When the top American diplomat in Tokyo, Bernard Mattson, is killed, he leaves more than a lifetime of successful Japan-American negotiations. He leaves a missing manuscript, a lost keynote speech and a tangled web of relations. When his alluring daughter, Jamie, returns from America wanting answers, Detective Hiroshi Shimizu is dragged from the safe confines of his office into the street-level realities of Pacific Rim politics. Hiroshi searches for the killer from Tokyo’s back alley bars to … [Read more...]
English to Go: inside Japan’s teaching sweatshops by Craig Currie-Robson
The English business in Japan is in trouble. Large chains such as NOVA cut salaries and benefits even as they profit and expand; Teachers go on strike at Berlitz and ECC. Gaba punishes staff for the tiniest transgressions and turns a blind eye to complaints against customers. Interac hires foreign workers who arrive to find their contracts have changed or do not exist at all. From one end of the country to the other, Japanese language schools exploit their foreign teachers and local staff … [Read more...]
Interview with Author – Craig Currie-Robson
About Craig Currie-Robson: I write fiction and nonfiction. Nonfiction interests include travel, politics, war stories and human interest. I'm also interested in wildlife and conservation writing. Future nonfiction projects will be similar. What inspires you to write? The world and my own experiences. I saw an interview with Bill Maher and Matt Taibi once and Maher pointed out that to write NF you have to be angry about something. Nothing gets people going like a good scandal or a story of … [Read more...]
The Seventh Voyage of Temperance by Ichabod Temperance
“Leapin’ lizards, Miss Plumtartt, we’ve got big trouble, really big trouble!” “Indeed, Mr. Temperance, for unethical experiments carried out in this remote locale, somewhere south of Nippon, have left this Monstrous Isle aswarm with uncanny creatures of titanic dimensions, eh hem?” “Yes, Ma’am, Miss Plumtartt, Ma’am, and if we ain’t careful, one extra jumbo-sized mega-reptile is going to run rampant all over our unsuspecting planet!” “Then let us gather what comrades we may, however unlikely … [Read more...]
Motions and Moments: More Essays on Tokyo by Michael Pronko
Motions and Moments is the third book by Michael Pronko on the fluid feel and vibrant confusions of Tokyo life. These 42 new essays burrow into the unique intensities that suffuse the city and ponder what they mean to its millions of inhabitants. Based on Pronko’s 18 years living, teaching and writing in Tokyo, these essays on how Tokyoites work, dress, commute, eat and sleep are steeped in insights into the city’s odd structures, intricate pleasures and engaging undertow. Included are … [Read more...]
Buyer’s Guide: The Butterfly Crest by Eva Vanrell
Targeted Age Group: 15 and up Category: Fantasy Print book price range: $14.99 eBook price range: $3.99 About The Butterfly Crest: An ancient war. A long-told prophecy. A cursed inheritance. If you were destined to die, how would you choose to live? Between the shadows of the human world, a war as old as time is being fought. Ageless pantheons scheme to obtain or keep control, provoked by the weight of human belief which has altered the realm of the divine. An ancient prophecy … [Read more...]
Aisuru by Anma Natsu
"It was madness to be more than her companion and caretaker..." For the last eight years, Sakura Takeshi has been counting down the time till her life ended. Though she survived the attack that left her an orphan, it's always been borrowed time as her damaged body continued to break down. She told herself she was ready, that she had come to terms with dying before she reached 19. Then she found Kazuki lying wounded in her garden. His arrival opens the door for her whole world to change, … [Read more...]
Buyer’s Guide: Reprobate – A Katla Novel (Amsterdam Assassin Series 1) by Martyn V. Halm
Targeted Age Group:: 16+ Category: Mystery/Suspense eBook price range: 0.99 About Reprobate - A Katla Novel (Amsterdam Assassin Series 1): Assassin Katla breaks her own rules when confronted with an unusual witness... Blessed with an almost non-existent conscience, freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, regards murder for profit as an intricate and rewarding occupation. Her solitary existence seems more than satisfactory until a … [Read more...]
Interview with Author – Eva Vanrell
About Eva Vanrell: Author. Attorney. New Orleanian. Lover of Cherry Ring Pops. Confirmed Japanophile. Dreamer. Sometimes Obsessive. Blunt to a Fault. Wishful-Thinker. Tea and Anime Compulsive. Diehard. In the beginning of 2011, Eva took a blind leap of faith to pursue what she loved most. The result of that journey is her debut novel, The Butterfly Crest. She is currently working on Book Two of the series, so please stay tuned. Eva lives in New Orleans with her husband, two cats and a … [Read more...]
Interview with Author – Renae Lucas-Hall
About Renae Lucas-Hall: Renae Lucas-Hall is an Australian-born British novelist and writer. Renae spent many years studying French, Italian and Japanese because she loves languages and she always wanted to be an interpreter, a teacher or a writer. Renae graduated from Monash University in Australia with a Bachelor's degree in Japanese language and culture before living and working in Tokyo for two years. Renae has continued to work with the Japanese for many years in Japan, Australia and the … [Read more...]
Journey of Self: Six Months in the Japanese Countryside by Nate Golon @NateGolon
This book is bargain priced from 07/15/2014 until 07/17/2014 Exhausted, broke, and brokenhearted from the breakup with his longtime girlfriend, author Nate Golon sells everything he owns and takes a job teaching English in a small country town, Arida, in Wakayama Prefecture in southern Japan. Unfamiliar with the language, history, and customs of Japan, Nate finds adventure, friendship, and spirituality in the Japanese countryside, and along the way, he finds himself. Journey of Self: Six … [Read more...]
Hunting For Yayoi: Holding On by GM O’Neill
Twenty-three-year-old singing sensation Yayoi lives a double life. She is Yaya the J-pop idol, a wildly popular music phenomenon. But Yayoi is also the wife of a self-destructive actor, whose family owns the marketing machine that owns her. Yayoi wants to grow as an artist beyond Yaya and she desperately wants a divorce. A promotional shoot in New Zealand gives her the opportunity to escape and reboot. But her adventure has costs, and unexpected dangers—including the allure of a young man. … [Read more...]
