This had one of those pretty and beautifully imaginary airs around it. I felt like I was reading not as much a work of fiction but maybe a collection of Dante's paradise at times with the descriptions of what an ocean with all of the sky around it looks like. Lots of similarities to Life of Pi and you should definitely read LOP first before this (reminder to go back and reread LOP as well lol).

Spoiler alert it's not often that I give a book here a perfect 5 rating (especially considering the fact that I can't rate more specifically than in increments of 1) however this was potentially a perfect 5. I thought Cream was quite well done and would love to consider more the idea that Murakami is talking about Dante's 7 circles of hell. On a stone pillow was also absolutely wonderful and quite a hopeless romantic story but I think that there are bits and pieces to take from that regardless. Charlie Parker plays bossa nova started off well but I wish the author had elongated the encounter between the narrator and Charlie Parker - but then again, maybe that's the point of the story and the encounter is intentionally short. With the Beatles was also nice, and I think that if/when I reread it I'd like to read more about the Beatles before. Confessions of a Shinagawa monkey was my favorite story BY FAR and I think that the concept down to the vivid descriptions leaves so much for the reader to want. If there was one story that I would want adapted into visual format it would probably be this one, but at the same time the story was so vivid that I was playing a movie in my head either way. Carnaval was incredibly well done and rekindled a bit of classical music listener in me. I'm not sure what the overarching meaning of the "ugly" motif was but maybe I'll understand it my next time around. On the downside, the Yakult swallows poetry collection was my least favorite. I'd like to think that the interspersed poetry was not the entirety of the reason why, but it just may have been. I also think the baseball imagery was harder to resonate with because I don't know the full background of Japanese baseball. If it was the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox I may have understood the relations and context more, but I think that I was missing something. First person singular (the story) was quite well done but I wish there was a bit more closure towards the end. All in all, this collection was wonderful and leaves me interested in picking up a Murakami book sometime soon - perhaps 1Q84, Kafka on the Shore, or Norwegian Wood.

Super powerful book, kind of a lot going on with different stories, but I sent the author an email after. It was reminiscent of an Achebe essay I read once. Also enjoyed learning about the different stories of Ci Waras and Lagos.

Some stories great some not so good. I liked the story of the cellist and the story of the guitarist in the hills. The first story wasn't great, but overall solid collection. I want to do Never Let Me Go next.

Great story of grit and ambition. Honestly really liked the middle to end parts - I thought the beginning was a bit dense. However, that density made sense because so much of Joe's life was a result of the way he was treated by his family. All in all a great book, at times dense and at times slow, but I praise it for it never had me flipping back a few pages to remember who someone was (which is my biggest plight of nonfiction).

Really good short stories - I've always been a fan of sci-fi and Asimov in general but I had not looked at his short stories until yet. I think this was a great time to read it with all of these new developments in AI (chatGPT, autonomous robots, etc.) and the story "All the Troubles of the World" really stuck out to me here. "I want to die" such a cool way to end the story and also chilling in a lot of ways. Multivac stories are something I will come back to over the next few years.

A million sunsets.

Spoiler alert very good collection favorite story was Hema and Kaushik three part and Only Goodness (Sudha/Rahul alcoholism story).

Connections were unique and made each next story better than the previous.

Hilarious book, and one of those ones you can read over and over and not get bored. I think there's a whole series and a lot more to Townsend that I have yet to read, but the format and structure of this brought me back to early middle school.

Fascinating work. My ratings are all surely inflated but I thought this was a really well written work. Parts were dense, and it's easy to get lost in the poetry, but this was a great way to get subsequent recommendations. F Scott Fitzgerald comes across as very well read and versed in the various works of authors far and wide. Amory's love with various women was fun to track. Of particular note were his relationship (and similarities) with Myra to Isabelle to Rosalind to Eleanor. Amory was never going to tie the knot, but it was a thrilling exercise to hope he did every time. I wish the end wasn't so introspective and sad. Don't we all.

At times it was pretty and nostalgic and all of the feelings that come with revisiting a "friend" (or in some sense a time) of your youth. In these moments the writing was no short of vivid imagery and capable of providing me with enough firepower to remember myself once upon a time. At other times the book was rather rambling and without an end - metaphors I felt could have been expanded further or at least concentrated into pieces that a reader could tear apart piece by piece instead of left wondering where the motif lay.

I think this number of stars is liable to fluctuating over time as I revisit this book (or rather my thoughts on it) but let's give it a 3 for now. It's quite rich - at many junctions was I thinking of the hero's journey, the meaning of metaphors, and other literary elements and symbolism. However, it's almost too rich to understand and make sense of. The story is segmented into pieces that make it bite sized but all meaningful in the context of the large truth that Rushdie explores - he truly is a unique genius.

Such a great book; almost every part had a purpose, and even though it flip-flopped chronologically it felt redeeming to find out why at the end. It made me really feel for sons like Amar and fathers like Rafiq.

In true Hosseini fashion, the ending is so sad it is almost unimaginable, but generally the book felt heart-wrenching and valuable. I left with the sense that the small actions over time compound to make really big waves in the ocean between two people.

I haven't read many books or short stories from a woman's perspective, so this collection was enlightening. I found myself thinking hard about breaking points: what brings a human there, what forces a turnaround, and what forces a recession.

I didn't realize at the time that this was based on Sahota's own family experience, but it was a decent read. After seeing new-age narratives mirror the past so often, it was refreshing to find a new spin; Mehar and the young man mirror each other in a delightful way.

Pretty interesting. The five stages are something I find myself thinking about often, but what stuck most was Bill Gore's "waterline" principle for decision-making and risk-taking: imagine being on a ship where a bad decision blows a hole in the hull. Above the waterline you can patch it, learn, and sail on, but below the waterline you risk gouging the ship and letting water rush in, the kind of catastrophic bets that sank financial firms in 2008. Great enterprises still make bold bets, but avoid the ones that sink the ship.

Decent read, another one to add to the canon of Indian-American short stories. Stereotypes matter and are often quickly missed.

Pretty nice read, it was cool to learn about Dehradun. The simplicity of life, the joy of childhood, and the different worlds we grow up in really stuck with me.

So so so hilarious, great recommendation from Dad.

Hemingway is interesting in the sense that often he puts bits of meaning and true literary beauty in the middle of a dense description of something that seems relatively inconsequential, and that's the tricky part. At his best he's insightful and beautiful in a nostalgic way, and at other times I'm falling asleep lost in description. I think that this book left more of an impression on me for the descriptions of Africa, but I want to read authentic African authors in order to develop a more nuanced perspective on African literature. This was a good jaunt into the space, but high on my to-read is now Achebe and some other authors who don't hinge their appreciation for Africa around hunting (and by extension perhaps just a desire to take without giving).

Liked the Biju chapters, could've passed on the older ones. Good book nonetheless and quite historical. Poetic ending.

Mid book lowkey dragged the story.

Spoiler alert as far as plays go not enough dramatization for me, wish more of Sartre's existentialism came through. Premise was heart wrenching.

It was a bit too out there for me but a decent read. Some pretty parts (Daniel Nayeri "Everything Sad is Untrue" esque) and other confusing and kind of ethereal parts.