Mailbox Monday & IMWAYR

Happy Monday! How are we doing? I had a busy weekend so I'm only doing a Mailbox Monday post today, rather than combining it with the Sunday Post as usual. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

I'm also joining It's Monday, What Are You Reading? this week, which looks like another great place to get looaads of reading recommendations! It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog co-hosted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts, Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

The books are ones I bought myself this weekend after I finally made it into a bookstore again after months of going without. The joy of browsing through bookshelves is honestly one I can't compare with any other.

Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

I have been eyeing this book literally since it's been announced. Then I saw some truly horrendous takes on it on Instagram and knew the time had come to get to it. And I started reading it straightaway and missed my trainstop because I got lost in the world Kuang creates. So it's already a solid recommendation!

If Cats Disappeared From The World by Genki Kawamura, trans. Eric Salland 

Our narrator’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage for company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the Devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week . . .

Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the Devil our narrator will take himself – and his beloved cat – to the brink. Genki Kawamura's If Cats Disappeared from the World is a story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters in modern life.

This beautiful tale is translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland, who also translated The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide. Fans of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles will also surely love If Cats Disappeared from the World.

As some of you know, I have a black cat so how was I meant to pass this cover by? But I also love the set-up of the book itself, the absurdity of it and yet how it reaches towards true questions. And I'm always down for a random pop-up from the Devil, as my love for The Master and Margarita attests.

So that's me! I'm already loving Babel and I feel like I'll love If Cats Disappeared From The World as well! What's in your bookbag?