Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

I found this title on a list of must read books. I can't remember where but I quickly dismissed everything else on it.  Having recently returned from a fabulous trip to Japan and having made some purchases in the abundance of Japanese convenience stores on every corner, I was intrigued.

Keiko, at age eighteen takes a part time job in the Smile Mart on its opening day.  Having never found acceptance in her life, she finds happiness in the structure of the Smile Mart as laid out in its operation manual.  She greets every customer, stocks the shelves and is the top seller of the daily specials.  Managers come and go and Keiko stays.  Suddenly she finds herself at 36 still working in the convenience store.

Convenience Store Woman is a quick read with not much of a plot.  It's translated from Japanese so keep in mind it was initially written for a different audience.  I found these stores in Japan to be clean, with good food and efficient check out.  While 7 Eleven does have a Japanese version, an American store, it is not.  Not even close.

I loved being immersed back into the Japanese culture I had come to love.  But you have to keep an open mind if you plan on understanding what it's like to be a Convenience Store Woman.

The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit

The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced copy of The Wives of Los Alamos. I thoroughly enjoyed every single page.  This novel has a release date of February 24, 2014.  Pre order it now.  You won't regret it.

The wives and families of the scientists, physicists, construction workers and support personnel who worked in Los Alamos lived in secret.  Their husbands knew they were building an atomic bomb but couldn't tell their wives why they had come to a dry and secluded place in New Mexico without being able to tell anyone where they had gone.  Everything about Los Alamos was foreign to them. They had trouble remembering the new names they were given upon arrival.  They were given a house based on the size of their family.  Their lips became chapped. And when all they wanted to do was soak in a hot bathtub, the home only had a shower and the water wouldn't come on anyway.

What I loved most about this story is that it is written in first person plural.  First person plural is unusual and only an extremely talented writer can pull it off. The women seem to march through this period of their lives together yet the reader has a very clear sense that the wives had different views of the sequestered life they were living.  They liked each other and some they couldn't trust, some loved their husbands and some sought love elsewhere, some made the best of it and others simply could not.

This slice of history in the early 1940's during war time is fascinating.  The decision to work on building a bomb of mass destruction under the cloak of secrecy took a heavy toll on the families.  Yet the wives often made me laugh.  Their positive attitudes kept them going.  The Wives of Los Alamos  keeps this story alive in a delightful way.  I adored every minute of it.