dyingotters's reviews
14 reviews

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

emotional funny reflective relaxing

4.5

Though I genuinely could not have cared for the book's premise, I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable story. The subtle humour and the mundane reminds me a lot of Natsume Soseki's style. One of the best things about this book has to be Stevens himself: I found that I was always kept on edge by his unreliable narration, about other characters and his own character. Nothing is as he describes it - his father was never shown to be as competent as he described, Lord Darlington is not a good or honourable man, and Stevens himself, though always on about work and virtue, is a character bound to be more than an emotionless working machine that he so desperately wants to be. "Day Two - Morning" is one of the most engaging and well-written book chapters I have read in a long time, encompassing everything I liked about this book.

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

3.0

Getting the problems out of the way: I'm not fond of the writing style, I definitely did not find the essay/memoir/interview mixture format effective. The concepts she's presenting as "new information" are not new to me which made the reading experience kind of boring. I've been asexual for quite a few years and I was pretty involved in the community, but if I were to read this book three years ago when things like AVEN, allonormativity, or intersectional queerness were all relatively new ideas to me, I would've enjoyed it more. But since I read it now, I cannot tell you how much I learned, or could relate to from this book, which was unexpected since me and the author are both asexual and chinese.

I really do appreciate how comprehensive this book is to introducing people to asexuality. She presented information in a way that's easily understandable, and I can imagine how it could be accessible to people new to asexuality/queer studies, younger people, ESL people, etc. I finally read this book after years of it being on my to-read list because I saw that the bookstore had it, and I've witnessed other people buying this book too. I can imagine how this book can act as people's introduction to asexuality, eventually opening up deeper discussions.

Palestine: A Socialist Introduction by Sumaya Awad, Brian Bean

4.5

Comprehensive, socialist look on Palestine, relating the occupation to a global scale and creating a flow throughout the book that incites motivation for change instead of defeat.

Chapters I think are important:
1 Roots of the Nakba: Zionist Settler Colonialism - good introduction with nuanced discussions about how Zionism relies on antisemitism as a way to victimize themselves, while the ideology not only perpetuates antisemitism but is built upon it amongst other things

7 What Palestinians Ask of Us: The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement - an interview with Omar Barghouti, founder of the BDS movement

9 Cops Here, Bombs There: Black-Palestinian Solidarity - analysis on the correlation between the injustice black people in the US and Palestinians in Palestine face

Since it's a collection, you could read one or a few selected chapters from this book and still gain knowledge about a certain issue

Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

3.75

I always appreciate the attention that Ocean Vuong gives to his depiction of Vietnam, and his mother and father. You understand his love, loss, and everything in between

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

4.75

In the first half of the book, I kept making the joke in my head that this is the kind of random shit that me as an autistic person would think of and get seriously anxious about. In the second half of the book I understood that my "joke" was not just a joke - I understood the story as an able-bodied man suddenly becoming disabled one day, he was no longer productive the way he used to be, he no longer served his employer or his family the same way he used to. He went from a hard-working man to a disgusting creature in other people's eyes and the only thing he could do was to be locked in a room, isolated. The humour from the absurdist plot fades out when you understand that this is not far from the reality that many disabled people (though it could apply to many others - immigrants, people in poverty, etc.) live in. It is not absurd that many people become shut-ins from the sheer pressure that you must always be the standard kind of person for society, or no matter how upstanding you used to be - you will become mere garbage to be disposed of.

To Strip the Flesh by Oto Toda

emotional hopeful fast-paced

4.0

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

informative inspiring reflective

4.0

A short, comprehensive book that looks at capitalism in our world today and how it can possibly affect everything. Grim by the nature of the topic but still insightful, and importantly hopeful.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

The first time I heard of this book was when I found and bought it at a local secondhand bookstore, so I had zero idea what the book talks about or how it was perceived by Sherlock Holmes fans. I don't want to say what is "essential" or non-essential for Sherlockians but this book is definitely 100% worth the time of a devoted fan (and maybe a bit hard to follow for a casual enjoyer, but personally my years of fixation for my autistic special interest has adequately prepared me for this one).

This book looks at Sherlock Holmes through every aspect of him: his inspiration, his introduction, methods, death and return, his author, adaptations, illustrations, etc.... Despite all that there is one theme that Vincent Starrett revisits throughout the book, and that is the existence of Sherlock Holmes. Often times in the subtext and few in the literal text, Starrett ponders about the meaning of "existing". Sherlock Holmes is a funny case of existence: many people thinks he was real, more treat him like he was real, and few treat him as a fictional character who has nothing to do with the real world. It's common knowledge that the whole England was experiencing grief after The Final Problem, even my mom, when I told her about this book, asked me if Sherlock Holmes was a real person. Starrett also entertains the reality of Holmes and Watson in his text, theorizing that Watson had a bad memory for details, and discussing bad adaptations as not having consulted Doyle and Watson. Starrett described Doyle as a creator who shares the likeness of his creation, and suggested that the real "death" of Sherlock Holmes came with the death of Doyle. The way this book blurred the line between reality and fiction - it almost gave me a new understanding of the relationship between the terms "Doylist" and "Watsonian".

All in all very glad I read this book. I was thoroughly entertained and informed and it's given me a deeper and better understanding of, not only what is within, but what is outside of Sherlock Holmes as a character. My favourite quote (which I read before reading this book) is:

"So they still live for all that love them well: in a romantic chamber of the heart: in a nostalgic country of the mind: where it is always 1895."

Goodbye, Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto

emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

Genuinely enjoy the way Fujimoto write characters in grief because it's so unconventional. Yuta has weird/personal ways of coping that ppl would dismiss as being insensitive (even if it is his own mom).

I also love the dedication to show the story through Yuta's phone recordings. Fujimoto wrote unreliable narration really well because we don't learn about some traits of mom/Eri until way later - we only see them as how Yuta want them remembered. the panelling is so simple it's almost crude if not for the fact that it pushes the idea that we're seeing everything through the recording from a phone screen, plus the way each panel paces itself, like the times when we just see the same panel over and over again save the dialogue that is happening "off screen". it's cinematic and that's what makes this manga panelling genius despite its simplicity.

One thing that almost threw me off was 1. grown up yuta's whole family dying in a car crash 2. Eri being a vampire, BUT 1. He was middle aged atp and thats just how life is, you go through loss and you go through some more. I get it but it was a bit soap opera dramatic in the moment. 2. When I thought more about the vampire thing tbh I understand. The image of him going back to that place all those years later, again suicidal and alone but now old and tired, and Eri's still sitting in the same place looking the same way she did. I guess it's less about her genuinely being a vampire and more about the idea of "dead people". They don't just disappear off the face of earth if you still remember them, but they'll always stay the age of when you met them to when they died, like vampire Eri dying and then coming back to life to relive everything, to die again and to "reincarnate" again. The "vampire" being just the Eri that Yuta remembers.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Emotional abuse

Golden Kamuy Vol. 31 by Satoru Noda

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25