"What should I read next?" Megathread

Looking for manga or a novel/book?

Not exactly loneliness, but all these deal with psychological/philosophical/adult topics (with adult characters):

Novels:

Manga:

Maybe something strikes your fancy. :smiling_face:

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Adult characters+science fiction/fantasy+that difficulty range is kinda tough.

Just some that might work, but probably don’t hit all the criteria perfectly:

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That’s very true. Maybe I can change my request to magical realism and it would be easier to find novels?

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Primarily a book, but open to anything good!

I think, the issue is, that if it’s not written for kids/teens, scifi, fantasy, magical realism is too difficult. But if it’s written for kids/teens, you don’t get adult characters. :upside_down_face:

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Since Asano Atsuko was mentioned earlier:

It’s sci-fi with adult characters once you get past the scene setting. The writing is smooth, the characters read as adults, the tone is a mix between sombre and hopeful(?). Not sure I can describe the feelings I got from it still, they’re not fresh.
I’ve only read the first volume so far, but that’s not because it’s not good! I think I gave it 5 stars, but there’s just so many books.

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This made me wonder if Akagawa Jirou has written any SF/fantasy – if he has that would probably fit - his books (even excluding the ones aimed more at teenagers) are the easiest for-adults featuring-adults books I know. But he might never have strayed into those genres.

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I don’t think I’ve ever read sci-fi by him, but he dabbles in fantasy if you consider shinigami/vampires/etc to be to fantasy. Definitely not full on fantasy novels, though.

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Thank you to everyone who voted! My books arrived yesterday and I finished my current book today, and y’all have decided that I will now be reading ガールズ・ブルー

After that, unless I’m in the mood for something specific, I’ll probably read 君の声は魔法

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I finished ハサミ男 (review) and am feeling a bit ambivalent on what to read next. I’d like to work through some of my physical books though, so grabbed a couple possibilities from my shelf:

秘密 | L30?? - Higashino Keigo, an author I’ve read plenty of and who generally writes good books

Plot summary in English and in Jp

愛する妻と娘に囲まれ満ち足りた生活を送る杉田平介。だがある日、 妻・直子と娘・藻奈美が乗ったスキーバスが崖から転落する。 二人は病院に運ばれるが、まもなく妻は息を引き取る。娘のほうは、なんとか一命を取りとめたものの、意識が戻った彼女は自分は妻の直子だと告白する。やがて平介もそれを信じ、直子は人前では17歳の藻奈美として振舞い、二度目の青春を謳歌するが…。

DeepL:
Heisuke Sugita leads a contented life surrounded by his loving wife and daughter. One day, however, the ski bus in which he, his wife Naoko, and their daughter, Monami, are riding falls off a cliff. They are rushed to the hospital, but the wife soon passes away. The daughter somehow manages to survive, but when she regains consciousness, she confesses that she is Naoko, the wife. Heisuke eventually believes her, and Naoko acts in public as the 17-year-old Algae Nanami and enjoys her second youth. …

赤い雲伝説殺人事件 - Uchida Yasuo, an author I’ve never read but who seems quite prolific. Not yet on Natively.

Plot

美保子の〈赤い雲〉の絵を買おうとした老人が殺され、絵が消えた! 莫大な利権をめぐって、平家落人の島で起こる連続殺人。絵に秘められた謎とは一体……? 名探偵浅見の名推理が冴える!
DeepL:
An old man who tried to buy Mihoko’s “Red Cloud” painting was killed and the painting disappeared! A series of murders take place on the island of the fallen Heike clan over a huge interest in the painting. What is the mystery hidden in the painting? … The master detective Asami’s brilliant deductions are brilliant!

13階段 | L30?? - Takano Kazuaki, another author I’ve never read but this book won the Edogawa Ranpo award so it’s presumably a good mystery.

Plot

『13階段』は、2001年に講談社から発行された高野和明の長編ミステリー小説。同作者のデビュー作である。仮釈放中の青年と定年間近の刑務官が、冤罪の可能性がある死刑囚を救うため、10年前に起こった殺人事件の謎を追う。また、死刑制度を含めた刑の重みや刑務所の機能などがテーマとなっている。
DeepL:
13 Stairways" is a full-length mystery novel by Kazuaki Takano, published by Kodansha in 2001. It is the author’s debut novel. A young man on parole and a prison guard nearing retirement pursue the mystery of a murder that occurred 10 years ago in order to save a prisoner on death row who may have been falsely convicted. The themes of the film also include the weight of punishment, including the death penalty, and the function of prisons.

雪冤 - Daimon Takeaki, another author I haven’t read. I picked this up from the bargain shelf in BookOff when I last was in Japan. Not yet on Natively.

Plot

15年前、京都。男子学生と十九歳の女性が殺され、一人の男が逮捕された。元弁護士の八木沼悦史は、死刑囚となった息子・慎一の冤罪を信じ、一人活動をしていた。だが、息子は面会を拒絶、弁護士に無罪を訴える手記を手渡す。一方、殺された女性の妹・菜摘に、真犯人を名乗る人物・メロスから電話が。
DeepL:
Fifteen years ago, Kyoto. A male student and a nineteen-year-old woman were murdered, and a man was arrested. Etsushi Yaginuma, a former lawyer, believes that his son Shinichi, who is on death row, is falsely accused. However, his son refuses to meet with him and hands his lawyer a handwritten note pleading his innocence. Meanwhile, Natsumi, the sister of the murdered woman, receives a phone call from Meros, who claims to be the real murderer.

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7 Likes

I’ve read that one and several others featuring the same detective. Each book is set in a different place around Japan, so you get a combination murder mystery and travelogue. Don’t expect super-gritty social critique, but I quite like them. (As with most long-running series like this, they’re in my “I know what the author is going to give me and sometimes that’s exactly what I want” bucket.)

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I picked 雪冤 just because I’m intrigued about how 雪 + 冤 gives the meaning “exoneration”.

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Apparently one of the meanings of 雪 is すすぐ to remove a stain, to clean (can be written 雪ぐ for the more metaphorical use, or 濯ぐ for the literal rinse with water sense). Though that just pushes the problem down a layer to “why did they pick that kanji for that meaning?”…

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Maybe because fresh, undisturbed snow looks pure and clean, and as stuff gets covered in snow, you can’t see what’s underneath? Picturing a snowy landscape, I can maybe-sort-of, tangentially, see how it fits with the metaphorical sense…

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I looked around and, while there are many theories (including some that say that it’s actually another oracle bone script character that got merged with the one that gave 雪), what you said is pretty much the image people are going with.

なぜ「雪」が「すすぐ」という意味になるのか、という方がわかりにくいかもしれません。この字の成り立ちに関しては、例によって諸説があり、また、甲骨文字までさかのぼると現在の字形とは違う字形になってしまうということもあって、なかなか一致を見ないようです。ただ、この字が古くから「洗い清める」という意味で使われていたことは、間違いありません。そのイメージは、私たちが現在抱いている、「きよしこの夜」の雪のイメージと、そうかけ離れてはいないのではないでしょうか。

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I love the 例によって諸説があり in that – rings true :slight_smile:

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Since I finished 異世界のんびり農家 01 now, the dilema comes again.

On one hand, I could continue with volume 02 and see if the issues I had with the first volume ease up. Right now I think this is probably the best.

On the other hand I could also finish probably relatively fast 世にも奇妙な商品カタログ the last few volumes.

And finally there’s also the 本好きの下剋上 02 cliffhanger. For this last one I’m fearing if it gets too political maybe I’ll loose the interest I currently hold? But the next volume should still be safe on that area.

Also there’s the book club vote coming soon… that might also make me shift the options… The idea is to run the book club option (if something that I fancy reading gets chosen) along my own thing… but we will see.

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I did the groundwork already in case I go with 異世界のんびり農家 02 to be able to keep track of the pages accurately and be able to jump from physical to digital in case I wanted.

Also it was a nice test to see how big I could make the private note :sweat_smile:

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Very nice~ I aspire to hit those heights (lengths?) one day.

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