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When discussing a specific section, please mention where you are in the book so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if itβs exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.
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Even if you donβt read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post your thoughts.
Thanks so much for hosting this club and everyone participating!! I wouldnβt have started this book without this club and Iβve enjoyed it immensely!
I absolutely loved this book. That ending (that I read last week btw, in the end I couldnβt wait) was great, and only makes me want to read the next volume even more. Thanks for hosting this bookclub, and everyone that participated as well. This was my first formal booclub on Natively that I finished, and also a multilingual one to boot, where I was among the few that read it in Korean, but it was still a wonderful experience.
And well, if I ever do get around to learning Japanese, Iβll be picking this book back up, to have an easier time with the familiar content, and enjoy this series again.
lol, no little shop of horrors ending, but I did like the poetic idea that the tree ate the bad part of the mom (if I remembered that right, I also got enthusiastic and finished it early). I liked this as a story of the children getting something different and better than what was initially hoped for, and redemption for mom
Final chapter / epilogue
Loved this!!! I looked up the amount for the coins and which stories they might be, with the coin that went to the dark side the one about the hairdresser.
So it seems Beniko has good intentions, but I think itβs interesting that she doesnβt filter her customers based on whether she thinks their dream is likely to lead to good fortune or not. And who decides the rules here?
If anyone is curious about what these bottles and the box look like, there is an image at the start of Book 2, which you can see if you go just past the table of contents here: Amazon.co.jp
My friend tells me the symbol printed on the box is a common mark that indicates DO NOT OPEN! (or something like that, I should have written it down).
And if you want just a little more after this and not a whole volume, hereβs a bonus chapter from the website, I havenβt read it yet, but it looks cute!
This book, still somehow managing to surprise me in the last story!
I did not expect that ending to the last story but it seemed fitting. Now Iβm curious to know what the conversation between the neighbor and Beniko was before giving it to the boys.
Great pick all! This had been in my tbr pile for a while and I enjoyed this so much more reading it with the club. Excited for our next book!
And finished. Iβm not sure Iβm entirely satisfied with the resolution of the cooking tree story narratively but it was still nice to see. More thoughts later.
Will probably have to reread the last chapter too, I didnβt entirely understand it on a first go
/edit I think thinking about these stories more as like little myths or morality tales makes me like them better than as a βstoryβ? I guess? I dunno. I still think my overall feeling of the book delegating too much stuff to hirigana rather than kanji makes it (for me) more difficult to read than I would like.
thatβs the only thing that could make these better, really, a kanji version. Iβd appreciate the practice reading them for something like this that suits my level so well.
On the other hand, as Iβm actively pushing my kanji learning, itβs causing some cool reverse brain gymnastics to go from kana, thinking about how it sounds and running through my catalogue of words and kanji with those sounds, and then occasionally remembering said word when I didnβt initially come up with it.
And while weβre on this topic, one thing (on the other end of the spectrum) that is driving me nuts that Iβm going to have to go through with the audio book to nail down is how to read 倧 as a prefix: γγ or γ γ or γγ. Iβm not always predicting these correctly.
And although most instances are clear, that ε ₯γ can be read γγ and γ―γγ catches me out more than Iβd like.
If Iβm just going by ease of reading for me (from easiest to hardest):
Fishing > cooking tree > Thieving bro and scary sis > Icy ghosts > Mermaid > Hairdresser
As for ranking the stories in terms of enjoyment, thatβs a lot harder. But itβs something like this:
Fishing > thieving bro and scary sis = icy ghosts > cooking tree > mermaid > hairdresser
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