Tag - the-year-in-books

 
 

THE YEAR IN BOOKS

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Seasonality, internal awareness
"Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature and the Arts" (Columbia University Press) by Haruo Shirane. The whole seasonal consciousness of Japan, so meticulously considered and observed, is an intangible cultural tradition, though it has a certain physical embodiment in saijiki, the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Celebrating the female dragons
"All That I Am" (Harper) by Anna Funder blazes across pre-World War II Europe, illuminating the period when Hitler eliminated all national opposition in his prelude to the rest of the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Alternative histories about JFK
The 50th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy next November is expected to see a flood of new works on that topic. Two alternative history novels have already appeared on this theme. In Stephen King's "11/22/63: A Novel" (Scribner), Maine high school teacher Jake Epping...
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
U.S. essays, Japan's Christians
It may seem like cheating, but my first best book of 2012 is "The Best American Essays of 2012" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), part of the Best American Series. I read it each year and am never disappointed. This year's selection was made by David Brooks, a moderately conservative author, columnist and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Seeing the past, humanity afresh
"Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City" (Columbia University Press) by Dung Kai-cheung, translated by Anders Hansson and Bonnie S. McDougall. Lovers of maps, devotees of Borges and Calvino, those who understand that novels need not be first-this-happened-then-that-happened catalogs of events in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
2012; The year in books
The Japan Times invited seven of its book reviewers to pick their favorite books published or made available in Japan in 2012, regardless of whether the book was reviewed in these pages.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Four aspects of Japan's history
"Oh, what happy people they must have been!" Thus Yukie Chiri (1903-22), reflecting on the pristine past of her people, the Ainu of southwestern Hokkaido. "Ainu Spirits Singing" (University of Hawaii Press) by Sarah Strong is an elegy to a lost time and an almost lost culture, seen largely through Chiri's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Revisiting Asia's past, present
"From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia" (Allen Lane) by Pankaj Mishra. This is the story of the Asian intellectual's response to Western imperialism. It is an intelligent and rewarding read that crisscrosses time and space, helping readers better understand the...

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'