I’ve noticed that I often bring up in conversation one or more of the fascinating books I’ve been reading lately, only to fail utterly at recalling titles or authors’ names. I’ll take this opportunity to at least have a handy reference available for anyone who cares to follow up on something I’ve said.
Just check my blog!
Non-Fiction
Language
Pimsleur German I (audio CD)
Pimsleur German II (audio CD)
Fiction
Echoes in Death (In Death Series, Book 44) by Robb, J. D.
The Great Passage written by Miura, Shion, translated by Carpenter, Juliet Winters (note: this was a freebie from Amazon for being a Prime member)
Thirteen reasons why by Jay Asher
Reading Notes:
I finished The Great Passage last night. It was a novel I read at a slower pace; not urgently, but in a concerted and thoughtful way. That fits neatly with the book’s narrative about the team of employees at a publishing house working—for years!—on the publication of a new dictionary of the Japanese language.
It wasn’t what I’d consider a quotable book until the very end. I highlighted these two passages that I liked very much, which might help you decide whether this is a novel you’d enjoy reading.
“A dictionary is a repository of human wisdom not because it contains an accumulation of words but because it embodies true hope, wrought over time by indomitable spirits.”
(page 193)
and
“Human beings had created words to communicate with the dead, and with those yet unborn.“
(page 200)
The book does a beautiful job of shining a light on a subject that could easily be overlooked: the creation of a dictionary.
What kind of person commits to such an endeavor? What is the work like? Why does it matter, to them and to you?
For me, it also presents a lovely view into a very different culture. I could see evidence of differences I’d read about. I also learned many new things about the Japanese language and office culture in Japan.
The Great Passage is a well-translated foreign book that made for peaceful, but contemplative, bedtime reading. I would gladly delve into works by this author—and this translator—again.
Really Wonderful Things 
I haven’t been reading much lately… too caught up with studying ><
Are these books literally by your bedside?
Some of them are literally by the bed. The novels, usually, and easier reading non fiction titles. I get insomnia, and reading something good (but not too thrilling) helps me transition from awake to asleep.
Admittedly, the audio books are usually in my car or at my desk. Up until this morning, however, the Pimsleur CD was in my bedroom. My son doesn’t have a disc drive in his computer, so he was using my bedroom DVD player to practice his own German. 🙂