Join our bookseller, Andrea, as she leads discussions around two powerful new releases. Sign up for the book club in store or by emailing us and get 10% off the purchase of the featured book.
Non-fiction Book Club - Tuesday, February 24th - 6:00 - 7:00 pm
February’s non-fiction book club features “Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan” by Hiroko Yoda.
A Shinto cultural historian shares a path to joyful living drawn from Japan’s uniquely flexible approach to spirituality and nature, offering a moving and enriching blend of memoir, cultural history, and guidance for anyone struggling with disconnection in the modern world.
Everyone’s in the pursuit of happiness, but few know how to attain this state of bliss. Millions around the world have turned to Japanese culture to unlock secrets to everything from finding their Ikigai to The Courage to Be Disliked. Yet Japan’s spiritual traditions are the hidden source of so many nourishing aspects of Japanese daily life and culture. Without Japan’s natural spiritual sustenance, Jiro wouldn’t dream of sushi; Hayao Miyazaki’s films wouldn’t spirit us away; and Marie Kondo wouldn’t spark joy.
In her book Eight Million Ways to Happiness, Hiroko Yoda offers the culmination of her decade-long odyssey into the spiritual heart of her homeland, and fills the pages with penetrating and poignant insights. Readers follow Hiroko as she trains as a Shinto shrine-dancer, partakes in Buddhist funeral rituals, ascends holy mountains with Shugendo ascetics, and meets one of Japan’s last living itako, a traditional mystic. She offers a roadmap to a form of spiritual flexibility, by turns ancient and new, mystical and grounded. Hiroko shares personal stories, cultural history, reverence towards nature, and life lessons for readers of any background.
Hiroko awakens readers to the idea of a spiritual flexibility that can nourish them through life’s inevitable ups and downs, wherever they might be, whatever their personal faiths may be. We are all subject to many forces beyond our control, but we are also part of a bigger natural system that can strengthen us—if we first learn how to connect with it.
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"This book is a triumph! Hiroko Yoda dives into Japanese spirituality with an open heart and a lively, questioning mind. What she discovers is religion with a lowercase r: guidance rather than rules, generosity instead of judgement. Please know: No woo-woo spiritual blather here! Yoda's footing in cultural history and talents as a storyteller set this book apart and above."
—Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Gulp and Stiff
“I didn’t know how much I needed this book until I read it. Hiroko Yoda shows us with tenderness and clarity that healing and resolution occur even without certainty. Eight Million Ways to Happiness reminds us that there’s no single path to meaning or to spiritual health and mental health. Eight Million Ways to Happiness is an antidote to burnout culture and binary thinking. We all need this book right now.”
—Dr. Pooja Lakshmin MD, psychiatrist and bestselling author of Real Self-Care
“Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and cultural history, Yoda’s book provides an invaluable introduction to the spiritual life of Japan. She builds a compelling case for the value of flexibility and resilience in the face of chaos.” —Laura Allen, author of Murakami