All tagged Keigo Higashino

Book Matchmaker: Roxanne Just Wants a Good Book

Book Matchmaker: Roxanne Just Wants a Good Book

Sarah Moon
Book Matchmaker

Y’all, I have really fallen off the book matchmaker wagon. 

You see, the last chunk of submissions (probably around twenty) have been really, really hard. Like, how the hell am I supposed to find books for Janina, who’s basically read every book? Anyway, so y’all have basically stumped the band, so to speak.

So, I went through our (massive) backlog and found a bit of a gimme—a request from one of my clients and former students, Roxanne, who’s a very cool artist and all around creative thinker. 

Roxanne filled out our handy-dandy—and extremely scientific—Book Matchmaker Questionnaire, here are her responses:

YA or Adult: Surprise Me 

Genres: Contemporary, Historical, Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Paranormal, Mystery/Thriller, Magical Realism, Steampunk

Point-of-View/Narrative Style: First Person, Multiple POV, Epistolary (told wholly or partially though documents), Present Tense, Male POV, Main Character or Narrator, Female POV, Main Character or Narrator, Unreliable Narrator

Likes: “Bathtub mysteries that actually surprise me. Well done and documented historical (and hysterical) fiction. Learn-read ie. ” “How To Think Like Leonardo DaVinci.” “Coming of age or narrative memoir.  Metaphysical or energy themes. Promotion of hope.

Dislikes: “When I read, I try not to think that hard, Sarah. I basically like to read well written material across any genre. I’m totally annoyed by lazy authors.”

Swoon Factor: 3

Gross-out Factor: 1

Smut Factor: 1

 Fluff Factor: 3

The Results

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

I’ve never once thought about the interpretative, the storytelling aspect of life, of my life. I always felt like I was in a story, yes, but not like I was the author of it, or like I had any say in its telling whatsoever. You can tell your story any way you damn well please. It’s your solo.

The Sky is Everywhere is an odd book—people seem to have extreme reactions to it. I love it. It’s got a touch of magical realism but it’s also very accessible and has a strong theme of hopefulness. 

{Amazon | Goodreads}

Review: Naoko by Keigo Higashino

Review: Naoko by Keigo Higashino

Sandra
Books

Naoko by Keigo Higashino

Imagine Hamlet’s unbelievable experience. He’s suffering. He’s lost his father. He’s cringing at his mother’s too-soon marriage to his uncle.

Into this scene walks the ghost of Hamlet’s father telling him that horror upon horrors his brother, the uncle-now-stepfather, dealt him. His brother murdered him and married his wife thus revenge must be taken. There stand Horatio and Hamlet in the mists of a winter’s night after the ghost has faded away.

Horatio: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
Hamlet: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

“Wondrous strange” like Hamlet is Naoko, Keigo Higashino’s novel of a father, mother and daughter. To bring Shakespearean language into more familiar terms, I’d say it’s weirdly troubling, supernaturally implausible and unusually odd, verging on repugnant.

Heisuke Sugita lived a simple life filled with love for his dear wife Naoko and sweet daughter Monomi until a tragic accident takes Naoko’s life and leaves Monomi in a coma. When the bus his wife and daughter rode in crashed, the mother threw herself upon her daughter thus saving her  life. When Monomi comes out of her coma, she is confused. She speaks with her mother’s mind, thoughts and memories. A transference at the time of Naoko’s death occurred from one to the other wherein the mother’s soul lives in strange harmony with her eleven year old daughter. Monomi can function in her youthful world as well as her mother’s domestic life.

In this tale of love, passion and sorrow there are mystifying occurrences.

Twofer Review: The Devotion of Suspect X + Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

Twofer Review: The Devotion of Suspect X + Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

Sandra
Books

The Devotion of Suspect XI confess my addiction to books shrouded in mystery and intrigue. I trace  the seeds of said obsession to my early years when I would hide under my quilt with a flashlight to continue reading without parental interference.

To hell with sleep when there’s a good mystery unfolding before me.

I admit I can be lax when it comes to quality. Just give me a thriller or mystery and I’m happy as long as there’s some suspense and a bit of fuel for the imagination—and a really, really good one (i.e., Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series) is a real treasure.

Sarah received a review copy of one of Keigo Higashino’s books translated from Japanese into English a few weeks ago (Salvation of a Saint, out in October). Knowing my passion for the genre, she passed it to me to read. Thank you, Sarah! This one was a keeper, which led me to purchase another Higashino book, The Devotion of Suspect X.

Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint both had me beguiled from the first sentences to the final pages.

Not only beguiled, but unable to develop my theory or suspect for the murders that occur in both novels. And given that I am very adept at solving mysteries, thanks to my study of all of the Nancy Drew canon, this is unusual.