Digital Reader – 3

Digital Reader is basically Mailbox Monday or my Mailbox (created by The Story Siren), but with a title that suits my blog. If you’re interested in joining the fun or seeing what other bloggers added to their shelves, I invite you to visit those two features. 

I got this idea from The Infinte Shelf.

 

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Here is a deftly written thriller that is also a “deep and moody” (NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW) journey through the dark side of Japan’s consumer-crazed society. Ordinary people plunge into insurmountable personal debt and fall prey to dangerous webs of underground creditors-so dangerous, in fact, that murder may be the only way out. A beautiful young woman vanishes, and the detective quickly finds she is not whom she claims to be. Is she a victim, a killer, or both? In a country that tracks its citizens at every turn, how can two women claim the same identity and then disappear without a trace?

All She Was Worth is by Miyuki Miyabe the same author as Shadow Family. I liked Shadow Family so much, I decided to get another book by the same author. I’m intrigued about the look into “Japan’s consumer-crazed society”. I think America is equally consumer-crazes so it should prove insightful.

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo’s attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a “clown” to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai looks interesting because I think we all go through moments where we have difficulty understanding the motivations of other human beings.

I look forward to reading these two books! (Neither of these titles are available on Kindle.)

What books do you look forward to reading?

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