Strange Weather in Tokyo
A Novel
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Strange Weather in Tokyo
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Narrated by:
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Allison Hiroto
About this listen
Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a story of loneliness and love that defies age.
Tsukiko, 38, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei", in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is 30 years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to a hesitant intimacy, which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
As Tsukiko and Sensei grow to know and love one another, time's passing is marked by Kawakami's gentle hints at the changing seasons: from warm sake to chilled beer, from the buds on the trees to the blooming of the cherry blossoms. Strange Weather in Tokyo is a moving, funny, and immersive tale of modern Japan and old-fashioned romance.
Photo credit: ©Hisaji Hara and Natsumi Hayashi
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The Old & New Worlds Converge & Transcend Time
- By Sara on 11-22-16
By: Brigid Pasulka
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The Bastard of Istanbul
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 450
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 308
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Story4 out of 5 stars 310
In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a 19-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
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A Doubter's Almanac
- A Novel
- By: Ethan Canin
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 235
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 209
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Story4 out of 5 stars 210
Milo Andret is born with an unusual mind. A lonely child growing up in the woods of Northern Michigan in the 1950s, he gives little thought to his own talent. But with his acceptance at UC Berkeley, he realizes the extent - and the risks - of his singular gifts. California in the '70s is a seduction, opening Milo's eyes to the allure of both ambition and indulgence. The research he begins there will make him a legend; the woman he meets there - and the rival he meets alongside her - will haunt him for the rest of his life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The curse of genius?
- By Bonny on 03-03-16
By: Ethan Canin
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Fragile Things
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,492
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,692
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,672
Marvelous creations, including a short story set in the world of The Matrix and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction, can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his entertaining (and dark) sense of humor.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Perhaps a different format?
- By Karen on 11-03-10
By: Neil Gaiman
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Secret Smile
- By: Nicci French
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
Miranda's sister Kerri has a new boyfriend. He's a handsome charmer who seems to dote on Kerri. But Brendan isn't the man he says he is. Miranda should know. She broke off her own affair with him just a few weeks ago when she found him reading her diary.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I want my 9 hours back
- By Ashley on 07-19-23
By: Nicci French
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Hunters in the Dark
- By: Lawrence Osborne
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
From the novelist the New York Times compares to Paul Bowles, Evelyn Waugh, and Ian McEwan, an evocative new work of literary suspense. Adrift in Cambodia, Robert Grieve - pushing 30 and eager to sidestep a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher - decides to go AWOL. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Graham Greene
- By Foxhuntingman on 02-26-16
By: Lawrence Osborne
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 361
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 218
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 219
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
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Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 887
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 692
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 692
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
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Hotel Paradise
- Emma Graham, Book 1
- By: Martha Grimes
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 78
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 70
A once-fashionable, now fading resort hotel. A spinster aunt living in an attic. Dirt roads that lead to dead ends. A house full of secrets and old, dusty furnishings, uninhabited for almost half a century. A 12-year-old girl with a passion for double-chocolate ice cream sodas, and decaying lakefronts, and an obsession with the death by drowning of another young girl, 40 years before. Like all important events in the past, there are repercussions and ramifications in the present.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Took a while, but ...
- By Barrel Racer on 10-13-16
By: Martha Grimes
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Light Years
- By: James Salter
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 128
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 132
This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
By: James Salter
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The Butterfly's Daughter
- By: Mary Alice Monroe
- Narrated by: Mary Alice Monroe
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 179
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 157
Every year, the monarch butterflies - las mariposas - fly more than two thousand miles on fragile wings to return to their winter home in Mexico. Now Luz Avila makes that same perilous journey south as she honors a vow to her beloved abuela - the grandmother who raised her - to return her ashes to her ancestral village. As Luz departs Milwaukee in a ramshackle old VW Bug, she finds her heart opened by a series of seemingly random encounters with remarkable women.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Marvelous
- By Dee on 10-28-18
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Three Comrades
- By: Erich Maria Remarque, Arthur Wesley Wheen - translator
- Narrated by: Michael Braun
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 60
The year is 1928. On the outskirts of a large German city, three young men are earning a thin and precarious living. Fully armed young storm troopers swagger in the streets. Restlessness, poverty, and violence are everywhere. For these three, friendship is the only refuge from the chaos around them. Then the youngest of them falls in love and brings into the group a young woman who will become a comrade as well, as they are all tested in ways they can have never imagined.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Love and friendship in a dying world.
- By Tarquin on 03-18-19
By: Erich Maria Remarque, and others
-
Vita Nostra
- A Novel
- By: Sergey Dyachenko, Marina Dyachenko, Julia Meitov Hersey - translator
- Narrated by: Jessica Ball
- Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 455
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 408
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 407
Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin. As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Dark but beautiful
- By J. OBrennan on 11-19-18
By: Sergey Dyachenko, and others
-
Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 95
Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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2 out of 5 stars
-
A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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Tokyo resident Keiko Furukara has never fit in - neither in her family, nor in school - but when at the age of 18 she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of national convenience store chain Smile Mart, she realizes instantly that she has found her purpose in life. Delighted to be able to exist in a place where the rules of social interaction are crystal clear (many are laid out line-by-line in the store's manual), Keiko does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and mode of speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person excellently, more or less.
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5 out of 5 stars
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2 out of 5 stars
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Yoshie's much-loved musician father died in a suicide pact with an unknown woman. It is only when Yoshie and her mother move to Shimokitazawa, a traditional Tokyo neighborhood of narrow streets, quirky shops, and friendly residents, that they can finally start to put their painful past behind them. However, despite their attempts to move forward, Yoshie is haunted by nightmares in which her father is looking for the phone he left behind on the day he died, or on which she is trying—unsuccessfully—to call him. Is her dead father trying to communicate a message through these dreams?
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4 out of 5 stars
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The story is good but the performance is lacking
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3 out of 5 stars
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5 out of 5 stars
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2 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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The story is good but the performance is lacking
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Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Masterful Writing and Performance
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The Woman in the Purple Skirt
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench, where she eats a cream bun while the local children make a game of trying to get her attention. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched—by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who is always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes, what she eats, whom she speaks to.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Wild
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Sweet Bean Paste
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Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste. Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful tender story.
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The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
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Japan, 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms in Tokyo, two orphaned brothers are growing up with loving grandparents who inspire them to dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. The older boy, Hiroshi, shows early signs of promise in sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of creating exquisite masks for actors in the Noh theater. But as the ripples of war spread all the way to their quiet neighborhood, the brothers must put their dreams on hold - and then forge their own paths in a new Japan.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Audio Book
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The Hole
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Asa’s husband is transferring jobs, and his new office is located near his family’s home in the countryside. During an exceptionally hot summer, the young married couple move in, and Asa does her best to quickly adjust to their new rural lives, to their remoteness, to the constant presence of her in-laws, and the incessant buzz of cicadas. While her husband is consumed with his job, Asa is left to explore her surroundings on her own: She makes trips to the supermarket, halfheartedly looks for work, and tries to find interesting ways of killing time.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Murakami-esque in much except its brevity
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All the Lovers in the Night
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Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copyeditor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyoku stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable listen
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By: Mieko Kawakami
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The Easy Life in Kamusari
- Forest, Book 1
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.” At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I wanted it to be a true story
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By: Shion Miura, and others
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Heaven
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 414
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 358
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Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormenters.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great listen
- By Anthony on 07-30-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
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The Memory Police
- A Novel
- By: Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder - translator
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 896
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 769
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Story4 out of 5 stars 767
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses - until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten. When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Calm, Quiet Dystopian
- By Booky Nooky on 12-13-19
By: Yoko Ogawa, and others
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Earthlings
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 510
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 455
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Story4 out of 5 stars 452
As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
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The Great Passage
- By: Shion Miura, Juliet Winters Carpenter - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 436
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 388
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Story4 out of 5 stars 391
Inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, Kohei Araki is devoted to the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years creating them at Gembu Books, it's time for him to retire and find his replacement. He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime - a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics - whom he swipes from his company's sales department.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Engaging, unusual, fun
- By LGLH on 02-11-18
By: Shion Miura, and others
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The Housekeeper and the Professor
- By: Yoko Ogawa
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 955
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 850
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 849
He is a brilliant math professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only 80 minutes of short-term memory. She is an astute young housekeeper - with a 10-year-old son-who is hired to care for the professor. And every morning, as the professor and the housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Wonder Of Kindness & Connection
- By Sara on 06-16-16
By: Yoko Ogawa
What listeners say about Strange Weather in Tokyo
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- j. grant
- 04-17-23
Lovely story
Lovely written story and a great narrator. It was a bit slow, but endearing.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- M. Rogers
- 07-14-24
enjoyed. not my usual
overall good story and we used together time and characters in an interesting way. I'm just starting to get into this kind of book and I enjoyed it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James K. Eckmann
- 12-11-22
read this gentle love story
well written excellent flow fascinating unusual story. quick fun read. wholeheartedly recommend for anyone
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Craig
- 03-11-24
Beautifully written work about life
This book was a great listen it so masterfully takes us through the daily interactions of two people who need each other so very much. Love has no bounds.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- BenYL
- 03-16-21
Loved it
The whole book has the sensibility of haiku. It’s distilled, delicate, sensual, deep, tender, subtle. The narrator was perfect for the part & I’m already planning to relisten to it soon.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Paula de la Cruz
- 03-09-24
Very charming
Story about an unusual romance between an elderly professor and her former student, told through the seasons in Tokyo. The descriptions are very colourful and overall this book gave me a sense of peace.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- A. Hawley
- 08-02-23
A Little Too Cool for Me
I thought that this was OK. I found the voice to be a little too distant for my taste. It didn't help that I didn't particularly care for either of the mains.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- mz
- 01-02-19
Cozy Love Story and Leisure Time in Japan
A cute and warm story of love between two people aged 30 years apart. Cozy food and drinks in the odenya, mushroom hunting in the forest in Tochigi, Kappabashi the kitchenware district, high school reunion, island inn, ... the book takes us into the average Japanese person's leisure life outside of work. Every moment in the book is after work or on the weekends, giving the book a relaxed setting that is easy to read on.
I've listened to the book twice in a row. It's a nice leisurely listen, especially if you are interested in Japanese daily life, Japanese food, culture, nature, or quiet and gradual romance.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- annygries
- 04-21-21
Beautiful descriptions, lackluster characters
I read this book since it was on a list of books that describe Japanese scenery well. It certainly accomplished that with equally delicious sounding food. The story though was 5ish hours, and after 3 hours I was ready for it to end. The two main characters are nothing special and rather dull.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- dutchkids
- 05-16-20
Pleasant but repetitive and unrevealing
I can’t remember how many bottles of sake she drank but it was a lot more than thirty, the story is while pedantic quite prettily told and mildly amusing but then I’m just a romantic sensitive guy!
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2 people found this helpful