Title: In Praise of Shadows.
Author: Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (trans. by Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker).
Genre: Non-fiction, philosophy, architecture, art.
Country: Japan.
Language: Japanese.
Publication Date: 1933.
Summary: An essay on Japanese aesthetics, exploring everything from architecture, jade, food, and toilets and combining an acute sense of the use of space in buildings, to descriptions of laquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure. The essay is both a historical work documenting a period when many in Japan grappled with the breakneck speed of Westernization, and a timeless celebration of the beauty and elegance of simplicity. Nearly a century removed from its first appearance, the work offers a surprisingly contemporary lesson in the values of subtlety and restraint. The Foreword by Charles Moore, American architect and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects introduces the books, highlighting how familiarizing ourselves with the Japanese aesthetic and the beauty of shadow and darkness, can shift our perspective on everything. In the Afterword (1977) by Thomas J. Harper, the translator explains Tanizaki's seemingly haphazard writing style that may appear abrasive to a Western reader, as well as expanding on the social circumstances in which Tanizaki was moved to write the essay and a quickly modernizing and changing world.

My rating: 9/10.
My review:

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Title: Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: A Cookery Book with a Story.
Author: P.L. Travers.
Genre: Fiction, literature, non-fiction, children's lit, sequels, cook-book.
Country: U.K.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1975.
Summary: A unique glimpse at the famous Poppins cast, as the spit-spot English nanny and the Banks children take over the kitchen for a week. With the help of familiar visitors like the Bird Woman, Admiral Boom, and Mr. and Mrs. Turvy, Mary Poppins teaches her irrepressible young charges the basics of cooking, from A to Z. Also functions as a cook-book, including 30 different recipes.

My rating: 7.5/10.
My review:

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