Please send your book recommendations for 2026 to reading@cwaj.org by October 15. A poll will be sent after October 15 to determine what the group will read in 2026. 

Books recommended so far:

• We Do Not Part by Hang Kang

• Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki (translated by Polly Barton)

• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

• West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge 

• A Separate Peace by John Knowles

• They Hang Me in Tokyo by Allan West 

• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell 

• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 

• Happiness Falls by Angie Kim 

• Flashlight by Susan Choi

• Storm Rider by Akira Yoshimura (translated by Philip Gabriel)

• Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

• Cinnamon Beach by Suzanna Kamata

• Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Asa Yoneda) 

• One Man's Justice by Akira Yoshimura (translated by Mark Ealey)

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (nonfiction)

• Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada 

• A Short History of Tractors in the Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

• Heat Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi

• Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel

• Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz 

• Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage 

• Sweetest Fruits by Monique Truong 

• The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani, translated by Sam Betts

• Mansfield Park by Jane Austin

• The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

• The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

• Long Island by Colm Toibin

• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Need some inspiration for Japanese authors to recommend, click here or click here. Thanks to Ann for these great links.