SOLSTICEPOINT
| TOP 10 BOOKS TO READ |
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Books chosen for their staying power. The TOP TEN BOOKS include non-fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery genres. BOOK # 6 TOP 10 BOOKS Kafka on the Shore A 15 year old boy, Kafka, runs away from an abusive father to find his mother and sister but finds a safe haven in a privately owned library. Oddly enough the manager of the library had once been a famous singer who had performed a piece titled, "Kafka on the Shore." The runaway is befriended by the head librarian who occasionally takes Kafka to visit his mountain cabin in the woods. Kafka’s idyllic existence is threatened when the police wish to interrogate him about a brutal murder that occurred at the same time that he left home. In an alternate storyline the old man Nakata, who lost his ability to read and other intellectual functions during an incident on a school trip to the mountains and woods, is called upon to find lost cats. Although Nakata is somewhat intellectually impaired he can communicate with members of the feline tribe. He is pitted in an ongoing war with a man who wishes to kill cats to make a flute from cat’s souls. A truck driver sympathizes with the old man and joins in the quest. The characters are linked in a metaphysical alternate reality that may mask yet another alternate reality. The book is lyrical and beautiful, yet leaves many unanswered puzzles for the reader to ponder. 1Q84 is another alternative fiction offering with mystical overtones from this author. In 1984 a professional assassin is stuck in a traffic jam in a taxi cab. She has an important meeting scheduled so the taxi driver suggests she walks down the emergency ladder to get there in time. But the driver warns her that she might change reality if she does this. Her important meeting is her assignment to murder a hotel guest which she manages to complete. But by now she notices that reality has subtly changed. The mystery becomes more intense as the book explores these changes and how this assasin deals with them.
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