My All-Time Favorites and Recommended Reads

The Pearl Diver: A Novel by Jeff Talarigo
A beautiful book about a Japanese pearl diver who is diagnosed with leprosy.  Her name is erased from the family register and she is sent to live on an island leprosarium.  The book follows her life there and the experiences she and the others on the island go through.  Tragic and beautiful, a definite must read.

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Another hilarious book by Jasper Fforde (author of the Thursday Next series (below)).  This one is the first in his Nursery Crime series.  Humpty Dumpty is dead from a fall off of (what else?) a wall.  But was it an accident, suicide or murder?  A very witty book - saying that this book was fun to read would be too mild.  I rarely laugh out loud while reading books, but Jasper Fforde gets me again with this one.

Lightning by Dean Koontz
I have owned four different copies of this book, but I keep giving it away to people who want to read it.  This is one of the few books that I have reread - in fact, I've read each of my four different copies through at least once.  It's a suspense novel that revolves around time travel, but it has a very unexpected twist.  A good book that throws a few twists and turns your way because of the time traveling aspect, enough to keep you interested, but not too many that your head hurts when you read it.  I don't want to get into it too much so I don't give anything around but it is a great book - read it!

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Fantastic and moving book about a little girl sold into a geisha house and her rise to becoming the leading geisha in 1930s-1940s Japan.  It is told as if the main character, Mineko, is sharing her life story with the person writing the book - done so well that it really seemed like an autobiography!  But it is a work of fiction.  That doesn't mean I didn't tear up a the end.  And yes, there is a motion picture based on this book.  I don't get out much so I haven't seen it yet, though hopefully I will see it someday.

The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura C. Schlessinger
"Countless women call Dr. Laura, unhappy in their marriages and seemingly at a loss to understand the power they have over their men to create the kind of home life they yearn for. Now, in The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, Dr. Laura shows you how to wield that power to attain all the sexual pleasure, intimacy, love, joy, and peace you want in your life." (from BN.com)   Want to make your man happy?  Read this book.

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook to Living by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler
From a BN.com Review: "Through a series of in-depth conversations with the Dalai Lama, and through a number of the Dalai Lama's public addresses, Dr. Cutler explores what Tibetan Buddhism might have to offer to Western conceptions of happiness."  This book really isn't what I would call a religious book even though it is written with the Dalai Lama.  Instead, it goes in depth to explain what happiness is (and should be) and how to achieve it.  Once I finished this book, I made a mental note to myself to come back and reread it regularly so I didn't get off track in the way I want to view my life (and life in general).  

The Tale of Genji translated by Royall Tyler
Probably one of the longest and most difficult books I have read, this one gets ranked among my favorites just because I finished it.  It is not a book for the faint of heart - it's long and complex with a list of characters several feet long.  Written in the 11th century by Murasaki Shibuya, The Tale of Genji is considered the first novel in the world.  It tells of the life of Genji, the (many) women in his life, and his children with them.  Fascinating for those interested in Heian period Japan, perhaps too laborious for those without a strong reason to want to read it.  If you decide to read it, I would recommend learning a little more about Heian Japan by reading "The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan" by Ivan I. Morris.  This book cleared up a lot of the questions I had about male/female relationships (and lots of other things) during this time period.  I also read "Tale of Genji: A Reader's Guide" by William J. Puette in conjunction with the book to help get through some of the tougher passages.

American Fuji by Sarah Backer
It took two years for this book to make it to the top of my to-be-read pile, but I just finished it and I have a feeling it will make its way down to the "All Time Favorites" section.  An American comes to Japan to find out how his son was killed and is helped by an American woman who has been living and working in Japan for the last five years.  This book has the best portrayal I've seen of the difficulties a foreigner faces living in Japan.  It also reveals why foreigners choose to stay there.

My All-Time Favorites and Recommended Series

The Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde

This series is hilarious - highly suggested for book-lovers as the alternate universe (a UK circa 1985) it takes place in is one where pop culture is all about classic literature.  In the first book in a very connected series, Thursday Next must find and stop Acheron Hades who has already killed off a minor character from a Dickens novel, forever changing the story.  Now he plans to kidnap Jane Eyre and Thursday is the only one that can stop him.  Absolutely hilarious and the series only gets better.

The Billy Chaka Series by Issac Adamson

A wacky, over-the-top but vastly entertaining puedo-detective series.  In the first one, "Tokyo Suckerpunch", Billy Chaka, journalist for a Asian teen magazine out of Chicago, goes to Japan to cover a story and ends up in barroom brawls, visiting a secret corporate sex club and dealing with a weird religious order, all to chase down a mysterious "geisha in disguise".  "Hokkaido Popsicle" and "Dreaming Pachinko" are the second and third books in the series (though each book stands alone) and are just as good, if not better, than the first one.

Last updated 24-Jul-08