Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

When I asked in my recent acquisitions post which book you suspected I had already read, nobody guessed Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa. One of the shortest books on the stack and also by the same writer of one of my favourite reads of the year so far, it was a natural choice for me; [...]

Recent Acquisitions

Here is a bundle of my latest review copies (and one competition win) for the bibliophilic voyeurs amongst you. Many thanks to Kirsty of Oxford University Press; Alice of Bloomsbury; Meike of Peirene Press; Fiona of Vintage; Harvey of Windmill and Rosamund of Penguin for supplying my summer, challenge and classic reading needs. I read [...]

Japanese Literature Challenge

I’m not a great one for completing reading challenges; I love the excitement to begin with and going through my books (and books I want to read but don’t yet have) and compiling a list for the challenge but for me that’s the most exciting part. Soon I become bogged down by not having met [...]

The Housekeeper & the Professor

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa is a tender exploration of the relationship between a housekeeper, her client the maths Professor and her son, Root, who is so-called by the Professor because his flat head reminds him of a square root sign. The Professor suffered brain-damage in a car accident seventeen years previously [...]