Front Desk

Front Desk
Kelly Yang

Front Desk is a middle grade book (for 8- to 12-year-olds). I am decades beyond this age range, but I still enjoyed reading this beautifully written story about a Chinese family who immigrated to the US and had to work and live in a motel (most of the events in the book are based on the author's experience!). The book teaches about prejudice and poverty. Whether you're 8 or 88, read this book.

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store
Keigo Higashino

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is another book whose movie adaptation I had seen before reading the book; the other was Before the Coffee Gets Cold. And like Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Namiya is a fantasy story. The synopsis (taken from Goodreads): "When three delinquents hole up in an abandoned general store after their most recent robbery, to their great surprise, a letter drops through the mail slot in the store's shutter. This seemingly simple request for advice sets the trio on a journey of discovery as, over the course of a single night, they step into the role of the kindhearted former shopkeeper who devoted his waning years to offering thoughtful counsel to his correspondents."

It is a beautiful story that I highly recommend. If you're not into books (then why are you here? Haha!), then at least watch the film adaptation or adaptations—there is a Japanese movie and a Chinese movie (I have only seen the Japanese adaptation).

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Toshikazu Kawaguchi

There's a cafe in Tokyo where one can go back in time, but one must come back to the present before the coffee gets cold. The book is written simply and every chapter (there are four) is about a different customer who travels back in time.

This is the first contemporary novel written by a Japanese author that I did not find boring or weird (but then I have only read a few books by contemporary Japanese authors). The story was very interesting for me that I decided to read the book eventhough I had already seen the movie, hence, know the story. (I found out about the book, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, as the credits to the Japanese movie "Cafe Funiculi Funicula" rolled.)

I am looking forward to reading the second book Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe, but don't have a copy yet. Please drop a comment if you know where I can find one (book or ebook).

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

The Strange Library

The Strange Library
Haruki Murakami

The Strange Library is about a boy who goes to a library (one of the reasons why I wanted to read this book...because it takes place in a library!) and gets led to a reading room deep in the library where he meets some strange characters. This book is written by Haruki Murakami, a very popular author. Very, very popular.

I have tried reading several of Haruki Murakami's books but, after reaching the last page, was always at a loss why he was so popular—all his fiction (or at least those that I have read) were just too weird for me. Except for The Strange Library, which, to me, still fell under the weird category, but was somehow engaging—I kept turning (or swiping, because I was reading it in its ebook format) the page. A pretty interesting story (but if there was any lesson in the story, I admit, I did not get it).

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

A Geek in Korea

A Geek in Korea

Daniel Tudor

I miss traveling. And if you follow my blog, you probably have an idea that two of my favorite countries to visit are South Korea and Japan. During the last few trips, I have taken to buying a book or two as a souvenir.  A Geek in Korea is one such book, bought in autumn of 2018. I am embarrassed to say, I only read it three years later.

A Geek in Korea covers a variety of topics about modern day South Korea—topics such as food, religion, politics, work, music. This was published in 2014, and reading this in 2021, I could say some information may already be outdated. Nevertheless, it was an interesting peek into South Korean culture. And it made me miss my Korean friends.

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Partners

Partners
John Grisham

Partners was released in 2016 as an ebook and is a prequel to John Grisham's 2015 novel Rogue Lawyer. Rogue Lawyer is about Sebastian Rudd, a lawyer who takes cases no other lawyer would take, and Partners is about how Rudd met Partner, his bodyguard.

At only 60 pages, Partners is a short, quick read and a good one to start with if you'd like a taste of John Grisham.

I haven't picked up a Grisham book in a long time and Partners reminded me of why I liked to read Grisham's novels. This ebook made me blow the dust away from the Grisham books that have been sitting untouched in my shelf for years...

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The Best of Mang Ambo

The Best of Mang Ambo, Books 1 and 2
Larry Alcala

People my age or older best remember Larry Alcala for his newspaper cartoon in the 1980s to 90s called Slice of Life. It was one of those things I looked forward to in the newspaper...to look for Larry Alcala's face in the day's Slice of Life. I was pleasantly surprised to find books by Larry Alcala. The books are not compilations of his Slice of Life cartoons, but of his Mang Ambo comic strips. The comic strips depict barrio life. So relatable, it often made me smile. These comic strips were from the 1960s, but the stories presented in the comic strips transcend time.

PS. The books are available from New Day Publishers.

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

The Best of Lola Basyang

The Best of Lola Basyang
Severino Reyes

The Best of Lola Basyang includes twelve Filipino fairytales from the creative brain of Severino Reyes—yes, Lola Basyang is a guy! Although one or two of the fairytales have similarities with western ones, this book is still interesting and entertaining. Maybe kids nowadays have no idea who Lola Basyang is. It is time for them to hear (or read) Lola Basyang's stories.

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Escape From Camp 14

Escape From Camp 14
Blaine Harden

Escape from Camp 14 is about Shin Dong-Hyuk's life in North Korea's labor camp and how he managed to escape. I have read three books about life in North Korea, but this was the first time I had known of North Korea's gulag or forced labor camps.

Reading about what Shin Dong-Hyuk has had to endure and how people in the camp, guards and prisoners alike, behave felt like a nightmare.

It is disconcerting that such a place exists in this world, but it is something we should all be aware of.

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

The Ways of the Samurai

The Ways of the Samurai
Carol Gaskin & Vince Hawkins

The samurai existed from the 12th century until the 19th century. That's a very long time! But, how then is this book, The Ways of the Samurai, just a little over 140 pages long (or short)? The Ways of the Samurai gives the reader just enough information about the samurai in easily understood language to whet the appetite. It does not overwhelm the reader with confusing names and terms, and complicated facts and events.

If you're curious about the samurai, then this is a good book to start your journey.

An awesome discovery for me was that one of the stories included in the book, The Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, has very familiar names. This historic event, which happened in 1561, involves the Takeda Clan, the Sanada Clan, and Kaizu Castle. These are not really well-known to foreigners, unlike the names Nobunaga, Ieyasu, and Hideyoshi (these names are also mentioned in the book), but Takeda and Sanada sounded very familiar to me. It turns out Matsushiro, a place off the international tourist radar I had visited almost three years ago (Yumiko, who I follow in IG and would not meet in person until a year later, recommended this place and all I knew was that it was a samurai town) was the place mentioned (though not in name) in the book: Matsushiro was where I visited the Sanada Residence and the Matsushiro Castle (Kaizu Castle), among others.


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Home of the Brave / Inside Out & Back Again

Two books: Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate and Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Three things in common: 1) The main characters are both refugees. 2) The "chapters" are poems. 3) The books are written for children ages 9 to 12.

The differences: Home of the Brave is about Kek, a refugee from Sudan. Inside Out & Back Again is about Ha, a refugee from Vietnam. Home of the Brave is a work of fiction, while Inside Out & Back Again is based on the author Thanhha Lai's experience.

Why read these children's books? Both books are stories of hope. One can never go wrong with stories of hope no matter one's age.


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

A Lolong Time Ago

A Lolong Time Ago
Michelle Suarez, Joonee Garcia, Divine Gil Reyes, Benjor Catindig

If you follow my Business Names series, you know I love puns. The title of this book, A Lolong Time Ago, was what caught my interest. Second was the cute cartoony cover, from which you could tell the book was for kids.

A Lolong Time Ago is about the prehistory of the Philippines. Duh, it's the subtitle on the cover.

Historical data, such as dates and names, alone could be boring (to me, at least). But these written in a fun, conversational way, coupled with illustrations and photos held my interest all throughout.

Reading A Lolong Time Ago drew a bigger and better picture and a cohesive story of all the bits of history which I had seen in different places at different times, like the Manunggul Jar and the Laguna Copperplate in the Museum of the Filipino People, and the petroglyphs in Binangonan, Rizal! It felt like those historical pieces I had seen through glass cases (or across barriers, in the case of the petroglyphs) were parts of a jigsaw puzzle that I had finally pieced together.

History was my least favorite subject when I was a student. If history textbooks were written the way A Lolong Time Ago was written, then history could have been my favorite subject.


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
Jake Adelstein

Tokyo Vice is written by an American journalist who was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, for 12 years who was admitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club. In short, he reported on crimes: extortion, murder, human trafficking, and the yakuza—things I don't often hear about in relation to Japan as Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

Tokyo Vice was a really interesting read for me, plus the book was not like reading a newspaper report, but a memoir slash true-crime. I recommend this book to anyone interested in anything Japan, and that includes knowing about its dark side.

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches
Matsuo Basho

To me, Matsuo Basho is a name synonymous to haiku. The first time I read a book of Matsuo Basho's haikus was Lips Too Chilled, from the Penguin Little Black Classics series. And I was: okay, meh. So, if I wasn't impressed by that, why did I read another one of his works: The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches? Because of the second to the last word on the title: travel.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches contains his travel narratives, interspersed with haiku poems he had written during those travels. The book is only 160 pages long, and 40 of it was for the introduction alone, which was essential in understanding Matsuo Basho's narratives. There were so many passages and poems in this book that I could relate to (which prompted me to re-read and appreciate Lips Too Chilled the second time around). One of my favorites in The Narrow Road is: "Indeed, one of the greatest pleasures of travelling was to find a genius hidden among weeds and bushes, a treasure lost in broken tiles, a mass of gold buried in clay, and when I did find such a person, I always kept a record with the hope that I might be able to show it to my friends."

When I grow up, I want to be like Matsuo Basho. A traveler and a writer.

For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children

Who can resist such a creepy book cover?

Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series
Ransom Riggs

The series, Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, is written by Ransom Riggs. Yes, that's the author's name. Sounds peculiar? Just like his books.

The story begins in the first book, of course, where sixteen–year–old Jacob journeys to an island and discovers Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Peculiar children such as an invisible boy, a girl who floats if not for her lead shoes, a boy who has bees in his stomach.

The second book, Hollow City, begins right where the first book ended: when Jacob and the peculiar children escape the island and enter London. (Read the first book to find out why they had to escape the island!)

These books may have been written for young adults, but one is never too old to appreciate a wonderful story of fantasy full of peculiar characters, unexpected events, and haunting photographs. (Plus a writing style that I wish I could copy.)

After reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City, I have two things to look forward to: The release of the third book, Library of Souls, this September (I cannot wait to know what happens next). And the Tim Burton movie, based on the first book, this March September 2016 (Tim Burton and strange things are a perfect match).


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Pinocchio

Pinocchio
Carlo Collodi

What? Pinocchio was a book?! I always thought it was just a Disney cartoon! When I found this book in a jumble of secondhand books, I was surprised, then doubtful... I was uncertain if it would be worth buying and reading since I had already seen the cartoon when I was a kid. In the end, my illness called hoarding won.

Oddly, I did not let this book sit in my shelf to gather dust, like I let so many others (especially the classics). And I am glad I did read this book. It was so unlike the cartoon that it was such a delight. Though this was written in serial form in 1881 for kids (and published as a book in 1883), I could say this book would be a little too dark and not really appropriate for kids. So, even if you're already in your 30s, 50s, or 90s, erase that Disney Pinocchio in your mind's eye and give this book a go!

PS. I have a favorite quote from this book: Hunger is the best cook.


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Boy Tales of Childhood

Boy Tales of Childhood
Roald Dahl

Boy, oh, boy, imagine my glee when I found the book I have been looking for since reading Going Solo. I immensely enjoy Roald Dahl's works and this is no exception. Boy Tales of Childhood tells of Roald Dahl's amusing childhood (clearly says so on the title) in a language easily understood but not at all boring. Roald Dahl has the gift of telling even the simplest of stories in a funny way.

It says on the first page that this is not an autobiography but a sort of collection of moments that he could never forget. And it will be one book you, yourself, will not forget.

No, I will not spill the beans and tell you what those moments are, and no, don't google them. Just pick up the book and start reading.


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Marley & Me

Marley & Me
John Grogan

This is the story of a family and their bumbling beast, Marley, a Labrador retriever, who was with them from puppyhood to senior citizenship (13 years). 

I knew I'd enjoy this book after reading the first few chapters. Throughout the book I found myself smiling. John Grogan writes with humor and affection. I think even those not so crazy about dogs would appreciate this book.


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Going Solo

Going Solo

Roald Dahl 

Most people know Roald Dahl as the author of children's books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. These four books were made into movies. But that's not all Roald Dahl wrote. He wrote books for children, teens, and even adults.

The first Roald Dahl book I read was Going Solo. Roald Dahl's memoir written for adults. What was on the backside of the book that made me decide to read it?

"In 1938 Roald Dahl was fresh out of school and bound for his first job in Africa, hoping to find adventure far from home. However, he got far more excitement than he bargained for when the outbreak of the Second World War led him to join the Royal Air Force (RAF)."

With only 210 pages, I finished it in no time. His experiences were, to use his words, "totally enthralling." This is the book that got me reading as many Roald Dahl books as I could get my hands on. If anyone has his other memoir, "Boy", do let me borrow. Please?


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.

Under the Banner of Heaven

What's the book's title?

Under the Banner of Heaven

Is this part two of The Five People You Meet in Heaven?

Nope. This book is by Jon Krakauer, not Mitch Albom. And it's nonfiction.

Ok, what's the story?

Krakauer dissects the situations that lead to the massacre of a mother and her daughter.

Scary! But why heaven?

Because it relates to religious extremism.

Is it a good read then?

Very much. Krakauer has a gift of unbiased reporting and gutsy story telling. He simplified a complicated history of Mormonism, wrote interviews, compiled names, dates, events, and composed an eye-opening documentary of religious idealism gone awry.


For more book recommendations, please visit Go Read.