A modern fairytale – ‘From Little Tokyo, With Love’ by Sarah Kuhn – aimed at Teen/YA readers. I don’t normally pick up much from this genre, however this book was really something very special, and I’m so glad that I got the opportunity to read it. I wish I’d had this novel when I was a teenager. 「From Little Tokyo, With Love」は、おとぎ話をモチーフとして物語が展開する、ティーン / ヤングアダルト向けの作品。作者のSarah Kuhnは日系3世のアメリカ人です。ヤングアダルト系の本はあまり積極的に手に取らない私ですが、この本は心から出会えてよかった。自分がティーンエイジャーの頃に読みたかったなと思う1冊です。 The protagonist, Rika-chan, is a Japanese-American orphan girl living in LA with her cousins’ family. While her cousins are obsessed with princesses and rom-coms, she is proud of her judo skills, and believes she is not a princess type at all. She feels like she…
‘People From My Neighbourhood’ is a new collection of translated short stories by Hiromi Kawakami , published by Granta Books in the UK! This is a collection of mini stories about the people in an unnamed place.All the stories are about 3 pages long and are interconnected. I really enjoyed how the stories sounded ‘ordinary’ and ‘likely’ while at the same time the events in this book were all unusual and quirky. The book was full of characters with unique personalities, detailed with minimal descriptions, but I felt like I still got to know all of them quite well! Kawakami’s storytelling made me feel like it’s not strange at all…
I’d have to say I’m usually rather more a baking person than a cooking type. Normally I don’t bother to cook nice meals, and instead prefer to pay to get great quality restaurant food. (Though I really enjoy baking special biscuits for myself!) With that in mind, giving this cookbook a try was a bit of a challenge for me! The recipes are all easy to follow, covering fancy meals to daily dishes. I tried the Carbonara (Page 166). It requires only a few basic items, things we’d usually have in our fridge anyway. It turned out to be very quick and easy to make, so I can definitely see…
Megha Majumdar’s ‘A Burning’ was my first time reading a book set in contemporary India. I’ve visited the country twice in the past and loved experiencing its culture on both occasions. However, this book felt like it really took me to parts of Indian society I’d previously had very little knowledge or awareness about. The story starts with a narrative by Jivan, who has been arrested for assisting with terrorist activity. She’s an ordinary girl who just happened to once post somewhat anti-government material on Facebook. This is later used as ‘evidence’ of her oppressive attitude, and the trigger for her involvement with terrorists. Her life in prison, her trials,…
We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan is such a gripping book about family history, culture and moving between two countries: The UK and Uganda. The protagonist Sameer works for a law firm and is in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, caught up between a busy career and his relationship with his parents. As a business newcomer and working in the City myself (obviously WFH for nearly a year now though), as well as growing up with my parents – who hold quite traditional values – back in Japan, his struggles felt very familiar to me. The author captured these kinds of ‘moment’ very vividly; those times…
I think your job is something everyone struggles with to some extent. The type of work, the hours, relationships etc. I enjoy my job, but even I feel like I want something easier or perhaps ‘more fun’, sometimes. 仕事って、誰しも何らかの不満や悩みを抱えているものだと思います。それは仕事の内容にかもしれないし、労働時間や人間関係かもしれない。仕事を楽しんでいるつもりの私ですが、時々もっと楽な仕事や、もっと面白い仕事があるはずだ…なんて思ってしまう時もあります。 I first read this book in Japanese when I had just started working in London. I was really struggling to get used to a whole new environment and was exhausted with thoughts of how I needed to commit to the job and prove to others that I could do things well. But this book really ended up making me feel better, telling me – as the title says – There’s No…
Have you ever felt like negative memories have trapped you; happy memories overtaken, deep in your thoughts? ネガティブな記憶に追い込まれてしまうような気持ち、幸せな記憶が塗り替えられて、考え込んでしまうような気持ち… This book reminded me of the times I’ve been caught by dispair, feeling trapped within society, within my own mind. この本はそんな社会に閉じ込められるような、自分自身の心の闇に留まっているような、「絶望感」を思い起こします。 The spider illustration used throughout the book – gradually forming a complete web towards the end – made me ponder what the author was trying to say by including these images. 各章のはじめに付いている蜘蛛の絵は、段々と蜘蛛の巣を形作っていく。これには著者のどんな想いが込められているのか。 The story is written in a beautifully poetic style, composed of very small chapters made up of short scenes. I read through the whole book as if I was enjoying a collage of fragmented memories! 詩的な美しい文章で書かれている本作、短い各章の中にさらに小さなパラグラフで印象的なシーンを描いています。まるで記憶の欠片を覗き見ているような感覚です。 This book is…
I just came across a book that I think will be one of my favourite books this year! ‘Clap When You Land’ by Elizabeth Acevedo is aimed at a YA audience but was such a gripping book, even for adults, I just couldn’t put it down. It’s written in a colloquial verse style and beautifully phrased. ‘Clap When You Land’はドミニカ系アメリカ人作家のElizabeth Acevedoによるフィクション。ヤングアダルト向けですが、大人が読んでも惹き込まれます。全編が口語調の詩のように書かれていて、まるで音楽のようなスタイルです。 The story starts off with an airplane crash, inspired by a true incident just a few months after 9/11 happened. Most of the passengers were Dominican. 9/11の直後に起きた実際の飛行機墜落事故をモデルに書かれたフィクション。乗客はほぼ全員がドミニカ共和国の方だったそう。 It’s a story about two sisters losing their father, one in the US, one in the Dominican Republic. They find out about…
The protagonist Kei’s husband – Rei – disappeared 12 years ago. Kei’s life continues, but her feelings have been left somewhere else, along with her memories; she is constantly meditating on her life and her future. One day, she visits the seaside town Manazuru, and as if some magical power is leading her there, she keeps revisiting. 主人公は京、夫の礼は12年前に失踪しました。その後も京の日常は続いていくのですが、思い出に浸り、過去や未来の間をさまよい瞑想しています。ある日、何かの力に導かれるように海沿いの町 真鶴を訪れるようになります。 The book mainly focuses on her relationship with her missing husband, and is told through Kei’s memories and reflections. I really enjoyed the subtle explanations about three women living together in one house; the protagonist Kei, her elderly mother, and her teenage daughter Momo. The story depicts the distance between them…
Are you a ‘feminist’? I think I am. It’s so sad to admit this but there are still so many misconceptions and negative stereotypes associated with feminists. あなたは「フェミニスト」ですか?私自身は自分をフェミニストだと思っています。世間ではフェミニストに対する誤解やネガティブなステレオタイプがまだ多くて、なんだか残念。 Do you support equality of men and women? I expect most of people would answer yes. Can you list some of the inconvenience or problems in society to achieve the equality? Can you at least try to understand what it means for me to make society ‘equal’ despite gender? What are all the frustrations I feel in everyday life? Isn’t society not really even trying to achieve the equality? 男女の平等を支持しますか?きっと多くの人がYESって答えると思うんです。でも、平等を実現するために、社会の不都合さや問題を挙げることはできますか?ジェンダーにとらわれない「平等」って一体何のことなのか、せめて理解するような姿勢を示すことができますか?私が感じている日々の不満はいったい何なのか。社会は本当に平等を実現するための努力をしているのでしょうか・・・ This book explains so much about frustration I feel towards the male…
This book is about an ordinary woman in a small town in coastal Maine named Olive Kitteridge. What does it mean to live and get older? This book gave me ideas about the beauty and cruelty of aging and made me think a lot about how I want my life to be like. アメリカの小さな港町に住むごく普通の女性、オリーヴ・キタリッジの物語。生きるとか、老いとか、とてもシンプルで美しくて、でも残酷なテーマについて、じっくり考えさせられた一冊です。 All the characters in this book were somewhat unlikable because their personalities were depicted so realistically. No one is perfect, that is the truth of being human. Everyone has their negative aspects and everyone can be very self centred. Thus this very very unlikable main character Olive was so convincing and she turned out to be…
This book was ‘YES!!!! That’s exactly what I would say in that situation!!!’ kind of book that I really enjoyed reading while I commute. 「そうそれ!よく言った!!」と思うような瞬間ばかり。通勤途中に笑いながら読みました。 The main character was Frances a 20-ish woman in uni, her friend Bobbi (ex-girlfriend) and people around her. Frances gets involved with a married guy and starts cheating. 主人公は20代の学生Francesと、彼女の元カノBobbi、そしてその周りの大人たち。Francesは既婚者と関わり浮気をはじめます。 They are all such unlikable characters but I kept laughing about all the things they say, especially Frances says about herself. It is impossible to empathise with their situations but it captures the feeling of awkwardness and anxiety realistically. 好きになれないキャラクターばかり登場しますが、彼らの会話がとてもおもしろい。特にFrancesの回想シーンが最高です。決して共感できる内容ではありませんが、居心地の悪さや不安をとてもリアルに描いた作品です。 This book has a similar feeling to Convenience Store Women, but does not tackle social issues so…