Living on Tokyo Time

It's the middle of the night as I write this because I'm recently back in town after spending a little more than a week in Japan during a massive heat wave.  Given it's been a while since I checked in, I wanted to remind everyone that our next meeting is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, August 1st at 7pm. We'll be discussing Tom Perotta's Mrs. Fletcher, (which i realize might test the boundaries of our discussion diplomacy!)  Anyway, I hope you can make it and, as always, if you are planning to attend please shoot me a brief note.

After a recent stall in my reading, I used the long plane rides (and the surprisingly poor film selections on JAL) to reboot with several excellent books.  A couple were courtesy of a recent Boston Globe Bibliophiles article featuring Mallory Ortberg who, somewhat topical with our current reading selection, is transitioning and so also goes by the name of Daniel. Bibliophiles, like the NY Times Book Review By the Book column, features interviews with authors regarding their reading habits. While often predictable or dull, these interviews can occasionally offer some real nuggets.  Ortberg, who writes the Dear Prudence modern personal advice column for Slate.com, recommended a selection of historical comedies of manners that have so far all been gems.  I enjoyed both Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and Excellent Women by Barbara Pym on the flight.

Thumb's up. "Surprise!"

However, the true revelation for me on the trip was The World is a Narrow Bridge, by Aaron Thier.  This young author so deftly juggles such a broad scope of grand existential topics with hilarious observations of modern daily life that I found myself continuously flipping back to his photo trying to figure out how old he could possibly be.  The book is so relevant and "of the moment" given our current state of affairs that, in a departure from tradition, I'm pre-announcing our next book group selection. It's brand new and hardcover, but I hope you'll pick it up for the next meeting because in so many different ways I DESPERATELY NEED TO DISCUSS THIS BOOK!


One last disclosure.  Usually when I travel I look to bring back something interesting for us to sample. However, in a true testament to current trends in popularity in spirits, Duty Free was completely sold out of all Japanese single malt whiskies at Narita. I'll try to find a compelling substitute.  Hope to see you soon.....

This classic not available on JAL