0699 | Pachinko | Min Jin Lee
My word this is a mess of a book. It’s a mess of a story, it’s a mess of characters, and most shockingly for me, it’s a literal mess: it…
0663 | Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids | Kenzaburo Oe
Very poignant. Very raw. A booked that rocked Japan when published just 13 years after the Japanese surrender in 1945. This is Japan’s Lord of the Flies with important exceptions:…
0595 | Silk | Alessandro Baricco
This is a tiny jewel of a novel and, like a jewel, I felt that it deserves to be looked at for longer than it’s size perhaps might initially indicate….
0589 | Norwegian Wood | Haruki Murakami
Last summer, just before a week in Sweden, we were staying at some friends. Browsing their bookshelves, I came across a lovely little two-volume boxed edition of Norwegian Wood. Perfect…
0553 | An Artist of the Floating World | Kazuo Ishiguro
This is a beautifully written novel filled with pathos and written with immaculate prose that describes accurately not only Japan and not only the Japanese character but also the post-WW2 Japanese…
0429 | A Pale View of Hills | Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro has written some of the best books I’ve read. This is not one of them. Granted, it’s his first published novel so this is understandable. But this one simply…
0340 | The Making of the Atomic Bomb | Richard Rhodes
Context: Just after I finished this off, a 7.3 earthquake with more explosive force than an atomic bomb smashed a pot in our living room from 100 miles away. REVIEW…
0299 | Botchan – Natsume Soseki
Context: While I was reading this, a friend who was going away lent me her little runaround. Didn’t run around on it much though. REVIEW Lived in Japan for years…
0191 | Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology | Shigeko Okamoto & Janet Shibamoto Smith (eds.)
Context: Was reading this when we moved into the flat here at 77 Field View, Bar Hill. REVIEW This was a review copy I was sent for free. I’d chosen…
0178 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
Context: We listened to this in the car over weeks and weeks. Less than twenty minutes after we finished, the car’s engine died and had to be scrapped. REVIEW Murakami…
0074 | Memoirs of a Geisha ~ Arthur Golden
Context: Audiobook which I listened to on the way to and from private business classes.REVIEW Poetic, intimate and moving at times, this is a good book. However, the novel is…
0042 | After the Quake – Haruki Murakami
If you enjoyed this book, you’re going to love the map. REVIEW More from Murakami. To be honest, if this hadn’t been 100 or so pages long, I wouldn’t have…