Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Journey Under the Midnight Sun  Author: Keigo Higashino  ISBN: 978-1-4087-0411-0 Publisher: Little Brown  Type of book: Japan, 1973-1992, crime, murders, rape, mysteries, pedophilia, friendship, survival, career, technology, bubble burst, detective, lies, secrets, tradition, marriage, no tying up loose ends  Year it was published: 1999 (Trans 2015) Summary: When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are inextricably linked to the crime; the dark, taciturn son of the victim and the unexpectedly captivating daughter of the main suspect. Over the next twenty years we follow their lives as Sasagaki pursues the case - which remains unsolved - to the point of obsession. Stark, intriguing and stylish, Journey Under the Midnight Sun is an epic mystery by the bestselling Japanese author. Characters: So a lot of s...

Name of Book: A Passage North Author: Anuk Arudpragasam  ISBN: 978-0-593-23070-1 Publisher: Hogarth  Type of book: Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan civil war, university, modern times, India, death, life, sacrifice, philosophy, meditation, rituals, relationships, complexity  Year it was published: 2021 Summary: A young man journeys into Sri Lanka's war-torn north in this searing novel of longing, loss, and the legacy of war from the award-winning author of The Story of a Brief Marriage. A Passage North begins with a message from out of the blue: a telephone call informing Krishan that his grandmother's caretaker, Rani, has died under unexpected circumstances--found at the bottom of a well in her village in the north, her neck broken by the fall. The news arrives on the heels of an email from Anjum, an impassioned yet aloof activist Krishnan fell in love with years before while living in Delhi, stirring old memories and desires from a world he left behind. As Krishan makes the long j...

  Title of the book: Drafted: a memoir of the 60s  Author: Heywood Gould  Publisher: Tolmitch Press  Publishing Date: 2021 ISBN: 978-1-63760-534-9 Summary: It's 1966, and young Heywood Gould, a Brooklyn boy with literary ambitions, has his dream job. He is a reporter at the ultra liberal (that's right liberal) New York Post, alongside young writers like Nora Ephron, Pete Hamill and Anthony Scaduto. New York is a newspaper town, six dailies trying to beat each other to the big story. He revels in the action and competition. It's one of the most consequential moments in American history. Gould chases stories about the civil rights struggle, the anti-war movement, riots and rat infestation and World's Fair scandals. He covers everything from toy shows to murder trials. This is the best training for an apprentice writer. Then he gets that fateful letter that begins, "Greetings." After five years of dodging, Uncle Sam has caught up with him. He's been caught in...

Name of Book: Build Your House Around My Body Author: Violet Kupersmith  ISBN: B08KSV85QZ Publisher: Random house  Type of book: Vietnam, 1900s-2010s, identity, drifting, supernatural, spirit, revenge, history, women, snakes, animals, teaching, punishment, body functions  Year it was published: 2021 Summary: A century of Vietnam's history and folklore comes to life in this "brilliant, sweeping epic that swaps spirits and sheds time like snakeskin" (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Survivor Song). Two young women go missing decades apart. Both are fearless, both are lost. And both will have their revenge. 1986 The teenage daughter of a wealthy Vietnamese family loses her way in an abandoned rubber plantation while fleeing her angry father and is forever changed. 2011 A young, unhappy Vietnamese American woman disappears from her new home in Saigon without a trace. The fates of these two women are inescapably linked, bound together by past generations...

Book-wise, July was a pretty bad month for books because I hadn't gotten many as I hoped or wanted to for that matter. I don't know about August, I don't want to set my hopes up high. I have started listening to Dannii Minogue, and have also began to write some reviews and am planning on writing more reviews as time goes on. I boxed all the books I had and am just doing my usual. Other than that, nothing new to report.   Possible reads: The Tumbling Turner Sisters by Juliette Fay Friendswood by Rena Steinke  The Cadeuceus and the Swastika by Steven M Hacker The suspect by Fiona Barton The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Mothers and other strangers by Gina Sorrell  The Eighth Girl by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung  How to betray your country by James Wolff  The measure of time by Gianrico Carofiglio Western Europe in Medieval Ages by Brian Tierney  A History of Modern Europe I by John Merriman       A History of Modern Europe II by J...

The suspect- Fiona Barton SR: August 16th, 2021  FR:  August 19th, 2021 The measure of time- Gianrico Carofiglio  SR: August 3rd, 2021  FR:  Genesis- Robin Cook SR: July 21st, 2021 FR: August 3rd, 2021 The silent girl- Tess Gerritsen  SR: August 19th, 2021 FR: Journey Under the Midnight Sun- Keigo Higashino SR: July 21st, 2021 FR: August 1st, 2021 Cometh he hour-Annie Whitehead  SR: August 21st 2021 FR: How to betray your country- James Wolff  SR: August 6th, 2021  FR: August 16th, 2021  Nonfiction: Drafted, a memoir of the 60s- Heywood Gould  SR: July 21st, 2021 FR August 3rd, 2021 A history of the Roman people by Allen M Ward SR: August 1st ,2021 FR: