Robin's Reading List 2024 ~ January

This is my first book of 2024! 

A few weeks ago, my cousin Natalie, 

(Uncle Bruce's Granddaughter) posted her favorite books of 2023.

This novel reached out and grabbed me. I am reading it now and loving the sweet characters. It was written in Japanese and translated to English. 

I love the gentle references. 

Strange Weather in Tokyo

by Hiromi Kawakami

 

 Because I have just started this book, and loving it, here is the synopsis from Amazon.

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.

I am perhaps 1/3 of the way through this wonderful book and enjoying it very much. If you read it, please let me know how you liked it.

Happy New Year!

If you have any book recommendations, please contact me at

robin@robintolbert.com

 

Love you beyond the moon.

Me