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Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love
By Haruki Murakami
Knopf, 9780593320426, November 2021, 192pp.

The Short of It:

A very different type of Murakami read.

The Rest of It:

Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I love Haruki Murakami. I love everything he has written. Not because his work is perfection but because his writing is ALWAYS a palate cleanser for me and always so different from what I’ve been reading. Murakami T – The T-shirts I Love delivered, as promised.

Among other things, Murakami collects T-shirts and decided to write about some of his favorite pieces. This might sound as interesting as cleaning the lint trap of your dryer, but let me tell you, it is all very interesting. His musings about why a shirt is memorable range from his admiration over graphic design, the message it’s attempting to convey, or how it captures a certain moment in time, like his many marathon t-shirts. I’ve never been a big graphic -shirt wearer but with each page, I could easily appreciate his observations.

My only criticism is that I read this review copy on my Kindle Paperwhite so the many photos were in B&W which took away from some of the design aspects he was attempting to call out. If you pick up this book, and you should, get a physical copy or read it on on iPad with the Kindle app.

Murakami’s books come every two years or so due to them being translated so I was happy to see this one while I wait for new fiction to drop.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Guide
By Peter Heller
Knopf, 9780525657767, August 2021, 272pp.

The Short of It:

I read this one in one sitting. Held my attention even though it’s different from Heller’s normal fare.

The Rest of It:

The best-selling author of The River returns with a heart-racing thriller about a young man who is hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, where he uncovers a plot of shocking menace amid the natural beauty of sun-drenched streams and forests. – Indiebound

I’ve read a couple of books by Heller and loved them both. What I did not read before this book is The River. Apparently The Guide is a follow-up to that book but I didn’t miss it at all. This one stands alone just fine. Thought you should know that in case you pick this one up thinking you have to read The River first. You don’t.

This was an interesting read for me. I was fully taken with the setting. Heller is a master at putting you in the setting. The river, the lodge, the people in it, all very descriptive and he totally pulled me in. What I didn’t expect was the mystery behind what is going on at the lodge. As an outsider working as a fishing guide to the rich, sometimes even famous clients, Jack sees things that raise a red flag to him. For one, the hasty retreat of the guide before him. A women’s scream in the middle of the night. Was it an owl? Perhaps. Why are there so many cameras and a gate code to get out?

I felt like the mystery was a bit farfetched but I enjoyed all that time on the river and I enjoyed Jack. He’s endured a life full of loss and finds peace on the water, so when his peaceful world is shattered by these nefarious events, you take notice. The Guide was a good read and I read it in one sitting. I will be reaching for The River soon.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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