In Hardboiled & Hard Luck, this internationally best-selling author delivers two tales of resonant grace, of young women coming to terms with change and heartbreak. In "Hardboiled," the narrator is hiking in the mountains on an anniversary she has forgotten about, the anniversary of her ex-lover's death. As she nears her hotel, a sense of haunting falls over her. That night she dreams of her ex-lover, and is visited by a woman who may not exist-perhaps these eerie events will help her make peace with her loss. "Hard Luck" features a young woman whose sister is dying and lies in a coma. Her fiancé left her after the accident, but his brother continues to visit, and as the two of them make peace with the impending loss of their loved one, they seem to find new hope for the future in their own new bond.

Bookray Y
STILL OPEN, PM TO JOIN
Please make a journal entry when you receive the book and again when you mail it off so I can keep track of it.
If you still haven't read the book after 40 days please send it on to the next participant, thank you.
SMURPHIE, UKü
KATRINAT, UKü
K2005, UKü
ARTUROGRANDE, UKü
WANDERINGSTAR8, UKü
NIKSU, FINLANDü
FRANALOE, NETHERLANDSü
PAZYRYK, PORTUGALü
SILVIETTA78, ITALY
JARE, USAü
BIBLIOCRATES, USAü
VALERIEF, USA
SUPERTALYA, SOUTH KOREA
JNENI, SINGAPORE
LADY-ANGLOPHILE, KUWAIT

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Off to Smurphie.

Arrived yesterday looks like a good little read. I will get around to it in the next couple of days :o)

I really do enjoy the books by the author and will be on the look out for some more of her novels.

Requesting the next participants address.

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Heading off again to the next participant of this ring.

Really can't remember signing up for this, but it arrived at a great time as I have a challenge to complete and need to read 2 Japanese books by January, so this is ideal. I enjoyed Goodbye Tsugumi (sp?) hopefully this will also be a good read.

Came with a lovely postcard and bookmark

I polished off these two novell this weekend. Hardboiled is a strange mystical story about a Japanese woman on a walking trip, everything seems to be fine untill she comes across a shrine, an area with a funny feel to it. The day continues with many strange occurances including fires and ghosts. Very simply told, an easy way to pass an hour but not overly exciting.
Hardluck this was the better of the two, only around 50 pages in length it tells the tale of a young woman waiting for her sister - who has been labelled 'braindead' to die. During this tiem she mets a man, a man she knows ahe would love if only she had met him at another time.

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On its way to the next participant

I received this yesterday, thanks katrinat. I've just finished another bookring, so will begin to read this straight away!

Arrived - thanks very much. I've got some other rings and rays ahead of it, but I'll get to it as soon as I can.

I read these two stories in a day (sorry about holding thinmgs up, but a load of rings and rays all came in at the same time). I thought they were beautifully written and very moving. Both dealt with a common theme in Japanese literature - loss, the brevity of life and nostalgia in its literal sense, pain of the past.
This is the second of Banana Yoshimoto's books I have read and, while they are slight, they contain imagery which sticks with you long after you have finished reading them.
Thank you for sharing this - it's now on its way to wanderingstar8.

Just arrived. Thanks to Arturogrande for sending on.

I've sent this on. I really enjoyed reading this, despite the fact that I'm quite distracted with other things at the moment. I liked the autumnal, meditative tone of both stories. I enjoyed Hardboiled but I agree that Hard Luck is better. I thought it was really sensitive and honestly told, and I thought the way that the narrator realised that she was moving through the process of grieving (with, ultimately, the hope/aim of moving out of it) was very convincing and moving.

The book came yesterday, I was in a hurry to our local BC-meetup so wasn't able to journal this right away. Thanks wanderingstar8 for sending the book and the bookmarks also.

Banana Yoshimoto is one of my favourite author. I truly love her style of writing. I liked this book alot. Nothing can compete with Kitchen which had strong impact on me when I first read it 1995 (and ever since now and then) but this comes second best.

Both novels were good but I liked Hardboiled a bit better. The way the story flows between past and present and in main characters dreams made me think I was in a dream too. And usually I hate to read other peoples dreams!

I'm sure I could have finished the book in one sitting but I wanted to have break between these two novels to get fresh start. I didn't want the first one to affect in any way to later, so reading totally different book for awhile was like "washing" my mouth with ginger before eating another piece of sushi.

I'm cherising the thought that I still have few books of hers that I haven't yet read. I'm in no hurry because I really don't know what to do when all of her books are read once. Okey, start another round but it wouldn't be the same anymore.

Thank you Rossella05 for sharing this lovely book. I have already contacted franaloe and will send the book forward today. I hope she likes it as much as I did.

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On the way to franaloe!

The book is here. This is going to be my first Yoshimoto, and I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks for sharing&sending!

Liked the book. Two short little stories. I liked the second one best; got the feeling that one was more 'finished', the first story missed details, sometimes jumped too quickly from one part to the next. I've got a nice impression of Yoshimoto. I believe I've subscribed for a ring of another book of hers, and am looking forward to that one.

Got Pazyryk's address, so should be able to send the book off tomorrow.
Thanks!

Edit 02.06.09: Sent to Portugal.

Received somewhere during last week inside an original pack. Thanks for sending it Franaloe.

""There was a passage in a book I read a long time ago," Sakai said, "about how if you hear extraordinarily beautiful music on a street corner, it means that the same piece will be playing for when you die. The main character is walking down the street one fine afternoon when this incredible lovely melody starts coming from a record store across the street. So he sits down to listen. His spiritual guide tells him this a sign that destiny has put before him, a sign that shows death is present in every aspect of people's lives. And the spiritual guide says that when the man leaves the world, he'll hear the incomparably beautiful tone of that trumpet once more."
"Hey, the same thing happened to me!" I said. "One winter afternoon I was in the place we've just come from, the curry restaurant. I was having a chai, all alone. They had the radio tuned to this station that only played reggae, so there were all these minor reggae songs playing, tunes I'd never heard of, one after another. And one of them came into my head so clearly it felt like a bolt of lightning hit me. It was a duet with a man and a woman singing, and it was about summer vacation. It was a pretty dumb song, nothing special; the thing is, it came straight into my head. And even though it was winter, my mind became full of sunshine. And suddenly I knew: I'm going to die on a summer afternoon. I was sure of it. Of course, I can´t be sure it will really turn out that way.""

It is a good short book. I'm sorry I kept it for so long. I finished several weeks ago but I forgot to send it to Jare. I will send it tommorrow.

The book arrived safe and sound in the United States this afternoon. Thanks for sharing, I will get to this soon and send it on it's way!

This was great! I actually enjoyed Hardboiled a bit more than the second story, but they were both wonderful. Thanks Rossella05 for sharing this, and thank you to everyone who has participated in this great bookray. I have PM'd the next in line and will ship within the next week!

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Sending to Bibliocrates. Enjoy!!

This arrived in the mail on Monday. I'm quite backed up right now, but I'm reading as fast as I can...

Thanks Jare!