<aside>

Cheryl’s Bookshelf

• Rating: /5
• Heavy snow. I finally reclaimed some serious reading time. </aside>

Shelf · Books

✅ Finished

• Strange Maps (《奇怪的地图》) - 3/5
  • Another solid entry from Uketsu. I honestly appreciate authors who just spoon-feed you the content (complimentary). No mental gymnastics required, just vibes.
• 1587, A Year of No Significance (《万历十五年》) - 4/5
  • A high school reread. It struck an odd chord with the Wang Mang series I’ve been listening to on the Two Steps Away podcast. It’s not a direct link, but it made me want to revisit Machiavelli.
  • Rules don’t float above power; they are baked into the very structure of it.
  • Balance, conservatism, and a moral order used to check the emperor.
  • Moral governance as a way to maintain the discipline of a bureaucracy of twenty thousand civil officials.
• The Things the Ominous Bird Avoids (《如凶鸟忌讳之物》) - 2.5/5
  • The solution here was actually more interesting than the twist in Mitsuda Shinzo’s most famous book. It gives off major 'budget Yūjo' vibes. If Japanese folklore isn’t your bag, skip it. This has zero to do with actual mystery.
• Fried Green Tomatoes (《油炸绿番茄》) - 5/5
  • Runner-up for the month! Such a charming read. Even the heavy parts are handled with so much wit. It genuinely made me ready for spring.
• The Sleeping Prison (《沉眠的牢狱》) - 0/5
  • Uraga Kazuhiro, you owe me financial compensation. Seriously, apart from gender-based unreliable narration, do you have any other tricks? Your novelty is limited. Strong reject.
• The Feast of the Goat (《公羊的节日》) - 5/5
  • Best of the month. An absolute masterclass in multi-threaded storytelling. Llosa, I am jealous of your genius. I finished the last five chapters as my plane was descending and couldn't snap out of it for a while. Once again, a reminder that AI will never replace human writing.