Book cover of Mina's Matchbox

Book description

On sleepless nights, I open the matchbox and reread the story of the girl who gathered shooting stars.

After the death of her father, twelve-year-old Tomoko is sent to live for a year with her uncle in the coastal town of Ashiya. It is a year which will change her…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Mina's Matchbox as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I think this is the only novel I've ever read that features a pygmy hippo. I'm a fan of Ogawa's fiction, especially The Memory Police. This novel, told with a striking and buoyant honesty from the point of view of a twelve-year-old who spends a year in the home of wealthy relatives, is a delightful portrait of an eccentric, yet loving family that learns to live in harmony with its secrets.

If you love Mina's Matchbox...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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