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The Nakano Thrift Shop
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Alexandra Bailey
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the author of Strange Weather in Tokyo comes this funny, heartwarming story about love, life, and human relationships that features a delightfully offbeat cast of characters.
Objects for sale at the Nakano Thrift Shop appear as commonplace as the staff and customers that handle them. But like those same customers and staff, they hold many secrets. If examined carefully, they show the signs of innumerable extravagancies, of immeasurable pleasure and pain, and of the deep mysteries of the human heart.
Hitomi, the inexperienced young woman who works the register at Mr. Nakano's thrift shop, has fallen for her coworker, the oddly reserved Takeo. Unsure of how to attract his attention, she seeks advice from her employer's sister, Masayo, whose sentimental entanglements make her a somewhat unconventional guide. But thanks in part to Masayo, Hitomi will come to realize that love, desire, and intimacy require acceptance not only of idiosyncrasies but also of the delicate waltz between open and hidden secrets.
Animating each delicately rendered chapter in Kawakami's playful novel is Mr. Nakano himself, an original, entertaining, and enigmatic creation whose compulsive mannerisms, secretive love life, and impulsive behavior defy all expectations.
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Tokyo resident Keiko Furukara has never fit in - neither in her family, nor in school - but when at the age of 18 she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of national convenience store chain Smile Mart, she realizes instantly that she has found her purpose in life. Delighted to be able to exist in a place where the rules of social interaction are crystal clear (many are laid out line-by-line in the store's manual), Keiko does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and mode of speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person excellently, more or less.
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Am amazing and different story
- By D.R. on 04-10-19
By: Sayaka Murata, and others
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Life Ceremony
- Stories
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi, Nancy Wu, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness.
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Interesting concept but boring story
- By Roberta Marques on 09-06-24
By: Sayaka Murata
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What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
- A Novel
- By: Michiko Aoyama
- Narrated by: Hanako Footman, Susan Momoko Hingley, Kenichiro Thomson, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it. A restless retail assistant looks to gain new skills, a mother tries to overcome demotion at work after maternity leave, a conscientious accountant yearns to open an antique store, a recently retired salaryman searches for newfound purpose. In Komachi’s unique book recommendations they will find just what they need to achieve their dreams.
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The power of honesty and an open mind
- By ili pika on 09-10-23
By: Michiko Aoyama
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Breasts and Eggs
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Breasts & Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the 30-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent.
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Masterful Writing and Performance
- By Noelle on 03-01-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
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I Am a Cat
- By: Soseki Natsume, Aiko Ito - translator, Graeme Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 21 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the greatest writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.
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Great performance!
- By mz on 04-03-20
By: Soseki Natsume, and others
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Heaven
- A Novel
- By: Mieko Kawakami
- Narrated by: Scott Keiji Takeda
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormenters.
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Great listen
- By Anthony on 07-30-21
By: Mieko Kawakami
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Funny Weather
- Art in an Emergency
- By: Olivia Laing
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the age of Trump and Brexit, every crisis is instantly overridden by the next. The turbulent political weather of the 21st century generates anxiety and makes it difficult to know how to react. Laing makes an inspiring case for why art matters more than ever, as a force of both resistance and repair. Art, she argues, changes how we see the world. It gives us X-ray vision. It reveals inequalities and offers fertile new ways of living. Funny Weather brings together a career's worth of Laing's writing about art and culture, and their role in our political and emotional lives.
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Wonderful text/ very irritating narration
- By Sara C on 06-21-20
By: Olivia Laing
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The Easy Life in Kamusari
- Forest, Book 1
- By: Shion Miura, Juliet Winters Carpenter - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.” At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.
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I wanted it to be a true story
- By Scott on 05-19-22
By: Shion Miura, and others
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The Flowers of Buffoonery
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanitarium where Yozo Oba—the narrator of No Longer Human at a younger age—is being kept after a failed suicide attempt. While he is convalescing, his friends and family visit him, and other patients and nurses drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, everyone tries to maintain a lighthearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes, and trying to make each other laugh.
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A meandering mess
- By I Ate Your Pug For Lunch and It was Tasty on 01-17-24
By: Osamu Dazai
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I Love You So Mochi
- By: Sarah Kuhn
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kimi travels to Japan to escape her problems, she quickly learns more about the mother she left behind, and realizes she must figure out where her own heart lies.
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Funny, cozy, suoer sweet
- By AJB on 03-07-22
By: Sarah Kuhn
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If Cats Disappeared from the World
- A Novel
- By: Genki Kawamura
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The postman’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat, Cabbage, to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can tackle his bucket list, the Devil appears to make him an offer: In exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, our narrator will get one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week....
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I couldn't finish this
- By Rubblemuss on 01-27-22
By: Genki Kawamura
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The Kamogawa Food Detectives
- A Kamogawa Food Detectives Novel, Book 1
- By: Hisashi Kashiwai, Jesse Kirkwood - translator
- Narrated by: Hanako Footman
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by. The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories—dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.
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Combines two of my favorite things
- By Anonymous on 03-25-24
By: Hisashi Kashiwai, and others
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The Travelling Cat Chronicles
- By: Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel
- Narrated by: George Blagden
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru's longtime friends. Or so Nana is led to believe. With his crooked tail - a sign of good fortune - and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray. And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude, of loyalty and love.
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What a wonderful story
- By V. Brown on 11-22-18
By: Hiro Arikawa, and others
What listeners say about The Nakano Thrift Shop
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- miguel lopez
- 05-17-22
Cute believable slice of life romance
Narrator was captivating and made me feel as if I was a spectator within the Nakano thrift shop. Nothing super exciting, but if you are a fan of slice of life growing of age stories, this is a must read. I am a fan of descriptive novels. I enjoy the works of Haruki Murakami. Other similar books to check out with slice of life atmosphere with somber undertones: "Go" by Kazuki Kaneshiro, "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami, as well as "colorless tsukuru tazaki" by Haruki Murakami.
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- Billye Kay
- 07-13-21
A Series of Awkward Moments
The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami is an offbeat collection of vignettes and scenes that are presented as remembrances. This work lacks the depth of the author’s previous novel, Strange Weather in Tokyo. This is unfortunate because I believe that this book had the potential to take the author’s writing to a new level. There are story elements contained in the first part of the book that provide the structure for the story to turn quite dark a la Haruki Murakami. However, at the pivotal moment, the author chooses to bring the reader back to her original simply sweet, quirky, somewhat romantic story instead. This would have been fine if the book simply ended there. Unfortunately, the book loses focus and meanders for several additional chapters. I seldom criticize authors for what they did not do, but in this case it is necessary to acknowledge the hard work that must’ve gone into crafting an alternate storyline only to have it be partially removed and never brought to fruition. Hiromi Kawakami is a very good writer who brings a touch of romance to the mundane. This is a unique and precious gift to readers. While it is always important to honor their existing gifts, it is also the obligation of talented writers to continue to grow and expand the boundaries of their gifts. The narration performance provided by Alexandra Bailey was adequate to the task and included a wide range of distinct character voices. I would recommend this book only to existing fans of the author.
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1 person found this helpful
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- mz
- 01-03-19
Entire book is a dialogue of he said she said
Almost the entire book is a dialogue of he said she said. Any description of the surroundings is through first-person impression that only conveys shallow information.
A third into the book, I got so bored that nothing ever happens and everything is just he said she said, with quite unrelated stories. The book seems to have no coherent story line but is simply a collection of events happening at the thrift shop.
Personalities of Mr Nakano and Takeo are portrayed okay, but only from an external view, as how you would know someone if you work with them. Internal thoughts of the main character is never portrayed, so we don't learn about what kind of a person she is at all. We can only assume that she is an average city girl.
Different from the author's previous book, Strange Weather in Tokyo, this book does not have any internal reflection of the characters, nor depiction of scenes that entice the reader into the culture. The events are just everyday things that could happen anywhere.
The narrator's voice and tone don't help either. Although she uses a different voice for each character, her change of tones is too dramatic. It could be because all the dialogues in this book are so meaningless that it is difficult to narrate. Unsure whether I will finish this book. Too many good books in my wish list to waste time on a meaningless one.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Eclectic Reader
- 08-26-20
Pleasant . . .
I enjoy stories with odd characters, and pretty much everyone in this novel is an odd character. Lightly humorous, mildly romantic episodes throughout.
They all sort of bounce around doing odd things, getting involved with one another, becoming uninvolved, then later involved again.
It was a strangely pleasant way to spend 6.9 hours.
My one complaint: You would think that one of the first things the narrator would do is learn how to pronounce the name of the character, which comes up fifty times in the book. I'm pretty sure Nakano is pronounced nah kah noh--3 syllables equally stressed. To hear it pronounced NOK uh noh again and again and again was sort of distracting. It was also odd because she pronounced the other names (e.g., tah-kay-oh and mah-sah-yoh, NOT TAH-kay-oh, MAH-sah-yoh) properly.
It was sort of like a narrator of Don Quixote saying the main character's name "QUICKS oat" throughout the novel.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-11-19
A book about nothing
Really, like binge watching Seinfeld- without the comedy. (Spoiler) A character is stabbed in the street, and still I found myself desperately waiting for something to happen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-31-19
Cute, simple story to listen to.
The beginning of this book was hopeful, but as it reached the end it died down and would have a simple ordinary ending. Cute story, and well brought up characters. It did a good job on making you feel like a friend in the group, characters were very lovable and witty
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