30.5 Breasts and Eggs Part 2 by Mieko Kawakami

Kayla and Taylor continue discussing the themes and major beats in the second part of Mieko Kawakami’s 2008 novel Breasts and Eggs. Topics include the inevitable end of the human race, the vastness of space, and the tragedy of being born. It’s a really fun episode!

This week’s drink: Ume Highball via Diversivore

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 oz whisky

• 1 oz umeshu

• 1 tsp ginger juice (from crushed or grated fresh ginger)

• 3.5 oz soda chilled

• ice

• ginger thinly sliced, to garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Prepare the ginger juice by grating a portion of fresh ginger and squeezing/straining out the juice.

2. Fill a tall glass with ice (I like a nice crushed ice here, but it does tend to melt fast - use large pieces if you're looking for a slow sipper).  Combine the whisky, umeshu, and ginger in a small glass or cocktail shaker and pour down the side of the glass (rather than over the ice itself).

3. Top with soda, once again pouring down the side of the glass.  Stir gently and garnish with a ribbon of thinly sliced ginger.  Serve immediately.

Current Reads and Recommendations (and fun links!): 

• All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley

• The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery (#1) by Craig Johnson

• Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

• The Self-Esteem (CBT) Workbook for Adults by Marcee A. Martin

• The Interstellar Age: The Story of the NASA Men and Women Who Flew the Forty-Year Voyager Mission by Jim Bell

• Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri

• Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

• Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang)

• I am the Brother of XX by Fleur Jaeggy (translated from the Italian by Gini Alhadeff)

• On Lighthouses and Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes by Jazmina Barrera (translated from the Spanish by Christina Macsweeney)

• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

• Book Riot: 50 Must-Read Modern Classics in Translation

• LitHub: 10 Best Translated Novels of the Decade

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Join us next time as we discuss When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Here is the beverage recipe for the upcoming episode if you want to drink along with us!

Tom Collins via liquor.com

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 ounces London dry gin

• 1 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed

• 1/2 ounce simple syrup

• Club soda, to top

• Garnish: lemon wheel

• Garnish: maraschino cherry

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Add the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup to a Collins glass.

2. Fill with ice, top with club soda and stir.

3. Garnish with a lemon wheel and maraschino cherry (optional).