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Arukiyomi

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Arukiyomi
Walk and read. Live and learn.

japan

fiction

0699 | Pachinko | Min Jin Lee

Completed21 July, 202020 December, 2020

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…

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fiction

0663 | Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids | Kenzaburo Oe

Completed24 May, 20195 July, 2020

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:…

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fiction

0595 | Silk | Alessandro Baricco

Completed21 December, 20172 February, 2018

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….

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fiction

0589 | Norwegian Wood | Haruki Murakami

Completed21 August, 20175 December, 2017

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…

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fiction

0553 | An Artist of the Floating World | Kazuo Ishiguro

Completed12 September, 201614 October, 2016

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…

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fiction

0429 | A Pale View of Hills | Kazuo Ishiguro

Completed3 November, 2013

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…

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non-fiction

0340 | The Making of the Atomic Bomb | Richard Rhodes

Completed11 December, 2011

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…

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fiction

0299 | Botchan – Natsume Soseki

Completed18 January, 2011

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…

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non-fiction

0191 | Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology | Shigeko Okamoto & Janet Shibamoto Smith (eds.)

Completed8 July, 200926 October, 2020

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…

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fiction

0178 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami

Completed8 June, 200926 October, 2020

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…

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fiction

0074 | Memoirs of a Geisha ~ Arthur Golden

Completed11 December, 2007

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…

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fiction

0042 | After the Quake – Haruki Murakami

Completed27 July, 2007

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…

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fiction

0018 | Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

Completed9 April, 2007

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All reviews and book photographs © 2021, Arukiyomi.

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