Since the JT review came out, we've been contacted by 4 international journalists and our Amazon ranking for GMB has been stellar: as of this morning 910 for foreign books, #1 in Gender Studies, #1 in Women, and #1 in Sexuality > Human. (As you can see above.)

Granted, yes, this is Amazon Japan, but still. Were this Amazon US, well, we'd probably be drunk and in a gutter off of some Macallan Fine and Rare Collection, 1926.

In case you missed it, Jeff Kingston wrote a wonderful review of Goodbye Madame Butterfly, which ran in this Sunday's Japan Times. Here's a taste:

Why do women put up with jerks? After reading about the abusive and philandering men in these women's lives it is amazing what they tolerate. They literally roll with the punches and just ask their men to be more discreet in their affairs.

Misa confesses she wishes her husband's mistress was much younger or at least a sex worker, saying, "This is a pride thing, I know, but I couldn't get over the fact that she was not a pro and was almost the same age as me." And so in her prime she resigns herself to a sexless marriage, a bleak trudge through life shared with someone she can no longer love.

And for good measure:

Sumie Kawakami is an experienced and intelligent reporter who manages to get her subjects to bare their souls and share their anxieties in a book I found hard to put down.

One of the great indie bookstores in all of Texas (or all of the US for that matter), BookPeople in Austin, has been featuring our little babe Do You Know ... at the front of the store. We heard this from contributor Jette Kernion, who took the snap featured here. Jette writes:

Tons of copies of that fabulous book, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans, perhaps because one of the BookPeople book clubs is supposedly reading it soon. That doesn't mean you can't go buy a copy if you haven't already. It's a beautiful little book with some excellent essays in it (including mine). These books were available on the stand at the entrance to the store.

Why is this significant? Way back in early 2006 when we were planning events for the book, we called BookPeople and they were extremely polite and nice but not interested in the least. We were an unknown quantity and no reviews had appeared, so who could blame them? But it is gratifying to see that now they are giving us prominent play. Persistence, people, persistence.

A sidenote: After being rejected by BookPeople, we held a really nice event at BookWoman, which we thought was a sister store until we were set straight. Thus we now have two good homes in Austin.

Catching up after a week of physical labor (no, I didn't go to prison, but at times it seemed like it — I was working in a warehouse for the upcoming presidential primary in Washington). In case you missed it, here's the New York Times front page story on cellphone novels from last week.

Seattle Times food critic Nancy Leson is the sort of reader we're targeting with our relatively new site, JapanInfusion.com — she is by no means a Japan expert, but she has a deep interest in at least one aspect of the culture. That last phrase could work as a definition of our intended readership on the site. So it was exciting to see that Ms. Leson found the site interesting enough to write about last week in her column (it's at the end). Here's the part that deals with our site:

Turning Japanese? They really think so

Since 1998, Seattle entrepreneur Takumi Ono has been bringing local culture to native Japanese via her Web site www.junglecity.com. The site, she says, "is for local Japanese and Japanese travelers coming to Seattle and the Northwest." But for those (like me) who've tried to access it for information and conversation regarding Japanese food, it's been a tough go: There's no English translation.

Which is why Ono — along with business partners Bruce Rutledge (publisher at Chin Music Press) and Taichi Kitamura (owner/chef of Fremont sushi bars Chiso and Chiso Kappo) — has turned the tables and launched a new Web site, www.JapanInfusion.com, offering their personal insight into Japanese culture, touching on everything from music and literature to food and family to art and architecture, via articles, interviews and essays.

Kitamura's fans will be interested to read his "Fish Stories," the musings of "a fly-fishing sushi chef (who) reflects on Japanese cuisine, environment, the restaurant business and his view of America from behind the sushi counter." When he's not writing about fish, he's slicing and serving it at Chiso (www.chisoseattle.com). This week's hot-selling seafood: hairy crab from Hokkaido; winter-run wild yellowtail from the high seas of Sado; and, from local waters: freshest uni, geoduck and oysters.

Fact of the day: Japan gets fewer foreign tourists (8.3 million) each year than New York City (8.5 million). This comes from Kuhaku contributor Takehiko Kambayashi's latest piece in the Christian Science Monitor.

Just got wind of a new bookshop / publishing company having an opening on Friday the 25th in the Shibuya Kamiyacho neighborhood. Kamiyacho is basically the ultra-posh area behind Bunkamura. Here's a PDF with map and information. Sorry, no English version. Easy enough to find though: Go up past Bunkamura to the right and keep walking straight. The shop will be on the left about six or seven minutes past Bunkamura. Party from 18:00 - 22:00. I have plans from 19:00 so I'll be there from the opening for about a half and hour.

They also have a website here.

Here's a list from the Guardian of some of the world's greatest bookstores. Some of these stores look amazing. They're like temples to books.

For bonus points, see if you can find the link that leads back to our blog.

My own list would include Powell's in Portland (boxy but so fun to get lost in), the Seattle Public Library (not a store, but still, a temple to books), Open Books in Seattle, Faulkner House Books in the French Quarter and the Kenyon College bookstore (at least the way it looked in the mid 80s, when I was a student there).

Most impressive. For the design? For the sheer tenacity and determination required for keeping tabs on number of coffees and beers consumed, taxis ridden, distances traveled, films watched and other miscellaneous details of the daily mundane for three years running now? You be the judge!

Follow Picador book designer Henry Sene Yee as he opens up his brain on his blog.

Novelist Suzanne Kamata (Losing Kei, Leapfrog Press) finds within the pages of Goodbye Madame Butterfly a truth about Japanese society:

Japanese pundits wonder why the birth rate is falling. Perhaps, quite simply, Japanese husbands and wives need to learn how to relate to each other better, and to have more sex.

She reviewed our latest book on Her Circle Ezine, a site for and about the women of the world. We'd be remiss if we didn't also leave you with this quote:

Kawakami presents a frank portrait of Japanese women today, via these compulsively readable, expertly crafted essays. Further kudos should go to Yuko Enomoto for her seamless translation.

Check out Adam Greenfield's New Year's post on self-publishing his next book. This is a great opportunity to follow a writer through the process. And don't forget to check out all the comments — he and Nurri have a full head of steam!

Seattleites, tune to 94.9 FM KUOW tomorrow at 9 to hear Chin Music's very own David Rutledge (co-editor of and contributor to Do You Know ..., pictured here with his agent) on Steve Scher's Weekday. Steve and krewe have assembled a panel of New Orleanians in Seattle to talk about their city, and author Chris Rose will be joining them. The rest of the world can hear the interview on a podcast anytime by going to the Weekday homepage.

And much more in the third edition of Japan Infusion. Interested in contributing? Drop me a line. And don't forget to enter the contest for the free Yoshida Brothers CD.

PS: The "Saké Guy," pictured here, is John Gauntner, who got his start making copies of his newsletter, Sake no Koto, on the copy machine at Universal News Japan after my boss had gone home (this was all before the Internet went mainstream). Now he's considered perhaps the world's foremost non-Japanese authority on saké. From such humble beginnings good things grow!

Amid all the whining and hand-wringing among newspaper executives these days, it's nice to find a newspaper that is willing to take risks to connect with its readership. Ever since the levees broke in New Orleans, the Times-Picayune has shown what it takes to be a relevant, important voice in a community these days. (I can imagine my New Orleans friends rolling their eyes right now, but seriously, point to a paper in a midsize city that has done better.)

Well, now the Times-Picayune has scored even more points by bucking a disturbing trend and actually expanding its coverage of books. This is such a smart move for several reasons: 1) New Orleans has a vibrant literary scene that is alive right now, not stuck on the memory of Tennessee Williams or some other literary icon; 2) Susan Larson, the paper's book editor, is one of the country's best book reviewers; 3) People who read newspapers generally enjoy reading book reviews and book news, despite what the number crunchers may think. It's just that we're tired of lame book reviews. Larson and her team are bound to produce a superior product that will be read throughout the publishing industry, focus more attention on writers in New Orleans and raise the status of the city and the paper. Just give them time.

For at least one independent bookstore in Seattle — Elliott Bay Book Co. — 2007 was not the year of Harry Potter. The best-seller for the store? Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, with 640 copies sold, according to the American Booksellers Association.

New year's greetings from what used to be known as America's most literate city. Sadly, Seattle fell to No. 2 in the latest annual survey, sandwiched by the Twin Cities, with Minneapolis (home to our distributor, Consortium) slipping into first place and St. Paul following in third.

However, all is not lost for Seattle. It moved into first on the list of most bookstores per 10,000 people and was declared the most (over?) educated city in another ranking. (Glad to know that barista serving my tall americano has a master's in psychology.)

I was glad to see my birthplace, Cleveland, take No. 1 in the library category, and see that Newark held the top spot in newspaper circulation. It just goes to show that there is more life in cities facing tough times than some of us living in boomtowns like Seattle care to realize.

Wherever you live, happy reading in 2008.

CMP and AQ are proud to announce the launch of Hitotoki London!. We've been working hard over the last couple of weeks to get the site ready to go live. Our fearless, chips-eatin' British editor Oli did a fantastic curation job and has put together a helluva beautiful subset of London moments.

Richard Kovitch reflects on the changing London cityscape and revisiting old memories: "I stood and waited outside the flat I used to call home. It was close to midnight and the lights were on. There were new residents now. I wondered who they were, whether they were happy. A light drizzle fell. I waited and watched. A figure came to the window, silhouetted against the orange glow of the apartment. I couldn’t make out a face, but memories flooded back. But they were different this time. They no longer harboured anguish or pain. Those emotions belonged to someone else now. I felt only calm, like I was watching an old film, far removed from my own experiences. "

Jane Newton Chance remembers leaving home for good: ‘I’m not coming home,’ I say, ‘I’m in London’. There is a silence, but then there is bound to be. At this time of night my mother has progressed from sherry to whisky, so her processes are slow. But this silence seems to go on."

There's six other great entries up right now with more in the oven for the coming weeks. I want to thank everyone who submitted and who has helped spread the word about Hitotoki. We're always accepting submissions, so feel free to send something in if inspiration strikes.

Oh, and Happy New Year, everyone.