Currently Reading Showing 851-900 of 1,285

[Alison]

I'm currently reading Amrita and thinking about futoko/chronic absenteeism in Japan and Japanese literature. It's come up in several Japanese novels translated in English this year, most notably Lonely Castle in the Mirror.

Does anyone have reading suggestions, fiction or non-fiction?

[Bill]

Do you mean skipping school, or skipping work?

[Alison]

Bill wrote: "Do you mean skipping school, or skipping work?"

Skipping school. Thanks for asking!

[Henk]

I recently read Longing and Other Stories by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and quite enjoyed learning more on the background of this writer through three short stories. Review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Also I am halfway through The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura, an interesting if somewhat simply written tale set in the forested mountains of Japans rural outskirt, desperate for people to join their lumber industry.

[Alwynne]

Jacob wrote: "Thanks for sharing, Alwynne. Territory of Light is one of my favorite things I’ve read in years. I will look into Laughing Wolf. In what ways are you finding it different from Tsushima Yuko’s other..."

I was going back through my notifications and realised I never replied to this. It's an historical novel which moves between time periods, post-war Japan and Japan in the late 1950s. It also shifts between points of view, one character a boy is represented primarily from a distance. The other main character is a girl whose story has parallels to the author's own life, and she has sections that allow a first-person perspective. The boy could be real or not, or even a stand-in for the girl's dead brother - whose disability suggests a version of Tsushima's own lost brother.

Tsushima borrows from fantasy, children's literature, fable, and includes a series of radical juxtapositions between her fictional narrative and extracts from news reports and other materials. It's unsettling and considerably bleaker than the other novels of hers I've read, and the bond between the boy and girl formed by his witnessing her father's love-suicide suggests that it's partly working through aspects of Tsushima's own experiences of grief, trauma and loss.

There's also a complicated subtext around sexual violence, violence towards women which I'm still puzzling out.

[Alwynne]

I finished and really enjoyed MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 2: TRAVEL packed with exciting, gripping material.

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished a novel by award-winning author Masatsugu Ono At the Edge of the Woods not the same as an earlier chapbook with a very similar title - the chapbook contains two out of the four sections that form this novel. I was impressed by this one, loved the writing, and I'll definitely be looking out for more of his work.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Bill]

Currently reading Winter Sleep by Kitakata Kenzo. I thought his Ashes had been good, but I've been enjoying this even more. It's engrossing, and it's hard to say exactly why. But I'll try when I'm done.

It's a slice-of-life about a middle aged artist who holes up in a cabin in the mountains to paint. He's not exactly a nice person or any artistic type, but he's not a total creep. He's just driven to paint, and almost nothing else matters to him.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "Currently reading Winter Sleep by Kitakata Kenzo. I thought his Ashes had been good, but I've been enjoying this even more. It's engrossing, and it's hard to say exactly why. But I'l..."

I own this and have no idea why I haven’t read it yet, but you’ve inspired me to move it up my TBR, seriously. It sounds highly appealing.

[Bill]

You haven't read it for the same reason I put off reading it so long: hundreds of other unread books on the shelf.

[Alan M]

@Carol and Bill - I read 'Winter Sleep' a few years ago. I randomly found it in a 2nd hand bookstore and just bought it cos it was Japanese. Really enjoyed it. I have often thought of nominating it as a group read but never did. Also read 'The Cage' which is, I suppose, more typical hardboiled Kitakata. I enjoyed that, too, but much prefer Winter Sleep.

Is it just me or does the theme of someone removing themselves to a distant cabin to paint remind us of another, more recent, book by a Japanese author...?

[Alwynne]

I finished a new edition of Yūko Tsushima's Woman Running in the Mountains which I enjoyed immensely.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

Tanizaki collection Longing and Other Stories

My comments:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carol]

Alwynne wrote: "Tanizaki collection Longing and Other Stories

You're drawing me back to try again with his short stories, and I thank you for that.

[Alwynne]

Thanks Carol, not sure where the general news thread is here, but the friend software glitch twist is continuing with more and more people finding friends/followers suddenly removed from their lists when they haven't actually dumped/removed them. Some reporting losing as many as 20 to 60 friends and followers in one go.

[Alwynne]

I finished Sayaka Murata's collection Life Ceremony: Stories newly translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

Link to review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished Chesil's prize-winning, YA novel The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished David Joiner's Kanazawa not technically a great novel but a surprisingly compelling one possibly because of all the lovingly-detailed depictions of the setting, the city's history, and the fascinating references to Japanese authors and classic Japanese literature.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alan M]

@ Alwynne. Really enjoyed your review. I have it on ARC as well so will be reading it shortly. Am looking forward to it.

By the way, have you read Iain Maloney's 'The Only Gaijin In The Village', which came out a couple of years ago. I shamelessly recommend it a) because he's from Aberdeen and now lives in Japan with his wife b) because we were supposed to have him for an author event in our bookshop just as Covid hit and we had to cancel and c) because it's a genuinely honest, funny and moving account of being a Westerner in Japan. I definitely recommend it, as a piece of good honest non-fiction.

[Alwynne]

No I haven't Alan, sounds very promising, thank you. I will check it out. I hope your bookshop is thriving despite all the closures.

[Alan M]

Alwynne, well we survive, despite the tempests of time. It's a campus bookshop, so fortunately the students still need us, as do the locals. We will see what 2022 brings. Thank you for your kind thoughts. They are much appreciated in these years of upheaval.

[Bill]

I saw an article today about 2021 being a record year for book buying in the UK, as everyone was stuck at home with nothing to do. I hope some of that extra buying went your way.

[Alan M]

Merci Bill. I saw that too. Our company has a website (obviously, it's 2022) so we definitely saw a big uptick on online sales. In terms of footfall in the physical shop, it's hard to say. What I would say is that we became a social place, once we opened up after lockdown. People just wanted to come in and talk to another human being. It was oddly wonderful, as we became a sort of social therapy for people.

I remember some even saying that they just came in the shop to touch and smell books. Only book people would get that. It made me happy. And ultimately hopeful for the future.

[Bill]

Since I'm here...

I've been slowly savoring Memories of Silk and Straw, a collection of recollections of rural, elderly people who grew up in the early years of the 20th century. The chapters are very short (3-6 pages), and I only read one or two of them at a time. I'll be sorry when I run out.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "Since I'm here...

I've been slowly savoring Memories of Silk and Straw, a collection of recollections of rural, elderly people who grew up in the early years of the 20th century. Th..."

I ordered it after reading your comment and it arrived yesterday. It looks entirely charming and I'm looking forward to starting it.

Has anyone read or started My Annihilation? I've had wildly inconsistent experiences with Fuminori Nakamura's novels and would feel better about ordering it if someone here gives it a thumbs-up.

[Bill]

When a curmudgeon says something nice about a book, people listen! ^_^

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "When a curmudgeon says something nice about a book, people listen! ^_^"

That's been my experience, too. (It boggles my mind the extent to which it upsets strangers when I pan a book that has a 4.1+rating and thousands of happy readers, but that's a story for another day.)

[Alan M]

@ Carol. I just finished 'My Annihilation' a few days ago. Pretty much read it in one sitting. I'm still thinking about it, not entirely 100% sure what and who happened and how, but I gave it 5 stars. Twisty, involving, complicated and just when you think you've got it there's another twist. I would recommend it but that's just me!

[Carol]

Alan wrote: "@ Carol. I just finished 'My Annihilation' a few days ago. Pretty much read it in one sitting. I'm still thinking about it, not entirely 100% sure what and who happened and how, but I gave it 5 sta..."

I’m glad to hear this, Alan. Awesome.

[Nocturnalux]

I am halfway through Autobiography of a Geisha. You'd never tell the author was borderline illiterate as it flows very well as a story- a life story of intense suffering- written entirely in hiragana.

Meanwhile, I am still plodding along ハイ☆スピード！2 High Speed! 2 . Ideally, I would have moved on to read my next book in Japanese, which would be 吾輩は猫である Wagahai wa neko de aru , but I know that I don't read the second volume of the Light Novel soonish, I will find it much harder to get back into it.

It is considerably longer than the first instalment and 136 pages into it, there is surprisingly little swimming going on. Up to this point, it's been a long, "Will Haruka Join the Swim Club" setup which is almost mandatory in some sports media but took way, way too long. It makes some sense that'd take longer than usual as Haruka is not the typical sports protagonist who wants to compete and thus will join their respective club as soon as possible (Just look at Hinata from Haikyuu for this taken to an extreme!), that Haruka does not want to be an athlete is part of the conflict in the series- and it gets really dark on occasion, later seasons of Free! have borderline nightmare fuel scenes- but it takes well over a hundred pages for him to actually join.

That's a lot.

[Alison]

Alan wrote: "@ Carol. I just finished 'My Annihilation' a few days ago. Pretty much read it in one sitting. I'm still thinking about it, not entirely 100% sure what and who happened and how, but I gave it 5 sta..."

How violent/scary is it? I don't tend to read thrillers or horror novels, so I'm not sure about this one.

[Alison]

Nocturnalux wrote: "I am halfway through Autobiography of a Geisha. You'd never tell the author was borderline illiterate as it flows very well as a story- a life story of intense suffering- written enti..."

I'm surprised she was illiterate. Geisha were some of the most reliably literate women for a lot of early modern/modern Japanese history.

[Alan M]

Alison wrote: "Alan wrote: "@ Carol. I just finished 'My Annihilation' a few days ago. Pretty much read it in one sitting. I'm still thinking about it, not entirely 100% sure what and who happened and how, but I ..."

That's a hard one to call, Alison. Scary? No. Violent? Well, if it were a film there would probably be a warning that the following motion picture depicts/mentions domestic violence, scenes of murder and some violence. And a dead body in a bag. A R15 maybe, definitely not an R18. Given it's subject, how could it not!!!? There are no gritty descriptions or graphic violence. No blood or guts or entrails or such like :-)

Honestly, no, the psychological and perplexing nature of the book makes it so worth reading.

(Although, for legal reasons, I have to state that any opinion I have is my own and it is entirely your decision to read the book. Don't sue me if it causes you nightmares lol). :-)

[G.G.]

Alison wrote: "Nocturnalux wrote: "I am halfway through Autobiography of a Geisha. You'd never tell the author was borderline illiterate as it flows very well as a story- a life story of intense suf..."
Yes, this is my sense of urban geisha (Kyoto, Edo/Tokyo) too Alison. But Sayo Masuda, the author of Autobiography of a Geisha, was a hot-spring geisha (think: Komako in Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata). As Edward G. Seidensticker observed in an introduction to his translation of Kawabata's Snow Country: "The city geisha may become a celebrated musician or dancer, a politician intriguer, even a dispenser of patronage. The hot-spring geisha must go on entertaining week-end guests, and the pretense that she is an artist and not a prostitute is often a thin one indeed."

[Nocturnalux]

One of the reasons why I found Autobiography to be such an important book is precisely because it sheds light on a kind of geisha that has remained in obscurity, for the most part.

Whenever people think of "geisha", they tend to think of the highly rarefied urban environment while Masuda, and her peers, tend to be dismissed altogether.

Off the top of my head, until I picked this one up, my only contact with geisha like Masuda was indeed Komako from Snow Country; and The Waiting Years, while not the same, also covers the "kept woman" who is essentially sold.

[Alan M]

Just dropped through my letterbox, thanks to ebay and a fantastically cheap 2nd hand copy, I'm being distracted from everything else by Granta 127: Japan.

Originally published in 2014, I think, this has all the feel of the recently revived MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 2: TRAVEL and volume 1 before that. Same concept of a selection of stories, musings etc from Japanese and Western writers. Same lovely illustrations. This is a book that will be treasured and picked up over and over, I suspect. Anyone who has read the Monkey issue(s) should/must try and get hold of this.

[Alwynne]

Li Kotomi's Solo Dance

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

Finished the first in Konami Kanata's series Sue & Tai-chan, Vol. 1

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

Finished Rumi Hara's graphic novel Nori

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nocturnalux]

Alwynne wrote: "Li Kotomi's Solo Dance

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

This one sounds very interesting. I am tempted to read it in Japanese but odds are I'll stick with the translation.

One of the first books I read in Japanese was Ishikawa Taiga's ボクの彼氏はどこにいる? Boku no kareshi wa doko ni iru? and since then I've been very keen on reading more queer content- from queers authors.

[Alwynne]

Nocturnalux wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Li Kotomi's Solo Dance

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

This one sounds very interesting. I am tempted to read it in Japanese ..."

I'm queer so tend to seek out fiction with LGBTQ rep, and always excited to find new titles. Look forward to seeing what you thought.

[Bill]

I'm somewhat stalled on Wind and Waves, a historical novel of the Mongol conquest of Korea and attempted invasion of Japan.

I've previously read Inoue's The Roof Tile of Tempyo and also have an (unread) copy of his Blue Wolf. His historical novels put a strong emphasis on 'historical' and the 'novel' is secondary. Yet even for a heavy history lover like myself, they have trouble holding my attention.

I'll press on. It hasn't even gotten to the invasion of Japan yet.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "I'm somewhat stalled on Wind and Waves, a historical novel of the Mongol conquest of Korea and attempted invasion of Japan.

I've previously read Inoue's [book: The Roof Tile of Tem..."

I just bought Roof Tile last week and am hopeful. Maybe I’ll temper that hope lol.

[Bill]

Notifications are perhaps improving. A couple of hours ago I got one you posted two days ago, and then I got this notification promptly.

Roof Tile was better than Wind and Waves (at least so far), and Tun-Huang was better than either of them. So don't regret the purchase!

[Nocturnalux]

Alwynne wrote: "I'm queer so tend to seek out fiction with LGBTQ rep, and always excited to find new titles. Look forward to seeing what you thought."

Same here, representation is really important to me. I managed to find it at the site I usually order Japanese books from and may grab it for my birthday.

Recently picked up The Tales of Ise. Still making my way through the very detailed introduction and have yet to make it to the text proper. I do not mind it as this edition's critical apparatus makes it a primer for Medieval Japanese literature: I wish I had read it before I picked up The Tale of Genji, I know I will be turning to the appendixes and glossary time and time again.

[Alwynne]

Read and relished Mieko Kawakami's All the Lovers in the Night

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished Robo Sapiens: Tales of Tomorrow

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Damon]

I -just- finished "Oretachi Baburu Nyuukou Gumi" (We, who Started at Banks during the Bubble--the title is much catchier in Japanese, I assume) in Japanese. I give a strong recommend for anyone with strong Japanese reading skills (JLPT N1+) AND an interest in Japan's economic history (and the economic fallout thereof) of the past 30 years. Also, if there are any translators out there who want to try to bring it over to English (if I had the time, I might give it a try myself), I think that there would be a ready audience here, given that we are going through our own lingering economic tumult at the same time!

A link to my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished a new edition (not yet listed on GR) of The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carol]

Alwynne wrote: "I finished a new edition (not yet listed on GR) of The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

This is interesting, Alwynne. It hadn't crossed my radar yet. Thanks for the link.