Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

  

Today's Featured Book: 

Under the Eye of the Big Bird

by Hiromi Kawakami

Genre: Fiction

Published: September 3, 2024

Page Count: 289 pages

Summary: 

In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of "Mothers." Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings--but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world.

Unfolding over fourteen interconnected episodes spanning geological eons, at once technical and pastoral, mournful and utopic, Under the Eye of the Big Bird presents an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

Let’s go to the baths today, Miss Ikuko said, so we all got ready.

Kawakami, Hiromi. Under the Eye of the Big Bird: A Novel, p. 1. Kindle Edition. 

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

The mothers swiftly took the baby away and called in the next watcher.

Kawakami, Hiromi. Under the Eye of the Big Bird: A Novel, p. 56. Kindle Edition. 

I could not find a quote on either the first page or on page 56 that rang with the quirkiness of this book. The book is emotionally cold, but I like the surprise and the cleverness of the story.

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

September 12th - 18th - Are there any books that are considered terrible but you love? (submitted by Snapdragon @ Snapdragon Alcove)

In generally, I come from the other side of the playground: there are a lot of books others love that I consider terrible. I won't give examples. I'm sure many people hate some of my favorites, too. 

Katabasis: A Novel by R. F. Kuang: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

 

Today's Featured Book: 

Katabasis: A Novel

by R. F. Kuang

Genre: Fantasy

Published: August 26, 2025

Page Count: 560 pages

Summary: 

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:

The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

The wind bit, the sun hid, and on the first day of class, when she ought to have been lecturing undergraduates about the dangers of using the Cartesian severance spell to revise without pee breaks, Alice Law set out to rescue her advisor's soul from the Eight Courts of Hell.

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

Every day she stared into that empty cubbyhole and tried to convince herself that all her perceptions were wrong; that if she only stared hard enough, a thick purple envelope would materialize amidst the dust...

She felt so stupid now. Of course it hadn't gone to her.

R. F. Kuang talks about Katabasis at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August of this year here.

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

September 5th - 11th - Do you seek out new authors to read, or do you tend to stick with the same ones? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Review)

I am always on the lookout for new authors. 

In the last few years, I've loved the work of Émile Zola, R. F. Kuang, Naomi Shihab Nye, Percival Everett, Ryan Holiday, and Clare Keegan.

What new authors have you have run across lately that you recommend to me?

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop... I've been intending to join these fun book memes for many years, and I finally got around to trying these out on Fridays in December.  I plan to continue participating in 2023.

Today's Featured Book 

 Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries 

by Heather Fawcett

Genre: Fantasy

Published: January 10, 2023

Page Count: 320 pages

Summary: 

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

"Shadow is not at all happy with me. He lies by the fire while the chill wind rattles the door, tail inert, staring out from beneath that shaggy forelock of his with the sort of accusatory resignation peculiar to dogs, as if to say: Of all the stupid adventures you've dragged me on, this will surely be the death of us. I fear I have to agree, though this makes me no less eager to begin my research."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Freda's Voice and visit others in the linky. 

"For the first time, he looked at me as if I had surprised him. I guess he'd never had much reason to bargain with mortals when he could simply sing them senseless and then drain their hearts dry."

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

February 3rd - 9th - What was your favorite genre to read as a child? Do you still read that genre, or do you read something else now? (submitted by Mark @ Carstairs Considers)

Magical stories! 

Edward Eager's books, 

like Half Magic and The Time Garden and Magic by the Lake.

A Wrinkle in Time.

Fairy tales.

I loved magical stories when I was a kid.

I still love them,

but I have a hard time finding them now that I'm a grownup.

Set My Heart to Five; Nolan Ryan Encourages Texans: "Don't Be a Knucklehead"; and Paris in July Returns

People seem a little taken aback here to learn that hospitalizations from COVID-19 in Texas have risen 38% since Memorial Day. I am glad to see that our hometown hero and Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan recorded a message that I hope will hit home with some of our defiant Texans:

I was thrilled to receive a copy of Set My Heart to Five by Simon Stephenson. It's a book that will be published on September 1 of this year and it is a book that I have been eagerly awaiting. Here's a little about the story: "Jared works as a dentist in small-town Michigan. His life is totally normal, except for one thing. He is a bot engineered with human DNA to look and act like a real person. One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared feels a strange sensation around his eyes. Everyone knows that bots can’t feel emotions, but as the theater lights come on, Jared is almost certain he’s crying. Confused, he decides to watch more old movies to figure out what’s happening. The process leads to an emotional awakening that upends his existence. Jared, it turns out, can feel." I will be reviewing this one soon, but, for now, I'll tell you that I so enjoyed this book.

I'm still reading a little each day on the same set of books. 

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Devotions by Mary Oliver

50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons in Pencil and Paper

A Bad Birdwatcher's Companion by Simon Barnes

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

I was delighted to see that Thyme for Tea announced the return of Paris in July. This will be the tenth anniversary of our virtual visits to Paris and I can't think when a virtual trip to Paris might be more needed. 

Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series went virtual and closed out its season this year online with poets Natalie Diaz and Reginald Dwayne Betts. What a year it has been for Inprint. In September, I heard Colson Whitehead speak about his book, The Nickel Boys, and in October I saw Ta-Nehisi Coates talk about his book, The Water Dancer. Next year Inprint will celebrate its fortieth season, and I hope, whether Inprint is actual or virtual, I can continue to support these voices. 

                                            

Good Thing #1. My husband had his birthday Friday. We celebrated with a homemade enchilada dinner and an old movie. 

Good Thing #2. The protests seem to be generating lots of good changes in our world.

Good Thing #3. We've been watching Seinfeld, borrowed on DVD from the library. This week we watched Episode #22, "The Library," in which library detective Mr. Bookman accuses Jerry of failure to return a library book. Is this my favorite Seinfeld? It may be.

How are you doing? 

Have you experienced some good things this week?

How are you dealing with the stresses we are facing during this time?

Have books helped in any way?

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no requirements for linking up at Sunday Salon; Sunday Salon is simply a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. I encourage you to link up here and then visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.

Katharine McGee's American Royals Comes to My Town!

I have a soft spot for royalty.

I created my own kingdom and ruled for many, many years as Queen of the Library.

What a lovely surprise it was, then, to meet Katharine McGee, who has created her own world of royalty in American Royals. In her book, McGee has allowed George Washington to accept the role of King of America, with generations of successors continuing to rule America from the throne rather than the ballot box. 

McGee graciously came to my town to speak at our annual Alvin Library League Luncheon. I boldly invited myself (as befits the Queen of the Library) to dine at her table and I delighted in book talk with the author throughout the meal.

It was a full house at the Alvin Methodist Church, and the attendees were fascinated with the author and her book.

McGee spoke on the power of libraries to influence communities today, noting that libraries are one of the few remaining "third places," spots in the world where people can gather freely, without cost. McGee quoted Ray Bradbury, "Without libraries, we have no past and no future."

The author seemed like royalty herself, with her beauty and kindness and exemplary manners. She spent time after the luncheon speaking with library league members...

...and signing books. I bought one for myself, of course.

What a lovely event. 

My review of American Royals is here and here.