Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata.  A short little novel about a young Japanese girl, Keiko who, as a child, was pretty weird.  At the age of 18, in an attempt to be more normal, she gets a job at a convenience store, and the store becomes her entire life. She mimics the speech patterns and clothing style of her coworkers and bosses, and has no personal life to speak of.  Eighteen years later, she’s still at the same job.  She’s totally content, but the rest of society thinks she’s bizarre.  They’re more uncomfortable with her life than she is. In an effort to please society and silence her critics, she gives up the job and lifestyle she loves and becomes involved with a total loser, much to everyone’s satisfaction.  A wry commentary on the pitfalls of conformity, with a totally engaging protagonist. The book makes you want to go to Japan and visit every convenience store in the country.  I’m a huge fan of another female Japanese author, Banana Yoshimoto, and while Keiko was definitely quirkier than most of Yoshimoto’s main characters, the novel had that same sweet innocence of many of Yoshimoto’s books, which was fine with me.  A short, fun read.