Books around the world! (Part 1)

Sooo I said I would write this post in February 😬 Anyway, here we are! Reading is a big hobby of mine, and at the start of the trip, I thought it'd be fun to pick up books about the country that I'm in. It's been good to have some diversity in my collection (for some reason I gravitate towards reading about crazy wives 🤪 I fully blame Gone Girl for this, though.) Splitting this post up into two parts, and currently taking recommendations for any historical fiction or memoirs from Europe!

By the way, I've linked most of the books through Bookshop, a place where you can buy from independent stores online... support small bookstores so that they stay in business 😄

Starting with two books from Japan, which feels SO long ago omg. Japan culture has always felt a bit enigmatic to me, so that's probably why I gravitated towards a couple books that attempt to explain it. Many things I read in the books were linked to things I noticed while in Japan, which was cool!

36 Views of Mount Fuji: On finding myself in Japan - Cathy N. Davidson ( 4 / 5 🌟)

This is a travel memoir by Cathy Davidson, who is an academic professor (and just overall academic power woman!) at Duke. She was teaching at Michigan State in the 80s when she received the opportunity to serve as a visiting professor to teach English in Japan. After living there for a few years, she tried to understand the rules of behavior that made her Japanese colleagues and friends different from her own experiences of living in the US. This book is a great peek into the intimate lives of Japanese culture and their people, from an American's perspective. I think she especially nailed the commentary about the experience of feeling foreign somewhere - language barriers, the way you stick out, and the way you bumble about trying to figure out how society works. How she describes the nuances in cultural differences, and her observations intertwined with humorous anecdotes, make reading this feel like a series of letters sent from a friend. Just really wonderful 🥰

The Japanese Mind - Roger J Davies and Osamu Ikeno ( 4 / 5 🌟)

Ok this one is almost like a textbook or dictionary lol, so it's very different from the others! But it was helpful for me as a starting guide into the Japanese mentality. It basically takes broad topics about Japan culture and lifestyle and breaks it down into 28 concise essays, titled by the Japanese word for the custom or the cultural value, and explained with context and examples. Best of all is that it's written and edited by Japanese university students themselves, people who have been raised in this society and live it everyday. So much of the way Japan is, is a result of their interplay of history and religion. The most intriguing questions were answered for me, such as why harmony (over individuality) is so infused in Japanese life, why saying "no" can be difficult for someone, and how Japanese conversations tend to be more subtle rather than raucous.

Another thing I enjoyed is that this book even compares concepts to western culture. Here is an example about how the Japanese perceive art and beauty:

the Japanese sense of beauty is based on a concept known as mono no aware, a kind of aesthetic value that comes from feelings, while in Western art, people try to construct something of beauty with a logic of what is beautiful. In contrast, Japanese art focuses not on what is logically considered beautiful, but on what people feel is beautiful.

Aware is said to be representative of the Japanese sense of beauty, and it is a term of great subtlety, which is quite difficult to understand because it relates specifically to the Japanese feeling of appreciating something that is regarded as worthless. For example, in the West people tend to think that flowers in full bloom are most beautiful, but when withered they are not. This is not the case with the Japanese sense of aware —people are aware of the beauty of full blossoms, of course, but are more touched and deeply moved when these blossoms are falling or beginning to wilt. Similarly, they think that a moon partially covered by clouds is more appealing than one that is full.

I hope this book becomes more popular for those who are interested in Japan or are visiting the country for the first time. When I was researching books, I found many of them were written by Western writers who have thoroughly studied Japanese culture (like the previous book.) But as I learned from my college classes, it really is impossible to fully suppress or erase inherent cultural bias, so reading books from authors in that country is important for true connection and understanding.

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy ( 4 / 5 🌟)

This book…ugh I think I had already stopped and re-started it twice already in my lifetime. But when I saw it at my in-laws house in India while I was staying there, I thought to give it another (final) go since we actually had plans to visit Ayemenem, the village in the southwest state Kerala where the author Arundhati Roy is from.

After I made it through the first half of the book and finally understood what was happening, it actually ended being pretty good. It’s a story set in 1960s Kerala about a multi-generational family, starting with the death of a young girl, and a set of twins that are separated from each other thereafter. The story unfolds in layers as you learn more about the family, to slowly reveal the truth and the impact that the tragedy had on the twins' lives. I found the story interesting because I learned about a time and place that I didn't know much about - families living in the caste system, yet also trying to embrace modern ideas such as the rising communist movement in Kerala. It also includes themes that still plague India today like poverty, classism, and colorism.

Had to knock off a star though because Roy's way-too-poetic-for-me language made me often feel like I'm going in circles of confusion. But, if you are open to being challenged and pushed a bit out of your comfort zone, it really can be a book that you will remember and appreciate.

Gravel Heart - Abdulrazak Gurnah ( 5 / 5 🌟)

Oh my gosh, the writing of this book is just beautiful. It's not much of a plot-driven book and that tends to steer me away - but the way Gurnah writes about the characters and their emotions is just so deep and enjoyable to read.

Salim is the narrator of this story set in 1970s Zanzibar. His father is estranged from the family during his childhood, and has moved out of the house to live alone, just down the street. Salim doesn't know why he moved or why he is now always so sullen, yet his mother continues to send Salim to him with food everyday. What is uncovered over the course of the book is a tale about a family that has been dismantled in a postcolonial world. When the British left Zanzibar, there was a military takeover within. The revolution led to a socialist government and corruption, leading to Salim's grandfather's exile, creating a domino effect for the rest of the family.

It's such a moving tale; one of those stories that makes you feel sad for the people whose lives have been upended by outsiders coming in. And yet people must keep going and they have to make compromises, despite the injustices. The story also goes into Salim's adult life of emigrating, and the difficulties for Africans living in the UK. It really made me empathize with the migrant experience. Perhaps there are some autobiographical notes in Gravel Heart: the author was born in 1948 in Zanzibar and arrived in England as a refugee in the end of the 1960s.

I can't wait to read more of Gurnah's work. I'll always remember these words at the end of the book, by Salim's father as he was recounting his life and the way it evolved: "recollect your blessings, as that is the beginning of love."

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah ( 5 / 5 🌟)

I know many people have already read this, so if you haven't - why not?? A comedian writing about growing up in one of the most dysfunctional political systems in the world - I was so moved by his ability to overcome such adversity, and yet laughing with him for his crazy stories at the same time. Trevor Noah is a fantastic storyteller, and he is so skilled at different languages and dialects that it's worth trying the audiobook just to hear his imitations of his family and friends. South Africa has had such a turbulent history, and all so recent too, but his retelling of his experience never comes off as depressing. I thought he balanced all the serious stories with the lighthearted ones, well.

A couple excerpts from the book, that I found especially sad (and absurd) about the apartheid times:

• Under apartheid the government provided no public transportation for blacks, but white people still needed us to show up to mop their floors and clean their bathrooms. Necessity being the mother of invention, black people created their own transit system, an informal network of bus routes, controlled by private associations operating entirely outside the law. Because the minibus business was completely unregulated, it was basically organized crime. Different groups ran different routes, and they would fight over who controlled what. There was bribery and general shadiness that went on, a great deal of violence, and a lot of protection money paid to avoid violence.

• [In a country of mixed people] the government had to decide "who was white enough" so they developed the "pencil test": If you were applying to be white, the pencil went into your hair. If it fell out, you were white. If it stayed in, you were colored. You were what the government said you were. Sometimes that came down to a lone clerk eyeballing your face and making a snap decision. Depending on how high your cheekbones were or how broad your nose was, he could tick whatever box made sense to him, thereby deciding where you could live, whom you could marry, what jobs and rights and privileges you were allowed. If two white parents had a child and the government decided that child was too dark, even if both parents produced documentation proving they were white, the child could be classified as colored, and the family had to make a decision. Do they give up their white status to go and live as colored people in a colored area? Or would they split up the family?

One of my favorite parts of the book though, is whenever Trevor's mom Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah comes in - man, she sounds like such a badass! She really broke any barrier the system put in her way, and took advantage of situations in order for her and her son to survive. And its so clear how much Trevor loves and respects her. I really found her to be such an incredible woman, and I'm so excited to read that Lupito Nyong'o is going to play her in the movie adaptation.

If you're looking for a new read, I really recommend all of these books! And I look forward to working on part 2 of this post, next :)