If Cats Disappeared from the World

Written by Genki Kawamura

Originally published in 2012

~202 pages

Rate 5/5

A short yet impactful story about a man's last days on earth as he experiences a prolonged game of "would you rather" with the devil..

The "would you rather" propositions the main character was faced with made me reflect and question my own reality and daily decisions. As the story progresses, the whole world is impacted unknowingly by the main character's decisions while the main character sees the short-term effects of his choices. He begins to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of even the smallest of objects/ideas.

Readers never get to find out the main character's name, he is merely defined by how he decides to spend his last days on earth. At times the verbiage felt too juvenile considering the narrator is in his 30s, but I'm not sure if that's because of the way it was translated. That's the only compliant I really had about the book.

There were many excellent quotes that stuck out to me while I read this book. Here are a handful of them:

"Perhaps that’s what drives all human progress: an insatiable desire for new things."

"It would have been nice to have taken the time to listen to what was going on in the other one’s head, to understand each other’s feelings."

"I must have a whole collection of small injuries, tucked away somewhere in the recesses of my memory. I suppose those are what some people call regrets."

"Sometimes, when you rewatch a film after not having seen it for a long time, it makes a totally different impression on you than it did the first time you saw it. Of course, the movie hasn’t changed; it’s you who has changed, and seeing the same film again makes that impossible to forget."

"My hope is that my life will go on to live in the memories of others who’ve witnessed my story."

"Human beings exchanged their freedom for the sense of security that comes from living by set rules and routines—despite knowing that they pay the cost of these rules and regulations with their freedom."

"You don’t have a family. You make a family."

"but when I think of all the things that I want to do before I die, they all involve you."

"I could never be happy in a world deprived of your existence."

"It is all those differences, however minuscule, that make up my existence."

The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes

The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes Written by Suzanne Collins About 517 pages Originally published in 2020 Rate: 5/5 Coriolanus Snow is the future president of Panem. The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes is not only his origin story, but the origin story of The Mockingjay. No, I am not talking about the birds that the government created in order to spy on the district people. I am talking about The Mockingjay whom we all know and love, Katniss Everdeen. Though Katniss Everdeen's full name isn't explicitly stated, she lives in this book. Her presence is known decades before she's born. "One way or another, their fates were irrevocably linked." (p. 25) Coriolanus, along side his classmates, are mentors for the 10th annual Hunger Games. He wants to win, to prove he is worthy, to bring pride to his family's name. However, when he gets assigned to the person voted least-likely-to-win, the girl from district 12, he feels as if he's been slapped in the f...

The Siren

The Siren written by: Kiera Cass Genre(s): fantasy, fiction, and young adult Rate: 9/10 About the book: Kahlen is a young girl who is saved by the ocean after the boat she was on was destroyed. She then becomes a siren and is bound to serve the ocean for 90 years. After she has served her time, she can be set free and live a normal life forgetting about the time she was a siren. However, there are rules to her sentence as a siren and if she breaks them more time will be added. When she finds the love of her life, she breaks a rule. The ocean favors her the most out of all the sirens, so will she get time added or will the ocean set her free? Why I liked the book: The conflict was very well centered through out the whole book, things were added to the conflict that were reasonable making the book more of a page turner. The rules were simple and easy to follow. It gave a different point of view on sirens that I liked a lot, made them seem more human. A great sisterly bond that mad...

Love & Olives

Love & Olives Published in 2020 with close to 500 pages Written by: Jenna Evans Welch Rate: 10/10 My summary of Love & Olives : Olive (Liv) Varanakis starts receiving postcards from her father (Nico) who she hasn't heard from in well over nine years. The last time Liv saw Nico, they were talking about finding the lost city of Atlantis, more importantly, how they were going to find the city together -- then he left. Throughout Love & Olives Liv struggles with a lot of anxiety, especially when she finds out she has to go to Greece to visit her father and help him make a documentary for National Geographic (about the lost city of Atlantis.) Liv makes it to Greece only to discover her father made a whole new life for himself. While in Greece she meets a teenage boy named Theo, who is as obsessed about finding Atlantis as her father is. Liv not only discovers herself but also discovers how history rewrites itself without people realizing it. My opinion about Love ...

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