UBC LIBRARY BLOGGERS

Call number: PL2822 T7 A6 2016
Book title: 人间草木 : 汪曾祺谈草木虫鱼散文42篇
Author: 汪曾祺

The pace of life is sometimes too fast to recall how we want to live our lives. Wang Zengqi has experienced the flood of the times, but still lives with grace and ease. He was obsessed with having fun and eating, but people said he was a funny old man. Most of the things in the world are not as they should be, so why not face life head on, get involved, listen to the stories of the grass, the wood, the insects and the fish, taste tea and one’s meals, feel everyday life, in order to understand the recklessness of life in the world.

Call number: PL2921.N5 Z43 2011
Book title: 这些人，那些事
Author: 吴念真

This book chronicles director Wu Nian-zhen’s life after experiencing the storms and the greatest lows of his life. He writes about the family he misses the most, the hometown he misses day and night, the friends he has fought for his whole life, and the most real touches in every corner of Taiwan. These people and events, through his heartfelt words, live so vividly in front of you and me, laughing and crying at the same time. It is a beautiful microcosm of this era that is burned in our hearts.

Call number: PL758.885 N57 2010
Book title: ダイオウイカは知らないでしょう
Author: 西加奈子, せきしろ

In Daiōika wa shiranai de shō [The giant squid does not know], two amazing writers learn to compose waka poems by carrying out regular utakai [poetry reading party] get-togethers for a year and a half. One of the authors, Nishi Kanako, visited UBC this past year, and you may already have enjoyed her essays and novels. As Nishi is joined by others in this book, the tremendous joy you receive when you read her prose is doubled and tripled as you read her interactions with others in this book. A wonderful read to involve all your senses — you will smile, cry, and laugh as you observe the process and appreciate the creations.

Call number: PN6790.J33 E888 2016 v.1-3
Book title: いいね！光源氏くん
Author:えすと えむ

The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) is perhaps the best known of all the Japanese literary classics, written by Lady Murasaki (Murasaki Shikibu) in the early 11^th century. Since the Edo period (1603-1868) there has been a massive number of contemporary translations, adaptations, and parodies created of this work. A 2016 reworking, Iine! Hikaru Genji kun [Like! for Hikaru Genji] is a delightful manga series in which the handsome but quirky Heian aristocrat inadvertently time-travels to the present-day Tokyo. As he encounters the delights Tokyo offers (female roommates, smart phones, specialty coffee drinks), he composes one waka poem after another as the spirit moves him. There is a TV adaptation of this manga by Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK.

Call number: ND1069 C54 A4 2019
Book title: 그날들 이 참 좋았습니다 : 따뜻한 아랫목 같은 기억들
Author/Illustrator: 초록담쟁이 그리고 쓰다

Nostalgia for an idealized childhood in the countryside. A little girl with braided pigtails and her black cat live through four seasons together. The author/illustrator draws heartwarming moments from their life in rural Korea in pastel colored pencils, accompanied by short paragraphs of text. It is the perfect coffee table book; you can flip though it casually, read bits of it out of order, or spend a whole afternoon on reading it through. This one is soft and fuzzy.

Call number: PL994.38 C44 S27
Book title: 살인자 의 쇼핑 목록
Author: 강 지영 소설

A collection of seven short stories that focus on a moment of splintering truth. In the titular story, “The Murderer’s Shopping List,” your friendly neighborhood cashier is the protagonist. Their hobby is to deduce the lives of customers from their items of purchase: the slender young lady who buys the same amount of nipple patches, cabbage and chicken breasts every week, is she a model or a sex worker? The well-to-do lady who bought candles, fish and yakkwa, she must be preparing for a chesa tonight, etc. When the cashier sees a news report of a murder which could have been committed with items bought by a customer, they are intrigued…살인자의 쇼핑목록 has also been made into a tv drama series and a webtoon. This one is bright and sharp.

Call Number: PK2098.32.A82 H57 2017
Book title: Hīrā pherī हीरा फेरी
Author: Surendra Mohana Pāṭhaka
Language: Hindi

Taxi driver Jeet Singh is cruising for fare when a man being tailed by a bunch of goons blocks his way. Entrusting him with a briefcase full of secret, classified government documents to be delivered in lieu of a huge sum to a girl in Jogeshwari, he jumps off the moving taxi. His dead body is found by the railway track in a Mumbai suburb the next morning, while Jeet Singh finds he has nobody to give the briefcase to – the girl died mysteriously the previous night. He opens the briefcase, and discovers diamonds worth millions….

Call Number: PK2659.A44 P5 2013
Book title: Piñjara: nāwala पिंजर
Author: Amaritā Pritama
Language: Punjabi

The word Pinjar (Piñjara) means skeleton. It has no shape, no appearance, no mind, no will, just skeleton. ‘Pinjar’ is the story of India of the post-independence era. That part, which became Pakistan after being cut off from India. In the cage, there is pain of the woman, there is anger, there is sacrifice, and there is motherhood. At the same time, there are crimes of men and also repentance. There are Hindus, there are Muslims. The bite of division. Standing against bigotry are human values, and after finally accepting the reality of the present, the heroine of the novel forgives all the sins and rises again, with infinite possibilities for the future.