A Writer's Diary: February at the Reader's Nook
Journals and published diaries, the best books of the 2000s, and a smattering of books you're sure to love. Grab a cuppa and dive into the world of books!
Dear reader,
Books offer the perfect escape from reality. As my daily micro-stressors increase, I find myself seeking to escape into far away worlds and different lives. Like the cliffs of Brittany, home to the lost city of Ys. Local legend says the city was destroyed centuries ago, but that the water witch, once the princess of Ys, still drowns the men of this region in revenge. Jessica Thorne’s The Water Witch combines fact and fantasy, reality and magic, into an immensely readable story that will pull you away from this world and into a world where the dead return with signs and an underwater archeologist fights to save the men she loves.
Or perhaps you’d like to escape into the spirit realm, deep under the sea. This is realm of the Sea God, once the protector of Mina’s village, who now curses them with death and despair. Only his “true bride” can end his suffering. The villagers believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead. Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all. But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking. The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh is a stunning feminist retelling of a Korean myth, and offers the perfect escape from, well, everything!
If you’d like a little more reality in the books you read, perhaps you’ll enjoy Shion Miura’s The Easy Life in Kamusari. It tells the story of Yuki Hirano, who has been sent off for forestry training right out of high school and much against his will. Packed off to the remote mountain village of Kamusari, where there are no phones, internet, or shopping, Yuki wants nothing more than to return back home to Yokohama. Slowly, though, the scent of the cedars and the beauty of the forest exert their pull on him. This is a gentle, warm book that lures you in with the beauty of the forests, weaves in insights into the field of forestry, and is interspersed with ancient Kamusari festivals and customs.
Other books of note
Dark Mode by Ashley Kalagian-Blunt
For years, Reagan Carsen has kept her life offline. No socials. No internet presence. No photos. Safe. Until the day she stumbles on a shocking murder in a Sydney laneway. The victim looks just like her. As more murders shake the city and she’s increasingly drawn out from hiding, Reagan is forced to confront her greatest fear. She’s been found. A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.
How well do you know the people you invite into your life? How safe are you online? How easily can someone track your every move…your most intimate moments? Drawing from real life headlines, the toxicity of the men’s rights movement, and the alarming ease with which your privacy can be breached, Blunt has crafted a stunning thriller that will keep you up at night!
Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic by Lisa Congdon
Find Your Artistic Voice helps artists and creatives identify and nurture their own visual identity. Featuring down-to-earth and encouraging advice from Congdon herself, as well as interviews with established artists, illustrators, and creatives, it aims to answer the question of how artists can develop their own unique artistic style. An artist's voice is their calling card—it's what makes each of their works vital and particular, but developing such singular artistry requires effort and persistence. Find Your Artistic Voice offers everyday strategies, inspirational anecdotes, and practical advice to push through fear and insecurity in your artistic practice.
This is a great little book for beginners and seasoned artists alike. Congdon offers some excellent questions and ideas to help artists define their style and their voice. There were parts of this that really spoke to me and parts that didn’t, but I guess that’s just the nature of a book like this one. If you’re an artist or dabble in the arts, do give it a read!
Recommendation corner:
Have some of the bingo prompts got you scratching your head, wondering what to read or maybe even what it means? I got you covered! Every month, I will pick 2 bingo prompts and share a couple of recommendations with you. And just so you’re not here all day reading this, I’ll link you up to Goodreads so you can check out the book and add it to your Want-to-read shelf. Here we go!
Published diaries
There’s something about reading others diaries: they offer a glimpse at a private world that is often unfiltered and raw. And even though authors like Anais Nin and May Sarton often kept diaries with a view to publication, they still offer an intimate glimpse into an interior world that is unlike any other. Here are a few recommendations:
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton: In this, her bestselling journal, May Sarton writes with keen observation and emotional courage of both inner and outer worlds: a garden, the seasons, daily life in New Hampshire, books, people, ideas―and throughout everything, her spiritual and artistic journey.
A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf: An invaluable guide to the art and mind of Virginia Woolf, drawn from the personal record she kept over a period of 27years. Included are entries that refer to her own writing, and those that are relevant to the raw material of her work, and, finally, comments on the books she was reading. The first entry included here is dated 1918 and the last, three weeks before her death in 1941.
We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs by Nasrin Alavi: Though its not strictly a diary, I do think We Are Iran has a place in this genre. In September 2001, a young Iranian journalist, Hossein Derakhshan, created one of the first weblogs in Farsi. When he also devised a simple how-to-blog guide for Iranians, it unleashed a torrent of hitherto unheard opinions. There are now 64,000 blogs in Farsi, and Nasrin Alavi has painstakingly reviewed them all, weaving the most powerful and provocative into a striking picture of the flowering of dissent in Iran.
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Frida Kahlo: Published in its entirety, Frida Kahlo’s amazing, illustrated journal documents the last 10 years of her turbulent life. These passionate, often surprising, intimate records, kept under lock and key for some 40 years in Mexico, reveal many new dimensions in the complex personal life of this remarkable artist.
A book released between 2000 and 2010
When there are so many new books being released every day, why go back and read books that are decades old? Because they can offer an interesting time capsule — insight into the things that we now take for granted, perhaps, helping us relive a somewhat bygone era. Here are a few recommendations.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: Set in Afghanistan, tracing not just the life and culture of the country, but also the rise of the Taliban and the brutality and fear that followed in its wake, this is a moving portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Antiquarian book dealers, a mysterious book, and an author whose works are systematically destroyed. This lyrical, deeply engrossing story opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery: Ah, how do I describe this book? We have an elegant apartment building in Paris, home to bourgeois families. A 12-year old girl, Paloma, the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, who has decided to end her life on her 13th birthday. A stereotypical concierge
Renée, who is really a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. Into this milieu enters Ozu, a wealthy Japanese man, who is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. It’s a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Oh, how I loved this book, set against the backdrop of Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed. With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, she weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. 13-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another. Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all.
Thank you for being here and for spending some time in my bookish world. Hit reply and tell me what you’ve been reading and enjoying this month, or leave a comment below!
Happy reading,
Shinjini
I fell in love with The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It highlights that your first impression is most likely not right or that someone's job doesn't mean they aren't as worldly, smart and so on. I wish they would have a good series of this. They have made it into a movie a long time ago but so much more can be done now. I wish Netflix would grab it and run with it.