Books

SACRAMENTO — Samuel Nakamura will discuss his book “Nurse of Manzanar” on Saturday, March 13, at 2 p.m. at the Asian Community Center-Park City, 7375 Park City Dr. in Sacramento.

The book is based on a lost manuscript by Toshiko Eto Nakamura, who was a registered nurse when World War II broke out. Samuel Nakamura, her only son, discovered the manuscript after his mother’s death in 1994.

BERKELEY — The BCA Bookstore and Center for Buddhist Education invite the public to a free book talk by Caroline Brazier, author of “The Other Buddhism: Amida Comes West” and other works.

The event will take place Saturday, Feb. 20, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Jodo Shinshu Center, 2140 Durant Ave. (between Shattuck and Fulton) in Berkeley.

NEW YORK — The just-released “Penguin Book of Japanese Verse” is described by the publisher as “the definitive anthology — unrivaled in scope and content.”

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Award-winning author, organic farmer and Slow Food activist David Mas Masumoto will speak on Monday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts as part of the 2010 Wallace Stegner Lecture Series.

The originally scheduled speaker, Richard Preston, will be unable to attend due to illness.

The National Japanese American Historical Society and the Presidio Trust are hosting a panel discussion entitled “To Interrogate You Must Have Feelings” on Saturday, Jan. 23, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Officers Club of the Presidio of San Francisco.

The featured presenters include:

Alexander Corbin, author, “The History of Camp Tracy: Japanese World War II POWs and the Future of Strategic Interrogation”

Carol Jensen, author of “Byron Hot Springs (aka Camp Tracy)”

STANFORD – The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University will welcome award-winning novelist Ian Hideo Levy as writer-in-residence at Stanford from Feb. 8 to 19.

Levy, an American citizen and former professor of Japanese at Princeton and Stanford universities, is the first Westerner to write critically acclaimed fiction in Japanese, establishing himself in Japan’s literary pantheon by winning many of that nation’s most prestigious literary prizes.

SAN MATEO — "Ocean Beach," a book of poems by Hiroshi Kashiwagi, has been published by Asian American Curriculum Project (AACP).

A native of Sacramento and a Bay Area resident since 1952, Kashiwagi is a retired librarian of the San Francisco Public Library. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. He and his wife, Sadako, are parents of three sons.

Kashiwagi's first book, "Swimming in the American: A Memoir and Selected Writings," won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in 2005.

NEW YORK — Two new translations of works by Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), regarded as the father of modern Japanese fiction, will be published by Penguin Classics in February.

No collection of Japanese literature is complete without Soseki's "Kokoro" (translated and with an introduction by Meredith McKinney), his most famous novel and the last he completed before his death.

BERKELEY — Stone Bridge Press has announced the release of "Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist" by Andrew Osmond.

Critics agree that Japanese director Satoshi Kon is one of the world's most innovative creators of animated films. In the tradition of Stone Bridge Press releases such as "Hayao Miyazaki" and "Anime Classics Zettai," Osmond's guide provides an in-depth look at Kon's revolutionary vision.

The Japanese American National Library, Japan Society of Northern California, and National Japanese American Historical Society will present a lecture by Bob Barde on how Issei came to America on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 2 p.m. in the Union Bank Hospitality Room, 1675 Post St. in San Francisco Japantown.

The room is located on the first floor of the Japan Center’s Miyako Mall. Enter from Peace Plaza.