embracing-the-shortness

Latest Posts by embracing-the-shortness

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

“Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never could.”

How High We Go in the Dark || Sequoia Nagamatsu ★★★★☆ Started: 31.05.2025 Finished: 07.06.2025

Dr. Cliff Miyashiro arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue his recently deceased daughter's research, only to discover a virus, newly unearthed from melting permafrost. The plague unleashed reshapes life on earth for generations. Yet even while struggling to counter this destructive force, humanity stubbornly persists in myriad moving and ever inventive ways. Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet. From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.

The River Has Roots || Amal El-Mohtar ★★★★★ Started: 22.05.2025 Finished: 01.06.2025 In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

When We Were Orphans || Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★ Started: 24.05.2025 Finished: 30.05.2025

Beautiful World, Where Are You || Sally Rooney ★★☆☆☆ Started: 12.05.2025 Finished: 24.05.2025 This was, unfortunately, not a very pleasant experience overall… I think I might have enjoyed "Beautiful World, Where Are You" if I had already been a fan of Sally Rooney, what with Alice's letters being essentially letters the author could have written in real life, but given that this was the first book of hers I read, the musings just felt like being lectured at by a person you barely know and don't particularly like. The remaining three main characters, whose lives we'd follow in every other chapter, likewise, were hard to root for - I'm no stranger to a flawed character, but maybe 30 chapters of Unpeasant characters being actively Unpleasant to each other and, despite that, ending up in what I'm sure will be ultimately Unpleasant relationships with each other is a tad bit much.

We Do Not Part || Han Kang ★★★★★ Started: 08.05.2025 Finished: 21.05.2025 One morning in December, Kyungha is called to her friend Inseon’s hospital bedside. Airlifted to Seoul for an operation following a wood-chopping accident, Inseon is bedridden and begs Kyungha to take the first plane to her home on Jeju Island to feed her pet bird, who will quickly die unless it receives food. Unfortunately, as Kyungha arrives a snowstorm hits. Lost in a world of snow, she begins to wonder if she will arrive in time to save the bird – or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. But she doesn't yet suspect the darkness which awaits her at her friend's house. There, the long-buried story of Inseon's family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive, documenting the terrible massacre seventy years before that saw 30,000 Jeju civilians murdered. I went into "We Do Not Part" with incredibly high expectations, owing to the overwhelmingly positive reviews it had garnered, and I can wholeheartedly say, they did not lie. Han Kang's latest novel is nothing short of remarkable. It's heavy, it's emotionally impactful, it is, in one word, extraordinary.

The Bell Jar || Sylvia Plath ★★★★★ Started: 03.05.2025 Finished: 06.05.2025 Working as an intern for a New York fashion magazine in the summer of 1953, Esther Greenwood is on the brink of her future. Yet she is also on the edge of a darkness that makes her world increasingly unreal. Esther's vision of the world shimmers and shifts: day-to-day living in the sultry city, her crazed men-friends, the hot dinner dances... The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's only novel, is partially based on Plath's own life. It has been celebrated for its darkly funny and razor-sharp portrait of 1950's society and has sold millions of copies worldwide. The Bell Jar was simply sensational - I'd been interested in reading it for ages, but I never thought I'd enjoy it so much! The writing is sublime, and Esther is a little too relatable for comfort...

A Language of Dragons || S.F. Williamson ★★★★☆ Started: 23.04.2025 Finished: 05.05.2025 London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivian Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war. With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job’, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort – if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die. I'll come clean - I only got this book because of the stunning international edition with the blue cover and sprayed edges. Luckily, the content did not let me down either - the main plotline of cracking the secret dragon code / language was fascinating. The advertised enemies to lovers romance was, truthfully, barely enemies to lovers at all, but since that was never the main draw for me, I didn't mind this one bit. And though at times A Language of Dragons feels a little too ostensibly "Babel meets Fourth Wing", with heavy emphasis on the Babel influence, it was overall still a very enjoyable read.

Анна Ин в гробниците на света || Олга Токарчук ★★★★★ Started: 27.04.2025 Finished: 01.05.2025 "Анна Ин в гробниците на света" е единствената книга от поредицата "Myths" на издателство "Cannongate", която не е преведена на английски, но за огромен мой късмет съществува това прекрасно издание на български. За пореден път се уверявам, че кураторът на поредицата Джейми Бинг е имал изключителен усет към адаптациите на митове - на фона на множеството посредствени преразкази на дневни митове, всяка една книга, избрана от него, е изключителна - и творбата на Олга Токарчук не е изключение. Тя не е просто преразказ на мита за слизането на Инана в Подземния свят: в думите на преводача Крум Крумов, "Олга Токарчук разглобява древния мит за богинята Инана, след което го нанизва наново върху конците на съвремието." - самата аз не бих могла да опиша творбата по по-добър начин.

An updated graphic for my 25 for 2025! My progress so far: 10/25 ☐ How High We Go In The Dark ☐ Vita Nostra ☐ Smila's Sense of Snow ☐ Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell ☐ House of Leaves ☐ Possession ☑ Pandora's Box ☑ A Dark and Drowning Tide ☐ Katabasis ☑ The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi ☐ Kürk Mantolu Madonna ☑ Mina's Matchbox ☑ Autobiography of Red ☑ We - A Novel ☑ Anxious People ☑ Yumi and the Nightmare Painter ☐ Out ☑ Анна Ин в Гробниците на Света ☑ Small Things Like These ☐ The Third Policeman ☐ The Snow Child ☐ Your Utopia ☐ The Book That Wouldn't Burn ☐ Mrs. Death Misses Death ☐ N.P.

Experimenting with a different kind of graphic for the April wrap-up! Finished up the Goodreads Community Favorites Challenge and made a little progress with my 25 for 2025!

Never Let Me Go || Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★ Started: 04.04.2025 Finished: 26.04.2025

Lessons in Chemistry || Bonnie Garmus ★★★★★ Started: 14.03.2025 Finished: 04.04.2025 Set in 1960s California; Lessons In Chemistry is the brilliant, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is derailed by the idea that a woman's place is in the home - something she most definitely does not believe - only to find herself the star of America's best-loved TV cooking show. Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant about picking up Lessons in Chemistry - mostly because of the quite unhelpful, quite pink, quite romance-coded US cover (nothing against romance, of course, just not what I'm looking for, most of the time). But then I came across the US edition with the periodic table cover and I simply had to know more - and I was not disappointed. Elizabeth Zott is such an incredible character, it was a true pleasure following her trials and tribulations along the pages of this book, and the family she found along the way was portrayed masterfully as well, no character flat or forgettable - it all made for a novel that was virtually impossible to put down. Definitely a strong start to April!

Hungerstone || Kat Dunn ★★☆☆☆ Started: 24.02.2025 Finished: 14.03.2025 Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for providing me with an ARC and giving me the opportunity to share my honest review. "Hungerstone" is, ostensibly, a very well-researched and painstakingly crafted novel, that unfortunately amounts to very little. Yes, the clothing and the cuisine described are era-appropriate, but they only make the novel tedious, at times even dull. By contrast, the characters seem to have been afforded less thought - the husband is a painfully one-dimensional caricature of a robber baron, the Carmilla of Dunn is nowhere near as eloquent as Le Fanu's, oftentimes she is simply rude to the point you can't understand how anyone could find her alluring, and the protagonist, Lenore, flounders through the pages, puppeteered, at different times, by her husband and then by Carmilla. She psychoanalyzes herself like a modern woman, unequivocally finding the roots of her problems in her traumatic childhood, and yet does nothing with that insight until Carmilla prods her into action. There is a lot of telling instead of showing, a lot of unambiguous hammering of the author's ideas that makes for a mostly unpleasant reading experience - the reader is not allowed to draw their own conclusions at any point, everything is conveniently spelled out on the page. In short, "Hungerstone", much like "Our Hideous Progeny", is a lukewarm (at best) retelling of a much more competent, enticing, exciting novel, interspersed with poorly planted 21st century feminism, that ends up being a mind-numbingly tedious experience. I can recognize the effort that went into this work, but just because something takes a lot of time and research, doesn't mean it's good.

Pandora's Box || Osamu Dazai ★★★★☆ Started: 24.02.2025 Finished: 13.03.2025 The war is over. Japan is defeated. Together with his country, a young man must rebuild his life. He will begin at a sanatorium, where everyone gets a nickname, surrounded by an interesting ensemble of patients and caregivers.

The Penelopiad || Margaret Atwood ★★★★★ Started: 28.07.2024 Finished: 29.07.2024 In Homer's account in The Odyssey, Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality—and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery. What a singularly brilliant exploration of Penelope, as she sees herself and as she is in turn seen by the twelve hanged maids. Atwood hasn't contented herself with depicting Penelope as the singular archetype of the faithful wife, but rather sought to illuminate the woman behind the myth. The writing, of course, is beyond reproach, and the approach to Penelope and the maidens as deities of their own matriarchal cult was a real highlight. And at only about two hundred pages, "The Penelopiad" is the very definition of "small but mighty" - I read it in a day and have been thinking about it ever since.

Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth || Natalie Haynes ★★☆☆☆ Started: 03.03.2025 Finished: 09.03.2025 Curiositas vincit omnia After being left thoroughly underwhelmed by Haynes's previous book, "Stone Blind", I wasn't all too willing to pick up "Divine Might". Unfortunately, my curiosity won, and I cracked it open, and had it not been for the flicker of hope this book gave me at the end of the first chapter with the paragraph about Sappho, I would not have finished it - I was hoping for similar insights about the other characters discussed in the book, and I got none. The narrative is very disjointed - Haynes has inundated her chapters with jokes that more often miss than hit, and with semi-fitting but ultimately uninteresting and dragging references to movies that are at best tangentially connected to the goddesses she writes about. There is a marked downgrade from "Pandora's Jar" - the discussion is nowhere near in depth or engaging. It's unfortunate to see an author's writing get worse and worse with every published book - I'm afraid this is the case with Natalie Haynes. It's hard to believe she was intrinsically motivated or inspired to write this book at all. In the chapter about Hestia (one of the weakest in the book, that tells very little, if anything, about the goddess), she admits to the following: "There comes a time in every author's life when she has to accept that she may not have made the absolute best possible decision. And the day when I blithely promised 10,000 words on a goddess who is barely mentioned in any ancient source, who makes no dent on the Renaissance? That may turn out to have been just such a time." Then why choose this particular goddess? Greek Mythology isn't lacking in goddesses, so why allocate that much literary real estate to a goddess you don't have much at all to say about? "Divine Might", while nowhere near as egregiously bad as "Stone Blind", was a frustrating read nonetheless - there are interesting points in there, but they are far too few and far in between to make this novel worth your time.