殺意

As the its title (Murderous Intent) suggests, this novel is a thriller/mystery. In the novel, there is a high school girl whose birthday is on February 29th, and on each of her last three birthdays, a girl was raped and killed. This girl also has a friend whose grandfather is a rich businessman. His weird sexual desires causes him rape his maids and sleep with young girls...

Unfortunately, even though was very intense to read, the plot was just horrible. Many things are explained improperly or are illogical, and the rape killings that happen once every four years have nothing to do with the actual storyline.

Terrible, terrible, novel.

The Old Capital By Yasunari Kawabata

The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata describes the story of Chieko, an adopted daughter of a couple who own a kimono wholesale business.

The novel is very quiet. It paints a beautiful picture of Kyoto, and a large portion of the novel is used to describe Kyoto's scenery. The same kind of serenity is reflected in the characters's emotions. Even when the characters are extremely emotional, the prose is not lugubrious; it often just allow the readers to see the emotions through the conversations between the characters.

(spoiler ahead)

My Summer Plan

It's all done! Three days ago I finished my biology exam, which marked the end of my high school career. It was also the first day in about a year that I was completely stress-free. I celebrated that day with hours of computer games, and the next two days went more or less the same.