Book Chatter

Sunday Matters

I am coming to you a little late today. I took Friday off to register The Girl for middle school. That was a long day. Yesterday, The Girl and I stripped off all of the border in her room (thanks Serena for that fabric softener tip!).

We painted her dresser, got her a nightstand and painted that too. The Girl likes to collect stuff so it wasn’t as easy to get in there to do what we needed to do. Anyway, I was sore and exhausted and just now managed to drag my butt out of bed. We will be painting her room next week but it’s coming along.

Right Now:

I am enjoying my first cup of coffee and thinking about fall. The Halloween stuff is already out and I don’t mind. I love fall and if I get to spend some extra time thinking about it, so be it.

In a little bit we’ll head to church. I don’t know why but I am really excited about going to church today.

This Week:

School starts this Thursday for my kids. The Girl doesn’t get her schedule until the first day of school. I hate that! Will she know where to go? Will she be able to find her rooms? Plus, she has a rotating schedule so she begins with a different class each day. Why do they do that?

Work really picks up this week as we prepare for the return of students to the university. I am in denial. Summer went by way too fast and now it’s going to be very, very busy until about mid-September.

Reading:

I finished Everything I Never Told You but haven’t written the review yet. I am currently reading Nantucket, by Nan Rossiter. It comes out later this month! Still reading Atlas Shrugged but will be done with it this week!

Watching:

I haven’t really had the time to watch much this weekend. Somehow we landed on a Steve Martin movie yesterday, Bringing Down the House. I’ve seen it before but it was less funny this time around. I think I was just too wiped out.

Making:

I watched The Barefoot Contessa yesterday and she made this chicken dish with olives and lemon. Man, it looked good. Maybe I will make that.

Grateful for:

Books. I may not have had a real vacation this year but through books I do feel as if I’ve gone places. Hey, sometimes you take what you can get.

What are you up to today? Cooking anything good?

Wind / Pinball
By Haruki Murakami, Translated by Ted Goossen
(Knopf Publishing Group, Hardcover, 9780385352123, August 4, 2015, 256pp.)

The Short of It:

Mesmerizing.

The Rest of It:

You all know how I love Murakami, right? Well, when I got a review copy of Wind / Pinball, I nearly fainted. Why? Because Hear the Wind Sing was Murakami’s very first novel and Pinball, 1973 was his second. Along with A Wild Sheep Chase, they form what is known as The Trilogy of The Rat.

Wind / Pinball was not available in English here in the US so all this time I’ve wondered about The Rat and his origins, as did fans everywhere. I’m happy to say that readers will get to spend much more time with The Rat in this volume of two books. Two books in one! I die!

In Wind, we meet our unnamed narrator. He’s an unassuming guy (a Murakami trademark). He hangs out at J’s Bar, has an on again, off again romance with a nine-fingered woman and when he is not fantasizing about her, he’s hanging out with The Rat. You could call this novel “uneventful” but it’s classic Murakami. Lots of deep thinking. Not a lot of action.

In Pinball, things pick up a bit. It’s the same unnamed narrator but set during his days as a student. This novel is more surreal in feel. He comes home to find a set of twins in his bed. He calls them 208 and 209. As you may or may not know, sex is almost a given in a Murakami novel and if there are ears involved in any way, then you get to take a drink (kidding, sort of). To make this novel even more interesting, our unnamed narrator and The Rat find themselves obsessed with a particular pinball machine which sends them on a search to find it.

The beauty of a Murakami novel is often how simple the story is. It’s usually this tiny thing that’s surrounded by strange and unusual people and sometimes weird, fantastical happenings. I love his writing.

That being said, there is a slightly different tone to Wind. I could tell that he was still figuring out what type of writer he wanted to be. After all, if you read the newly added introduction, you learn that he decided to be a writer while attending a baseball game. Just like that. He wanted to write and did. If you read nothing else, read the introduction.

This first novel made me feel as if I was reading something in secret. I sometimes think that Murakami injects pieces of himself into his books but in Wind, it felt as if HE was a character in the book. I kind of loved it for that reason.

It comes out today so run out and get a copy if you can.

I’ve read all of his novels now. What am I going to do? I was thinking about reading Kafka on the Shore again. Why? Because that is what you do when it takes years for a new book to come out.

There’s always this:

Kafka on the Shore, The Show

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.

Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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