Landscape Peeper

Recently finished (books, including re-reads):

Feng Shui Modern, by Cliff Tan (2022). My husband has recently gotten into Feng Shui and insisted I read this book. It's okay. Nothing amazing, but I'm not particularly impressed by Feng Shui in general. Some common sense advice, and an unfortunately tendency towards uni-tasker spaces and furniture. Our apartment is too small for this way of thinking! Not particularly practical for us at all.

Dead Man's Chest, by Kerry Greenwood (2010). Another classic Ms. Fisher mystery. It, too, suffers from the too-many characters problem. This one was easier for me to manage. Maybe I've just gotten good at figuring out who to pay attention to and who to ignore? In other news, there is a new posthumously finished Ms. Fisher mystery coming out. Just when I thought I was in the home stretch with finishing this series..!

Recently finished (manga and comics):

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition Vol. 1, by Hitoshi Ashinano (1994). A perfectly pleasant slice-of-life at the end of the world manga. It's been kicking around my to-read list for awhile, so when I came across it in the subscription library it was a quick pick. Very pleasant, but not compelling enough for me to go out of my way to pay for future volumes.

La Quinta Camera Capitolo, by Natsume Ono (2003). Charming little one volume manga by an author I like. Nothing spectacular, and not her best work, but still a pleasant read.

Pink Candy Kiss Vol. 4, by Ami Uozumi (translated 2026). This is officially a hate read for me. I really dislike the main love interest, and I find the conflict with her mother to be extremely contrived. To be fair, I don't like the manga micro-genere of "single lesbian woman falls in love with married woman and drama ensues". Just because it works in the The Price of Salt doesn't mean it translates well elsewhere...

Midway through:

Dracula Daily (aka Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)). Haha, at this point this one is a joke.

To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf (1927). Made it halfway through, then ran out of steam. The same thing happened to me with Orlando. I'll wander back to it eventually.

Unease: Life in Singaporean Families, by Teo You Yenn (2026). Reading along with this for an online bookclub (which is moving at an unnecessarily slow pace). This book would be more useful for those unfamiliar with raising children in Singapore, or for those in SG who haven't thought about how they structure their family at the meta level. Four chapters in and I haven't gotten any information that I didn't already know - but that is because I am already very, very familiar with the subject and the author's line of thinking. Will finish for the sake of the bookclub and keeping my husband happy.

Little Birds, by Anais Nin (1979) and Closed Casket, by Sophie Hannah (2015). Had to return these to the subscription library before finishing them. Will most likely not circle back to finish them.

The Buccaneers, by Edith Wharton and Marion Mainwaring (1938). I'm usually not into posthumously published novels, but so far this one is working. I always enjoy Wharton's spot on commentary on society and the social BS that goes along with it. A "the more things change, the more they stay the same" vibe. My one complaint has absolutely nothing to do with the book itself - whenever I talk about it at silent bookclubs or similar, people instantly compare it to Bridgerton, a very popular show I have zero interest in watching. That or Jane Austen (which I know I've read, but made zero impression on my teenage brain). I mean, I guess it's good these things are trendy, and I guess I'll have to engage with them to know what people are talking about.... I just don't particularly like the Regency Era. Ah well.