{"id":4059,"date":"2025-02-23T06:52:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T06:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=4059"},"modified":"2025-02-23T06:52:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T06:52:37","slug":"healing-japanese-fiction-book-recommendation-the-lantern-of-lost-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=4059","title":{"rendered":"Healing Japanese Fiction Book Recommendation: The Lantern of Lost Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hi Readers! I finally read a book this month!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA reader doesn\u2019t find a book. The book finds the reader.\u201d<\/em> While I had heard this from so many people, it always sounded too surreal to believe. These last two months have been hell work-wise. There are so many instances where I feel so angry I wish there was a punching bag in the office to release that stress. There are instances where I feel so hopeless that I wish to go away on a vacation. There are instances where I feel like I am constantly failing so much that I feel like I am on the edge of professional existentialism. When I am in these stressful phases, I am never able to read. But then, yesterday was a Saturday. My only plan was to rest. I got up at 10 AM! I read The Lantern of Lost Things and finished the book in a day. And now I finally understand what \u201cA reader doesn\u2019t find a book. The book finds the reader<\/em>” means. The book found me.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The genre of healing Japanese fiction<\/mark><\/strong> had become too much for me. I had read too many books from it<\/a>. So, I thought I needed to go back to Historical Fiction. But, then I am in a vicious cycle, because I can\u2019t read something as intense as HiFi because I\u2019m stressed, and so I read healing Japanese fiction over and over. I must say though, of all the books I have read in the genre, this one really spoke to me.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Lantern of Lost Memories is made up of three short stories, where in each one a person has died and is transported to a rest stop which is a photo studio where their photos are developed based on the memories which flash through their eyes before they die. I found all three stories to be unique, with each speaking of different values all relevant to humans in all walks of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first story, \u2018The Old Lady and the Bus\u2019<\/mark><\/strong>, taught me that even when life gets tough, there is always a silver lining, and how we should never lose that hope. Hope of happiness, hope of success, hope of calm. The second story, \u2018The Hero and the Mouse\u2019<\/mark><\/strong>, taught me that there is good and bad in all of us, and how kindness is always the correct path. The third story, \u2018Mitsuru and the Last Photo\u2019<\/mark><\/strong>, taught me that life is unfair, but you must do your best. If that doesn\u2019t work, go to an echo point and scream into the void and let it all out! Every single life lesson from this book is something I needed to hear right now. It gave me hope, courage and audacity to live my life.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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The book is simple in its writing. I loved how I got to understand the characters so well in the span of a few pages. I loved the photography aspect of it as well, and the concept of the lantern. I would have loved if there was a fourth story about the main character, but I\u2019m really hoping there will be a sequel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writing in this book reminded me of the book, \u2018Before the Coffee Gets Cold<\/a>\u2019 by Toshikazu Kawaguchi<\/mark><\/strong> and the TV series Not Dead Yet?<\/mark><\/strong> The concept reminded me of the book, \u2018The Restaurant of Lost Recipes<\/a>\u2019 by Hisashi Kashiwai.<\/mark><\/strong> The first story reminded me of the movie, \u2018It\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u2019<\/mark><\/strong>. The second story reminded me of the book, \u2018Anxious People<\/a>\u2019 by Fredrik Backman<\/mark><\/strong>. I have loved and enjoyed all these forms of storytelling too! I have rated The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi, translated by Jesse Kirkwood at 5\/5 stars!<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Until next time,<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hi Readers! I finally read a book this month! \u201cA reader doesn\u2019t find a book. The book finds the reader.\u201d While I had heard this from so many people, it always sounded too surreal to believe. These last two months have been hell work-wise. There are so many instances where I feel so angry I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,23,3],"tags":[38,29],"class_list":["post-4059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-books","category-book-reviews","category-mindscape-reviews","tag-favorite-books","tag-japanese-books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/PXL_20250222_172256071-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1928%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2071,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=2071","url_meta":{"origin":4059,"position":0},"title":"The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa Book Review.","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"May 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi Readers! It has been a while, hasn\u2019t it? Almost half a month! This month I am again reading more than I am reviewing. I have read 3 books so far. 2 were short ones. But the third one was over 600 pages. It took me a week to read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book review"","block_context":{"text":"Book review","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220502_110014-01-01-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220502_110014-01-01-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220502_110014-01-01-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220502_110014-01-01-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220502_110014-01-01-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2737,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=2737","url_meta":{"origin":4059,"position":1},"title":"Japanese Murder Mystery Book Recommendation: The Tokyo Zodiac Murders","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"April 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi Readers! April has been a fantastic reading month. I read 14 books and I might just read one more before the end of the month. Here's a short review of a gory yet fun murder mystery novel. Have you ever read a mystery that has so many angles to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book review"","block_context":{"text":"Book review","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/PSX_20230426_185017-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/PSX_20230426_185017-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/PSX_20230426_185017-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/PSX_20230426_185017-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/PSX_20230426_185017-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1984,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=1984","url_meta":{"origin":4059,"position":2},"title":"Book Recommendations: Seishi Yokomizo’s Murder Mystery Novels!","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"March 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi Readers! The reading slump is finally broken with three murder mystery books with a lot of gory, bloody, horrifying, creepy, lunatic characters from Seishi Yokomizo\u2019s three books translated from the Japanese! I did not intend on reading such highly detailed books about multiple murders, especially not 3 books in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book review"","block_context":{"text":"Book review","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/PXL_20260413_123655254-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/PXL_20260413_123655254-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/PXL_20260413_123655254-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/PXL_20260413_123655254-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/PXL_20260413_123655254-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1461,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=1461","url_meta":{"origin":4059,"position":3},"title":"Daughters’ Day Special Book Haul!","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"October 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi Readers! How are you all? As promised, I am back with a Book Haul post! I got all these books from my parents on the occasion of Daughters\u2019 Day! As usual, these have been on my TBR since a long time. I already read 3 of these books, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "books"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Book-Haul.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3057,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=3057","url_meta":{"origin":4059,"position":4},"title":"Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: About Books & People Behind Books","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"October 23, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi Readers! October is almost at an end. It went by quickly but luckily not as quickly as September. I read Days at the Morisaki Bookshop last week. It was a short book, so I finished it over the weekend. I really enjoy reading books about books, so it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book review"","block_context":{"text":"Book review","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231023_120849-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231023_120849-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231023_120849-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231023_120849-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231023_120849-01.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3485,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=3485","url_meta":{"origin":4059,"position":5},"title":"More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: An Unnecessary Sequel","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"July 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi Readers! I am back with a review after almost a month! I haven\u2019t been reading much because work is super hectic and so all I want to do over weekends is binge-watch something rather than read. Such a sad state of things! But, I am clawing my way out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book review"","block_context":{"text":"Book review","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Picsart_24-07-14_11-52-05-554-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Picsart_24-07-14_11-52-05-554-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Picsart_24-07-14_11-52-05-554-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Picsart_24-07-14_11-52-05-554-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Picsart_24-07-14_11-52-05-554-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4059"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4065,"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions\/4065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}