually a brownish color

6. A book with "Black" or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc.) in the title/on the cover. The Only Good Indians has a mostly black cover

7. A book with "White" or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc.) in the title/on the cover. The Hate U Give has a mostly white cover 

8. A book with any other color in the title/on the cover (Purple, Orange, Silver, Magenta, Pink, etc.). 

9. A book with a word that implies color in the title/on the cover (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Shadow, Paint, Ink, etc.). Me - Elton John has a rainbow effect on part of an otherwise black and white cover

It's my 10th Blogaversary!!

Happy Birthday to this blog!! 10 YEARS!! I am honestly shocked to my core that I have managed to keep this blog going in any fashion for an entire decade. WOW! 

Since the last several years have not been great for reading for me, this year I am going to do my 2 favorite reading challenges: The Color-Coded Reading Challenge and the Mount TBR Challenge, but I am not going to do them "officially" by signing up and etc. I'll make a separate post for the Color-Coded Challenge so I can start all over with that one, but I will just continue last year's Mount TBR post and keep posting books to that. Links here:

New Color-Coded

Continuing Mount TBR

I don't really do New Year resolutions, but this year I decided to set goals each month - things like drink a certain amount of water each day, take a certain amount of steps each day, and of course read at least 1 book per month. I'm hoping that keeps me on track. 

What are your plans for reading in 2021? 

2020 - The Year in Reading

It appears that I didn't do a year-end wrap-up post for 2019, so I can't review my goal, but I'm sure I would have said something like "read 1 book per month" so I guess I managed that. 

This year wasn't much of an improvement in my reading habits, but considering how this year was overall.... I won't go on and on; sufficient to say I read a total of 15 books, for an average of at least 1 per month, which ... will have to do, ha ha. Nine of these books were from the TBR Pile, so that is a victory. I didn't complete either of the reading challenges I created posts for, so I hope I can do better than that next year. 

For 2021 - this blog's 10 year anniversary, which is BANANAS - I think I will do the Color-Coded and Mount TBR Challenges again (assuming Bev is hosting again), as I would like to continue to concentrate on that TBR Pile for the most part. I also received a couple books as gifts that I am looking forward to reading. I'll aim for at least 1 book per month as a baseline goal and go from there. 

As always, I wish all of my readers a happy, healthy 2021 - it HAS to be better than 2020, right?? 

What are your goals for 2021?

Some general thoughts

This has been a rough month in some ways and a good one in others. At the beginning of the month, I was feeling very down about the general situation - how can so many people be so easily taken in by a moronic snake oil salesman that has done nothing for them?!?!? It's really difficult for me to grasp, and rather depressing. I feel more hopeful now so I guess we will see what 2021 brings. I did some comfort re-reading over the past couple of weeks but I won't log it. 

Rosemary's Baby - the 1968 film (Spoilers!)

**NOTE: as I mention frequently on this blog, I usually do all I can to avoid any kind of spoilers on my blog. However, in order to review the movie in some kind of meaningful way, I would like to make comparisons to the book, which will involve giving away key plot points and etc. If you are planning to read the book or see the film and wish to avoid spoilers, please avoid this post.**

Oh, and my review of the book in the previous post to this one is spoiler-free. 

As I mentioned in my review of the book that was the basis for this movie, I DVRd this movie as an incentive to read the book to clear it off my TBR Pile. Having now watched it, I think this was an excellent adaptation. It kept all of the key plot points from the book, while removing or limiting some extraneous characters (like the sister). One of the biggest differences is that in the book, Rosemary seems to be developing more agency, while in the movie, she is more of a helpless victim. The movie does make the whole "pregancy horror" theme more obvious though. All in all, I can see why this is considered a classic horror film and I'm glad I have now seen it. 

Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin

For some reason, despite planning to read this in October for years, I never made it happen. This year I happened to see that the movie version was playing on TV, so I DVRd it, and figured it was a great opportunity to do a review of both versions. 

This was indeed a CREEPY book. There is an overall sense of impending... something that pervades each page as the story unfolds, which builds and builds up until the payoff. It is a deceptively fast read that I suspect would be a good re-read - maybe I will read it again next October and pay better attention to the details. If you like horror, this is recommended. 

Side note: This was yet another Library Sales find, a vintage copy of the book club version from 1967. 

Selection Day - Aravind Adiga

 So here's what I know about cricket: 

-It's a sport

-It's played in many places around the world but mainly those that have had a British presence of some kind

-The uniforms are cool 

-Most people don't understand how it's played, scored, etc. 

Now you know what I had in mind while reading this book, which is set in India and is about two brothers raised by their single-minded, ambitious, and controlling father to become cricket champions. I won't lie, this book wasn't exactly uplifting... among other things, it deals with the realities of privilege, and how people who have the "right" connections have a much easier time to get ahead in life; how a super controlling parent can disrupt a child's development, and push the child to become someone they'd rather not be; and how it's difficult to be "different" in a society that won't readily accept you. In the end, I now know a little more about cricket, and the story has left me thinking about life and the near-cliche Fitzgerald quote about how we're all "borne back ceaselessly into the past." 

As it happens, there was also a Netflix series based on this book, which intrigues me - I will definitely check that out.