Review: How to Become a People Magnet: 62 Life-Changing Tips to Attract Everyone You Meet

How to Become a People Magnet: 62 Life-Changing Tips to Attract Everyone You Meet by Marc Reklau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This would make a good online list, a la Kevin Kelly. Very sales-oriented. Ways to sound/look nice and make the other person like you. If you've read other business/sales books, or studied sales, you've probably heard all of these. Still, might be good to review. 

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Review: Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success

Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success by Shane Snow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As with many business/self-help books, this is a list that could've been a good blog post. The author adds examples, many of which are personal anecdotes. 

The examples, as well as the points he makes, seem good enough, and I took notes. But as with any business book, this lacks the list of people who followed every single step he mentions and still didn't attain success. Of course, anything like that would defeat the purpose, and it is impossible to literally analyze every single person who followed these same steps, but it would still help. 

Obviously I know there aren't "Step-by-step" instructions that guarantee success in business, but it seems like this fact could at least be addressed. You can definitely study masters, catch the wave, find a superconnector, 10x it, etc. and still not attain success. 

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Review: Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued by Dorothy Gilman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jumping around between suburbia, infiltrating a circus and flying off to an invented African country seemed like a bit too much for one book about a middle-aged white-haired detective.

2.5 stars

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Review: The Taipei Chinese PEN—A Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Chinese Literature from Taiwan《中華民國筆會英文季刊─譯之華》 N. 207

The Taipei Chinese PEN—A Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Chinese Literature from Taiwan《中華民國筆會英文季刊─譯之華》 N. 207 by Various
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another good collection of poems and essays. I'm not sure why they changed the name of the journal to "Florescence". 

"National Language - The Voice of the Other" by Sen Kim Soon was my favorite.  

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Review: Puppet Flower: A Novel of 1867 Formosa

Puppet Flower: A Novel of 1867 Formosa by Yao-Chang Chen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you've been in Taiwan long enough, you will hear about the Rover incident. Unfortunately, it, like much of Taiwanese history, isn't studied or known very well by Taiwanese (who grew up learning more about Chinese history than Taiwanese), so it is difficult to get a feel for what happened exactly. 

This book did exactly that. Many familiar names (Pickering, LeGendre and Tauketok, among others) and many new names. I guess I only wish it specified who was a real historical figure and who wasn't. Were they all real? If so, I wish it talked more about Butterfly and her family and their fate. 

The story itself was great, although I can't say I liked the ending as much. I see how it was trying to tie several things together, but it seemed to rush a lot of history and make it fit an odd narrative. 

Anyway, that is sort of nitpicking. All in all it was a great book. 

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Review: Hunter School

Hunter School by Sakinu Ahronglong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The risk with these types of memoirs/personal histories is that they generally have a theme, or message (get back to nature, progress is bad, etc.), and often the message takes precedence rather than the history, where the end result is a preachy book where you have to dig to find glimpses into the real history. 

I almost didn't get past the first few pages of this book, because it seemed like it was going to have exactly that type of issue. Luckily, however, it seemed to be more a recollection of memories and Paiwan traditions than anything too preachy or righteous. 

I do wish we could get something like this from every indigenous group in Taiwan, and not just Paiwan. 

Very interesting to learn about the animosity between Paiwan and Amis as well. 

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Review: The Invisibility Cloak

The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent book. I confess I wasn't sure about the significance of the "Invisibility cloak". It is mentioned, almost in passing, that a man (who had since died) was said to have an invisibility cloak so people couldn't see him, although the narrator said he saw him several times, so that wasn't true. 

But then, my favorite line from the novel was:

"the best attributes of anyone or anything usually reside on the surface, which is where, in fact, all of us live out our lives. Everyone has an inner life, but it’s best if we leave it alone. For as soon as you poke a hole through that paper window, most of what’s inside simply won’t hold up to scrutiny."

And I realized this had a lot to do with the invisibility cloak. Another reviewer mentioned that the speakers may pass this cloak on to its owners, which sort of fits well, since the narrator got the speakers from the deceased man. 

I started racking my brain trying to decipher the connection, but then I remembered another quote by the narrator:

"Do you mind if I contribute my thoughts to this one? If you could just stop nitpicking and dissecting every little thing, if you could learn to keep one eye closed and one eye open, and quit worrying about everything and everybody, you might discover that life is actually pretty fucking beautiful. Am I right?"

5 stars

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Review: Trust

Trust by Domenico Starnone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had initially wanted to read this in Italian, and then follow it up with the English version, but since I already had the English version I figured I may as well read it. I'm a fan of both the author and the translator, so I was curious to see how the story turned out. 

All in all I really enjoyed the first part (probably a bit over 60% of the book), but the second and third parts didn't attract me as much. Especially Emma's section. Was she supposed to come across like that? And Teresa, far from being what the narrator described her as initially, came across as more simple and childish. 

Regardless, I still enjoyed it. I will probably wait a while and then read the Italian version, to see if it feels different or not. 

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Review: Heaven

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm taking 2 stars off because of the ending, but adding one back on because the translation was excellent (there is even some wordplay which works perfectly in English. I'm not sure how it was in Japanese). Kudos to both translators. 

None of the reviews seem too bothered by this, but the ending seemed unnatural, disrupting to the flow of the book, and the way it happened didn't solve anything. Obviously, by this I mean (SPOILERS AHEAD) the fact that Kojima is out of the picture all of a sudden. The narrator just says he never sees her again. No explanation as to why he wouldn't, how come he's not even curious, nor how she faired after this seemingly cathartic ordeal. 

In fact, thinking about it, I'm taking removing the star once more. 

2 stars. 

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Review: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William Manchester
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Knowing this third and final book in the trilogy of The Last Lion, I started off thinking the feel was very different, and  it seemed like it wouldn't fit in well with the other two books. I'm convinced at least half of this was my preconception. The fact is, however, that even if it does have a slightly different "feel", it still fits in nicely. 

In essence this book covers world war II, which covered Churchill's life during those years, so it is apt. It does feel a bit rushed after that (and certainly on the fate of his children after his death), but that doesn't necessarily detract from the substance of the book. 

It is truly remarkable how monumental Winston Churchill was during the war, and to think how different the outcome would have been had someone else been in charge. The outcome for Great Britain was the end of its empire and its country's economy shattered, and yet it would have been so much worse with pretty much anyone else at the helm. 

TL;DR: 5 stars. 

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Review: Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa

Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa by Kenji Miyazawa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't enjoy this as much as I should have, probably. Given I am not the target market, and that many of the allusions to earth gods and foxes and the like are over my head, I'm sure I didn't get as much out of this as was intended. 

Still, these are short, comfortable stories, and I'm happy I stuck with them since the last one (The Nighthawk Star) was probably my favorite. 

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Review: Of Wolves and Men

Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have no idea why this was on my wishlist, but I'm very glad it was. 

As another commenter mentioned, this is just as much a book about the relationship between humans and wolves as it is a book about wolves. It also discusses the evolution of this relationship and how it differs from place to place. 

Reading this book is probably as close as I will ever get to entering the mentality of wolves. Even though it is second hand (I'm entering the mentality of someone endeavoring to enter the mentality of wolves) it is still an eye-opening experience. 

The focus of the chapters will run the gamut, from history to folklore to science to hanging out with Native Americans to the author raising wolves himself, so some chapters will go by more quickly than others. But all in all it will almost certainly be worth it. 

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Review: Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Emily Dickinson could probably never have imagined the century-long drama her poetry would spark. 

This book has it all: adultery, inheritance, multi-generational family feuds, ultra-religiosity, editing of original documents, 'canceling', etc. 

Fair warning: this book also has more 'Dickinson' than 'Emily'. While the first half is a biography of the poet's life, and covers her reclusiveness, possible epilepsy, relations with her family (including Sue), the second half is where the book really seems to get going.

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Review: Hotel Iris

Hotel Iris by Yōko Ogawa
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I see some people compared this book to Lolita, although I guess it would be more fair to compare it to Duras’ “The Lover”.

However, “The Lover” was autobiographical. As far as I can tell, this is not, and it frankly comes off as sensationalist. A 60-something year old sexual aggressor repeatedly r*pes a 17 year old, and she naively longs for it, and for him. She ends up hooking up with another boy closer to her age (and the aggressor ‘punishes’ her for this) and there is S&M in the mix too. I guess much of this is due to the lack of a father and an overbearing mother? Not sure. What I do know is that this book was a disappointment after having read “The Housekeeper and the Professor”, as well as “Revenge”, which were both superb in their own way.

2 stars



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