JapaneseFiction

The End of the Moment We Had | Toshiki Okada

so-so

One of my new year‘s resolutions is to read a Japanese novel each month. This is my first and it wasn‘t great.
It‘s two short stories. The first is about a couple having sex for 4 days in a so called Love Hotel on the brink of the Iraq War. That one is pretty good although I don‘t get it completely.
The second is about a woman who stays in bed for a whole day, thinking of her home and her husband. That one I didn‘t get at all 🤷🏻‍♀️

lauraisntwilder I read this in 2020, but I apparently never posted about it on Litsty. I gave it a lukewarm rating on StoryGraph at the time. However, I vividly remembered it when I read your review, so it must've made an impression. 3d

squirrelbrain Hopefully the next ones will be better! 3d

tpixie Double check, but I think this was Japanese I really enjoyed it

The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel

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BarbaraBB @lauraisntwilder I can imagine that it‘ll have a lasting impression indeed, which is an accomplishment as we both didn‘t like it that much! 3d

BarbaraBB @tpixie Thanks! I read that one and indeed, I LOVED it! 3d

BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain I‘m sure they will be😊 (edited) 3d

tpixie @BarbaraBB 🩵🩵🩵 3d

64 likes7 comments

BarbaraBB

The End of the Moment We Had | Toshiki Okada

#WeeklyForecast 01/25

I am reading Wolf at the Table, which I am enjoying. Next will be the tagged book. In 2025 I want to read at least one Japanese book a month.
And because I am still off work I hope I‘ll find the time to start the Rooney, a good beginning of the new year I hope!

AmyG I just started Intermezzo on audio. Seems to be a well-liked book. 🤞🏻 7d

Ruthiella I also like to start the new year off with a positive reading experience ! 7d

sarahbarnes I love the Japanese novel goal! 7d

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squirrelbrain I started Intermezzo on audio @amyg but it didn‘t work for me (not the book, more that I struggled to hear the narrator over road noise 🤷‍♀️). I saw it was half-price on Amazon *and* I had a voucher, so guess what arrived today?! ☺️ 7d

BarbaraBB @sarahbarnes I always love them so much, I thought I should read them more regularly 🤓 7d

sarahbarnes I feel the same way! 7d

BarbaraBB @sarahbarnes I know! I just replied to your #Top24Of24… we‘re real book 👯 twins!! 7d

sarahbarnes Truly! ♥️ 👯‍♀️ I just put a hold on this one at the library after seeing the review from @Night_Reader

The Woman in the Purple Skirt: A Novel

Suet624 I think you‘ll like the experience of reading Intermezzo. 6d

BarbaraBB @sarahbarnes That‘s a nice one! 6d

BarbaraBB @Suet624 I‘ve saved it a bit because I have such high expectations! 6d

Cathythoughts I loved Intermezzo ❤️ 6d

BarbaraBB @Cathythoughts That‘s why I have such high expectations, because you did and @Suet624 and @sarahbarnes ! 6d

64 likes13 comments

HardcoverHearts

Tokyo Express | Seicho Matsumoto

Hi! It‘s been a while. I‘m enjoying some reading time starting Statues in a Garden for the Author Spotlight Series I host, then an audio copy of Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-Yang, translated by Sora Kim Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae for book club. I‘m still feeling the glow of our 1st trip to Japan so I want to read Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Then I am dipping in & out of an essay collection by Elisa Gabbert.

Librarybelle Welcome back! 2mo

HardcoverHearts @Librarybelle oh thank you!! 2mo

TheKidUpstairs I'm loving all these covers 2mo

HardcoverHearts @TheKidUpstairs I love it when coincidence is also aesthetically pleasing! 2mo

26 likes4 comments

BallroomsOfMars

The Diving Pool | Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder

pick

These are slow stories that twist the mundane into something unsettled and uncomfortable. Maybe it‘s the relatability of the domestic that renders porous the barrier between what is ordinary and what is horrifying. A terrible kind of horror that is not scraping at doors, howling in the night, but growing inside us like mould. 1/4

BallroomsOfMars I love how the stories give just enough detail to grasp some dimension of character, some sense of context, but what remains untold raises more questions than the words give answers. There are no conclusions, just maybe, maybe, and the reader is made culpable as they imagine what might hide in the narrative gaps. The reader has some agency in how they join the dots, and the horror — the size of it, the muckiness — becomes their responsibility. 2/4 2mo

BallroomsOfMars Days after finishing, I keep thinking about the freedoms and dangers of invisibility. How, overlooked and unwitnessed, a person can slowly warp out of shape with the world. They can pass through life as observer only, detached from life like a ghost, their sense of culpability corroding with their sense of self. 3/4 2mo

BallroomsOfMars I find myself thinking about why the two sisters are living together despite one being married and pregnant. About grapefruit segments, glistening and skinned. About the slow ooze of honey from a split comb. About whether a body, hollowed by absence, collapses in on itself in the vacuum of loss. 4/4 2mo

2 likes3 comments

LeahBergen

The Master Key | Masako Togawa

@BookishMadHatter !! Thank you so much for this wonderful #AllHallowsReadSwap !

I‘m so excited for both books (they‘re perfect!) and the candies are awesome (yes, I‘m a Smarties pig). How did you manage to colour coordinate this so well? 😆 I love it all!

Thanks again to @MaleficentBookDragon for hosting another great swap! 🎃

#AHRS

BookishMadHatter So happy you like it! I got all the sizes of Smarties I could find so you'd have a pack for every situation lol. Happy Halloween! 2mo

LeahBergen @BookishMadHatter 😆😆 And I‘ve already crammed the small packs into my mouth! 2mo

Cathythoughts Very nice ♥️ 2mo

56 likes1 stack add3 comments

Nebklvr

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes | Hisashi Kashiwai

pick

Cozy, gently humorous and quite thoughtful. What a cool way to showcase the important part nostalgia and food play in our lives. While at times hopeful, it never crosses into saccharine.

31 likes

Jen2

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes | Hisashi Kashiwai

pick

Lovely

51 likes1 stack add

xicanti

????????: Seven Stories | Yukio Mishima

From today‘s Outdoor Reading With Schnauzers session. I think novella-length is my sweet spot with Yukio Mishima. I got tired of SPRING SNOW, a novel, a fair ways before it ended and none of the shorter pieces in this collection wowed me, but I really enjoyed both the novellas included here.

30 likes

BookmarkTavern

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes | Hisashi Kashiwai

pick

Koishi & Nagare run a small cafe that also operates as a food detective agency, working to recreate formative recipes from their customers‘ past.

A wonderfully cozy follow to the 1st book. More insight into the father/daughter pair that work together, & more thoughtful discussions of how food/grief/memory/family can be entwined, & such delicious descriptions of food, I felt like I needed to find a ramen place as soon as I finished!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

BookmarkTavern Release Date: October 8th, 2024 #ARC #NetGalley CW 👇🏻 ETA: #SupernaturalBookBingo “Pie” @OutsmartYourShelf (edited) 3mo

BookmarkTavern General warning throughout for grief over death of a parent; Specifically Chapter 3: Christmas Cake, part 1, referenced past child death 3mo

74 likes1 stack add2 comments

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