On rainy mornings, Takao can never bring him-self to go to school-instead, he spends that time at the beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen gardens and finds a brief reprieve from everything else in his life among the trees and flowers. And on one of those mornings, he discovers a mysterious woman named Yukino in his haven, skipping work, and an unlikely friendship blooms between them. But though these two are the center of this story, they are far from the only ones trying to find their way in life. From director Makoto Shinkai comes a deeper look at his award-winning 2013 film, The Garden of Words, full of additional scenes and perspectives to show a whole new side of the many characters who brought the film to life.

Can a poem save your life? Words are powerful. Insults and rumors can derail a career; a bit of encouragement can give someone the strength to pursue their dreams. When a high school boy skipping class to sketch shoe designs and a taciturn woman drinking a morning beer meet in a Tokyo park, they say little, but the woman bids farewell with an ancient tanka poem. Will the boy figure out the poem’s meaning—and its corresponding response—before it’s too late?

A Sky Longing for Memories is a Makoto Shinkai fan's dream! Featuring art created by the beloved director, this full-color art book is packed with art from the many movies he directed for Studio CoMix Wave. The book is a 175 page LANDSCAPE FORMAT softcover, the majority of which are images, a rare treat in the realm of fanbooks. Inside you will find hundreds of backgrounds from from his award-winning works: 5 Centimeters per Second, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Voices of a Distant Star, and a TV advertisement for the Mainichi Newspaper. In addition to the backgrounds, there is a section about the software and technique behind CoMix Wave's animation, which discuss the key features of the software the studio has developed to use at various stages of production. The English edition also comes with a lengthy interview with Mr. Shinkai and other key members of his studio.

People who love English - the way words are used and put together to create meaning; the arcane rules and infuriating exceptions; the vital, living history of the way the language has changed through the centuries to create a richness and depth that exceeds that of many other languages - are often very passionate about how it is used and how it is changing and about all its little tricky eccentricitiesWeeds in the Garden of Words is the perfect book for people who love English.Professor Kate Burridge's book is approachable, entertaining and fun - designed to browse through and find oneself hooked by fascinating pieces on such topics as why verbs move to nouns and vice versa, why pronunciation may differ from place to place, why regionalisms develop and the creative way of slang and jargon. Weeds in the Garden of Words is filled with the joys of the eccentric, unruly, rich and complex language that is English.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.

This “elegant and haunting novel of war, art and memory" (The Independent) award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Gift of Rain follows the only Malaysian survivor of a Japanese wartime camp as she begins working for an exiled former gardener of the Emporer. Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice "until the monsoon comes." Then she can design a garden for herself. As the months pass, Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to the gardener and his art, while all around them a communist guerilla war rages. But the Garden of Evening Mists remains a place of mystery. Who is Aritomo and how did he come to leave Japan? And is the real story of how Yun Ling managed to survive the war perhaps the darkest secret of all?

A playful board book exploring different aspects of a child’s garden in 100 words.

The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for this extraordinary story. A 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.

In the Cold War era of an alternate history, the Soviet Union has taken control of the northern island of Japan and cut it off from the rest of the country. Just south across the strait, a boy named Hiroki is fascinated by the mysterious tower the Soviets have constructed on the unreachable island, and he and his friend Takuya decide to build a plane that will take them over to see it. As they work, a girl named Sayuri becomes a part of their lives and the promise to one day fly to the tower. But when she disappears without a trace, their promise I left unfulfilled-possibly forever.

Addresses the American experience with the Japanese pop culture craze, including anime from Hayao Miyazaki's epics to the burgeoning world of hentai, or violent pornographic anime to Haruki Murakami's fiction.