Welcome to Litsy!

A fascinating history which I know nothing. I had to watch the miniseries twice with captions in order not to confuse the characters. I decided to listen to the novel, and I am having the same trouble, but this time, I have a character map. The narrator has the best voice.

What intrigues me the most, that I think the adaptation misses, is the different definitions of bravery that the three different cultures have.

1. I picked up the tagged book from my free cycle group.
2. The house was at the end of a long drive in the woods, and when I got there I saw a bald eagle in the trees.
3. Then I went to my favorite indie bookstore followed by a late lunch of loaded fries and spiced winter ale.
4. I spent several hours waiting while my car was being serviced, but I had a good book (and some entertaining canned TV programming) to keep me occupied.
#5joysfriday

I was told I should read this when I'm finished with The Tale of Genji, so I nabbed a copy on pango.

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 🤷🏻‍♀️

#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!

3.5/5 🌟

This Japanese novel is anything but cozy. It follows a young woman, pregnant out of wedlock, facing her parents' disapproval and surviving an abusive, alcoholic father. Her journey through childbirth, work struggles, and finding childcare is raw and challenging.

It started strong, but by the end, my interest had faded.

Great guide to yokai!(Japanese monsters) and how to survive them!

Fascinating memory of noodle delivery in the first half of the 20th C Japan. It will leave you hungry for soba.

I didn't realise this was an evangelical book when I picked it up at my local free library. It's a short story about "Jiro", a Japanese kid the author taught at the Christian College in Tokyo. It would be "So-so" if there wasn't some judgment passed on Japanese culture. It's mostly a nice story about a boy who becomes disabled and struggles with it throughout his life. Then he gets seriously ill and is saved by God ?
Not my cup of tea.

"After a heavy storm one night the snow had piled into four-foot-high drifts outside the classroom window. So Jiro suggested to the boys in his class in a second-floor room that when the next teacher was busy writing on the blackboard, they should all jump quietly out of the windows onto the snow below. (...) When the surprised teacher finally turned around, there wasn't a boy left in the class!"
Now that's a pretty cool prank!