Recs if you like Strange Weather in Tokyo...

literary (or literary-leaning) fiction focused specifically on isolation, disconnection, loneliness — and what they teach us about life and humanity.

ft. recs from the community!

A list of cozy fiction for when the world is heavy and the Book Club book is too much.

Books are cozy based on other lists or cute-munity reccs. Your milage may vary.

Books where the protagonist loses their grip on reality, has strange, unsettling, and/or surreal experiences

the warm, fragmented interiors of women navigating emotional turmoil, relational dysfunction, identity crises, and existential malaise. intense, immersive, atmospheric, and deeply felt. stories of mundanity and despair, but also of a different beauty, some subtler strength. let's wallow freely and without shame.

note: open to recs, but those focused on interiority rather than romance (e.g. not Normal People)

An on-going attempt to track Asian authors in my Interested/TBR (and hopefully Finished) categories. Books are generally fiction/lit fic/fantasy with some memoirs. Authors span West to East Asia, the Asian diaspora, and mixed-race folx.

These are books I am going to start reading before bed, because my regular selection of reading material just really riles me up. Inspired by two posts from the Substack Feeling! Magazine by Jenna O'Brien.

japanese books i've read or been meaning to read

kids are great. however as a person who doesn’t want kids, I have fatigue around how many novels position motherhood as the epicenter of women’s lives. i’m gathering books here about women in their late twenties and older that don’t focus on motherhood or children. I haven’t read all these fyi!! plz share recs; i’m mostly looking for lit fic.

Non-textbooks to help you see the world like an anthropologist and understand culture a little better

Japanese literary fiction by prestigious authors who have proved themselves through the Akutagawa and Naoki prizes. I've included significant historical fiction as well.

Book ideas for the ‘Rainbow of Words’ - Books with colours in the title. I know that not all these colours are in the challenge but I’m down the rabbit hole now okay and I’m not leaving you can’t make me!!!

Includes: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Jade, Blue, Purple, Violet, Black, White, Brown, Gold, Silver, Rose & Pink

plus some french, spanish & german titles for colours too

japanese literature written by women

This is my Japanese literature list: Little Japan. Most of these books sit on my bookshelf in my little corner of the world. Enjoy!

Shorter books (around 200 pages) to get out of a reading slump or to help pad your stats. Comment if you want recommendations, I’ve read a lot of these.

Japanese books that fight against the social and governmental pressures to reproduce and/or challenges what it means to be a woman and their role in society. Prioritizing books written by women with a few notable exceptions.

Books under 250 pages

books that capture the whimsical charm of beloved studio ghibli films, while grounding you in the beauty and reality of the world around us. note: These books are not necessarily cozy, much like the films themselves are not always comforting.