One reading challenge I’m very excited about this year is the Japanese Literature Challenge, now in it’s 16th year! Dolce Bellezza is once again hosting the challenge which runs through the end of February 2023. I’ve enjoyed participating in this challenge in the past and I’m excited to join in once again.

When I lived in Dallas I belonged to a book group where we read a lot of books in translation and I think that’s when I first discovered Japanese literature and have read quite a bit of contemporary novels since then but of course there’s always many more authors to discover. For this year’s reading challenge between the books on my shelves and those on my Kindle, I have quite the pile of possibilities. Here they are:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri
Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

My goal is to read at least two books for this challenge and I’ve actually just started one of these. Guess which one? The Travelling Cat Chronicles. I’m usually not a fan of stories from the viewpoint of an animal but this is delightful!

So tell me if you’ve read any of these and if there’s one you recommend or if there’s an author I must read. are you participating in this challenge?

Happy 2023! I hope you’ve all been doing well and enjoying the holiday season. Here we are with a new year and tons of reading possibilities! As usual, I like to start of the year with a new book. I have so many books that I acquired in December that no doubt I’ll be adding more new books to the mix (and more on all of those later!) but for now here’s what I decided to start off the year with:

“But for now, as she and Maud set off to walk to Glaine, she wondered anxiously if Con was right. For Maud did look ridiculously young in her schoolgirl’s blue raincoat, and of course it was true that she had no experience. Fresh from secretarial training, from a delicate childhood and a silly but solicitous stepmother, how on earth would she stand up to old M.?”

From A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair

Young Maud has moved to the countryside with her cousin and companion in hopes of becoming independent from her stepmother. She’s acquired a job as a secretary to Mr. Feniston but will she do? She’s heard he scared away the previous secretary and she was a woman of experience. Only time will tell if Maud is up to the task.

I wanted something a bit cozy to start off the year and the story sounded interesting, the back cover describes this as a comedy of manners, and the cover was also what swayed me to this book.

This is my first book from the Dean Street Press, Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, which specializes in twentieth-century women’s fiction.

What book are you starting off your year with?