Why am I passionate about this?

I write books for young readers about history, science, and nature. I lived in Japan for six years and became fascinated with Japanese historyā€”particularly the late 12th-century civil war recounted in the medieval classic The Tale of the Heike. I especially loved stories about Minamoto Yoshitsune, the warrior who won the war but was destroyed by his elder brother Yoritomo, who became the first Shogun and kicked off the 700-year reign of the samurai. I spent two years researching Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune and loved every minute of it. Iā€™m also a second-degree black belt in kendo (Japanese sword fighting).


I wrote

Book cover of Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune

What is my book about?

I take young readers on the wild ride that was Minamoto Yoshitsuneā€™s life. Exiled to a monastery as a child,ā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Tale of Genji

Pamela S. Turner Why did I love this book?

That The Tale of Genji is the worldā€™s first novel is reason enough to read it, but itā€™s also a priceless insight into the lives of the aristocracy during Japanā€™s Heian period (794-1185). Genji chronicles the life and loves of Genji, the ā€œShining Prince,ā€ an emperorā€™s son who isnā€™t high enough ranking to ever inherit the throne and spends his days plotting romantic conquests that bring sorrow as often as joy. A masterpiece of world literature.

By Murasaki Shikibu, Edward G. Seidensticker (translator),

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Tale of Genji as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

 

In the early eleventh century Murasaki Shikibu, a lady in the Heian court of Japan, wrote what many consider to be the worldā€™s first novel, more than three centuries before Chaucer. The Heian era (794ā€”1185) is recognized as one of the very greatest periods in Japanese literature, and The Tale of Genji is not only the unquestioned prose masterpiece of that period but also the most lively and absorbing account we have of the intricate, exquisite, highly ordered court culture that made such a masterpiece possible.

 

Genji is the favorite son of the emperor but also a man of dangerouslyā€¦


Book cover of The Tale of Murasaki

Pamela S. Turner Why did I love this book?

The perfect companion piece to The Tale of Genji, The Tale of Murasaki is a modern historical novel about Murasaki Shikibu (author of The Tale of Genji). Author Liza Dalby is a scholar of Japanese culture as well as the only Westerner ever to become a geisha. A meticulously researched, evocative window into Heian Japan.

By Liza Dalby,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Tale of Murasaki as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Tale of Murasaki is an elegant and brilliantly authentic historical novel by the author of Geisha and the only Westerner ever to have become a geisha.

In the eleventh century Murasaki Shikibu wrote the worldā€™s first novel, The Tale of Genji, the most popular work in the history of Japanese literature. In The Tale of Murasaki, Liza Dalby has created a breathtaking fictionalized narrative of the life of this timeless poetā€“a lonely girl who becomes such a compelling storyteller that she is invited to regale the empress with her tales. The Tale of Murasakiis the story of an enchantingā€¦


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Book cover of A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France

A Long Way from Iowa by Janet Hulstrand,

This memoir chronicles the lives of three generations of women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel. The story begins in 1992 in an unfinished attic in Brooklyn as the author reads a notebook written by her grandmother nearly 100 years earlier. This sets her on a 30-year searchā€¦

Book cover of The Tale of the Heike

Pamela S. Turner Why did I love this book?

You wonā€™t find any samurai in The Tale of Genji ā€“ during Murasakiā€™s time, Heian aristocrats considered them mere security guards. But oh, how things changed by the end of the 12th century. The Tale of the Heike is a classic of medieval Japanese literature that chronicles the rise of the samurai and the end of direct imperial rule. In its depiction of the titanic clash between two powerful samurai clans, The Tale of the Heike brings to mind The Iliad. In this translation, Royall Tyler transforms and reinterprets Heike into an epic poetry format that mimics Homer. Stirring, tragic, and elegiac.

By Royall Tyler (translator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Tale of the Heike as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Tale of the Heike is Japan's great martial epic: a masterpiece of world literature and the progenitor of all samurai stories. This major and groundbreaking new Penguin translation is by Royall Tyler, acclaimed translator of The Tale of Genji.

First assembled from scattered oral poems in the early fourteenth century, The Tale of the Heike is Japan's Iliad - a grand-scale depiction of the wars between the Heike and Genji clans. Legendary for its magnificent and vivid set battle scenes, it is also a work filled with intimate human dramas and emotions, contemplating Buddhist themes of suffering and separation,ā€¦


Book cover of The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan

Pamela S. Turner Why did I love this book?

The Japanese love underdogs. Ten are portrayed here, ranging from the 4th to the 20th centuries, with storylines that Shakespeare wouldā€™ve stolen if only heā€™d known about them. A terrific round-up that will inspire you to delve deeper into Japanese history.

By Ivan Morris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Nobility of Failure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Alexander, Robin Hood, Wellington, George Washington... The Western literatures are packed with the storiesā€”real and otherwiseā€”of diverse heroes, but most of them share the common element of victory. Many of them died heroically to achieve their goals.

In Japan, however, many of the most revered heroes lost their lives without achieving their goals, and in many cases fought their battles in full realization that they would end in abject defeat and death.

This cultural background remains a bedrock underlying the modern Japanese psyche, and continues to shape the Japanese as individuals and a society even today, unconsciously, in the sameā€¦


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Book cover of From Famine to Fortune

From Famine to Fortune by Maurice Holloway,

1848. Ireland is starving in the middle of the Potato Famine. For many there seems to be only two choices ā€“ stay and die, or leave and survive. Families split up. A young potato-farming couple, Pat and Caitlin, evicted from their home in Mayo, decide to seek their fortunes beyondā€¦

Book cover of The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi

Pamela S. Turner Why did I love this book?

Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) has an almost mythic status as Japanā€™s greatest swordsman. As a teenager, he fought on the losing side at Sekigahara, and went on to become a renowned duelist. The two-sword style he created (nitoryu) is still practiced as part of modern kendo (Japanese sword fighting). It wasnā€™t just Musashiā€™s technical mastery that left mouths agape, but also his ability to psych out his opponents. If youā€™ve never heard of his famous duel against Sasaki Kojiro on Funa Island, youā€™re in for a treat. Wilsonā€™s short biography captures Musashi in all his enigmatic glory.

By William Scott Wilson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lone Samurai as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An expert on samurai history paints a vivid, multi-faceted portrait of feudal Japan and Miyamoto Musashiā€”the legendary swordsman who wrote the classic martial arts treatise, The Book of Five Rings
 
Born in 1584, Miyamoto Musashi was the legendary samurai known throughout the world as a master swordsman, spiritual seeker, and author of the classic book on strategy, The Book of Five Rings. Over 350 years after his death, Musashi and his legacy still fascinate readers worldwide, inspiring artists, authors, and filmmakers.
 
In The Lone Samurai, respected translator and expert on samurai culture William Scott Wilson presents both a vivid accountā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Book cover of Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune

What is my book about?

I take young readers on the wild ride that was Minamoto Yoshitsuneā€™s life. Exiled to a monastery as a child, he became a teenage runaway, eventually joining his half-brother Yoritomo in an uprising against the most powerful samurai in Japan. Yoshitsuneā€™s military genius won the war, but didnā€™t save him from a tragic end.

This is a story of insane courage and daring feats, bitter rivalry, and fatal love. In Samurai Rising I take a clear-eyed, very modern look at the way of the samuraiā€”and at the man who became the most famous samurai of all.

Book cover of The Tale of Genji
Book cover of The Tale of Murasaki
Book cover of The Tale of the Heike

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Interested in Japan, Samurais, and the Heian period?

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Samurais 42 books