Book Worm, Book Worm

In order to try and unleash my creative mojo, I have gone crazy on Play.com and ordered the following books*.

I have to thank my brother again for insisting I get involved with Haruki Murakami, because now I'm seeking him out intentionally and also spreading the word (and love) as Miss Rocking herself, Heather of Yummy Sushi Pajamas has just started The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I hope you enjoy it love, you might even hate it but I hope not!

* I've included the synopsis' for each novel so you get a gist of what they're about, in case you fancy one of them for yourself. Can I get a collective gush for the words 'Unicorn' and 'skulls' being put together in the same sentence?

Love. It.

Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
Lost in space or a loser in love? Twenty-two year-old Sumire is in love for the first time - with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is a glamorous and successful older woman with a taste for classical music and fine wine, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Jack Kerouac novel. Surprised that she might, after all, be a lesbian, Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K. about the big questions in life; what is sexual desire and should she ever tell Miu how she feels about her? K., a primary school teacher, is used to answering questions, but what he most wants to say to Sumire is, "I love you." He consoles himself by having an affair with the mother of one of his pupils. But when a desperate Miu calls him out of the blue from a sunny Greek island and asks for his help, he soon discovers that all is not as it seems and something very strange has happened to Sumire.

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy. The result is a wildly inventive fantasy and a meditation on the many uses of the mind.

On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Set in New England mainly and London partly, "On Beauty" concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.

God, I love new books - *sigh*


UPDATE: Heather has correctly pointed out that my previous link to her page would have taken you to yummysushipajamas.com rather than Yummy Sushi Pajamas - well who'd've thunk there were so many pajamas in the world?!

Accept no subsitutes: Yummy Sushi Pajamas not yummysushipajamas.com - m'kay?

To apologise here are some Famous Chicks wearing actual Sushi Pyjamas...

*wave*