Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

Dagboek van een Geisha by Arthur Golden

  • Started on: 2011-03-02
  • Finished on: 2011-03-03
  • Read in: Dutch
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): General Fiction

Lately, books about Japan have interested me a great deal. This was one I couldn’t not read. While looking up some of the things mentioned in this book I found out that it wasn’t an actual biography (I had thought as much) and that there was some controversy about the truthfulness of the things described. But for me it doesn’t change how much I liked this book.
The book is told by Sayuri, a geisha who started work during the Great Depression and is now (1990s I guess) living in New York, telling her life story. Her story is tragic and filled with hardship. However, I loved the descriptions of how she felt and how she dealt with it. The descriptions of life in Japan, in Gion and outside, before and during the war are beautiful, and I couldn’t put the book down.

  • Started on: 2011-03-02
  • Finished on: 2011-03-03
  • Read in: Dutch
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): General Fiction

Lately, books about Japan have interested me a great deal. This was one I couldn’t not read. While looking up some of the things mentioned in this book I found out that it wasn’t an actual biography (I had thought as much) and that there was some controversy about the truthfulness of the things described. But for me it doesn’t change how much I liked this book.
The book is told by Sayuri, a geisha who started work during the Great Depression and is now (1990s I guess) living in New York, telling her life story. Her story is tragic and filled with hardship. However, I loved the descriptions of how she felt and how she dealt with it. The descriptions of life in Japan, in Gion and outside, before and during the war are beautiful, and I couldn’t put the book down.