Memoirs of a Happy Warrior is an autobiographical account of professional mixed martial arts fighter Roxanne Modafferi. The book takes place over the course of two years when Roxanne decided to move from the United States to Japan for her junior year of college. After settling in with her host family and figuring out how become more Japanese, Roxanne immediately continued her martial arts training. From there, she embarked on her professional MMA career and never looked back. Roxanne toppl...

In the tales that make up The Elephant Vanishes, the imaginative genius that has made Haruki Murakami an international superstar is on full display.In these stories, a man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald’s in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard. By ...

South of the Border, West of the Sun is the beguiling story of a past rekindled, and one of Haruki Murakami’s most touching novels.Hajime has arrived at middle age with a loving family and an enviable career, yet he feels incomplete. When a childhood friend, now a beautiful woman, shows up with a secret from which she is unable to escape, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime’s quotidian existence begin to give way. Rich, mysterious, and quietly dazzling, in ...

The ultimate guide to creating chibis!They populate manga with chunky bodies, oversized heads, and huge expressive eyes. They're schoolgirls and schoolboys, magical girls and mad scientists, fairies and fighter princesses, cyborgs and sci-fi secret agents, bikers and bad samurais, robots and rebel leaders. They've even got chubby pets and zany monster sidekicks! They're chibis!Excruciatingly cute, highly stylized, and beloved in all manga genres (fantasy, m...

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE DOWNRIGHT WEIRD.The Ikebukuro district in Tokyo is full of interesting people. A boy longing for the extraordinary. A hotheaded punk. An airheaded pseudo-stalker. An information broker who works for kicks. An underground doctor who specializes in truly desperate patients. A high school student infatuated with a monster. And a headless rider on a pitch-black motorcycle. Their story may not be a heartwarming one, but as it turns out, even weirdos like these sometim...

Comedian, blogger and essayist Samantha Irby is not going to be a better person this year than she was last. Nope. With a small group of woo-woo others, Irby sets seventy micro-resolutions, and then—with the rest of us—she fails at almost every single one of them.A Vintage Shorts Original. An ebook short.Thoughtful, witty, poignant—the failed intentions in New Year Same Trash will make you laugh and cry. Because you know y...

The Lesson presents a self-absorbed wedding DJ as the newest addition to Jessica Westhead’s trademark cast of offbeat protagonists. This posturing narrator is showing a new recruit the ropes, but what begins as a monologue full of blue-collar bravado grows more menacing over the course of the night. He becomes fixated on a female wedding guest—you know the type, spiky hair and feathers on her dress. As he dwells on the woman he feels is using dance-floor requests ...

Ikebukuro has a slashing problem.Ikebukuro, Tokyo. A place where the clumsy and inept at love gather. A high school girl worried about her status. A third-rate magazine reporter covering the Ikebukuro beat. A teacher suspected of sexual harassment. A thug wearing a yellow bandanna, who is said to be the toughest around. A young man who deals in all manner of sensitive information. And a headless rider on a coal-black motorcycle. As these individuals and more are drawn into a whirl of unluc...

"Could you kill someone? Working as an information broker in Shinjuku, just toying with all those people... But could you, Izaya Orihara, kill someone? Directly, by your own hand? Not stabbing someone with your knife just right to keep them from dying while you keep dodging the question, I mean. Well, whatever... In the end, you're the kind of guy who uses other people to do your dirty work. You're hilariously cowardly."Tokyo, Ikebukuro. Loads of baggage from the past are starting to turn ...

Ikebukuro, Tokyo. All kinds of people are showing up to settle their scores with Izaya Orihara the information broker. A pair of foreigners who specialize in odd jobs. A runaway girl still looking for her Shizuo. A fellow dressed like a bartender who looks like he's had better days. A womanizer set on getting his revenge against the Dollars. An underground doctor waiting for someone to come home. A class representative with a clueless classmate pal and a target on his back. And a headless ...

In her most ambitious, moving, and provocative novel to date, Sarah Bird makes a stunning departure. Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two teenaged girls, an American and an Okinawan, whose lives are connected across seventy years by the shared experience of profound loss, the enduring strength of an ancient culture, and the redeeming power of family love.Luz James, a contemporary U.S. Air Force brat, lives with her strictly-by-the-rules sergeant mothe...

"Do you enjoy being the Black Rider who's been spotted all over Ikebukuro over the past few years now? Why is it that you're riding such a dangerous bike all over the place? Are you aware that you're violating the law?!" Ikebukuro, Tokyo. A place full of fires waiting to be lit and plenty of people ready to light a match: Twins who are the perfect opposite of each other. An idol who's nothing like her older brother. A girl with a crush on her senior in the Dollars. And a headless rider wit...