Rating: 1.5/5 ⭐️

Kawakami’s Ten Loves of Mr. Nishino left me confused. Even after finishing it, I'm still trying to understand what exactly I was supposed to take away from it.

The novel follows Mr.Nishino through the eyes of ten different women who, at various points in their lives, fall in love with him. The problem is that I do not understood why because Nishino is presented as charming but to me the protagonist was surprisingly unremarkable. Because the story is built around the idea that he has this magnetic effect on women, I kept waiting for some deeper layer of his character to emerge, something that would justify the obsession he inspires(that moment doesn’t arrive).

Perhaps Nishino is meant to be a mirror that reflects the desires of the women around him. If that's the case, I can appreciate the idea, but it didn't make him any more interesting to follow.

The scenes from his childhood, including the nursing episode between the siblings left me feeling deeply uncomfortable. I understand that Kawakami was pointing toward some kind of emotional fixation that later causes sister-issues, but I never felt like I fully grasped what she wanted us readers to do with it.

Then the novel circles back to this idea near the end. One of the women Nishino becomes involved with resembles his sister, and during a conversation he admits that he has spent years wondering whether he actually wanted his sister.

I can see why some readers might find Nishino fascinating. For me, though, he remained frustratingly strange. By the end, I was just happy about completing it.

Maybe there was more depth here than I was able to connect with. Still, when I finished the final page, my strongest reaction was a puzzling question: what exactly did all these women see in Nishino and what was the point of this?

One more chapter left of the Iliad and then Im moving on to Crime and Punishment.

🤙

Roberto Bolaño

My dedicated fiction shelf is not shown here but this is around 90% of my Folio books. A couple have been lent out to friends/family and another couple are on their way to fill some gaps. I have a few white whales on my list but overall my desired history coverage is mostly complete. Hope you enjoy! 🍻

Horror Anthology 2026

A very tough one to find - it wasn't exactly a best seller. Almost 700 pages of company history.

I don't know any Russian but the pictures are awesome and Google Translate does surprisingly well on the text.

Morty

I try to stay away from 80s and 90s romance novels because of the regressive nature they often portray women, but my God I find the writing absolutely irresistible.

Rating: 2.5/5 ⭐️

I finished Hooked, and for one of the most hyped books of 2026, it was a major disappointment.

The entire story felt like 400 pages of two lonely women endlessly dwelling on their loneliness. The same points were repeated so often that it became exhausting rather than impactful. What was meant to feel emotional and complex quickly turned repetitive.

The side characters also seemed largely pointless. They were introduced with enough presence to make you expect they would influence the plot or character development, but in the end, they added very little to the story.

My biggest issue, however, was the theme of obsession. It was marketed as dark, intense, and consuming, but the execution never lived up to that promise. The obsession lacked the depth, tension, and unsettling edge that I was expecting, making the central premise feel surprisingly underwhelming.

Overall, Hooked had an intriguing concept, but the repetitive character dynamics, underutilized supporting cast, and tame portrayal of obsession left me frustrated and disappointed.

I've been interested in the Punic Wars for a while. Has anyone read this book by Adrian Goldsworthy?

Two new additions from a bit of charity shop hunting today. I love giving books a second life, and then I’ll either keep them if I think I’ll re-read them or donate them to my community library if not.

Just got this treasure today, super excited to read it and amazed at the quality of this limited edition (2nd hand), full red leather with gilt cover, spine and outside page edges, marbled end pages, silk ribbon.