Showing results by narrator "June Angela" in All Categories

When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in a care facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother’s garden—convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle—and the dormant cherry tree within it. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother’s garden, and together they embark on reviving it.

The Japanese wisdom of chowa (pronounced like power) offers a fresh approach to being, showing us how to create space and symmetry at work, at home, and in our relationships. Chowa is an ancient philosophy and set of practices that enable us to discover what matters most in our individual lives, and help us transform our way of thinking about ourselves and others.

"You should be here; he's simply magnificent." These are the final words a biologist hears before his Margaret Mead-like wife dies at the hands of Godzilla. The words haunt him as he studies the kaiju (Japan's giant monsters) on an island reserve, attempting to understand the beauty his wife saw. Every story in the collection turns to the fantastic, the mysticism of the past, and the absurdities of the future to illuminate the spaces we occupy when we are at our most vulnerable."

Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.

When a hidden evil emerges from the depths of the ocean, the tight-knit town of Baywood is caught in a climate disaster of mysterious origins: an unusual wave of sea snails enter the estuary and transform wildlife, seascapes, and finally, people. Once infected, residents start “deading”: collapsing and dying, only to resurrect, changed in ways both physical and fundamental. After the government isolates Baywood, paranoia and surveillance run rampant. A newly formed cult called the Risers starts targeting those who are not deading.

Three months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the incarceration of all Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States. Three photographers set out to document life at Manzanar, an incarceration camp in the California desert: Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams. Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Tamaki weave together these photographers' images, firsthand accounts, and stunning original art to examine the history, heartbreak, and injustice of the Japanese American incarceration.

The youngest daughter of a high-ranking samurai, Etsu was destined to become a priestess and was molded for that path by some of the best teachers. But her fate changed when she was married off to a businessman and sent across the world to America. Finding herself miles away from the life she had imagined, she had to learn all about a new world - and come to terms with how it was changing her beliefs about what she had been taught and what she still held dear from her upbringing in Japan.

Gangly, outspoken 12-year-old Frankie Addams yearns to belong to the “we of me,” and in a Southern kitchen, pours her heart out to the family cook, Berenice. One of the most beautiful plays ever written about loneliness and love.

Velina Hasu Houston's Tea uses history and poetic writing to weave a drama about Japanese "war brides" living in Kansas.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US government sent thousands of Japanese American citizens to detention camps. In 1945, three Japanese-American sisters return to their farm in Stockton, California, after years in an internment camp, but the once prosperous family finds it’s not easy to pick up the pieces of their former lives. As the details of their deceased father’s final arrangements emerge, the sisters must work together to keep their dreams alive.

As the Japanese battleship Yamato steams toward the island of Okinawa in the closing months of World War II, a naval officer on board makes an unexpected discovery among the stores of rice, leeks, and pickled radishes. A child has stowed away there, hoping to return to her mother on Okinawa. His reluctant decision to protect her prompts a voyage of inner discovery and stirs emotions as deep as the seas that threaten to swallow his “unsinkable” ship. Recorded live in performance at the Doubletree Guest Suites, Santa Monica, in July 1995.

Jin and Suja meet and fall in love while studying at university in Pyongyang. She is a young journalist from a prominent family, while he is from a small village of little means. Outside the school, North Korea has fallen under great political upheaval, plunged into chaos and famine. When Jin returns home to find his family starving, their food rations all but gone, he makes a rash decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Meet Lily Lemon Blossom, a delightful little girl who loves adventures and playing with her friends. Lily invites you to see her lovely room and meet her many friends, including Bunny Rabbit and Josephine, her kitten who is always by her side. A quick peek into Lily's room will tell you quite a lot about her. The room comes alive with its vibrant colors and huggable plush toys. It's a happy place for a happy little girl and her friends.

In this marvelous story the miracle of Chanukah is retold in a refreshing and modern way. The old story of the festival of light takes on new significance for a family just like yours.

Have you ever wondered how people counted to 100 before modern numbers were invented? A basic explanation of Roman numerals, examples of how they are used today, and step-by-step instructions on how to use them are explored in this newest addition to the How Do series. The How Do series is a great introduction to various STEM topics, each presented in a format that encourages audiences to ask questions and guess the answers before exploring the science behind them.

In our divided climate with heightened concerns and emotions over inclusion, racism, and activism, The Essential Diversity Mindset offers a transformative approach to diversity - as a mindset, not as a formula. Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (not enforcements, compliances, or statistics) drive diversity outcomes. The Essential Diversity Mindset provides answers to businesses, organizations, and people searching for alternate perspectives and strategies to advance diversity and inclusion.

Adults wage war, while children are unwitting victims, pulled into a maelstrom of fear and hate without any choice. This is a story about two groups of teenagers on opposite sides of the world, forever connected by an act of war. It is a story about the adults some of those teens became, forever connected by acts of forgiveness, understanding, and peace. And it is a story about one remarkable man, whose heart belonged to both America and Japan, who put that peace and understanding in motion.

Mango and Kiwi is a heartwarming adventure about a sun conure named Mango and a sweet double yellow-headed amazon parrot named Kiwi that likes to talk and loves to dance. Their owner, Trina, bought both of them at a bird fair in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The story takes place at Keystone Lake and the Illinois River in Oklahoma. Trina has a black Chow named Smoke, a Paint horse named Splash, and several other pets.

This tale of illicit passion, set among the lush cane fields of the Hawaiian islands in 1919, was inspired by a true incident. Beautiful 16-year-old Yachiyo reluctantly leaves her impoverished parents to live with sophisticated relatives. As she acquires civilized graces, she also struggles with a passion for her hostess' husband.

Two marvelous animal fables: "How Birds Got Their Colors" and "The Argument", the third in the Little Birdy books. In "How Birds Got Their Colors", you will learn why some birds have such colorful feathers and others are dull and plain. "The Argument" tells the story of how stubborn pride can lead to unhappy outcomes. Both tales are in the classic tradition of animal fables made famous by Aesop, Kipling, and others.