Item: Strange Weather in Tokyo
Rating: 4
Author: greyskysaturday

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
Published by Counterpoint Press on November 1, 2017
Genres: Fiction, Literary, Women, Urban
Pages: 189
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-stars

Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a story of loneliness and love that defies age.
Tsukiko, thirty-eight, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei," in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is thirty years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
As Tsukiko and Sensei grow to know and love one another, time's passing is marked by Kawakami's gentle hints at the changing seasons: from warm sake to chilled beer, from the buds on the trees to the blooming of the cherry blossoms. Strange Weather in Tokyo is a moving, funny, and immersive tale of modern Japan and old-fashioned romance.

Hello!
Well, this wasn’t really the way I wanted to come back to the blog in the new year, but here we are. I promise at some point there will be a full rundown of what’s been happening in my neck of the woods lately, which honestly during the pandemic hasn’t been much.

Let’s get back to the reason that we’re really here. I finished my first book of the year officially. It’s Hiromi Kawakami’s Strange weather in Tokyo. It’s a translated book which I think that though the book is well translated it loses a bit from Japanese to English. It’s a beautiful story of Tsukiko in her life during her 30s, where she experiences a relatively lonely life when she meets her old teacher “Sensei” at a bar one night and then after they soon begin a strange relationship of talking and relating to each other.

I found the book lovely in the way it related Tsukiko’s lonely life and the way she longed for conversations with Sensei throughout the story because he continued to challenge her way of thinking.

Let me know if you have read this book or plan to read this in the future. Also I have been getting an abnormal number of followers lately on Goodreads and though I am no longer officially People are still trying to follow me. If you would like to see my book updates before they go live here check me out on BookHype. I hope to see you all very soon with a more proper update and all the new things that might be coming here.

Little Fires Everywhere (Movie Tie-In) by Celeste Ng
Published by Penguin on March 17, 2020
Genres: Fiction, Literary, Family Life, General, Asian American
Pages: 432
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-half-stars

The #1 New York Times bestseller!
Soon to be a Hulu limited series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. "I read Little Fires Everywhere in a single, breathless sitting." --Jodi Picoult
"To say I love this book is an understatement. It's a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears." --Reese Witherspoon
"Extraordinary . . . books like Little Fires Everywhere don't come along often." --John Green
From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned--from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren--an enigmatic artist and single mother--who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood--and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster. Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more...
Perfect for book clubs! Visit celesteng.com for discussion guides and more.

Hello Everyone!

I know that it has been a little bit since I have written a post here, but I have been trying to read a bunch, but I just haven’t finished a book lately. Thankfully, I was able to join the GilmoreGirls Readathon this week and knock a few books off my list. This book was one of those books. Now in case you haven’t heard of this book Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng was a New York Times bestseller in 2018 and then it was turned into a Hulu miniseries starring Resse Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. I haven’t seen the show yet, but I have heard good things about it

I loved this book from the jump and I’m a little sad that it took me so long to find and read. I thought the many different perspectives of the story added to the story’s complexities and would highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it before. It definitely keep me turning pages and I probably could have finished it in one day had I really tried and had the time.

So if you haven’t read this book yet, I would definitely pick up this book. I hope to see you again soon, in another post.