The Housekeeper and the Professor in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 09, 2010 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: xx-2010-xx, owned, favorites

What a fantastic book. Charming. A very fast read, but I think to fully grasp it, it would require deep study. So I'm definitely going to buy it, so I can spend more time with it. So far I've read two Japanese authors this year, both new to me. I gave both books 5 stars. I've read 28 books this year, and so far only 3 of them are 5-star reads.

Her characters are so real, and the story rings so true, even though the idea of a person with an 80-minute memory seems a bit far-fetched. I can't describ ...more

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Jun 30, 2016 Rachel N. rated it really liked it

Shelves: friendship, read-in-2016, family, japan, baseball, math

A housekeeper begins working for a former mathematics professor who due to ana ccident can only remember the past 80 minutes. The two of them plus the housekeepers son, nicknamed Root, eventually form a friendship. A sweet story of friendship and family. There is a lot of math in the book which bogged the story down a bit in places for me. Otherwise I enjoyed the story and the characters.

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Aug 03, 2011 Lisa of Hopewell rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014, translated-into-english

Absolutely wonderful. A sweet, sweet story that I enjoyed in barely more than one sitting. When a book featuring lots of math holds my attention so vividly that I read it almost cover-to-cover in one sitting, you can be sure the story is compelling! What is memory? How do we care for are loved ones when memory is gone? Such a sweet, sweet book. Highly recommended. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

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Dec 11, 2017 Verity rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, memory-loss

This is a lovely piece that keeps you engaged and hard to put down for want of knowing will things turn out alright. It didn't hurt that this story held a lot of parallel interests to my family's interests: baseball, math and the effects of memory loss in a loved one. Great read for traveling. ...more

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Sep 04, 2014 Martha rated it really liked it

I liked the story of the relationship the housekeeper and her son built with the professor, the math not as much. It might have been the closest I have ever gotten to appreciating the language of math, however.

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Feb 14, 2018 Diane rated it really liked it

Such a lovely, quiet, bittersweet story of a math genius, a housekeeper, and her 10 year old son. After a traumatic car accident, a 68 year old professor can now only remember for 80 minutes before his short-term memory is wiped clean. Despite that, his housekeeper and her son begin to forge a profound relationship with him through numbers and baseball, but oh so much more. Just lovely.

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