How I found this book: in late 2016, gypsysmom launched a challenge for Canada's 150th birthday, to read fifteen new Canadian books in 2017. She included links to three 'Best 100 Books' links from the CBC, fiction, non-fiction, and YA. I was lucky enough to choose this for one of my fifteen.

A diary of Naoko, a 15-year-old Japanese girl returned involuntarily to Japan from California when her father's dotcom job evaporates, comes into the hands of Ruth, who lives on an island off British Columbia. Both people have their own stories, which begin to intertwine. There's a lot of suspense, excellent writing, examinations of the nature of human relationships, and a few big surprises.

I was much more involved with Naoko's story, which was of course way more dramatic. I also would guess that Ozeki herself found Naoko more interesting, since she was so successful in writing in a 16-year-old's style. But there were so many resonances between Naoko's and Ruth's experiences! Both of them had to live with an important male figure who did not do relationships well. Both of them were driven to collect information, which in some complex ways they shared. And both of them learned to deal with some startling ways information can be stored, and hidden. And - as the title suggests - there's some discussion about the nature of time, as Naoko's and Ruth's lives seem to be moving together.

Why this was my favorite book of 2017: the first time I read it, I simply loved the story, which was so good I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. The second and third times, I began discovering a lot more about the themes and details. To me, that's the hallmark of a great book. It's a remarkably good read on the first pass, and it expands on re-reading so that you appreciate it more every time.

For those who enjoy audiobooks, I recommend the audio version performed by Ozeki herself. It's a special delight to hear the Japanese vocabulary, and the chanting of the sutras. And Ozeki does a very good job. When I read the book, now I always hear Naoko's voice as Ozeki created it.

Mailed to mathgirl40 for dark-draco's Favourite Book of 2017 Roundabout.

I received this book, which JudySlump612 had chosen as her favourite book of 2017. I understand completely why she had chosen this book, as I'd read it several years ago and loved it myself. Ever since then, I'd been wanting to reread it, as the depth and complexity of the story warrant a closer examination, so this is an excellent opportunity to do so!

This book was definitely worth a reread! I agree with JudySlump612's comments that the reader can appreciate the themes and details more the second time around. I especially liked learning more about Zen Buddhism through Nao's unique perspective, and I found Haruki #1's story deeply moving.

I was impressed by Ozeki's skill in covering themes with huge scopes (life, death, quantum physics, the Eocene Epoch) while making the reader care about the everyday details of life. For example, I thought it was amusing to think about Schrödinger's cat while nervously awaiting the fate of Pesto the cat.

Thanks again, JudySlump612, for offering this book as your roundabout choice!

Lamilla asked to be skipped, as she has read this book already, so I've sent it off to earthcaroleanne, who is next in the roundabout. The mail from Canada might take a while but hopefully, this will arrive by March for her turn.

This arrived today. I hope I have time to read it before I go on holiday.

I did manage to finish this in March. This is an interesting and creative book. It starts well, I enjoyed the middle more, but it ends badly. At this point it seemed to go off at a bit of a tangent, with dreams and other worlds and quantum physics involved. I found Haruki #1’s secret diary the most interesting part.

On it's way in the roundabout.

Received, thank you. Not an author I am familiar with, but looking forward to giving it a go :)

And this is why I love this roundabout so much - I would never have picked this up myself, yet thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I'm a bit of a secret physicist, so all the quantum mechanics and discussions on time I found fascinating. I loved Jiko's outlook on live and would love to take more of her views to heart.

It's definitely a story of many layers and I went through plenty of emotions as I read - disgust at the bullies, sadness for both Haruki's, frustration at Ruth's situation, etc. Funnily enough, not a lot of what I would call positive emotions, but there is a measure of happiness at the end of the book, even though all the sadness has to be waded through first.

The writing was good and, even thought I normally don't like continually switching view points, I thought it worked extremely well. I did start to get annoyed at the footnotes - I would have stopped referring to them, but they were very interesting - they just kept interrupting the flow of the story.

Overall, I extremely glad I read this.

THIS BOOK IS PART OF THE ‘FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2017’ ROUNDABOUT

Just received, thanks dark-draco.

I've started it already.

I really enjoyed this book, for many different reasons but not the least for all the emotions it conveyed throughout...
Also all the different references to many topics that were new or obscure to me were really interesting.
Thank you for letting me discover this book.

Please let us know when you release it again...

Thank you, the book has arrived! Apparently it took the longer route, bit it's also been here for a while as I've been out of town quite a lot these days. Will get to it soon.

I am so so so sorry for not forwarding the book sooner. Found it today sitting in the pile of my "Soon to be reads", a pile that I haven't looked at in few months. :(

As I don't have time to read it right now I'll forward it to Fifna so it can make the rest of it's journey. Sorry!!!

Off to Fifna as part of Favourite Book of 2017 Roundabout. Will travel in surface so it'll take few weeks.

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Congratulations, you've found a book I've released in the wild. It's yours now - you can keep it, give to someone you know or release it back in the wild. Thank you for letting me know you've found it! If you want, you're welcome to join Bookcrossing.com. :)

Arrived safely today, Thanks bookwormess!

What a good choice for the roundabout. I enjoyed Naoko's half of the story the most and had that been the only part of the story I think I'd have been just as happy with it. Jiko and Haruki #1 made that part very interesting. While I'm not normally a fan of footnotes in a novel, I did appreciate them here. I was left feeling slightly underwhelmed by the ending, but a good story nonetheless.

Taking it to the Breda meetup to hand to marsala.

So excited to receive this book, because it was one of my favourites of 2017 aswell. I ended up picking a different book for the roundabout, but I'm looking forward to rereading this book and see if I love it just as much the second time around.

The book reached me today. Thank you marsala !

I really can't express all the sentiments that came to me reading this book, too difficult in a language that's not my mother tongue.
Certainly worth to be re-read once or twice.
I didn't grip the quantic theme though.
Thank you for your choice JudySlump612.

On its way to Aramena in USA.

Arrived today! After not getting any books for a few months, they are suddenly all showing up so I have a lot of reading to do. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, how better to spend my time?

Goodness, I didn't realize I'd had this book so long! My apologies for taking so long to get to it. I'll confess that when this book arrived I wasn't giddy to start it, for some reason it just didn't sound that appealing to me. But boy am I glad I did read it! It was very captivating and I loved the way it ended.

I'll get this out in the mail probably tomorrow!

Book has returned safely home, after many travels and many thoughtful journal entries. My thanks to all who shared this reading adventure with me!

On bookshelf in donor waiting area. Released for gypsysmom's Canada Day Challenge.