The Children of Men
by P.D. James

If you haven’t guessed it yet, I’ll come right out and say it now: I’m a book snob. I generally end up liking the book better than the film, and I go to great lengths to make sure I read the book first wherever possible. So, people keep recommending this to me, and I’ve enjoyed other things by the same author - and on a particularly shriek-filled afternoon on the desk at work, a world without children seemed like the perfect lunch break reading.

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The Fourth Treasure: a novel
by Todd Shimoda
with illustrations by L.J.C. Shimoda

So, for this month’s theme, craft, I went with a book straight off the list that I knew my library owned. Much more in line with the group, and unlike February’s disaster, I really enjoyed this one.

Tina Suzuki is a neuroscience grad student at Berkley who stumbles across the ideal research project: a local Japanese calligraphy master has suffered a stroke, leaving him with agraphia. As Japanese kanji stand for meanings (as opposed to our alphabet, made up of symbols for sounds), observing his recovery could lead to an enormous breakthrough in understanding how the brain tries to heal itself. As Tina begins her study, she finds her interactions with the elderly calligraphy master create ripples in her life outside a school, leading her down new paths and through unexpected changes.
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