Dear readers, that is a pretty self-explanatory title is it not? There is always great anticipation when it comes to books by foreign authors, as I believe I’ve mentioned before. First you need to wait for a translation to come out in your language, and then you have to figure out if your library system has it and place a hold on it. Is there a greater thrill than placing several on hold at once and seeing which come in first? It’s like Christmas! Usually, however, they all seem to come in at once, don’t they? Which is its own kind of thrill, but also slightly terrifying because they’re new books and thus you’re now in a time crunch.

Well dear reader, I have had several books by foreign authors come and go from my comfy reading chair, and I’m here to talk about them with you.

Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa

In the spring of 1972, twelve-year-old Tomoko leaves her mother behind in Tokyo and boards a train alone for Ashiya, a coastal town in Japan, to stay with her aunt’s family. Tomoko’s aunt is an enigma and an outlier in her working-class family, and her magnificent home—and handsome foreign husband, the president of a soft drink company—are symbols of that status. The seventeen rooms are filled with German-made furnishings; there are sprawling gardens and even an old zoo where the family’s pygmy hippopotamus resides. The family is just as beguiling as their mansion—Tomoko’s dignified and devoted aunt, her German great-aunt, and her dashing, charming uncle, who confidently sits as the family’s patriarch. At the center of the family is Tomoko’s cousin Mina, a precocious, asthmatic girl of thirteen who draws Tomoko into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling.

In this elegant jewel box of a book, Yoko Ogawa invites us to witness a powerful and formative interlude in Tomoko’s life. Behind the family’s sophistication are complications that Tomoko struggles to understand—her uncle’s mysterious absences, her great-aunt’s experience of the Second World War, her aunt’s misery. Rich with the magic and mystery of youthful experience, Mina’s Matchbox is an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time—and a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse.

Dear reader, this is one of those books that took me seemingly eons to finish. It never quite held my attention for a long span of time, so I could only read it in spurts. Why would I suggest a book to you that I essentially found boring? Because, dear reader, you may not feel the same way once you pick it up. In fact, I hope you don’t!

By the end of the book I felt like the climax passed me by like a distant thunderstorm. I also thought the matchboxes mentioned in the title would play more of a role in the story than they did. But even with all that, the atmosphere built by the author was very rich and descriptive. Having never grown up in one home during my childhood I found it fascinating how the family home in Mina’s Matchbox played such a role in each character’s life and identity. In turn, each character was well fleshed out and very real, which is important because so many books nowadays seem to write their characters names on the paper and leave it at that.

Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida

Set over several nights, between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., in and around Tokyo, this mind-blowingly constructed book is an elaborate, energetic fresco of human nocturnal existence in all its mystery, an enigmatic literary mix of Agatha Christie, Teju Cole, and Heironymous Bosch.

On this journey through the labyrinthine streets and hidden corners of one of the world’s most fascinating cities, everybody is searching for something, and maybe searching in the wrong places. Elements of the fantastical and the surreal abound, as they tend to do in the early pre-dawn hours of the morning, yet the settings, the human stories, and each character’s search are all as real as can be.

Goodnight Tokyo offers readers a unique and intimate take on Tokyo as seen through the eyes of a large cast of colorful characters. Their lives, as disparate and as far apart as they may seem, are in fact intricately interconnected, and their fates converge against the backdrop of the city’s neon-lit streets and quiet alleyways. In his English-language debut, Yoshida masterfully portrays in captivating and lyrical prose the complexities of human relationships, the mystery of human connection, and the universal quest for meaning.

Dear reader, I was once a night owl in college, but that was many moons ago! Now I live vicariously as a night owl through book characters. Still exciting, right? I can remember staying up until one or two in the morning talking to my cousin on AIM, watching a movie with my roommates, or even just listening to music. How was it too, that whenever I was ready to log off for the night that an interesting documentary would catch my eye on YouTube?

Here are an eclectic cast of characters that begin their lives when most people go to bed. And like other Japanese novels, their lives interconnect throughout the novel in various ways, making you realize we live in a much smaller world that we can imagine.

I’ve also never grown up in a city as large as Tokyo, so there too I live vicariously. It was fascinating to read about all the little nooks and crannies the characters live in and go to, and sometimes, overwhelming thoughts no longer seem so when the hour is small and quiet, thus you are able to inhabit them better.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

Dear reader, here is the only book by a Korean author in today’s blog post. Never fear! I plan on reading more books by Korean authors in the future, so there will be more to come.

Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster-and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju-they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

A heartwarming story about finding acceptance in your life and the healing power of books, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a gentle reminder that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

Dear reader, I was lucky to grow up in an era of Sheboygan’s history where we had several bookstores to choose from. Waldenbooks in the mall, Book World in the Taylor Heights strip mall, and a quaint, little used bookstore that used to reside on Business Drive where the old floorboards creaked and crooked shelves rose to the ceiling, stuffed with old paperbacks. Better yet, if you brought in books, you could exchange them for store credit to ‘buy’ new books. Pure magic, is it not?

While, sadly, the bookstore – and Memorial Mall for that matter – are no more, the magic of that bookstore, and the others, remain in my mind. In Waldenbooks, especially, I can remember the exact location of my favorite books. I would make a beeline right for them, eager to pick up the next volume! Or, if it wasn’t there, the excitement of going up to the counter and preordering the next volume. The anticipation! With my social anxiety, I always felt like such an adult whenever I managed to go up to the counter and speak to the employees behind it.

There is also a bookstore/coffeehouse combo I remember fondly from my college days in Green Bay. A friend and I would go there quite regularly super early in the morning. Soon the baristas got to know our names and our favorite drinks, and I remember leaving with a new book almost every time I visited. We would sit by a huge window overlooking the street, only buses and a few people passing by.

Bookstores, like libraries, are places where people from all walks of life and all ages gather for the love of books and learning. Oftentimes they can be an oasis of calm and security in an otherwise hectic life. Having been bullied intensely in middle school, I do not have many fond memories of it, but one of the few is of the school library. Again, I knew where my favorite series was, and I would make a beeline for it, rereading all the volumes again and again as I hid in a corner, or up at the desk where the librarians were.

In Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, Yeongju takes great care in selecting books that will perfectly fit each customer who walks in the door, which is it’s own kind of therapy. Impromptu book clubs also form, where customers can freely express their opinions and form communities and friendships. While this book sometimes waxed too philosophical for me, it was still a wholly satisfying read.

The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi

The hands and pendulum of the old wooden clock on the wall were motionless. Hirasaka cocked his head to listen, but the silence inside the photo studio was almost deafening. His leather shoes sank softly into the aging red carpet as he strode over to the arrangement of flowers on the counter and carefully adjusted the angle of the petals…

This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaka, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio; photos can also be taken in the courtyard.

Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death where those who have departed have a chance—one last time—to see their entire life flash before their eyes via Mr. Hirasaka’s “spinning lantern of memories.”

We meet Hatsue, a ninety-two year old woman who worked as a nursery teacher, the rowdy Waniguchi, a yakuza overseer in his life who is also capable of great compassion, and finally Mitsuru, a young girl who has died tragically young at the hands of abusive parents. 

Sorting through the many photos of their lives, Mr. Hirasaka also offers guests a second gift: a chance to travel back in time to take a photo of one particular moment in their lives that they wish to cherish in a special way.

Dear reader, this was a delightful book! Imagine sitting before this magical lantern, seeing your life flash before your eyes, one picture for each day of your life. There is always one Polaroid that is more worn and faded than the others, this is the most cherished memory, and as it mentions above, Mr. Hirasaka grants his customers the opportunity to go back and take a brand new picture of that very moment. Here again, each customer’s lives intertwine in surprising and very satisfying ways. There is even a secret revealed about Mr. Hirasaka at the end.

It’s hard to believe we’re almost to the end of the year, isn’t it? I hope 2024 was a good reading year for you, and even if it wasn’t, you read what you could and that still counts for something. Here’s to a good year book-wise in 2025!