Kyoto Book Club

Hello, everyone. In June, the book club's selection is the novel "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa. How about taking a break and warming your heart with a comforting story on rainy days?

【synopsis】
He is a brilliant maths Professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.

She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.

Each morning, the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to one another. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant mathematical equations from the past. He devises clever maths riddles - based on her shoe size or her birthday - and the numbers reveal a poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her son.

With each new equation, the three lost souls forge an affection more mysterious than imaginary numbers, and a bond that runs deeper than memory.

'This is one of those books written in such lucid, unpretentious language that reading it is like looking into a deep pool of clear water...Dive into Yoko Ogawa's world and you find yourself tugged by forces more felt than seen' New York Times

Note: The book club meet preceding this one is the novel "Catch Me If You Can": The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale on Sunday, May 26th, 2024.

【Details】
Online Meetup
The Kyoto Book Club will be held on Sunday, June 26th, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Japan time). Whether you have a Skype account or not, you can join by clicking the URL provided on the right side.

【What we're gonna do】
Read the book before the meetup if you can (not necessary, but it's better to avoid spoilers!). Then, hop online and join us to discuss your thoughts while enjoying some food and drinks.
The book is around 191 pages long. If you go for the digital version on Kindle, it's priced at ＄7.93 or ￥1200.

【Important to know】
No entrance fee, no membership fees.

Hello, everyone. In July, the Kyoto Book Club's selection is the novel "Poor Things" by Alasdair Gray.

【Overview】
Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer (1992) is a novel written by Scottish author Alasdair Gray. The novel explores issues of Scottish national identity in the 19th and 20th centuries, Victorian gender roles, and scientific progress. Poor Things is a postmodernist pastiche of Gothic literature that functions in part as a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). It is told from multiple perspectives, and its narrators each approach the story with their own biases. The novel won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award. In 2023, it was adapted into a film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

【About the Author】
Alasdair Gray (1934-2019) was a Scottish novelist, playwright, and artist and is regarded as the father figure of the Scottish Renaissance. As a post-modernist, Gray’s written works combine elements of realism, fantasy and science fiction supported by his own illustrations and typography. His books have been published internationally and translated into Italian, Russian, and Japanese. His awards include the Whitbread Fiction Prize, Guardian Fiction Prize, and Saltire Society Life Time Achievement Award.

Note: The book club meeting prior to this one is "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa.

【Details】
Online Meetup
The Kyoto Book Club will be held on Sunday, July 21st, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Japan time).Whether you have a Skype account or not, you can join by clicking the URL provided on the right side.

【What we're gonna do】
Read the book before the meetup if you can (not necessary, but it's better to avoid spoilers!). Then, hop online and join us to discuss your thoughts while enjoying some food and drinks.
The book is around 337 pages long. If you go for the digital version on Kindle, it's priced at ＄9.04 or ￥1398.

【Important to know】
No entrance fee, no membership fees.

Hello, everyone.Summer vacation is finally here!

Our book club selection for August is "Lessons in Chemistry." The irreverent, courageous novel by Bonnie Garmus is everywhere—having sold more than 2.5 million copies in the US and holding a spot on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year. It’s perfect for reading during the summer break, and while fun and funny, this fast-paced read also touches on the complex subjects of gender and society, making it a great book to discuss with our book club!

Synopsis: Set in 1960s America, the story follows Elizabeth, a talented chemistry researcher who struggles in the still-conservative, male-dominated world of science. After enduring harassment and sexual assault from her incompetent boss and colleagues, she is expelled from the research institute. Becoming an unemployed, single mother, she stumbles upon a job as a host on a TV cooking show, "Supper at Six." Ignoring the TV network’s request to "cook sexily to attract men," Elizabeth takes a scientific approach to cooking. Surprisingly, this approach captures the hearts of the viewers.

● The original novel of the Apple TV+ drama "Lessons in Chemistry."

Note: The book club meeting preceding this one is the novel "Poor Things" by Alasdair Gray on Sunday, July 21st.

Details: Online Meetup: The Kyoto Book Club will be held on Sunday, August 18th, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Japan time). Whether you have a Skype account or not, you can join by clicking the URL provided on the right side.

What We're Going to Do: Read the book before the meetup if you can (not necessary, but it's better to avoid spoilers!). Then, hop online and join us to discuss your thoughts while enjoying some food and drinks. The book is around 400 pages long. If you go for the digital version on Kindle, it's priced at $12.12 or ¥1900.

Important to Know: No entrance fee, no membership fees.

Hello everyone. The new school semester has started. The kyoto book club selection for September is "Yellowface" by Rebecca F. Kuang.

This book, which was a major hit when it was published last year, is not only a satire on racial diversity in the publishing industry but also a metafiction about social media.

Overview:
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena is a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller?

That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

【Details】
Online Meetup: The Kyoto Book Club will be held on Sunday, September 22th, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Japan time). Whether you have a Skype account or not, you can join by clicking the URL provided on the right side.

【What We're Going to Do】
Read the book before the meetup if you can (not necessary, but it's better to avoid spoilers!). Then, hop online and join us to discuss your thoughts while enjoying some food and drinks. The book is around 336 pages long. If you go for the digital version on Kindle, it's priced at $ 9.57 or ¥1500.

【Important to Know】
No entrance fee, no membership fees.