Starred books

These are all the books I’ve marked with as star.

Click the fleuron ❧ to read the full review.

• ⭐ Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson. A story about the winged red monster Geyron as a young man. ❧
• ⭐ The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard. On love and relationships over decades. Subtle.
• ⭐ Kiertorata by Matias Riikonen. Two train cleaners clean trains. Clever structure. Short and sweet.
• ⭐ Matara by Matias Riikonen. A story about boys playing society. Exquisite. ❧
• ⭐ Kalvot by Chi Ta-wei, translated by Rauno Sainio (English title: The Membranes). Cyberpunk soft sci-fi about identity. Reminds me of Ann Leckie’s books. Fresh considering its was published 30 years ago.
• ⭐ Älä jätä hyvästejä by Han Kang, translated by Taru Salminen (English title: We Do Not Part). A woman and her friend explore the Jeju massacre. Heavy topic, beautiful writing.
• ⭐ Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin. More mature than the earlier parts of the Earthsea Cycle.
• ⭐ Raukoilla rajoilla by Markku Eskelinen. On the history of Finnish prose literature. Iconoclastic. Super interesting.
• ⭐ Our Strangers by Lydia Davis. Really quite short stories observing everyday life at home, at the airport, and elsewhere.
• ⭐ Hello, Stranger by Will Buckingham. On strangers, hospitality, travel. The writing style is so cozy.
• ⭐ Katsotaanhan puhelimiakin by Arsi Alenius. A young literary critic is angry about how literature has lost its social cachet. ❧
• ⭐ The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, edited by Jay Rubin. What it says on the tin. The stories hit hard. ❧
• ⭐ Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton. A memoir about working in an environment with very few women. ❧
• ⭐ The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin. A bildungsroman. I read this as teenager and felt it was difficult and long. Now it was a page-turner. (reread) ❧
• ⭐ Supersalanen tyttöpäiväkirja by Veera Milja. Poems about being a teen girl. ❧
• ⭐ Uraanilamppu ja muita novelleja by Harry Salmenniemi. Short stories. ❧
• ⭐ Argonautit by Maggie Nelson, translated by Kaijamari Sivill (English title: The Argonauts). On queerness and motherhood. (reread)
• ⭐ The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Chaos in Moscow. Fun.
• ⭐ Radalla by Iida Sofia Hirvonen. Moments in the life of a 30-something writer living in Helsinki. For people who have used Internet too much.
• ⭐ The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. A story about anarchists on the moon.
• ⭐ Nousu ja tuho by Liv Strömquist. A comic about capitalism, feminism, and leftist self-criticism.
• ⭐ The 7 Secrets of the Prolific by Hillary Rettig. On writing, but the best parts are really about perfectionism and procrastination.
• ⭐ Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. A comic about comics and about visual art. Insightful.
• ⭐ Jatkosota-extra by Jaakko Yli-Juonikas. An experimental novel. A satire about Finnish politics and The Finns Party.
• ⭐ The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. A dialogue on Adlerian individual psychology.
• ⭐ This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. A story about time agents writing letters to each other. Delightful.
• ⭐ Monimuotoisuus by Juha Kauppinen. Stories about nature in Finland and information about the decline of biodiversity.
• ⭐ Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann. A through look at processing and storing data. Recommended for any software engineers working with databases.
• ⭐ Rewriting the Rules by Meg-John Barker. A self-help book about relationships with friends and lovers. Very sensible.
• ⭐ How I Take Photographs by Daido Moriyama and Takeshi Nakamoto. Photos by Moriyama and interviews with him about photography.
• ⭐ Kuvauksia Suomesta by A. P. Milyukov. A 19th century travelogue about Finland.
• ⭐ Frontier by Can Xue. A poetic, magical, dream-like story. Reading it was a struggle, but it was rewarding enough to persist.
• ⭐ Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. A sci-fi classic. Quite different from Stalker the movie, but both are great.
• ⭐ The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. An adventure tale. Captivating even if everything is solved by luck. (reread)
• ⭐ The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin. A story about a world that endures catastrophic climate change.
• ⭐ The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier. Introduction to engineering management. No fluff. I will refer back to this book.
• ⭐ Salaiset aseet by Julio Cortázar, translated by Jyrki Lappi-Seppälä (original title: Las armas secretas). Ambiguous stories about Paris.
• ⭐ 300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso. A personal essay or a collection of aphorisms.
• ⭐ Ongoingness by Sarah Manguso. A personal essay on remembering your life.