Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2014) by Haruki Murakami

Lovely, introspective, hypnotic, addictive. I wasn't surprised.

Even though I've only read one other Murakami novel so far (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles), I knew that this latest offering would be tantalizingly obscure and beautifully written. Murakami wields words like a master craftsman, making his complex creations seem so easy and effortless.

Books to Look For (August): Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Humor

Science Fiction

The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson (Tor Books, 336 pages, August 12)

It's the 22nd century, and when a group of terrorists crash a moon into the planet Ribon, aaaall kinds of schtuff hits the fan. Conspiracies abound, and it's up to two detectives to find the alien leader of the Movement of Worlds and find out who exactly this "Ultra Thin Man" is.

From the TBR Shelf #25: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Perdido Street Station (2000) by China Miéville

How does one write about a novel so charged, so phantasmagorically creepy, so beautiful as Perdido Street Station? I have to say, now, that between this and Embassytown, I'm completely hooked on anything Miéville writes. His prose is so dense with complex images and complicated descriptions, and characters whose particular points of view broaden our understanding of the worlds that he creates.

Miéville has also encouraged my burgeoning love of steampunk, describing "crisis engines" and circuits and analogue self-creating AIs. This alternative technology, though, fits right in with the alternative world of Bas-Lag, where magic ("thaumaturgy") and Victorian-era tech mingle in an early industrial world controlled by the militia and corrupt government officials. It's grimy, it's violent, and it's a hotbed of new ideas about art and science.

Random Recommendation Guest Post: Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

This recommendation comes from Amanda. You can follow her on Tumblr and on twitter @ShoutTheBoogie.



Double Indemnity (1943) by James M. Cain

This brief but brilliant crime novel explores why ordinary people are driven to do evil. Here, Cain tells the story of an insurance salesman who teams up with the unhappy wife of a wealthy client to kill that client and collect the "accident" insurance (which pays double indemnity, of course). Double Indemnity is a classic of the genre.

10 Upcoming Biographies and Histories in 2014

You may have guessed this already but I just miiiight have a tiny obsession with history: talking about it, reading about it… you know. And when it comes to books about historical events that focus on fascinating people and their roles in those events, I’m all over them.

You won’t be surprised, then, to see below a list of exciting upcoming releases in History and Biography through the end of this year. So you’ve got your tennis, your Broadway, your Bob Dylan, your circuses. What more could you possibly ask for?!

Ah, 2014, you’re too good to me.

Books to Look For (August): History, Comics/Graphic Novels, & Travel

History

Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered by Dianne Hales (Simon & Schuster, 336 pages, August 5)

Wut (I said to myself when I saw this title). After all, I thought the consensus was that we kinda sorta not really knew some things about the woman who posed for the painting but...Anyway, Hales has written a biography of this cryptic lady, Lisa Gherardini, and traced her back to the streets and neighborhoods of Florence where she lived at the turn of the 16th century. Looks fascinating.

In Translation: August Fiction

It’s time once again to topple your TBR stacks with some awesome newly-translated fiction! This month features two novels from Germany and one from Brazil.

(And for everyone getting all “BUT WHAT ABOUT MURAKAMI WHAT ABOUT COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI?!!?” I say, you know, I think that most Murakami fans already know about that particular new release in English, so I figured I’d highlight some others. And can I wait to read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki? NO I CANNOT WAIT).

From the TBR Shelf #24: The Man Who Saved the Union by H. W. Brands

The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace (2012) by H. W. Brands (Random House Audio Publishing Group; Books on Tape, 27 hrs, 51 mins)

I've got this thing about the American Civil War. No, I'm not a reenactor, or the kind of person who goes on pilgrimages to Gettysburg or Appomattox. However, I do love soaking up information about the people involved, the fateful decisions, the ways in which Americans ripped their own country apart and then worked equally hard to repair it.

The Man Who Saved the Union, then, was perfect for me. After all, it wasn't just about Grant; Brands uses the general to explore the issues of his time, which shaped who Grant would ultimately become. His life is the quintessential story of the person who rises up from nothing to become powerful and respected by an entire nation.

The Classics as Seinfeld Episodes

Admit it- back in the ’90s, you had the urge to send Larry David and Jerry ideas for Seinfeld episodes. Somehow, though, you lost your nerve, or lost the napkin upon which you scribbled your idea, or had it shot down by a cruel “friend.”

Well, this year marks the 25th year since the show debuted, and there’s a reason why it’s still in reruns: it was GENIUS.

So in honor of this milestone, we at the Riot wondered what Seinfeld episodes would have looked like if they’d been based on the classics (after all, it was literary at times, as Greg’s post shows).

Enjoy these Seinfeld-classics mashups and include your own in the comments!

Random Recommendation Guest Post: The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde

This recommendation comes from Kate Flegal. You can follow her on her blog The Book Junkie, on facebook, and on twitter @bookjunkieorg.



The Thursday Next series (2001 - ?) by Jasper Fforde

So far, the novels in this series about a detective who works inside fiction, include: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels, One of our Thursdays is Missing, The Woman Who Died a Lot, and Dark Reading Matter (TBA). Set in an alternate world, which Fforde created from a blend of SF, fantasy, horror, and romance, this series is "based upon the notion that what we read in books is just a small part of a larger BookWorld that exists behind the page" (Fforde).

Review: Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

Lucky Us (2014) by Amy Bloom

Let's start with the cover. It's whimsical, it's fanciful, it's...a bird standing on a zebra standing on a lion standing on a tightrope.

The use of this painting by Deborah Van Auten is particularly appropriate, however, because, like these figures, the characters in Lucky Us are balanced precariously on one another, coming together by chance and relying on one another for love and companionship despite their differences.

RIP: The Novel, Literature, and Everything Else

The following obits for the Novel, Review, Pen, Library, Reader, and Writer, were found in various newspapers- oh wait, aren’t newspapers dead, too?

The Novel

As the indomitably pessimistic Will Self has proclaimed, “the novel was the true Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk,” but now it is dead. Gone. Au revoir. Adios. Cyalata. The Novel, my friends, the Novel was a bright star, a shining light, a pillar of respectability, a beacon of hope for the thoughtful thinker. It died on June 18, 2014, surrounded by friends and family, which included the Biography and the Travelogue. The estranged Newspaper was also in attendance. Despite our tears, we must remember that the Novel had a long and fulfilling life, stretching from the 17th century to the 21st. The Novel was long, it was short, it was exquisite, it was hilarious, it was hardback, it was paperback. And now it is dead. Mourners are asked to take all of their Novels and bury them in their backyards out of respect.

Books to Look For (August): Biography, Literary Fiction, & Mystery

Biography

Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1104 pages, August 5)

From the biographer of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms comes a massive, definitive life of Beethoven, whose music and personality have become a part of our culture. Swafford traces Beethoven's life from his birth in Enlightenment-era Bonn to his later deafness and ill health, all the while exploring what made his compositions so extraordinary. And of course this biography had to be 1100+ pages- it's Beethoven!

Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

The Silkworm (2014) by Robert Galbraith

If you read my review of The Cuckoo's Calling, you'll know that I enjoyed it, but wasn't wowed by it. The Silkworm, though, was much livelier- a more complicated plot, more fully-drawn characters, and action, action, action.

In this, Detective Cormoran Strike's second high-profile case, a controversial writer goes missing, and when his wife turns to Strike for help, the result is a story of revenge, brutality, obsession, sex, and murder. The London publishing world, with its writers, agents, editors, and publishers (and their relationships), becomes a kind of underworld, where adulterous liaisons and shifting allegiances influence who publishes whom and who can bring out the next bestseller. And when infamous writer Owen Quine threatens to self-publish an "obscene" novel taking down almost every one he knows, and then winds up murdered in a grotesque, sadistic manner, Strike is hooked.

Random Recommendation Guest Post: Divison Street by Helen Mort

This recommendation comes from Joseph Spuckler. You can follow him on his Evil Cyclist's Blog, and on twitter @@evil_cyclist.



Division Street (2013) by Helen Mort

From the clash between striking miners and police to the conflicts in personal relationships, Helen Mort’s debut collection of poetry is marked by distance and division. Named for a street in Sheffield, Division Street explores the specificities of everyday life: the particularity of names, the reflections the world throws back at us, the precise moment of a realization. These poems show us how, at the site of conflict, a moment of creation and reconciliation can be born.