Biblio Reviews

"I just don't get it," was my response to reading my first  Haruki Murakami, his six-story collection,  After the Quake  (2002), set in the aftermath of the Kobe Earthquake of 1995. Prior to reading this book--the result of a work-related book club--all I was aware of was that his novel  1Q84  (2013) was quite the sensation and is still on many's "To Read" pile. As such, my expectations for this author were high. I quickly began to readjust my expectations, however, after reading the first story, "UFO in Kushiro" which left me feeling incomplete and confused. Though the lead-in story, I thought it was the weakest of the collection. After the Quake  is the kind of book I think I'd appreciate more from conversing about it with others. Unfortunately, I didn't make my book group discussion, so my ambivalence about this collection and Murakami's writing style remains. Marie K. who reviewed this book on Amazon wrote that this stor...

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so to date, I have written two complete short stories which I first wrote many years ago. Since then, they've been in a constant state of revision because they lack a certain  je ne sais quoi  for publishing. I wish other writers were as self aware: Amazon is currently filled with published novels that are truly the works of amateur writers. One such amateur work is Molly Ringwald's  When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories  (2012). At $1.99 at the time of purchase, it was a good deal. This "novel in stories" is made up of eight interconnected short stories, unified by Greta or Phillip, the central characters introduced in the opening story. It is they who launch the novel's theme: When life throws you a curve ball, how do you cope "when it happens to you"? In this case, life throws Greta a curve ball when she learns that her husband, whom she has been struggling to have a second child with, has been having an affai...