Currently Reading Showing 1,201-1,250 of 1,286

[Carolyn]

New here! About half-way into “The City and its Uncertain Walls,” preceded by my second (after 10 years!) reading of “Kafka on the Shore.”

[Ana]

@Jack I have never read anything from Izumi Suzuki, and would love to have a group read. She sounds interesting so I might give her work a chance this holidays.

[Carola]

Yeah I agree, I'd love an Izumi Suzuki group read too!

[Jack]

Let’s propose an Izumi Suzuki book for Feb’s nominations. I would also join a buddy group read on Suzuki books in Feb should it not be the top item in the poll. I definitely would like to do a deeper read on her short stories.

[Bill]

Sounds good to me. I liked Terminal Boredom enough to give her another try.

[Vj]

Currently reading 幻の光, it's unbelievably good. The film adaptation of the title story, Maborosi, has always been my favourite of Hirokazu Kore-eda's films, so I thought I'd give this a try. Miyamoto's prose is precise, beautiful, and hits hard. It's a shame that he seems to be a bit unknown and underread in the English world. His warm, humanistic eye is almost like the antithesis of the "cold, distant" style people seem to characterize Japanese literature with.

[Jack]

Vj wrote: "Currently reading 幻の光, it's unbelievably good. The film adaptation of the title story, Maborosi, has always been my favourite of Hirokazu Kore-eda's films, so I thought I'd give thi..."

I thought Maboroshi no Hikari was a fantastically good film.

[Jack]

Bill wrote: "Sounds good to me. I liked Terminal Boredom enough to give her another try."

I forgot about this conversation and nominated trinity x3... I am still up for a buddy read and, esp, a discussion on either of her short story collections. I can also back off of trinityx3 since I am going to read it anyway... Is there a preferred Izumi Suzuki book? I want to do a deep read this time.

[Jon]

I read The Memory Police in December. I blame misogyny for not reading Ogawa before -- not my own but the lack of her works available in English and hyped in the 1990s when I was reading so much Japanese fiction. I found it quite remarkable, quiet, not as heavy as the premise might seem. the disappearances could as much be a regular aspect of consciousness as some dystopian police action and one so natural and everyday as to avoid recognition.

I just started the anthology A Late Chrysanthemum. I surely gave read Shiga Haoya before but fortunately my poor memory makes the reading seem new.

[Alwynne]

I finished Kimura Kumi's novella Someone to Watch Over You interesting as a character study of isolation and obsessive guilt and an intriguing perspective on Japanese society at the height of the Covid pandemic.

Link to my review:

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

[Alwynne]

Recently read a reissue of classic crime novel Murder at Mt. Fuji interesting as an exploration of toxic masculinity and investment in public appearance in 1980s Japan but disappointing overall.

Link to my review:

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

[Jack]

Thanks Alwynne, Your reviews always help with introductions to new, for me, authors, and to rethink my tbr lists.

I have finished the two Jan group reads and a number of manga & lns so now:

The Elephant Vanishes is my current audiobook
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino is my current light novel and I think I am a fan now of their works.
Suzume 1 is my current manga. I am a big fan of Makoto Shinkai’s works in any media.
I am working on our NF group read Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld but have not made much progress due to reading rabbit holes.
As other NF is the 2024 edition of Lonely Planet Japan which is for planning a trip to northern Honshu.
I am timing out for a next j-lit fiction novel to read a Han Kang, Korean author, novel.

[Henk]

Just read Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki. It is a short read, some speculate it might be on the radar of the International Booker Prize jury. I found it atmospheric enough, but would have liked more to actually happen in the novel. Review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished Hiromi Kawakami's Under the Eye of the Big Bird. Episodic, speculative fiction that won the Izumi Kyoka Literature prize. Entertaining and enjoyed the worldbuilding, puzzle-like approach in the early to middle sections. But intellectually thin, ideas about human behaviour/evolution verged on simplistic/mechanistic, and sometimes veered towards eugenicist.

Link to my review:

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

[Alwynne]

I finished prolific, bestselling author Sonoko Machida's The Convenience Store by the Sea Less mawkish, more sophisticated and detailed, more grounded in social realities, than some of the other 'healing narrative's I've encountered, although the general format, notion of supportive 'imagined community' is pretty predictable.

Link to my review:

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

[Bill]

I finished the last "January in Japan" book I started last month: The Great Wave . It's a very well researched book about the Americans who traveled to Japan in the first few decades after the country was opened. I will keep it around for reference in case I come across any of these names again.

Unfortunately, it wasn't what I was looking for. Almost all of the book is biographies of Americans who spent some time in Japan, even about the decades of their lives before they were interested in Japan. Very few of the people described here are Japanese. Moreover, the people described are mostly the sorts of the people I wouldn't want to know personally: the idle rich, the exoticizers, the shallow fad-followers.

I was hoping to see Meiji Japan through their eyes, but there weren't enough quotes from their writings (or even lists of their writings) to be able to see Japan as they saw it. The only book I was able to add to my to-read list was Japanese Houses .

[Carol]

I finished Sanshirō by Natsume Sōseki and was underwhelmed. Haruki Murakami's introduction was charming and put the best spin possible on its contents, but - even forwarned - I found Sanshiro to be a character I couldn't get invested in. It wasn't that he was unlikable; it was more that he was so little of anything, in addition to his character not developing over the course of the novel. The lead female character intrigued, but the reader never gets close enough to her. She's the subject only of Sanshiro's and other male characters' gazes. I enjoyed it as a slice of life of a certain class of folk in a university setting in 1906 - 1907, as if I was looking at a museum exhibit, but overall it's a trifle compared to other Soseki novels.

I've not seen a copy or ever read a review of the second book in the trilogy, Sorekara / And Then: Natsume Soseki's Novel Sorekara (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Japanese Series.). Since I'd have to purchase it, if anyone is a big fan of it, let me know.

[AlienRummageSox]

I am finishing Jami Nakamura Lin’s biographical/autobiographical memoir called “The Night Parade” and also started in on Karen Brazell’s 1973 translation of “The Confessions of Lady Nijo.”

[Bill]

Carol:

I agree with you on Sanshiro. I read it as a glimpse into the past, which is clearly not why it was written.

I recently tried and gave up on "And Then". I don't even recall what it was about.

[Alwynne]

I finished Sayaka Murata's Vanishing World speculative fiction that taps into concerns over Japan's low birth rates, women's dissatisfaction with traditional gender roles and growing social isolation - although for Murata not necessarily a bad thing. Some inventive flourishes and very readable but unsophisticated in terms of ideas/world-building.

Link to my review:

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

[Alwynne]

I finished Junko Takase's prize-winning novella May You Have Delicious Meals an intriguing exploration of office politics and gender roles.

Link to my review:

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

[Bill]

Currently reading the manga watashi no shonen . I'm on volume 3 of 9, and I'm not sure I'm going to finish it. It's uncomfortable, in the sense of everything is going fine, but you constantly sense disaster coming, because the female lead knows she shouldn't be doing this.

A 30 year old woman sees a 12 year old girl playing soccer alone in the park after dark, and goes to warn her. It turns out the kid is a boy. She starts teaching him, because he's not very good and she played through college. They start to get together for other things. It's not at all sexual. Yet she knows it's wrong, because she's doing it behind his parents' back. What parent wouldn't be worried?

I'm glad the author didn't go for the low-hanging fruit of a broken home. The boy's father is a widower and has to work long hours, but genuinely cares for his two sons. It makes the sense of foreboding even worse, just waiting for him to justifiably explode at this interfering woman.

[Jack]

Currently rereading The Diary of Lady Murasaki with introduction, translation and commentary by Richard Bowring, 2nd Ed. For a Japanese classical literature discussion group. I think this is my 3rd time through and I still appreciate the scholarship of Bowring and the immediacy of Lady Murasaki in translation.

[Bill]

ILL got in a Cage on the Sea for me. I was having a terrible time finding a copy of this for sale, despite it only being 10 years old.

It's the true story of Japanese soldiers stranded on a South Seas island at the end of the war. How closely will it parallel Lord of the Flies? Only reading it will tell.

(ILL was a near year's resolution of sorts, which I started in December. One book at a time, I want to borrow and read the books I can't otherwise find or afford to buy.)

[Bill]

Just finished The Woman Next Door , a collection of short stories by Mukoda Kuniko.

I have to admit to liking these stories better than the ones in The Name of the Flower. These deal mostly with realistic difficulties women face in family and relationships.

The one story in this volume not centered on a woman is about a man who is uncomfortable around his newly found half-brother.

[Bill]

I just finished Tokyo Express (Previously published as "Points and Lines").

It's an exceedingly detailed novel whose sheer detail bored me. Some may find comparisons of timetables to be clever sleuthing. I wish it had been de-emphasized.

I also found the investigation implausible. A detective is allowed more than six months to investigate the alibi of a suspect who they really have no cause to suspect and spend that kind of manpower on. Despite him being correct and tearing the alibi apart at the end.

I suspect there's a market for books like this. But I'm not really part of that demographic.

[Bill]

I'm 2/3rds done with The Sheltering Rain . (I thought the title was odd; I would have called it "Sheltering from the Rain").

It's a slice of life about the hostess club scene in Shinjuku in the early 70s. One could label it either linked short stories or an episodic novel. Some parts are upbeat, some tragic. I'm liking it quite a bit, though I have to admit that the fantasy element in the first story wasn't particularly welcome or necessary (it was like the gotcha at the end of an old Twilight Zone episode). There is a central character to the novel, for those who insist on such things, but he doesn't appear in every chapter.

If this sounds interesting, buy it soon. I hear the publisher is on its last legs.

[Bill]

Citadel in Spring is a different sort of Japanese war memoir novel. The main character here is working in the Navy headquarters in Tokyo decoding enemy messages.

It was published in 1952, I expect after the end of the occupation. The author expresses more anti-war and losing-the-war sentiments than would have been possible while the war was going on (which likely would appeal more to his post-war readership), but it is not completely anti-war (which likely would have gotten it banned by SCAP).

I am not very far into it, but the war is quickly moving along. Perhaps the novel continues into the occupation period.

[Bill]

Citadel in Spring might be the best of the war memoir-novels I've read. The main character comes through as very human, unlike some of the two dimensional lead characters in other war novels. He also has a wide variety of war experiences, showing what life was like both at home and abroad.

[Bill]

Currently reading Okamoto Kido , a collection of short ghost stories.

These are about mood rather than story, usually lacking resolution of the mystery. They are on novel themes, unusually for ghost stories. Oftentimes Japanese ghost stories just seem to recycle themes from olden times.

Well worth a look!

[Ag]

Currently reading Tokyo Vice, by Jake Adelstein, and enjoying a lot (it’s nicely written and translated to French).

[Jenny]

Currently reading 日没 von Kirino Natsuo and while it is very good, it's emotionally a very hard read because it scares on a societal level. May sneak in 世界で一番透きとおった物語　from Sugii Hikaru today.

[Jack]

Jenny wrote: "Currently reading 日没 von Kirino Natsuo and while it is very good, it's emotionally a very hard read because it scares on a societal level. May sneak in 世界で一番透きとおった物語　from Sugii Hikaru today."

(Jack's note: 日没 "Sunset" was published 2020 and is unfortunately not yet available in English translation. I think it is available in Korean. Sugii Hikaru is, I think, the author of the light novel series, "Heaven's Memo Pad", where the MC is a NEET detective.
Jenny, did I get this correctly? thanks, Jack)

[Bill]

I just finished Rivers . It's a collection of short stories the translator says is a trilogy, even though none of them have anything to do with each other. The first two stories were previously contained in River of Fireflies , released in Japan in English long ago. It's that book that got me interested in Miyamoto decades ago, and I didn't realize when I bought this new edition that I already owned half of it.

Post-war poverty, hard work, and death are the themes in the first two stories. Bits of these two stories remained with me over the years. It's hard to say any of the three have an overall plot; they don't start or end cleanly on any one subplot. Side characters abound within the subplots. I think the weakness in the third story also comes from this; it's as long as the other two put together and adds correspondingly many side characters.

The third story also doesn't seem to fit the themes I mentioned for the first two. It's set long after the war when life isn't so cheap, and the main characters are bar owners or entertainers in a seemingly thriving entertainment district. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. If I'd read it on its own I would have thought it an exciting, convoluted tale. It's just not as good as the other two.

Highly recommended.

[Bill]

Currently reading A Rabbit's Eyes , which is about a new grade school teacher, a group of low-class boys, and flies. I'm less than a third of the way in, and no rabbits yet.

I would call it literature about children, rather that children's literature. The MC is an adult trying to understanding her students.

This book was written in 1974. The amount of violence is small, but the level of it is shocking. Still, I wasn't prepared for when our MC showed her fellow teachers the correct way to pull the wings off flies and them applauding her for it. It's the sort of thing you do when you're too young to know better, and (like me) regret it when you're an adult.

[Charlotte]

Currently reading the Penguin Book of Haiku. I'm in the section where the translator goes into detail on the translations of the haiku and it's fascinating!

Also currently reading I Am A Cat by Natsume Soseki. I've been on a Soseki kick lately and really enjoyed both Kokoro and Sanshiro.

[Bill]

I just finished the introduction to The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro . Talk about dampening the reader's enthusiasm: the translator admits that three of the four stories in this collection are looked upon with disdain and regret by the author. I'll have to see how this goes. At least the first story is said to be good enough that Akechi Kogoro continued in quite a few stories and novels throughout Rampo's career.

[Bill]

Currently reading In Little Need of Divine Intervention . This is a primary source for the Mongol invasions of Japan, and is of very little interest to the general reader. Of its 300 pages, over half are simply drawings of warriors in battle or in conversation. The text accompanying doesn't fully describe the battles, but only shows the author changing foolishly in and then demanding rewards for this afterwards.

Perhaps if I'd known exactly what it was, I wouldn't have bought it. But it was used and reasonably priced so I won't complain.

[Wesbell]

Reading The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
I was really close to dropping this book since the main character rambles needlessly long about mundane things, so much that for long portions of the book the story doesn't seem to move but I got to chapter 8 and it was quite a change of pace. It was the first chapter where I felt I was actually enjoying the novel. It is a shame that this wasn't shorter.

[Jack]

Reading The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu by Kenreimonin Ukyo no Daibu, English translation by Phillip Tudor Harries.
This is with a small group of friends who met to discuss early period - ~1400 Women’s Diaries and related literature.

[Bill]

The best part of In Little Need of Divine Intervention is the 25-page essay near the end, of the same title. Here he describes the tactics of the samurai fighting the Mongols, and how their skill was sufficient to the task. The 'Divine Wind' was perhaps a later invention.

[Bill]

Currently reading the manga Pink no Shippo . "Pink Tail", in other words, because the female MC has a pet pig. Five volumes.

HS girl who lives in the countryside meets HS boy who moves from Tokyo to the house next door. She finds him attractive, and infuriating, and ... you get the drill.

The positive: this boy is clearly suffering from depression, having been forced to leave the city when his parents moved to the countryside. The female MC is completely clueless about this, and instead thinks he's a jerk. Though maybe she'll figure things out as they get closer.

The negative: too many words. Every panel feels crammed with word and thought bubbles and handwritten text outside of them. Perhaps this means I'm 'getting my money's worth' out of this manga, though at the moment it feels like I'm slogging through a very slow-moving plot.

[Alwynne]

I finished Uno Chiyo's classic The Story of a Single Woman a little underdone but fascinating as an insight into women's lives in early twentieth-century Japan.

Link to my review:

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

[Bill]

I read the first 75 pages of Trash last night. I'm unsure if I'll continue. It seems to consist entirely of character interaction in the narrator's apartment or in restaurants. If these people went out more, it might be more interesting. Yet the characters are realistic and believable and the writing is very good.

The biggest downside (to me) is it's all interpersonal drama. Maybe it'll be different for you. Maybe you don't get enough interpersonal drama in your own life, and want more. If so, this might be the book for you.

[Marcia]

I just finished The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. As someone else mentioned, it's not as foreboding as it sounds. To me it is an imaginative reflection on life, loss and death. Yōko Ogawa, The Memory Police No one would want to read a book with such a boring description as mine, but with all the not quite real scenarios, one gets a nice perspective on life and death in this book.

[Jack]

Marcia wrote: "I just finished The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. As someone else mentioned, it's not as foreboding as it sounds. To me it is an imaginative reflection on life, loss and death. [author:Yōko Ogawa, T..."

I also liked this book. My review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[AlienRummageSox]

I’ve recently completed Star and am halfway through The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, both by Yukio Mishima. These books delve and explore with painstaking detail various aspects of the human condition, “dissecting” those parts of the psyche very seldom brought into focus in the context of the sociocultural “norms” of the day. After this one, I’ll be reading Mishima’s Life for Sale, too.

[Carol]

I finished two by Donald Keene: his biography, written when he was 84, Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan, and Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion. Chronicles starts a tad slow, but it's just Keene's low-key, story-telling style. I either got used to it, or his life became more interesting to me 30 - 40 pages in. From there to the end, I found it enchanting and recommend it to anyone who's a member. (I'm unsure that those not interested in Japanese Lit would find his bio compelling.)

Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion was a little bit disappointing, but still a 3* read, e.g., fine. It's quite short so I read it in an evening and can't regret the loss of a single evening. On the other hand, I expected it to give me more in support of his thesis, and it appeared to be a stretch for him to deliver 170 or so pages of content. Did I need the 15 - 25 pages of detail on military movements? I did not. Was the 45+ pages devoted to Samurai leaders who were not Yoshimasa interesting? Yes, it was. But it still seemed like padding to get to a manuscript long enough to meet his commitment. It's a good quality non-fiction trifle.

[Bill]

Currently reading Takarazuka

This is a book of heavy, academic discourse on sex, gender, and sexuality. As the author clearly states in the introduction, it's not a history of Takarazuka.

Moreover, this book is 27 years old. Some 15 years ago there was a shift in the terminology on sex, gender, and sexuality as the trans movement became more visible, rejected terms it once embraced, and rejected a fair amount of second- and third-wave feminism. Having gone to college in the last millennium, I don't personally expect to see anything I'd consider objectionable. YMMV.

[Jack]

Bill wrote: "Currently reading Takarazuka

This is a book of heavy, academic discourse on sex, gender, and sexuality. As the author clearly states in the introduction, it's not a history of Taka..."

This has been on my tbr book stack of Japanese theatre arts for some time. I think we had a recommendation for this from a mutual friend who is very knowledgeable on the Takarazuka Revue. The Revue is also worth reading about.

The Takarazuka Revue (Japanese: 宝塚歌劇団, Hepburn: Takarazuka Kagekidan) is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of musicals and stories adapted from films, novels, shōjo manga, and Japanese folktales. The Takarazuka Revue Company is a division of the Hankyu Railway company; all members of the troupe are employed by Hankyu. (Credit Wikipedia)

They have a very interesting history. I hope when I get to Takarazuka that my mileage will be in the hybrid range.