The Sunday Post #384

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post

On The Blog Recently

• My Favorite Historical Fiction Books Ever
• Quotes From Classic Books
• Books Featuring LGBTQ+ Characters
• Classics I Want To Read
• Classics I'm Scared To Read

In My Reading Life

I read 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Elif Shafak. It's adult historical fiction about a murdered sex worker in Istanbul. The sex worker is Leila, and the plot follows the final 10 minutes, 38 seconds of her life.

I love the structure of the book. Each chapter is a minute of Leila's life. You learn about her childhood, meet her friends, and encounter her murderer. You also get to learn about Istanbul, which is like a character in the story. It's vivid and full of history. I kind of want to visit Istanbul now. The author really brings it to life.

For a story about murder, it's not too depressing. That's both good and bad. It's bad because the story feels disjointed. Since Leila's plotline is sad, the author sometimes pauses it to focus on Lelia's friends. The shifts in focus lighten the mood, but the friends are too silly for my tastes. I don't understand the choices they make at the end of the book. It's just weird.

I like some parts of the book more than others, but mostly I enjoyed it. It's worth reading for Leila and Istanbul.

Then I read Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden. It's a historical fiction book that was first published in the 1990s and became massively popular. Maybe Oprah liked it? It feels like a book Oprah would like. I should Google that.

Anyway, it's about Sayuri, a Japanese girl who becomes a geisha in the 1930s. She's trained from a young age to seduce and entertain wealthy men. There isn't much of a plot, but most of the book is about the politics of being a geisha. Which girl can get the most attention and make the most money? There's a lot of sabotage and petty girl-on-girl hate.

I know absolutely nothing about geisha culture, so I can't judge the accuracy of the representation, but I found it fascinating. I want to read a memoir by a real geisha. I loved reading about the training, clothing, hairstyles, and luxurious parties. It's very different from anything I've experienced in life.

I flew through the beginning of the book and then got bogged down in the middle. Maybe that's because I don't care about romance? Once Sayuri finished training and became a super awesome geisha, I lost interest. That's probably just personal preference, though. I can see how romance readers would love the end.

I can also tell that the book was written for an American audience. The author will not let us forget that Sayuri has gray eyes, and that's unusual in her part of the world. Remember that trend in American fiction where every main character had unusual eyes? The eyes are how you know they're the main character! Sayuri is a Japanese woman in the 1930s, but she's also a thoroughly 1990s American fiction protagonist.

Then there's the slight issue of WWII. Sayuri loves the American soldiers. She seems completely unbothered about the war that screwed up her life for years and killed 2-3 million Japanese people. It made me side-eye the book a bit. She's not even a tiny bit mad?

I didn't hate this one. It mostly entertained me. I just kept wishing I was reading a real memoir from a real geisha.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy recently:

1. I'm almost done with the 75 Hard Challenge. I'm on day 70. For 75 days, I'm giving up junk food, exercising 90 minutes a day, and drinking a US gallon of water a day. I'm looking forward to not drinking water anymore. It's gotten to the point that I get pissed off every time I look at my water bottle. I've been chugging water for 70 days! I'm hydrated enough.
2. I'm another year closer to death. It was my birthday. I did not have cake. Or a party. Or gifts. I did have a protein bowl from Chipotle because it was diet friendly. It was very good.
3. I got lots of blogging done. I'm scheduling posts for summer because I don't have time for blogging in summer.
4. The weather was nice, so I went for several really long walks. Now it's snowing again.
5. Survivor and The Amazing Race are back. I have stuff to watch on TV!

For More Pithy Commentary

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!