Book Club

PNWJETAA has been gathering to discuss Japanese, Japanese-American and Japan-related literature since May 2012. Though most members read the books in English translation, we highly encourage members to read in original Japanese if they are able, as this offers interesting perspective in terms of translation style, authenticity and quality. Book Club meetings are held every 4-6 weeks for about 1-1.5 hours usually on Sundays at 3:00 pm either in person or on Zoom. You don’t need to be in the Seattle area to join the discussions – all are welcome! Email cmochel at gmail.com for details.

Below is a listing of all the books read by the Book Club in reverse chronological order:

• This is Amiko, Do you Copy? – Natsuko Imamura – May 18
• The Kappa Child – Hiromi Goto – Author of Chorus of Mushrooms – April 13
• The Cat Who Saved Books – Sosuke Natsukawa
• Mina’s Matchbox – Yoko Ogawa
• Secret Harvests – David Mas Masumoto
• Japan Sinks – Sakyo Komatsu
• Aosawa Murders – Riku Onda
• Evergreen – Naomi Hirahara – Sequel to Clark & Division
• Nails and Eyes – Kaori Fujino
• Rental Person Who Does Nothing – Shoji Morimoto
• The Kamogawa Food Detectives – Hisashi Kashiwai
• Three Streets – Yoko Tawada
• The Final Curtain – Keigo Higashino
• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: A novel – Satoshi Yagisawa
• How do you live? – Genzaburo Yoshino
• A Daughter of the Samurai – Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto
• The Graveyard Apartment: A novel – Mariko Koike
• She and Her Cat: Four Stories – Makoto Shinkai and Naruki Nagakawa
• A Death in Tokyo – Keigo Higashino
• Chorus of Mushrooms – Hiromi Goto
  • In person discussion & mushroom-themed potluck!
• Idol, Burning – Rin Usami
• Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight – Riku Onda
• The Easy Life in Kamasuri (Forest Book 1) – Shion Miura
• Bullet Train – Kōtarō Isaka
  • Movie viewing party & potluck!
• Clark and Division – Naomi Hirahara
• Fault Lines – Emily Itami
• How High We Go in the Dark – Sequoia Nagamatsu
• Tokyo Ever After – Emiko Jean
• A Man – Keiichiro Hirano
• Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters – William Tsutsui
  • Mr. Tsutsui was also the keynote speaker at JET35 in May 2022
• Woman in the Purple Skirt – Natsuko Imamura
• I Love You So Mochi – Sarah Kuhn
• Tales from the Café: A Novel – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
  • This is second in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Feel free to read the first one too!
• Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life – Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
• Prefecture D – Hideo Yokoyama
• Life of a Counterfeiter – Yasushi Inoue
• Forest of Wool and Steel – Natsu Miyashita
  • There is a 2018 movie!
• Earthlings – Sayaka Murata
• Where the Wild Ladies Are – Aoko Matsuda
• Salvation of a Saint – Keigo Higashino translated by Alexander O. Smith
• Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata
  • Bonus read: Sayaka Murata’s Love Letter to a Convenience Store on Literary Hub
• Stranger in the Shogun’s City – Amy Stanley
• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Book 1) – Naoko Takeuchi
• Tanabata Wish: A Coming of Age Rom-Com – Sara Fujimura
• Life for Sale – Yukio Mishima
• The Honjin Murders – Seishi Yokomizo 
• The Master Key – Masako Togawa
• Newcomer: A Mystery – Keigo Higashino
• The Territory of Light – Yuko Tsushima
• The Guest Cat – Takashi Hiraide
• Rice Noodle Fish –  Matt Goulding
• End of the Moment We Had – Toshiki Okada
• Hybrid Child: A Novel – Mariko Ohara
• The Factory – Hiroko Oyamada
• The Memory Police – Yoko Ogawa
• The Tokyo Zodiac Murders – Soji Shimada
• Penguin Highway – Tomihiko Morimi
• Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama – Translated by Ralph McCarthy
  • Special dot themed potluck and movie viewing of Kusama: Infinity
• The Lady and the Monk – Pico Iyer
• A Midsummer’s Equation – Keigo Higashino translated by Alexander O. Smith
  • Special potluck and movie viewing of Suspect X.
• The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories – Yukiko Motoya
• Hotel Iris: A novel – Yoko Ogawa
  • *TRIGGER WARNING* Physical/emotional abuse, rape, pedophilia, etc.
• The Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa
• The Woman in the Dunes – Kobo Abe
• Go: A coming of age novel – Kazuki Kaneshiro
• Sweet Bean Paste – Durian Sukegawa
  • Special potluck (complete with homemade dorayaki) and movie viewing of Sweet Bean.
• Men Without Women: Stories – Haruki Murakami
• Parade – Shuichi Yoshida
• Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
  • Information was presented about the Nozomi Project  which shares so many common themes to the book.  “Nozomi, which means ‘hope’ in Japanese, is a faith-based social enterprise bringing sustainable income, community, dignity and hope to the women in Ishinomaki, Japan by training them to craft high-quality jewelry products…featuring broken pieces of pottery left in the wake of the tsunami…”
• Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan –  Zack Davisson, published by Bruce Rutledge of Chin Music Press – both JET alums!!
  • We were joined by Zack and Bruce for an in depth discussion in April 2018 and many Book Club members also attended an author talk with Zack at the Lake Forest Park Third Place Books – more info here.
• Record of a Night too Brief – Japanese novellas by Hiromi Kawakami
• Spring Garden – Tomoka Shibasaki
  • Special POTLUCK movie viewing of The Great Passage and opening credits of the anime
• The Great Passage – Shion Miura
• A Quiet Place – Seicho Matsumoto
• Confessions of a Mask – Yukio Mishima
• Translucent Tree – Nobuko Takagi
• Paprika – Yasutaka Tsutsui
  • Special POTLUCK movie viewing of Paprika
• The Silent Dead – Tetsuya Honda
• Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights – Ryu Mitsuse translated by Alexander O. Smith
• Goodbye Tsugumi – Banana Yoshimoto
  • Special POTLUCK movie viewing of The Makioka Sisters (or at least most of it)
• Makioka Sisters – Junichiro Tanizaki
• Why Ghosts Appear – Todd Shimoda
• The Buddha in the Attic – Julie Otsuka
• Malice: A Mystery – Keigo Higashino translated by Alexander O. Smith
• Shiro: Wit, Wisdom and Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer – A memoir by Shiro Kashiba
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: A novel – Haruki Murakami
• The Thing about Luck – Cynthia Kadohata
  • Special POTLUCK movie viewing of The Housekeeper and the Professor
• The Housekeeper and the Professor – Yoko Ogawa
• Oh! A Mystery of “Mono no Aware” – Todd Shimoda, published by Bruce Rutledge of Chin Music Press – JET Alum!
  • Special raffle of Isabel Allendale’s new novel The Japanese Lover. Thank you Simon & Schuster!
• The Sun Gods – Jay Rubin, published by Bruce Rutledge of Chin Music Press – JET alum!
  • We were joined by EXTRA SPECIAL GUEST Jay Rubin and his wife Rakuko in November 2015!
• Yurei: The Japanese Ghost – Zack Davisson, published by Bruce Rutledge of Chin Music Press – both JET alums!!
  • We were joined by the author for an in-depth discussion in October 2015.
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing – Marie Kondo
• Kokoro – Natsume Soseki
• Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains – Paul Barach
• Rashomon – Ryunosuke Akutagawa
• Last Winter We Parted – Fuminori Nakamura
  • Additional Reading: The Thief – Fuminori Nakamura
• Snow Hunters – Paul Yoon
• The Reason I Jump – Naoki Higashida
• All You Need is Kill – Hiroshi Sakurazaka
  • We gathered to watch Edge of Tomorrow at the Crest Theatre.
• Yakuza Moon – Shoko Tendo
• The Book of Heroes – Miyuki Miyabe
• An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Additional Reading: Drawing from Memory – Allen Say
• Strangers – Taichi Yamada
• No-No Boy – John Okada
• Revenge – Yoko Ogawa
• My Year of Meats – Ruth Ozeki
  • We attended a reading and discussion with the author at University Books in fall 2013.
• Rivalry: A Geisha’s Tale – Kafu Nagai
• Summer of the Big Bachi (Mas Arai #1) – Naomi Hirahara
  • We met the author at the Elliott Bay Books reading in summer 2013.
• The Inland Sea – Donald Richie (In memoriam of his death.)
• Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age! – Kenzaburo Oe
• Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan – Jake Adelstein
• The Diving Pool: Three Novellas – Yoko Ogawa
• Sakuran – Moyoco Anno
  • We gathered together to watch Sakuran – currently available at Scarecrow Video in Region 2.
• The Devotion of Suspect X – Keigo Higashino
• In the Miso Soup – Ryu Murakami
• Snow Country – Yasunari Kawabata
• The Sound of Waves – Yukio Mishima
• Real World – Natsuo Kirino
• Truth be told, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré was our first book, before we got more focused 🙂