emanon_reads's reviews
116 reviews

Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

fast-paced

2.0

I’m so ready to be done with this series 🫠. Ik there’s another book coming out and I might listen to it but honestly… it gets sooooo repetitive the more you read; the constant re-explanation of the rules and the unnecessary explanation of emotions, it kinda felt like the author was writing just to meet a word count rather than for the story itself 

Letters to Milena by Aarno Peromies, Philip Boehm, Franz Kafka, Milena Jesenská
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.

boring :/

Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, 川口 俊和

fast-paced

4.0

It’s a really good book on its own which is why I’m giving it 4 stars but it starts to get a little repetitive especially since it’s the 3rd book of a series of stories set in the same format.

I won’t lie, I got a little lost with this one cuz we changed location and then we had new characters which were somehow related to the old ones and so on and so forth.

It also feels like the different stories belong to a newspaper storytelling page rather than a book especially with all of the repeated rules.

Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

fast-paced

4.0

I listened to the book rather than reading it and while I love the concept of it all and some of the stories made me tear and and all I couldn’t get over how annoying the little girl was. Omg, the singing and the French??? I could’ve very well done with a shy child in this book.

But yeah, other than that it tracks with the first book and it’s quite nice.

Hospital Drama Show by Scott Travis

dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.25

This was nothing short of amazing. There’s so much happening at the same time and it’s all connected and yeah… loved it

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

fast-paced

5.0

This is the second time I read this book, and I absolutely love how she portrays the subject of grievance. 

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

medium-paced

3.0

I am unsure of how to comment on a book based on someone’s very personal emotions. 

You can critique it because we’re very individual and you can’t praise it because it’s not groundbreaking.

I think it’s very understandable to want to research the science of life when a loved one dies but I also think it’s a very unique way of going about it. I assume, her being an author has something to do with it.

I think the forgetfulness aspect is extremely relatable. Wanting to tell someone something but being unable to is heartbreaking. I don’t want to say that I can compare myself to the situation but when you loose someone wether it’s due to death or just separation you go to a similar sort of grieving process and they tend to stay with you forever. No matter how much time passes.

Idk, it’s a good book. It requires a very specific audience for it to be truly good but you cannot say the writing was bad.

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

medium-paced

3.0

This was positively boring!

The Sponger by Jules Renard

medium-paced

3.0

This book is… questionable? Sexist put simply but in a very “commoner” manner. It was written in 1957 and back then that was normal and it’s written as it it’s all very sensible which is crazy to me. 

While I’ve marked a lot of concerning quotes I also marked one sensible one which I’d like to share:

“If I get stupid answers, it is perhaps because I ask stupid questions.”

Absolvo te by Георги Бърдаров

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

I was expecting a book that would cover two very different historical events with a link in between and needed up with a book cover one historical event with some more… like, it was less than what I expected, wanted and needed🥲