The HAJET book club met on Sunday September 4th to discuss our first book of the year, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris. This book is actually a group of essays,mostly from the point of view from the author and inspired by his own life. It was interesting that a few…
On April the 17th, of 2016, the book club met at Rough Rare (its second time hosting) to discuss Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites. It is a fictional imagining of the final months of Iceland’s last citizen to face the death penalty. Agnes Magnusdottir begins the book nearly inhuman and covered in her own…
On January the 31st (or 31th, as many of my students would have it), the Hyogo Book Club met to discuss David Mitchell’s Slade House. It was published on October 27th, 2015, mere days after the 12th book club meeting (for which we read Natsuo Kirino’s Real World) and of some significance to the…
At the most recent book club, which took place on December 13th, we covered Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. A relatively short novel (at least for bibliophiles), coming in at a little under 400 pages, it nevertheless succeeds in painting a Wonderland-esque parallel reality that is rather dark and well-fleshed out. In addition, it is essentially…
On Sunday, April 5, the HAJET Book Club met to discuss Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. In hopes of enjoying the cherry blossoms, we met near Akashi Koen (Akashi JR station), rather than the usual Sannomiya/Motomachi area of Kobe. Alas, rain foiled our plans for hanami, so instead we found ourselves in a small café near…
On January 18, ten ALTs gathered for the first HAJET Book Club meeting of the new year. We met outside the JR Motomachi Station, and after requisite “Akemashite Omedetou-s†and complaints about the cold weather, headed to our destination: Loco’s Kitchen Oluolu. This Hawaiian-themed cafe is small, but with enough space for our large…
Starting their day by wrapping themselves in scarves and wearing Uniqlo Heat Tech for what they believed would be a typical Japanese winter afternoon, HAJET Book Club members soon found themselves removing articles of clothing (some might think inappropriately) while expressing their surprise at the unexpected heat with comments like, “It’s so hot†and “This…
For the first book club of the new JET year, fourteen ALTs found themselves gathering at Tits Park fooled by the weather, wearing layers meant for the previous day’s chill. While waiting for everyone to arrive we made our introductions, some for the second and third time, and were also graced with the presence…
HAJET Book Club: 1Q84 (Book 1 & 2) by Haruki Murakami ☆☆☆ Another book has been added to the Hyogo AJET Book Club’s Goodreads bookshelf: 1Q84. On a surprisingly sunny Sunday in June, some 17 book clubbers gathered, eager to share thoughts on one of many Murakami worlds. We took centre stage…