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What Members Thought
I don't often read mysteries these days but picked up The Salaryman's Wife as I'm a salaryman's fiance. Having been an English teacher in Japan and finding myself displaced from Tokyo for the moment, I found the book a fast, fun, natsukashii read. The first few chapters had me yelling at the author for over-explaining things or trafficking in stereotypes and over-assumptions...but the menshuku setting grew on me. The characters weren't plausible or that well-developed, but the story was fun and
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I really wanted to like this book. Really, really wanted that. I liked how the author portrayed the Japanese culture. Not sure how accurate it is, but it seemed realistic. And that was the only thing that was even closely realistic in this book. The main characters were missing something, the story didn't make sense (in my opinion), too much was going on that we needed to keep track of, and I'm not even sure if that added anything to the story. The mystery just didn't work for me. The ending mad
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I love this series of little mysteries with a Californian-Japanese heroine, Rei Shimura. It begins with her living in Tokyo, her parents are in Berkeley, CA (father is Japanese, mother is American), and she finds her way into some scrape or other having to do with a Japanese cultural event like flower arranging or tea ceremonies or even manga conventions. The characters are so likable and there are plenty of cozy food details (noodles!), fashion notes, and lots of train travel and seaside villag
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Nov 14, 2010
Deedee
marked it as to-read
Apr 15, 2013
Enthu_Kidlets
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Feb 27, 2017
Andrea
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Jan 30, 2018
Wanda
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Jun 05, 2018
Tammy AZ
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Nov 27, 2019
Jocelyn
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Mar 03, 2020
Katy
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Jul 12, 2025
Davida "Davi"
marked it as to-read
