What Are You Reading Or Have Just Finished. Part II

I'm not reading an Asian book right now but thought I'd start a new thread as the old one has reached 300 posts. Happy reading everyone!

Good call.

Fiction:

Just finished the summer edition of Asia Literary Review which was a mixed bag, but I plan on purchasing the next edition.

Waiting for Haruki Murakami's new book...

non-fiction:

finished Where China Meets India, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Nice mix of travel, history, and international affairs

I recently finished reading The Book of Tea byKazuko Okakura, a small book written in 1906 about tea, and its various ways of being made in Japan (and China) over the centuries, as well as a description of the tea ceremony. It's been continuously in print and is properyly considered a 'classic.'

After reading all the fantastic reviews for Shipwrecks I couldn't leave my copy unread. I'm glad I didn't let my impressions of Akira Yoshimura writing abilities from Storm Rider let that deter me from reading a really great novel like Shipwrecks. I'm going to chalk the problems with Storm Rider up to a bad translation and having nothing to do with the authorship of Akira Yoshimura. Because wow he's good.

Next up I'm going to lighten things up (joking of course) with either The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo or nip the buds, shoot the kids by Kenzaburo Oe.

4 -
Oh I'm so happy to hear that stretch! It really is amazing, isn't it? I got my parents to read Shipwrecks as well and they really loved it as well. My father also really enjoyed The Sea and Poison and now my mother is reading it. Although she's the only one reading it AFTER Shipwrecks and is commenting on the editing/translation which I hadn't noticed during my reading of it. I wonder what you'll think of that. Either way, loved that book as well. And Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids is also a fantastic read. I'm jealous you're reading those for the first time!

The Sea and Poison was another great read. Pretty grim and kind of sad how easy it is to push people in fragile states over the edge. I think the stlye differences between Shipwrecks and The Sea and Poison were noticable to me and a bit jarring at first. The translation itself somtimes got a little chuncky, especially in 'the nurse' chapter, but for me the writing styles of Endo and Yoshimura feel different. I question how much a translator effects the original intent of the author?

6 -
The translator most certainly can affect the original intent of the author, indeed. It's why I'm so resolved to eventually reread this books in the original Japanese someday. Some of the more recent translations are being poorly edited I feel, which I feel is a huge detriment to the world of Japanese fiction. But in the end, Yoshimura and Endo's style don't really compare so perhaps my mother had just so positively reacted to Yoshimura's style that the Endo just felt choppy to her. Plus she hated the mediocrity of the characters' personalities.

I on the other hand, just finished Seishi Yokomizo's La hache, le koto et le chrysanthème (translated as The Inugami Clan in English). Was a fun Japanese mystery story. I had read his other famous book earlier this year.

I just finished Lisa See's Dreams of Joy. It is fabulous. The main part of the story takes places during China's Great Leap Forward. I learned a lot about this failed program from the story. As usual, See has done her research.

I've finished The Stones Cry out by Hikaru Okuizumi, which I loved except I'm still a bit confused by ending. I've also read the short piece In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, I found this too be very insightful into the Japanese aesthetic. Not sure how relevant Tanizaki's opinions are today in Modern Japan =, but provide some much needed perspective on the modernization of Japan.

I'm reading Volcano by Shusaku Endo, as an early start to lilisin's 2012 Author Theme Reads challenge.

Reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami right now but most of you here already knew that.

I'm almost finished reading Stained Glass Elegies by Shusaku Endo, a collection of 12 short stories written between 1959 and 1977.

I j finished earlier this month Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, a very interesting examination of interpersonal relationships and loneliness during the Meiji Period. Soseki is a wonderful writer and I found it to be very worthwhile read even if it is a bit slow a times.

This may be old stuff for some, but I recently read The Moon Opera by Bi Feiyu. It is a very short novel, an afternoon's read. The story focuses on the career and personality of a Peking Opera diva, who sabotaged her professional life, and then many years later is presented with the opportunity to reignite her former success. Despite the exotic milieu of the Peking Opera, it is the personality of the protagonist that dominates the story and I found her a very fascinating - and thoroughly believable - character.

Since my last message I've read When I Whistle by Shusaku Endo and The Stones Cry Out by Hikaru Okuizumi. Both fantastic, the second being a must-read.

Currently reading a mystery, The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. It's okay so far, not as good as Out by Natsuo Kirino with which it has a passing similarity

I just finished Kobo Abe's The Face of Another which was fantastic but am having trouble coming up with a review.

ETA: Wrote the review today.

I'm now reading The Stones Cry Out, but haven't gotten to the ending. Well written and great descriptive.

The last couple of Asia related books I read were less than satsifying, so I'm happy to report that The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura is riveting, a thriller that offers more than thrills.

I've been reading Yukio Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy. I've just started the final book The Decay of the Angel. Words fail me. Life changing.

Between the third and the fourth, I read John Keay's India Discovered: The Recovery of a Lost Civilization. Not Asian, but about Asia anyway. The second Indian history book I've read by John Keay and I have added him to my favourite authors list. Fascinating and brilliantly written.

This week I read a classic Japanese mystery, Tokyo Express, (Points and Lines in English) by Seicho Matsumoto.

I am reading Forbidden Colors by Yukio Mishima and an essay and interview with Pramoedya Ananta Toer in Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Essay en interview by August Hans den Boef and Kees Snoek.

I am about halfway through Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima

I read Confessions of a Mask not long ago. Sometimes I feel if I read too much Mishima I will go crazy. There is something raw about the earlier Mishimas where the later are more polished and startlingly brilliant. He never lets up on his themes though. Confessions awakened some painful memories for me.

I am a new member of Librarything and noticed this post. I finished reading Kanthapura by Raja Rao several months ago. It is set during the time of British occupation of India near the height of Mahatma Ghandi's fame and popularity. Kanthapura is a village in the province Kara in southern India. I could almost hear the sounds of village life and smell the rain and the spices. Wonderfully evocative!

May I also recommend Flowers in the Sky by Lee Kok Liang, a Malaysian writer who deserves a much wider readership.

Welcome Goodnight. I've read Kanthapura too though a few years ago. I remember it was very good.

I just finished Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler.

I'm currently reading Four Reigns by Kukrit Pramoj. I'm finding it to be very interesting, but with 600 pages, it certainly seems to drag on...

I finished the short story collection Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan today, and I've started When I Whistle by Shusaku Endo.

101 Modern Japanese Poems. It's in the nature of these things that I don't like all of the poems collected, but I do like an awful lot of them, and am grateful to Paul McCarthy for shepherding them into English.

Kosher Chinese by Michael Levy is about a Jewish Peace Corps volunteer who teaches in a remote area of China.

About half way through Chinese Cinderella. I was confused about whether I'd read it already or not because there were bits and pieces that I thought I remembered but couldn't remember borrowing the book before.

A quick look at her author page shows there's 3 or 4 books about the same basic memoir. Anyone out there know if they're just reissues or a series? I'd hate to spend the money and time on the others if it's the same book with a slight rewrite.

How to Live on Planet Earth: Collected Poems by Nanao Sakaki: (so far, wonderful).

My Postwar Life: New Writings from Japan and Okinawa: (a wide ranging anthology, which is, based on the three or four pieces I've read so far, a mixed bag in terms of content, and also quality).

Finally reading again or rather, finally starting to finish books I've started. Read The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai.

The Third Son by Julie Wu. The third son must overcome his abusive upbringing to succeed in life. A good read.

New to the group. Just finished MW by Tezuka and Two Billion Eyes by Zhu Ying. The latter was an interview look at the history and future of CCTV.

I gave up on Yukio Mishima's Sun and Steel and I'm about 40 pages from the end of Kobo Abe's Secret Rendezvous. Interested to see how it ends and all ties together.

I've also recently read Takashi Nagai's The Bells of Nagasaki.

Powell's is having a sale on selected Japanese fiction, in case you are interested. Pretty good selection: http://www.powells.com/subjects/fiction-and-poetry/japanese-fiction-sale/

I'm nearly finished reading Chowringhee by Sankar.

Last night I finished reading Haruki Murakami's latest book: 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage). I really enjoyed reading it and looking at Japanese reviewers, a lot of them have enjoyed it too, although we all question one part of the book. According to this article, no publication date yet has been set in English but hopefully something will come out soon for non-Japanese readers.

http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/05/haruki-murakami-think-me-endangered-...

Today I finished reading Banana Yoshimoto's very short novella アルゼンチンババア (Argentine Hag) which is not translated into English.

42 lilisin: How did it compare to Murakami's other works? I've been a big fan of his work for years, but was a little underwhelmed by 1Q84

i really should learn to read Japanese...sigh.

I'm sure it'll get translated into English in no time. Two years most likely.
I'm actually a difficult judge of how his works compare 'cause I've only read 1Q84, Underground, and After the Quake so I haven't read his more famous works and this is only the 2nd work of fiction of his I've read now. So I actually enjoyed 1Q despite its repetitiveness but I do believe this work is better.

Overall it was quite gripping and really got me to keep turning the page. Throughout he hinted at certain fantastical elements and I thought he might take it in an 1Q direction but he actually settled the story down in a realistic manner. So I would recommend reading this when it comes out. I've been reading reviews on the Japanese version of Librarything and everyone generally agrees that it was a good, gripping book with very inspirational moments but that maybe he left us hanging at one part too much.

Lilisin> Thank you. I'm sure to pick up the translation when it comes out. =)

Hi I'm new. Fiction -- Kuraj set in Central Asia, nonfiction -- a book I can't find in Touchstones. I've just added it. The History of Beyhaqi: The History of Sultan Mas'ud of Ghazna, 1030-1041. And an old Owen Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China. My interests are mostly Central Asia/Inner Asia.

Finished reading Kenzaburo Oe's Hiroshima Notes which I'm hoping to write about soon in my various threads.

47> Welcome! The Lattimore book looks interesting.

Minae Mizumura's A True Novel is, in some ways, an updating and relocating of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights to post-war Japan. That sounds like it could be quite awful, but Mizumura, far from slavishly following Brontë, makes it something entirely new: an experimental novel, a riveting narrative, a commentary on class, and also on the novel. That A True Novel is more than twice as long as Wuthering Heights—and that none of those pages seems unnecessary—is an example of just how different it is. That it will send readers back to Brontë's classic is, of course, another plus.

I just read two short works by Akira Yoshimura: La jeune fille suppliciée sur une étagère and Le sourire des pierres. When I'm back in the states and on a computer I'll be able to update my thread and write a few notes about the two very interesting stories.

Finished reading Kobo Abe's The Kangaroo Notebook which I'm still processing in my brain.

Finished Snow Country which I really enjoyed.

52: And probably getting an ERROR message! That is one funky book.

Ha, definitely! It's the fifth book of his that I have read so I know what he's doing and what he's trying to get at although I feel this one goes a bit more to random places. And overall, this one didn't strike me as well as the others I've read.

Finished another Japanese crime fiction novel by Seicho Matsumoto, Le vase de sable (English title: Inspector Imanishi Investigates).

Unfortunately, despite having 2 extra hours in the airport I wasn't able to read during that time due to how loud the LAX airport is. However, on the plane I finished reading Takeshi Kaiko's Into a Black Sun.

Recently finished Zen and Japanese Culture and am currently reading A Narrow Road to Oku

Today I had four hours of free time while substitute teaching so I got to read 200 pages of my book which allowed me to finish the fantastic, Ayako Miura's Lady Gracia: A Samurai Wife's Love, Strife and Faith. Hope to review this soon on my thread.

I just finished Kazushi Hosaka's Plainsong, and it's a plain song indeed, a novel of the mundane. In offering a reader a novel with no apparent action he is taking a risk, but careful reading reveals that something significant does happen in the book, and it is perfectly foreshadowed by the appearance of a stray kitten at the novel's beginning: the friends who populate the novel turn into a family. That friends can form a family is an idea that seems a bit old in 2014—are there any sitcoms that don't have this premise these days?—but Hosaka's book, we must remember, came out in 1990, and not in the West but in Japan.

Just finished reading The Death of Woman Wang by Jonathan D. Spence which I enjoyed.

This week I finished reading Otsuichi's ZOO2 which is also available in English (ZOO). I'm also almost done with Osamu Dazai's Soleil Couchant (The Setting Sun).

... as I continue to talk to myself in this group. :P

Well I may not participate here, but I do read what you post.

Robert

I've just read What's Japanese about Japan? by John Condon. Despite the outdated photo's, there's a lot of interesting things to read about in the book.

Just started Nagai Kafu's Rivalry : A Geisha's Tale.

... and now I've just finished reading Nagai Kafu's Rivalry : A Geisha's Tale.

I'm halfway through Akira Yoshimura's On Parole which I started on the plane.

I've just finished Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and The Professor

68> I quite enjoyed that one, it's a nice, quiet book that I thought was beautiful. What did you think?

I finished On Parole and am now almost halfway through Donald Richie's The Inland Sea.

>69 brianjungwi: I liked it a lot. Although I couldn't follow the more complex math problems and explanations. (Well, I've given up on that long time ago: I'm a letter girl, not at all good at maths...)

I finished the excellent The Inland Sea and am now reading a Chinese book which I haven't read in ages. I'm currently reading a French translation of Bi Feiyu's De la barbe à papa un jour de pluie (Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day) which I picked up because of the lovely title.

I started reading The Good Women of China by Xinran. I like it so far.

I've finished reading The Good Women of China. A very impressive book, the content of which will linger in my heart and mind for a while.

Asian fiction recently consumed:

Xu Zechen: Running Through Beijing (Fast paced, sympathetic portrayal of the hustling Beijing underclass.)

Qiu Miaojin: Last Words from Montmartre (Tortured last words of a probable suicide by an author who was a suicide. Beautiful and challenging.

Kanai Meiko: Indian Summer

Kanai Mieko: Oh, Tama! These two Kanai novels are entries in her series of "Mejiro" novels, Mejiro being the Tokyo neighborhood where the eminent writer lives. They are both absolutely charming, and very different from both her poetry and her non-Mejiro fiction.)

Slightly longer considerations of these works are posted in my reading thread which is here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/164073

75 -
I have Mieko's Oh, Tama! which I got via the ER program although I haven't read it yet.

I'm currently reading Natsuo Kirino's Out which is easy to read because you want to keep turning the page! I actually had to stop myself reading so I wouldn't finish it in one sitting (despite being 400 pages long) (where a 10 hour flight = one sitting).

I really felt like reading some nonfiction so I went out and bought The Rape of Nanking, a book I've been wanting to read forever.

Just finished "Crooked Lines" by Holly Michael! Excellent book with great insights into both Indian and U.S. culture.

I finished Murakami's latest a few weeks ago Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage which i quite liked.

Finished China Dolls and started on The Mountains Echo and Difficult Daughters.

Having a lot of fun ripping the Japanese government apart with Ryu Murakami's From the Fatherland, with Love.

I just finished reading Ryu Murakami's From the Fatherland, with Love and boy was that a fun read! The Japanese government was just ripped apart!

I just finished Het kleine huis van de springende vissen by Chiew-Siah Tei. Liked it!

I have read China per trein by Paul Theroux. I liked the last part of the book the best. Glad I read it all the way to the end.

I've just finished White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway. An okay book, but very sad. That's why I'm glad I'm done with it.

I've just read Tsomo's karma by Kunzang Choden. Liked it a lot!

I just started Lisa She's 2014 book China Dolls.

Empress Dowager CIXI: the Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

This is the latest book I've read recently on transformative women rulers of history--Cleopatra (fictionalized based on historical fact), Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, Victoria, and now the Empress Dowager CIXI. Could it be that, regardless of accomplishments, reputations of the brave, shrewd women who access power via marriage and/or motherhood (Cleopatra, Catherine, CIXI) are treated more dismissively/harshly by posterity than those who inherit (Elizabeth, Victoria)?

Started reading The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison.

After being in a long reading slump, I finally was able to finish a book which was GOTH 夜の章 by Otsuichi, a collection of three short stories (that are available in translation) but not his strongest works that I've read.

I have finally started reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

I'm reading The Baburnama, the W. M. Thackston Jr. translation. I have read parts of the old (c. 1920) Annette Susannah Beverage translation and though I suspect Thackston's translation will be more accurate as well as readable, Beverage's has been quoted from in so many other books that I have come to think of it as Babur's own words.

I finally finished The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison today. Liked it!

Started reading Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. First chapter is very promising!

Walking the Kiso Road by William Scott Wilson. It's an exemplary travel book, walking division. Recommended.

>94 BoekenTrol71: Finished Wolf Totem. Strongly recommended, great book!

I am now reading De tolk by Suki Kim. Like it :-)

I have just finished Wives of the East Wind by Liu, Hong. Liked it a lot.

>15 lilisin: Thanks for the recommendation. I've added The Stones Cry Out to my wishlist.

I've just finished reading My Private China by Alex Kuo and I found it a disappointing read.

It looks like I'm on an Adian wave at the moment. My next read (a BookCrossing-ray) is The Girl in the Picture by Denise Chong

You know, about the girl from The Most Famous Picture of the Vietnam war. I'm very curious about this book, have no idea what to expect from it.

Since my last post I've read The Vagrants by Yiyun Li and Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Both are, imho VERY recommendable!

>102 BoekenTrol71:

I've been keeping my eye out for the North Korean book. I've been wanting to read that one but as I haven't been reading at all since moving to Japan, I don't know when I'll ever get to it.

I've just finished De gangster naar wie we allemaal op zoek zijn by Lê Thi Diem Thúy

My review of a great Tokyo novel, Tokio Whip by Arturo Silva.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/09/24/books/book-reviews/first-great-to...

I have just finished The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham. Although I'm usually not fond of books that feature empty headed vain women that are brought up to embroider and please, I liked this book, much to my surprise.

Just finished Into a Black Sun, and wondering just how much this is autobiographical?

Just finished The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama and I liked it a lot!!

I have just finished Wilde Zwanen by Jung Chang. Overall I liked it, but from time very depressing and hopeless.
I'm glad that one of the subjects of my grammar school exam for history was China's history, roughly from the 1940's to 1975-ish. And that period was exstensively described here.