I really enjoyed this book about an American who lives in Japan. It's an interesting peek at the cultural idiosyncracies of both America and Japan, told from the point of view of someone who has learned to adapt to a new place where she is an outcast.

Released on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 at Mozart's Coffee House in Austin, Texas USA.

I'll leave this on a table inside around 7:00 tonight.

I caught it within minutes of its release at a weblogger meetup. It wasn't planned that way, honest!

CAUGHT IN AUSTIN TX USA

Hey, BookCrossing people -- you need to give me a way to sign in on the capture form so I don't show up as "AnonymousFinder"...

A fun read, if a bit of a stretch at times. More like a minimally violent suspense thriller than the literary novel it's packaged as.

I wonder what people familiar with Japan would make of it -- particularly after all the slams that Lost in Translation received for allegedly perpetuating stereotypes of the "inscrutable" Japanese. For what it's worth, American Fuji's gaijin characters are not as clueless as those in Lost in Translation, although I'm not sure the Japanese fare much better for Sara Backer's characters understanding them.

Released on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 at Given to a friend in Austin, Texas USA.

Passed on to a Japanophile pal who can tell us whether it rings true.

Having gotten about a quarter of the way through it, I find it a tedious catalog of Curious Facts about Japan and Japanese Biases, transmuted to fictional form through the magic of Developing Characters and Building Tension in Six Easy Steps.

CAUGHT IN AUSTIN TX USA

I enjoyed this book very much. I suspected I would since I am such a big fan of fiction set in Japan (specifically the works of Haruki Murakami). I found it to be a fun read throughout and consider myself lucky to have happened upon it in such a serendipidous fashion. I thank whoever (whomever?) set it out at my local coffee shop , not only for the work itself but for being a part of such a cool project that is BookCrossing. It is nice to know that in these "troubled" times we can still connect in such creative ways...hopefully this book (and project) will continue to inspire. Lastly I would like to thank the previous reader for taking such great care of the book and I would like to apologize to the next for my slightly rougher treatment (its still together and I did not drop it in the tub or anything, but its definately a bit tattered around the edges, sorry)