Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa: I love to buy books while I am traveling and this one I picked up in Sapporo last year. While I learned a lot about sweet bean paste and its uses, it was the part about the Hansen disease that interested me more. First of all I didn’t know that Hansen disease is leprosy and that it still had existed in Japan in the 20th century. I thought it had long been eliminated except for some exotic places. But far from it, the disease had been under control in Japan as well, but patients had been separated from their families and kept locked up until 1996, when the isolation law had been abolished. Next time in Japan I want to visit the Hansen Disease Museum. Fleeting characters, but interesting story.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros: The third installment in the Empyrean saga took me a while to get into. The first two books I devoured, while Onxy Storm didn’t capture me as much. Maybe because I lost touch with all the characters and I needed to find my connection to them again. Once I hit the halfway point things changed and I was totally invested again. My poor friend, who went on a city trip with me, heard everything about the dragons and who got wounded or died and who might have turned. I even felt withdrawal symptoms upon finishing the book. Maybe I will reread all three of them to put all the clues together. Definitely a bit slower than the first ones, but excellent with it’s surprising end. Even better that there’s a fourth book coming, just don’t expect it for this year.
Arsen. A broken love story by Mia Asher: This was a wrecking ball of a story. I am not sure what I expected, but definitely not such an unholy trinity. Cathy and Ben and Arsen. In the end it was just an affair, although I didn’t understand why Cathy started it in the first place. There was actually a lot I didn’t understand about this story. Why start an affair when you are in deep emotional pain? Why leave your husband only to realise the moment you acknowledge the affair that he is the one? As much as I love a good story, this one was not for me. Maybe because it was not a great story and I couldn’t sympathize at all with the characters. Also, way too much sex for the story.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: Can I just say that I loved the story? Space traveling is always weird, especially when it’s a long trip which includes an induced coma. But Ryland figures out eventually why he is all the way out there and what his mission is. Along the way he meets ‘Rocky’, an alien with five claws. They manage to find a way to communicate and the following dialogues were hilarious. I really enjoy Andy Weir’s way to tell a story. There’s always humor embedded in the message. Project Hail Mary’s one is clear, only if we work together there is a chance for survival.
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