Published: 2000 (Little, Brown) Setting: Malcolm Gladwell’s Brain Summary: Malcolm Gladwell’s debut book is a thought experiment about how we can change our world, and a treatise on how we need to change how we think about solutions to these problems. Malcolm Gladwell shows us why Blue’s Clues was the evolutionary Sesame Street, and whyContinue reading “The Tipping Point-Malcolm Gladwell”
Category Archives: Literature
South of the Border, West of the Sun-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1992 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Hakone Summary: An only-child, Hajime, is a 12-year-old boy who falls in love with a girl named Shimamoto at the age of twelve. Shimamoto, who also an only child, is he first love. They separate before high school and eventually find their way back to each other through their love of jazz andContinue reading “South of the Border, West of the Sun-Haruki Murakami”
Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1987 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Kyoto Summary: The domestic reception to Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood propelled the author to literary super stardom seemingly overnight. This novel, nostalgic and deeply feeling, is as much a period piece as it is a coming-of-age story set in Japan’s post-war coming-of-age. Toru Watanabe floats in and out of the lives of hisContinue reading “Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami”
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1985 (Shinchosha) Setting: Tokyo, “The Town” Summary: In Murakami’s favorite novel, our main characters shuffles information as he shuffles around the Tokyo underground. In alternating chapters, Murakami builds a Tokyo city-scape full of data inquirers professors, and Inklings (based on kappa), while also building an imaginary town within the mind of our main character. Our main character,Continue reading “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World-Haruki Murakami”
Tokyo Vice-Jake Adelstein
Published: 2009 (Random House and Pantheon) Setting: Saitama and Tokyo, Japan Summary: Jake Adelstein is a reporter, one with a code and a conscience and eventually an axe to grind. Through his various run-ins with cops, sex workers, other reporters, and the yakuza Adelstein learned that the underbelly of Japan is ultimately as dark andContinue reading “Tokyo Vice-Jake Adelstein”
First Person Singular-Haruki Murakami
Published: 2020 (Bungeishunju) Summary (of each story): Cream: A young man gets stood up by an old piano partner and decides to sit on a park bench. He has a panic or stress-induced attack and hallucinates. His hallucinations bring him a form of reprieve he can come back to that allows him to forget momentsContinue reading “First Person Singular-Haruki Murakami”
Dance Dance Dance-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1994 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Hokkaido, Honolulu, Hakone Summary: In the fourth and final installment of the “Trilogy of the Rat”, Murakami answers the question, what happens after you lose everything? He answers this by positing that all you need to do is dance in step with what is going on around you. I, theContinue reading “Dance Dance Dance-Haruki Murakami”
Convenience Store Woman-Sayaka Murata
Published: 2016 (Bungeishunju) Setting: Tokyo Summary: Keiko works at the Smile Convenience store in an office district, and it is what defines her. She has worked their eighteen years, and the rhythms of her life match the sound of the bell, the speech patterns of her coworkers, and the hours of her shift. Keiko hasContinue reading “Convenience Store Woman-Sayaka Murata”
A Wild Sheep Chase-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1982 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Hokkaido, Niigata Summary: In the third book of the “Trilogy of the Rat”, Murakami decides to blow it all up, in a good way. Our unnamed protagonist, I, meets a beautiful part-time call girl with magic ears, the secretary of the underground Boss of Japan, as well as the SheepContinue reading “A Wild Sheep Chase-Haruki Murakami”
Pinball, 1973-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1980 (Kodansha) Setting: Niigata, Tokyo Summary: In the second book of a tetralogy, and second in the “Trilogy of the Rat”, our unnamed narrator, “I”, is obsessed with pinball. This time, instead of a girl with nine fingers, he is seeing identical twins. Sweatshirt-clad and always willing to cheer “I” up, these ladies holdContinue reading “Pinball, 1973-Haruki Murakami”
Will Reviews Things 