Rainbow Shelf: 5 Blue Books
Blue was the first true challenge of the Rainbow Shelves (red, orange, yellow, green) – what is blue and what is indigo? I did the best I could, but I still think a few slipped their way through onto the not-quite-correct shelf. At the very least, I had enough shades of blue that there are no repeats.
5 Blue Books to consider:
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1.
Ikigai by Hector Garcia Puigcerver and Francesc Miralles, translated by Heather Cleary
Genre: Non-Fiction, Philosophy
“Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” – Japanese Proverb
Is it really possible to be happy by always staying busy? The Japanese philosophy of Ikigai says yes. This book explores the idea of Ikigai, which loosely means a reason to live. When passion, profession, mission, and vocation intersect for a person, staying busy with such a thing inspires you to get up every morning and live with meaning.
The authors take a deep five into this concept, because after all – who wouldn’t want to live every day happy?
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2.
Almost American Girl by Robin Ha
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir
A vacation to Huntsville, Alabama suddenly becomes a permanent move to the USA – a daunting prospect when you are from Seoul, South Korea, still a student, and don’t speak English particularly well.
A new school, a new family, and a strained relationship with the one person who may most understand, her mother, Robin struggles day to day. She misses her comics, her friends, and her home. Then one day her mother enrolls her in a comic drawing class, and a future she never imagined begins to open to her.
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3.
Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid by Nikki Giovanni
Genre: Poetry, Non-Fiction Essays
Nikki Giovanni is a Grammy-nominated poet and her poems have often been called undeniably authentic distillations of black life in America. To be a prolifically published poet with numerous awards means that you have a skill for the written word, but this collection focuses on the simple pleasures of everyday life and the bonds that connect the people closest to us.
Life always desires more poetry (or at least my life does), and a collection celebrating life being lived happily sounds almost as perfect as it can get.
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4.
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Magical Realism
The title already says there is going to be magic, tea, and Paris. I’m sold!
The book follows Vanessa Yu (I know, you never would have guessed lol), a psychic who never wanted to be able to see people’s fortunes in tea leaves. In an effort to avoid giving fortunes she switches to coffee, but fortunes still manage to complicate her life regardless. It doesn’t help that she has matchmaking attempts from her parents persist even as she goes from California to Paris.
This book sounds like quite the adventure, and I look forwarding the laughing while reading.
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5.
My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Romance
Boston and baseball are not necessarily selling points for me. I have nothing against either of those topics, but I also have no outstanding interest in them at the moment. However, I do have a weakness for letters so the summary of this book beginning with “Dear Anthony:” did catch my eye.
Not only letters, but the summary of the characters had me smiling. T.C. who is trying to woo Alejandra. Alejandra who is trying to avoid familial responsibilities, and T.C.’s brother who is a) gay, b) in love, and c) the only person unaware of this fact. Yeah, I’ll hop on for Boston and baseball with that kind of hook.
List of books in my Blue Shelf picture:
To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice ColinThis is Philosophy of Mind by Peter MandikLess by Andrew Sean GreerThis is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max GladstoneSo You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma OluoFierce Fairytales by Nikita GillThe Serpent of Venice by Christopher MooreBuried in Books by Julie RuggOn a Sunbeam by Tillie WaldenThe Little Library Cookbook by Kate YoungKafka on the Shore by Haruki MurakamiEleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail HoneymanBook by Book: Notes on Reading and Life by Michael Dirda The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry The Sorcerer’s Companion by Allan & Elizabeth KronzekCity of Dark Magic by Magnus FlyteTransmedia Harry Potter edited by Christopher BellThe Belgariad by David EddingsBento Box in the Heartland by Linda Furiya Tales + Fables, Yugoslav Folk-Tales, The Jack Tales Peter Pan by J. M. BarrieA Concise History of Japan by Brett L. WalkerEurope in the Middle Ages by Robert S. HoytThe Complete Peter Rabbit by Beatrix PotterThe Hidden Myths in Harry Potter by David Colbert
