Download or read book Pachinko National Book Award Finalist written by Min Jin Lee and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year and National Book Award finalist, Pachinko is an "extraordinary epic" of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family as they fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan (San Francisco Chronicle). NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 * A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE* WINNER OF THE MEDICI BOOK CLUB PRIZE Roxane Gay's Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER "There could only be a few winners, and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones." In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history. *Includes reading group guide*
Download or read book Free Food for Millionaires written by Min Jin Lee and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2007-07-02 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this "mesmerizing" novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants strives to join Manhattan's inner circle (USA Today). Meet Casey Han: a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants immersed in a glamorous Manhattan lifestyle she can't afford. Casey is eager to make it on her own, away from the judgements of her parents' tight-knit community, but she soon finds that her Princeton economics degree isn't enough to rid her of ever-growing credit card debt and a toxic boyfriend. When a chance encounter with an old friend lands her a new opportunity, she's determined to carve a space for herself in a glittering world of privilege, power, and wealth-but at what cost? Set in a city where millionaires scramble for the free lunches the poor are too proud to accept, this sharp-eyed epic of love, greed, and ambition is a compelling portrait of intergenerational strife, immigrant struggle, and social and economic mobility. Addictively readable, Min Jin Lee's bestselling debut Free Food for Millionaires exposes the intricate layers of a community clinging to its old ways in a city packed with haves and have-nots. Includes a Reading Group Guide.
Download or read book Rainy Day Ramen and the Cosmic Pachinko written by Gordon Vanstone and published by Monsoon Books. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After three years in Japan, Fred Buchanan is broke, unemployed and engaged in a telepathic turf war with a feral cat behind an Okinawa convenience store. Thus begins his metaphysical odyssey back to Tokyo. Along the way, symbols and sages materialize in the form of a two-fingered jazz musician, the faded tattoo on an ex-yakuza lover, an odd brood of internet cafe refugees, the kite flyer of Kabukicho and Yukie, an alluring hostess with strips of delicious thigh and strange power imbued in the etched eye on her fingernail. Charging through Shinjuku’s neon jungle, enveloped in a boozy, nicotine-stained haze, past and present collide as an empty orchestra croons a slow dance of people and place, memory and madness, loss and love. All the while, Fred struggles to be an agent of his destiny and not another ball bearing bouncing through the cosmic pachinko. Rainy Day Ramen and the Cosmic Pachinko is told as a uniquely clever mix of Murakami-esque magical realism and gonzo Japan travelogue.
Download or read book The Valley Of Amazement written by Amy Tan and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestseller The Valley of Amazement is an evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity—from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village. Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the daughter of the American madam of the city’s most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother and forced to become a “virgin courtesan.” Spanning more than forty years and two continents, Amy Tan’s newest novel maps the lives of three generations of women—and the mystery of an evocative painting known as “The Valley of Amazement.” Moving from the collapse of China’s last imperial dynasty to the growth of anti-foreign sentiment and the inner workings of courtesan houses, The Valley of Amazement interweaves the story of Violet, a celebrated Shanghai courtesan on a quest for both love and identity, and her mother, Lucia, an American woman whose search for penance leads them to an unexpected reunion. The Valley of Amazement is a deeply moving narrative of family secrets, legacies, and the profound connections between mothers and daughters, reminiscent of the compelling territory Tan so expertly mapped in The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, Tan conjures up a story of inherited trauma, desire, deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.
Download or read book The Pachinko Parlour written by Elisa Shua Dusapin and published by . This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Winter in Sokcho, which won the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature. The days are beginning to draw in. The sky is dark by seven in the evening. I lie on the floor and gaze out of the window. Women's calves, men's shoes, heels trodden down by the weight of bodies borne for too long. It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko in an apartment in an abandoned hotel and lying on the floor at her grandparents: daydreaming, playing Tetris, and listening to the sounds from the street above. The heat rises; the days slip by. The plan is for Claire to visit Korea with her grandparents. They fled the civil war there over fifty years ago, along with thousands of others, and haven't been back since. When they first arrived in Japan, they opened Shiny, a pachinko parlour. Shiny is still open, drawing people in with its bright, flashing lights and promises of good fortune. And as Mieko and Claire gradually bond, their tender relationship growing, Mieko's determination to visit the pachinko parlour builds. The Pachinko Parlouris a nuanced and beguiling exploration of identity and otherness, unspoken histories, and the loneliness you can feel within a family. Crisp and enigmatic, Shua Dusapin's writing glows with intelligence.
Download or read book The Interpreter written by Suki Kim and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A striking first novel about the dark side of the American Dream Suzy Park is a twenty-nine-year-old Korean American interpreter for the New York City court system. Young, attractive, and achingly alone, she makes a startling and ominous discovery during one court case that forever alters her family's history. Five years prior, her parents--hardworking greengrocers who forfeited personal happiness for their children's gain--were brutally murdered in an apparent robbery of their fruit and vegetable stand. Or so Suzy believed. But the glint of a new lead entices Suzy into the dangerous Korean underworld, and ultimately reveals the mystery of her parents' homicide. An auspicious debut about the myth of the model Asian citizen, The Interpreter traverses the distance between old worlds and new, poverty and privilege, language and understanding.
Download or read book Orhan s Inheritance written by Aline Ohanesian and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Orhan’s brilliant and eccentric grandfather, Kemal Türkoglu, who built a dynasty out of making kilim rugs, is found dead, submerged in a vat of dye, Orhan inherits the decades-old business. But Kemal has left the family estate to a stranger thousands of miles away, an aging woman in a retirement home in Los Angeles. Intent on righting this injustice, Orhan unearths a story that, if told, has the power to undo the legacy upon which Orhan’s family is built, a story that could unravel his own future. “Breathtaking and expansive . . . Proof that the past can sometimes rewrite the future.” —Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train “Stunning . . . At turns both subtle and transcendent.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “To take the tumultuous history of Turks and Armenians in the early part of this century, and to tell the stories of families and lovers from the small everyday moments of life to the terrible journeys of death, to make a novel so engrossing and keep us awake—that is an accomplishment, and Aline Ohanesian’s first novel is such a wonderful accomplishment.” —Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon “Rich, tragic, compelling, and realized with deep care and insight.” —Elle “A book with a mission, giving a voice to history’s silent victims.” —The New York Times Book Review “Orhan’s Inheritance illuminates human nature while portraying a devastating time in history . . . A remarkable debut novel that exhibits an impressive grasp of history as well as narrative intensity and vivid prose.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “A remarkable debut from an important new voice. It tells us things we thought we knew and shows us we had no idea. Beautiful and terrible and, finally, indelible.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Queen of America
Download or read book The Artist Vanishes written by Terry Westby-Nunn and published by Penguin Random House South Africa. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where is Sophie? Infamous Cape Town artist Sophie Tugiers has been missing for several years. Her mysterious disappearance caused a brief ripple before dissolving into a distant media memory. Sophie’s controversial art alienated many people: those who didn’t consider her a sell-out thought her last exhibition was sadistic – after all, one of her experimental participants committed suicide. James Dempster is a jaded filmmaker with a whiskey problem. Following his acrimonious divorce, he needs a project to relaunch his stalled career. When he discovers he’s living in the flat Sophie once rented, he is drawn into her sinister tale. What really happened to Sophie? What are her friends and enemies hiding? After James’s flat is ransacked and his research stolen, he realises unearthing the truth could lead not to his redemption but to his demise. The Artist Vanishes explores ambition and success, guilt and responsibility, the ethics around animal research, and art’s lasting impact on those it touches.
Download or read book Dreaming Pachinko written by Isaac Adamson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2003-05-06 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tokyo, July 2001: Hard-boiled reporter Billy Chaka is back in the neon metropolis interviewing a has-been pop singer turned pachinko fanatic for Youth in Asia magazine. Looks like an easy assignment until he witnesses a beautiful young woman suffer a seizure in the Lucky Benten pachinko hall. When she is later found dead beneath the expressway, Chaka becomes embroiled in an apparent blackmail plot involving a Ministry of Construction official, a brash nineteen-year-old girl, a shadowy entity known only as "Mr. Bojangles," and four silent figures who have a penchant for showing up uninvited inside Chaka's hotel room. As the bodies pile up and the mystery deepens, Chaka must untangle the lies, obsessions, and seemingly supernatural events that link the dead woman to a forgotten, bloody incident from the desperate closing days of World War II. Spellbinding and hilarious, Dreaming Pachinko will take you on a surreal thrill- ride through the city of the future -- a place where no one can escape the past.
Download or read book The Proletarian Gamble written by Ken C. Kawashima and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-17 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Koreans constituted the largest colonial labor force in imperial Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Caught between the Scylla of agricultural destitution in Korea and the Charybdis of industrial depression in Japan, migrant Korean peasants arrived on Japanese soil amid extreme instability in the labor and housing markets. In The Proletarian Gamble, Ken C. Kawashima maintains that contingent labor is a defining characteristic of capitalist commodity economies. He scrutinizes how the labor power of Korean workers in Japan was commodified, and how these workers both fought against the racist and contingent conditions of exchange and combated institutionalized racism. Kawashima draws on previously unseen archival materials from interwar Japan as he describes how Korean migrants struggled against various recruitment practices, unfair and discriminatory wages, sudden firings, racist housing practices, and excessive bureaucratic red tape. Demonstrating that there was no single Korean “minority,” he reveals how Koreans exploited fellow Koreans and how the stratification of their communities worked to the advantage of state and capital. However, Kawashima also describes how, when migrant workers did organize—as when they became involved in Rōsō (the largest Korean communist labor union in Japan) and in Zenkyō (the Japanese communist labor union)—their diverse struggles were united toward a common goal. In The Proletarian Gamble, his analysis of the Korean migrant workers' experiences opens into a much broader rethinking of the fundamental nature of capitalist commodity economies and the analytical categories of the proletariat, surplus populations, commodification, and state power.
Download or read book Chronicle in Stone written by Ismail Kadare and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Masterful in its simplicity, Chronicle in Stone is a touching coming-of-age story and a testament to the perseverance of the human spirit. Surrounded by the magic of beautiful women and literature, a boy must endure the deprivations of war as he suffers the hardships of growing up. His sleepy country has just thrown off centuries of tyranny, but new waves of domination inundate his city. Through the boy’s eyes, we see the terrors of World War II as he witnesses fascist invasions, allied bombings, partisan infighting, and the many faces of human cruelty—as well as the simple pleasures of life. Evacuating to the countryside, he expects to find an ideal world full of extraordinary things, but discovers instead an archaic backwater where a severed arm becomes a talisman and deflowered girls mysteriously vanish. Woven between the chapters of the boy’s story are tantalizing fragments of the city’s history. As the devastation mounts, the fragments lose coherence, and we perceive firsthand how the violence of war destroys more than just buildings and bridges.
Download or read book Suddenly Hybrid written by Karin M. Reed and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-02-02 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the challenges and opportunities of hybrid meetings with this science-based guide from an Emmy-award winning communications expert and renowned organizational psychologist As remote work becomes less of an unusual exception and more of an everyday necessity, hybrid meetings—meetings in which some attendees are physically present while others are virtually present—are becoming the norm. In Suddenly Hybrid: Managing the Modern Meeting, Emmy award-winning communications expert Karin Reed and veteran industrial and organizational psychologist Dr. Joseph A. Allen deliver a practical and actionable framework for attending, hosting, and managing hybrid meetings. The authors draw from their extensive experience in research and business, as well as firsthand stories and up-to-date studies, to offer a guide that’s grounded in science and proven in the real world. You’ll learn about: Best practices based on research from the height of the pandemic and the unexpected paradigm shifts that resulted The challenges and opportunities presented by the trend towards hybrid meetings New research insights gathered from those early in the transition to hybrid meetings, as well as those who are well on their way to implementing a complete framework Perfect for senior business leaders, managers, and even individual contributors, Suddenly Hybrid: Managing the Modern Meeting is required reading for anyone expected to organize, host, or attend virtual or hybrid meetings in their workplace or school.
Download or read book The Care of Strangers written by Ellen Michaelson and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2019 Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize, The Care of Strangers is a moving story about friendship set in a gritty Brooklyn hospital, where a young woman learns to take charge of her life by taking care of others. Working as an orderly in a gritty Brooklyn public hospital, Sima is often reminded by her superiors that she's the least important person there. An immigrant who, with her mother, escaped vicious anti-Semitism in Poland, she spends her shifts transporting patients, observing the doctors and residents ... and quietly nurturing her aspirations to become a doctor herself by going to night school. Now just one credit short of graduating, she finds herself faltering in the face of pressure from her mother not to overreach, and to settle for the life she has now. Everything changes when Sima encounters Mindy Kahn, an intern doctor struggling through her residency. Sensing a fellow outsider in need of support, Sima bonds with Mindy over their patients, and learns the power of truly letting yourself care for another person, helping to give her the courage to face her past, and take control of her future. A moving story about vulnerability and friendship, The Care of Strangers is the story of one woman's discovery that sometimes interactions with strangers are the best way to find yourself.
Download or read book The Pachinko Girl written by Vann Chow and published by Tokyo Faces. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Emotionally complex and filled with passion. I am sure it will captivate readers from East and West." "Vann has a unique knowledge of Japan." Winner of the Wattys Award. An unforgettable, breathless debut fiction by author Vann Chow, THE PACHINKO GIRL is the winning selection of an international book award with over one hundred forty thousand submissions. While the book appears to be a murder mystery, the author explores and exposes a slew of human rights issues such as gender inequality, hyper-sexualization of teens, homosexual discrimination, racial discrimination, and workplace bullying among others in Japan through the eyes of a foreigner with his friends from different walks of lives and professions in her seminal debut fiction series.Synopsis: An American businessman Smith who loved to linger in Pachinko parlors every night in his lonely life as a foreigner in Tokyo met Misa, a young Japanese hostess working there by chance. He quickly found out that Misa was entangled into a web of gang-controlled business operations that involved illegal drugs distribution, money laundering and prostitution beneath the harmless facade of Pachinko casinos. Knowing her personal woes, he gave her his winnings to help her out to survive a difficult patch and change paths. That large sum of money quickly incriminated them to false accusation of sex trade. Meanwhile, a film director Tanaka investigated the death of his idol Sergey Ribery, the legendary French arthouse movie-maker who happened to have filmed Misa in his last work in which she was seemingly strangled to death in the story. Tanaka sought the help of a psychologist who may shed some light into the strange casts of characters involved in the case, but the doctor was later murdered. Who did this? And what was he or she trying to cover up?
Download or read book The Girl He Took A Paige King FBI Suspense Thriller Book 3 written by Blake Pierce and published by Blake Pierce. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paige King, a Ph.D. in forensic psychology and a new arrival at the FBI’s elite BAU unit, has an uncanny ability to enter serial killers’ minds. She has seen the worst of the worst—but when a new serial killer strikes, victims turning up dead with magic tricks left at the scenes, Paige is baffled. What could the meaning be behind these macabre hints? “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery.” —Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone) THE GIRL HE TOOK is book #3 in a new series by #1 bestselling and critically acclaimed mystery and suspense author Blake Pierce. Up against her most challenging case yet, Paige must use her encyclopedic knowledge to decode the meaning of the strange magic clues. Can she discover what the killer wants, and why? Or by the time she figures it out, will it be too late? A complex psychological crime thriller full of twists and turns and packed with heart-pounding suspense, the PAIGE KING mystery series will make you fall in love with a brilliant new female protagonist and keep you turning pages late into the night. Books #4-#8 are also available! “An edge of your seat thriller in a new series that keeps you turning pages! ...So many twists, turns and red herrings… I can't wait to see what happens next.” —Reader review (Her Last Wish) “A strong, complex story about two FBI agents trying to stop a serial killer. If you want an author to capture your attention and have you guessing, yet trying to put the pieces together, Pierce is your author!” —Reader review (Her Last Wish) “A typical Blake Pierce twisting, turning, roller coaster ride suspense thriller. Will have you turning the pages to the last sentence of the last chapter!!!” —Reader review (City of Prey) “Right from the start we have an unusual protagonist that I haven't seen done in this genre before. The action is nonstop… A very atmospheric novel that will keep you turning pages well into the wee hours.” —Reader review (City of Prey) “Everything that I look for in a book… a great plot, interesting characters, and grabs your interest right away. The book moves along at a breakneck pace and stays that way until the end. Now on go I to book two!” —Reader review (Girl, Alone) “Exciting, heart pounding, edge of your seat book… a must read for mystery and suspense readers!” —Reader review (Girl, Alone)
Download or read book Dancing Girl and the Turtle written by Karen Kao and published by Lynn Michell. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rape. A war. A society where women are bought and sold but no one can speak of shame. Shanghai 1937. Violence throbs at the heart of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle.Song Anyi is on the road to Shanghai and freedom when she is raped and left for dead. The silence and shamethat mark her courageous survival drive her to escalating self-harm and prostitution. From opium dens to high- class brothels, Anyi dances on the edge of destruction while China prepares for war with Japan. Hers is the voice of every woman who fights for independence against overwhelming odds.The Dancing Girl and the Turtle is one of four interlocking novels set in Shanghai from 1929 to 1954. Through the eyes of the dancer, Song Anyi, and her brother Kang, the Shanghai Quartet spans a tumultuous time in Chinese history: war with the Japanese, the influx of stateless Jews into Shanghai, civil war and revolution. How does the love of a sister destroy her brother and all those around him?
Download or read book News of the World written by Paulette Jiles and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture National Book Award Finalist—Fiction In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust. In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence. In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows. Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.” Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember—strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become—in the eyes of the law—a kidnapper himself.
