Top Ten Books for Library Week 2025

Posted on April 8, 2025 by WordsAndPeace

Top Ten Books
for Library Week 2025

TTT for April 8
#TopTenTuesday

📚 📚 📚

Today, we are supposed to use springy covers.
The theme does not really inspire me.
It’s National Library Week in the US (April 6-12), so I went rogue and chose titles from my shelves with the word library in the title.

Click on the picture to access my list

Of the four I have read, I so enjoyed
The Library at Night, by Alberto Manguel– check my reviews.
And The Stranger Library, by Haruki Murakami

Now, let me know which ones in my TBR I should really read, and why.

Have YOU read
or are YOU planning to read any of these?
Please leave the link to your own post,
so I can visit.

Notes and book review: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Posted on March 26, 2025 by WordsAndPeace

📚 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and
the End of the World,
by Haruki Murakami
Japanese literary fiction/magical realism
世界の終りとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド
was first published in 1985
Translated by Alfred Birnbaum
US publication:
2003
400 pages
Read back in April 2020

I recently presented here Haruki Murakami’s latest novel: The City and Its Uncertain Walls, and of course I had to mention its close conenction with a previous novel: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

Actually, rereading these notes now after reading The City and Its Undecertain Walls, is a neat experience, reconnecting both books!

I read that book back in 2020, with the amazing Discord Murakami book club.
We read many books by Murakami together, it was a dynamic and very enriching group. Alas, it died with Covid.
Unfortunately, I had not saved all my posts there, and I lost all my sharings when the channel was discontinued. I wasn’t able to reconnect with any other participant either. If you were one of them, please let me know.

Anyway, thankfully, there was a major exception: I had saved most of my notes for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World on another file, so it’s high time to share them with you today.
This has no scholarly aim: I just want to share my impressions, questions and reflections, and passages I really liked.

Click to continue reading

2025: February wrap-up

Posted on February 28, 2025 by WordsAndPeace

FEBRUARY 2025 WRAP-UP

I read almost as many books as last month, but apparently, much shorter ones.

📚 Here is what I read in February:

14 books
10 in print
= with 1,658 pages, a daily average of 59 pages/day
4 in audio
= 22H43, a daily average of 48 minutes/day

3 in poetry:

No Voyage and Other Poems, by Mary Oliver
The River Styx, Ohio and Other Poems, by Mary Oliver
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

3 in children/YA fiction:

Tales from Moominvalley (The Moomins #7), by Tove Jansson
Whoever Steals this Book (#1), by Nowaki Fukamidori – manga
With a Dog and a Cat, Every Day is Fun #1, by Hidekichi Matsumoto – manga

2 in mystery:

A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs (The Felse Investigations #4), by Ellis Peters – audio
The Listerdale Mystery (The Golden Ball #1), by Agatha Christie – audio

2 in scifi:

Voyage dans la lune, by Cyrano de Bergerac – audio
Hard to Be a God, by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

2 in nonfiction:

Abridged Classics, by John Atkinson
Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, by Guy Delisle – review on Sunday

1 in historical fiction:

Le dernier jour d’un condamné, by Victor Hugo – review on Sunday

1 in literary fiction:

Cinq cœurs en sursis, by Laure Manel – audio – review on Sunday

I asked an AI what connections they could see between all the books I have read this past montth. I love the answer:
“While the books listed are diverse, they share commonalities in exploring themes of identity, nature, and the human condition. The connections are more thematic than genre-specific, reflecting broader interests in understanding human existence and our place in the world.” (perplexity.ai)

MY FAVORITE BOOKS THIS PAST MONTH

READING CHALLENGES & OTHER RECAP

Total of books read in 2025 = 29/165 (18%, 3 books ahead in Goodreads challenge)
Classics Club 5th list: 17/100 (from December 2024-until November 2029)
Agatha Christie Short Stories Challenge 2025: 2/12
Tove Jansson buddyread with Mallika @ Literary Potpourri: 2/12
Japanese Literature Challenge: 5/8 books
Hundred Years Hence Reading Challenge (#HYH25) (hosted by Neeru) = 1/4
BookBound: 10
Number of books added to my TBR this past month = 44

📚Compared to my February plans: not too bad

My February TBR = 5/7
1 book for my BookBound project = 1
From my TBR: 1 book in print = 1
~~a book in Spanish/Italian – alternate~~
~~From my TBR: the last one I ran into on a blog, etc~~
~~From my TBR: from my jar or 1 I recently added to my TBR~~
From my TBR: 2 classics at least = 8
1 audiobook in French = 1
January-February Japanese challenge = 5/8
1 Moomin book/month = 1
1 for Agatha Christie Short Stories Challenge = 1

📚 In February,
– I traveled to: Canada, England, France, Israel, Japan, US (Ohio), space, and Moominvalley.
– 8 books I read were published between 1657-1965
– I read 5 books in translation (from the French, Japanese, Russian ,Swedish)
– I read 3 books in French
– 8 books came from my public library

In February, I

did a buddyread with Mallika: Tales from Moominvalley (The Moomins #7), by Tove Jansson
participated in the annual Japanese Literature Challenge
started posting for #MurderEveryMonday

OTHER BOOKS REVIEWED THIS PAST MONTH