That description is giving me serious House of Leaves vibes.
Okay, added Natively links to all my nominations! @cat do we want to cut off nominations at a certain number? Is there a limit to the number of options on a poll?
I’ve been considering nominating 孤島の鬼 | L37, but I don’t know if I’d be able to read it comfortably at my level or not. :\ Never read any 江戸川乱歩 before.
I was also getting House of Leaves vibes but didn’t know how many people would get the reference if I said it!
I can do two polls if needed. I’m not planning to do any more nominations myself but I am thinking of ways to make it easier for people to view all the nominations at once to make voting easier.
Also I love 江戸川乱歩 but he’s not an easy read, at least his books aimed at adults. 少年探偵団 and such is fine, but I tried reading 黄金仮面 last winter (admittedly a paper copy while trying to keep up with the audiobook ) and the sheer amount of new vocab combined with older writing styles forced me to give up. I recommend trying one of his short stories, ex 人間椅子 | L37 or 幽霊 | L35 to get an idea of what that work is probably like.
21st probably as I didn’t check my calendar when I set that date I’m going out of town immediately after work on the 22nd so will need to get things set up and read to go on the evening of the 21st, but for people in Europe/Asia/most timezones not the Americas it will already be the 22nd
But yeah, first iteration. Trying not to be too strict and also to get a decent chunk of nominations as I’ve noticed on Wanikani they tend to dry to a trickle after a first surge (at least for the Advanced Book Club)
Sounds good to me! I need to look around and see if I have anything else floating on my wishlist that fits the bill, though most of my to-reads are more just general fantasy.
Toru Akutsu is a famous detective. He has solved numerous cases, but he is to be tried in Japan’s first detective impeachment trial on charges of fabricating evidence and covering up his own crimes. His assistant, Tsukasa Himura, whose brother was left for dead, has been named as one of the six claimants for the trial, but an unexpected person is among them–! A genius who emerged from a project to discover newcomers, this debut novel is a must-read that had the judges in stitches!
Content warnings if known
Unknown
Why are you nominating this book: One of this author’s other books, 紅蓮館の殺人 | L30??, popped up on my radar, and while looking through their other works I found this, their debut work. The thought of a detective on trial for fabricating evidence and such sounds pretty interesting!
An impossible crime plan by an invisible man and too unexpected motive. An acrobatic courtroom mystery of a jury trial and an idol otaku. The mystery of a recorded crime scene and the modest special skills of a rookie detective. Abduction and confinement on a cruise ship, while an escape game event is going on–. A collection of gorgeous, colorful, and dense short stories, each one with a different plot and a different setting. This newcomer, who has attracted attention with the smash hit “The Murder in the Red Hall,” delves into the charms and possibilities of the authentic mystery genre.
Content warnings if known
Unknown
Why are you nominating this book: This is a collection of four short stories. I don’t think we’ve had any short story collection nominations yet, so I thought this would be a good addition.
I would love to participate in this but don’t have any recommendations since most people are likely reading at a way higher level than me without the training wheels (my level is probably still around lower N4 though I have read some stuff N3 level though I understood very little of the higher vocabulary without a dictionary ).
Might join in properly once I get into reading native level content and figure out what books would actually qualify for this kind of club.
Thought I’d post this here now as next week will be pretty busy for me and I’d like voting to be as easy as possible when it opens on the 21st (/22nd if you’re ahead of me in time zones).
I’d also like to take this chance to remind any readers uncertain of higher level books that you are 100% welcome to join and read slower if needed and absolutely welcome to ask questions about grammar, vocab, etc.
I’m planning to allow people to vote for up to 5 books since we have such an abundance of choice.
Oh, I love seeing all the covers laid out! Might be good to have links of some sort to the nomination posts in the home post as well, right?
Don’t hesitate to nominate low level books, or whatever you think you can handle! Our nominations so far have skewed towards higher-level stuff, but this club is, correct me if I’m wrong, absolutely supposed to be open to everyone of all skill levels. While that might mean struggling for lower-level learners if a higher-level book is picked, it also means higher-level learners needing to slow down for lower-level books.
I for one would love to see a lower-level book nominated and picked; it’s nice not to need a dictionary on hand for every other sentence, personally. ^_^;
cat listed some options for lower-level stuff here (+ a giant list of elementary/middle-school books), so this could be a good starting point to see if anything looks interesting to you! Slap the book description into deepl and go from there; it’s a surprisingly accurate translator!
Tbh, I’m not even sure what books or authors might have thrillers/mystery novels or short stories that would be lower level
Most of my books are recommendations from others or stuff I’ve picked up from language learning forums and articles. With the exception of a few that I knew about already, I’m not even sure what genre my own books are in
Oooh! This is a great idea! I’ve been meaning to read more mystery (I own a number of the recommendations but they’re gathering dust on my TBR stack.)
I guess you already have a large number of nominations, so I’ll refrain from adding to the pile right now. (Unless you want a huge number of suggestions.)
Appreciate the input (meant sincerely, not sarcastically!) but I’m fine running two polls if I must. I’m digging the chaotic energy that a mystery club brings
* I know I said I’d do this tomorrow but uh, I looked at my schedule and trust me, now is better
Reminder that you can see the full linked and prettified list of nominations here
VOTING IS ESSENTIAL AND READING IS FUNDAMENTAL
Because this is a mystery club and we love twists and character reduction And Then There Where None anyone? any books which receive no votes will be cut from next round nominations. This allows for more books to be added without fatiguing voters. You can re-nominate if you are very excited about the book, but then why didn’t you vote for it?
I’m suffering from decision paralysis
I had been looking forward to the poll and now I don’t know how to vote. Obviously I’m interested in my own nominations, but is it fair to vote for them and ensure they’re not eliminated? What if no one else votes for them and they’re kept on as zombies? And I’m interested in most of the other nominations as well. Should I vote for other people’s nominations only? Maybe I’d be better off not voting at all? Why is this so hard?
Edit: Well, I finally voted. But just so you know, I’m full of regret for all the books I didn’t vote for. I’ll be happy whatever we end up reading.