User Profile

Taylor Drew

mollymay5000@bookwyrm.social

Joined 6 months, 2 weeks ago

A Canadian (she/they) Japanese to English translator based in Tokyo. Previously a speaker of English and French, now a speaker of English and Japanese.

Portfolio & Blog → taylordrew.me/ Manga Tracking → anilist.co/user/mollymay5000/

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Taylor Drew's books

To Read (View all 8)

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2025 Reading Goal

Success! Taylor Drew has read 63 of 52 books.

Sanaka Hiiragi: 人生写真館の奇跡 (Paperback, Japanese language, 宝島社)

人生写真館の奇跡 by 

天国までの道の途中に佇む写真館。ここには、訪れる死者の人生が写真に収められ保管されている。 ここで死者は、人生を振り返りながら、自分が生きた年数だけの写真を選び、自らの手で走馬燈を作るのだ――。 そんな人生最後の振り返りの儀式を手伝うのは、写真館に来るまでの記憶をなくした青年、平坂。 九十二歳の老婆が選んだバスの写真、四十七歳のヤクザが選んだクリスマス・イブの写真、 そして七歳の子どもと笑顔を浮かべる青年の写真。

「たった一日ではありますが、過去に戻って、一枚だけ写真を撮り直すことができます」

と平坂は言い、訪れた死者をそれぞれの過去へと誘う。 記念すべき日のあの時に戻り、思い出の写真を撮り直しながら、彼らは人生の最期に何を想うのか。 そして平坂に訪れる、悲しくも優しい結末とは……。3つの物語が紡ぎ出す、感動のミステリー。

An Yu: Sunbirth (Paperback, 2025, Penguin Random House)

In Five Poems Lake, a small village surrounded by impenetrable deserts, the sun is slowly …

Makes you think

I'm back again with another review from a book I got on NetGalley! This book kind of feels like a change in pace from what I've reviewed in the past. I think it may be the first one I've done this year that's SF? Either way, it was really interesting to change it up—even if I do read a lot of SF in my free time. Anyway.

This book is by an author named An Yu. She was born and raised in Beijing. I've never read her work before or and I hadn't heard of her before I requested this book, but I am really glad that I picked it up even though it wasn't my favourite thing. In a way, I think that I'll actually grow to like it more as I get further away from the reading experience. I'll admit that I like when that happens. Books that …

reviewed Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch, #3)

Ann Leckie: Ancillary Mercy (Paperback, 2015, Orbit)

For just a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as …

An excellent finale

This trilogy was so great. I love everything that the author did with gender and language. I love everything about how the series spends so much time on the question of who deserves respect and why...or perhaps rather why we attribute respect to certain individuals.

It's just so good. I'm so excited to read the standalone novels as well. Especially because I want to learn more about the Presger!

Tashan Mehta: Mad Sisters of Esi (Paperback, 2025, DAW)

Susanna Clarke's Piranesi meets Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler in this …

Teaching us about love and time

Life feels like it's been absolutely off the charts lately. Some of that is, of course, because of what's going on globally in politics. But on the other side, is that I've simply been rather unwell since the middle of May. So even though I got the arc for this book from NetGalley many months ago, it's come down to the wire when it comes to actually reading it and getting out my review. But maybe that was actually for the best? Somehow it feels like it was exactly the right time to read this absolutely incredible story by Tashan Mehta.

Mad Sisters of Esi starts by talking about how time and stories are circular rather than linear, and I think that both within the world of the novel and in real life, that this is true. While I do think that the sometimes mundane nature of modern life in …

G. Willow Wilson: The Bird King (2020, Grove Press)

On having a little faith

I feel like everything about this book was erratic and unexpected, but nonetheless I find myself very weepy at the end of it all--I'm not even sure what to say.

It's not very often that I get to read a book originally in English where the white man is the enemy in such a clear and articulated way. Yet the enemy is also somehow something or someone else. It's a hard to describe feeling, but it just reminds me that we all need to believe in something and have a little faith. Be gracious to others, regardless of any differences there may be between you, and just do your best with courage. That's all there is.