Recommendations based on "The Menu of Happiness"

The Japanese Bestselling Novel Shortlisted For The Japan Booksellers' Award 'i Definitely Want To Visit This Library. I Feel Kinder After This Book' 5***** Reader Review 'it Made Me Laugh And Cry. It Made Me Feel Comforted And Warm Inside' 5***** Reader Review 'wonderful. It Made Me Look For Connection In My Life' 5***** Reader Review For Fans Of The Midnight Library And Before The Coffee Gets Cold, This Charming Japanese Novel Shows How The Perfect Book Recommendation Can Change A Reader's Life _________________ What Are You Looking For? So Asks Tokyo's Most Enigmatic Librarian, Sayuri Komachi. She Is No Ordinary Librarian. Naturally, She Has Read Every Book On Her Shelf, But She Also Has The Unique Ability To Read The Souls Of Anyone Who Walks Through Her Door. Sensing Exactly What They're Looking For In Life, She Provides Just The Book Recommendation They Never Knew They Needed To Help Them Find It. Every Borrower In Her Library Is At A Different Crossroads, From The Restless Retail Assistant - Can She Ever Get Out Of A Dead-end Job? - To The Juggling New Mother Who Dreams Of Becoming A Magazine Editor, And The Meticulous Accountant Who Yearns To Own An Antique Store. The Surprise Book Komachi Lends To Each Will Change Their Lives For Ever. Which Book Will You Recommend?

The dramatic climax of "The Sea of Fertility" tetraology takes place in the late 1960s. Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, discovers and adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru, as his heir, identifying him with the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of whom died at the age of twenty. Honda raises and educates the boy, yet watches him, waiting.

Bringing together novelist Osamu Dazai’s best autobiographical shorts in a single, slim volume, Self-Portraits shows the legendary writer at his best―and worst“Art dies the moment it acquires authority.” So said Japan’s quintessential rebel writer Osamu Dazai, who, disgusted with the hypocrisy of every kind of establishment, from the nation’s obsolete aristocracy to its posturing, warmongering generals, went his own way, even when that meant his death―and the death of others. Faced with pressure to conform, he declared his individuality to the world―in all its self-involved, self-conscious, and self-hating glory. “Art,” he wrote, “is ‘I.’”In these short stories, collected and translated by Ralph McCarthy, we can see just how closely Dazai’s life mirrored his art, and vice versa, as the writer/narrator falls from grace, rises to fame, and falls again. Addiction, debt, shame, and despair dogged Dazai until his self-inflicted death, and yet despite all the lies and deception he resorted to in life, there is an almost fanatical honesty to his writing. And that has made him a hero to generations of readers who see laid bare, in his works, the painful, impossible contradictions inherent in the universal commandment of social life―fit in and do as you are told―as well as the possibility, however desperate, of defiance.Long out of print, these stories will be a revelation to the legions of new fans of No Longer Human, The Setting Sun, and The Flowers of Buffoonery.

In The Wake Of The 2011 Tsunami, Ruth Discovers A Hello Kitty Lunchbox Washed Up On The Shore Of Her Beach Home In British Columbia. Within It Lies A Diary That Expresses The Hopes, Heartbreak And Dreams Of A Young Girl Desperate For Someone To Understand Her. Each Turn Of The Page Pulls Ruth Deeper Into The Mystery Of Nao’s Life, And Forever Changes Her In A Way Neither Could Foresee. Weaving Across Continents And Decades, A Tale For The Time Being Is An Extraordinary Novel About Our Shared Humanity And The Search For Home.

Enter a world of samurai and geishas, ninjas and Zen masters in this “rousing tale of Shogun Japan” (New York Post) from the acclaimed author of Autumn Bridge.“Triumphant . . . terrific . . . This is a riveting read, alternately playful and suspenseful.”—PeopleThe year is 1861. After two centuries of isolation, Japan has opened its doors to the West. And as foreign ships threaten to rain destruction on the Shogun’s castle in Edo, a small group of American missionaries has arrived to spread the word of their God. They have yet to realize that their future in Japan has already been foreseen. For a young nobleman has dreamt that his life will be saved by an outsider in the New Year . . . and it is said that Lord Genji has the gift of prophecy. What happens next—when the handsome lord meets an apparently reformed gunslinger and a woman in flight from her own destructive beauty—sets the stage for a remarkable adventure. For as this unlikely band embarks on a journey through a landscape bristling with danger, East and West, flesh and spirit, past and future, collide in ways no one—least of all Genji—could have imagined.

Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa was seven years old and living in Hiroshima in the early days of August 1945 when the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped by the U.S.A. Starting a few months before that event, the ten-volume saga shows life in Japan after years of war and privations, as seen through the eyes of seven-year-old Gen Nakaoka. By Volume Seven, Gen has grown old enough to think about the legacy of the victims of the atomic bombing. Picking up from Volume Six, the story opens with Gen searching for a printer willing to publish an eyewitness account of the bombing written by "Papa," the journalist who serves as a father figure to Gen's war orphan friends. By hook and crook Gen and Ryuta manage to get the book printed and distributed, only to arouse the wrath of U.S. Army censors, who teach them a hard lesson about the politics of memory. Meanwhile, Gen's brother Koji returns home at last, only to find that their mother is on her deathbed.

What if you woke up one morning, and everything changed?It's one week before Christmas Eve, and Haruhi and the S.O.S. Brigade (a club for her high school's strangest and most extraordinary students) are gearing up for holiday festivities. But just before the fun kicks off, Kyon, the only "normal" member, wakes up in a weird alternate dimension, one where Haruhi attends another school entirely, Nagato the time traveling robot is just an ordinary human, and Mikuru (the cute girl of Kyon's dreams) doesn't even recognize him-in other words, S.O.S. Brigade never existed.The only clue Kyon can find is a bookmark left by the robot version of Nagato, which leads him on a quest back in time, where he interacts with the storyline from "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody", a short story from the previous Haruhi book, The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya. This fun and quirky holiday tale is reminiscent of A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life.

Looks at modern Japanese fiction from the opening of Japan to the West in 1868 to the present and discusses major authors and foreign influences

The Tokugawa family held the shogunate from 1603 to 1867, ruling Japan and keeping the island nation isolated from the rest of the world for more than 250 years. Donald Keene looks within the "walls" of isolation and meticulously chronicles the period's vast literary output, providing both lay readers and scholars with the definitive history of premodern Japanese literature. World Within Walls spans the age in which Japanese literature began to reach a popular audience--as opposed to the elite aristocratic readers to whom it had previously been confined. Keene comprehensively treats each of the new, popular genres that arose, including haiku, Kabuki, and the witty, urbane prose of the newly ascendant merchant class.

“[A]n excellent book...” —The EconomistFinancial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling's Bending Adversity captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.Pilling’s exploration begins with the 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. His deep reporting reveals both Japan’s vulnerabilities and its resilience and pushes him to understand the country’s past through cycles of crisis and reconstruction. Japan’s survivalist mentality has carried it through tremendous hardship, but is also the source of great destruction: It was the nineteenth-century struggle to ward off colonial intent that resulted in Japan’s own imperial endeavor, culminating in the devastation of World War II. Even the postwar economic miracle—the manufacturing and commerce explosion that brought unprecedented economic growth and earned Japan international clout might have been a less pure victory than it seemed. In Bending Adversity Pilling questions what was lost in the country’s blind, aborted climb to #1. With the same rigor, he revisits 1990—the year the economic bubble burst, and the beginning of Japan’s “lost decades”—to ask if the turning point might be viewed differently. While financial struggle and national debt are a reality, post-growth Japan has also successfully maintained a stable standard of living and social cohesion. And while life has become less certain, opportunities—in particular for the young and for women—have diversified. Still, Japan is in many ways a country in recovery, working to find a way forward after the events of 2011 and decades of slow growth. Bending Adversity closes with a reflection on what the 2012 reelection of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and his radical antideflation policy, might mean for Japan and its future. Informed throughout by the insights shared by Pilling’s many interview subjects, Bending Adversity rigorously engages with the social, spiritual, financial, and political life of Japan to create a more nuanced representation of the oft-misunderstood island nation and its people.The Financial Times“David Pilling quotes a visiting MP from northern England, dazzled by Tokyo’s lights and awed by its bustling prosperity: ‘If this is a recession, I want one.’ Not the least of the merits of Pilling’s hugely enjoyable and perceptive book on Japan is that he places the denunciations of two allegedly “lost decades” in the context of what the country is really like and its actual achievements.”The Telegraph (UK)“Pilling, the Asia editor of the Financial Times, is perfectly placed to be our guide, and his insights are a real rarity when very few Western journalists communicate the essence of the world’s third-largest economy in anything but the most superficial ways. Here, there is a terrific selection of interview subjects mixed with great reportage and fact selection... he does get people to say wonderful things. The novelist Haruki Murakami tells him: “When we were rich, I hated this country”... well-written... valuable.”Publishers Weekly (starred):"A probing and insightful portrait of contemporary Japan."