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Rental Person Who Does Nothing
- The True Adventures of Japan's Do-Nothing Rental Person
- Narrated by: Kevin Shen
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's summary
***Now an International Bestseller!***
"Distinctively Japanese musings on meaning and connection."—Observer
I'm starting a service... available for any situation in which all you want is a person to be there. Maybe there's a restaurant you want to go to, but you feel awkward going on your own.
Maybe a game you want to play, but you're one person short.
Or perhaps you'd like someone to keep a space in the park for your cherry blossom viewing party...
Shoji Morimoto was constantly being told by his boss, "It makes no difference whether you’re here or not," and that his presence contributed nothing to the company. Morimoto began to wonder whether a person who "does nothing" could still have actual value and a place in the world. Perhaps he could turn "doing nothing" into a service? With one tweet, Rental Person was born.
Rental Person provides a fascinating service to the lonely and socially anxious. This book details thousands of his true-life adventures:
- Accompanying a divorcee to her favorite restaurant
- Waving goodbye to a client from the train platform
- Sitting in the courtroom during a client’s trial
- Supporting a client during a difficult surgery
Rental Person is dependable, nonjudgmental and committed to remaining a stranger, and the curious encounters he shares are revelatory about both Japanese society and human psychology.
In Rental Person Who Does Nothing, Morimoto chronicles his extraordinary experiences in his unique line of work and reflects on how we consider relationships, jobs and family in our search for meaningful connection and purpose in life.
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- By: Jia Tolentino
- Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
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Couldn’t stop listening
- By Alice on 08-25-19
By: Jia Tolentino
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The Takeover
- By: Cara Tanamachi
- Narrated by: Donald Chang, Chieko Hidaka
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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On Nami’s thirtieth birthday, she’s reminded at every turn that her life isn’t what she’d planned. She’s always excelled at everything—until now. Her fiancé blew up their engagement. Her pride and joy, the tech company she helped to found, is about to lose funding. And her sister, Sora, is getting married to the man of her dreams, Jack—and instead of being happy for her, as Nami knows she ought to be, she’s fighting off jealousy.
By: Cara Tanamachi
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Good Arguments
- How Debate Teaches Us to Listen and Be Heard
- By: Bo Seo
- Narrated by: Bo Seo
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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When Bo Seo was 8 years old, he and his family migrated from Korea to Australia. At the time, he did not speak English, and, unsurprisingly, struggled at school. But, then, in fifth grade, something happened to change his life: he discovered competitive debate. Immediately, he was hooked. It turned out, perhaps counterintuitively, that debating was the perfect activity for someone shy and unsure of himself. It became a way for Bo not only to find his voice, but to excel socially and academically. And he’s not the only one.
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Useful ideas, political though
- By Amazon Customer on 07-23-22
By: Bo Seo
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All of Us Strangers
- A Novel
- By: Taichi Yamada
- Narrated by: Geoff Sugiyama
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Screenwriter Harada is disconnected from the world. Lonely and jaded, he’s drifted apart from his son and is dismissive when approached with gestures of friendship, including from a lonely and mysterious tenant who lives in his mostly empty apartment building. One night, when Harada returns to the dilapidated downtown district of Tokyo where he grew up, he meets a man who looks exactly like his long-dead father. And so begins Harada’s ordeal, thrust into a reality where his parents appear to be alive at the exact age they had been when they died many years earlier.
By: Taichi Yamada
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Convenience Store Woman
- By: Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori - translator
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Tokyo resident Keiko Furukara has never fit in - neither in her family, nor in school - but when at the age of 18 she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of national convenience store chain Smile Mart, she realizes instantly that she has found her purpose in life. Delighted to be able to exist in a place where the rules of social interaction are crystal clear (many are laid out line-by-line in the store's manual), Keiko does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and mode of speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person excellently, more or less.
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Am amazing and different story
- By D.R. on 04-10-19
By: Sayaka Murata, and others
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Stay True
- A Memoir
- By: Hua Hsu
- Narrated by: Hua Hsu
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes ’zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them.
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At the end, this book is about friendships
- By rosalinda lam on 10-31-22
By: Hua Hsu
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Smoke and Ashes
- Opium's Hidden Histories
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Ranjit Madgavkar
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis trilogy ten years ago, he was startled to learn how the lives of the nineteenth-century sailors and soldiers he wrote about were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising of all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history were swept up in the story. Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir, and an essay in history, drawing on decades of archival research.
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Interesting Research, Terrible Reading
- By Paula de la Cruz on 03-09-24
By: Amitav Ghosh
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Earthlings
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth.
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Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
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The Tatami Galaxy
- A Novel
- By: Tomihiko Morimi
- Narrated by: Andrew Grace
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Our protagonist, an unnamed junior at a prestigious university in Kyoto, is on the verge of dropping out. After rebelling against the dictatorial jock president of the film club, he and his worst and only friend, the diabolical creep Ozu, are personas non grata on campus. For two years, our protagonist has made all the wrong decisions, and now he's about to make another mistake. He and Ozu are preparing for revenge—a fireworks attack at the film club's welcoming party for new members.
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Why is Audible forcing us to write a full review?
- By Tsarstepan on 04-03-23
By: Tomihiko Morimi
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River East, River West
- A Novel
- By: Aube Rey Lescure
- Narrated by: David Shih, Jennifer Lim
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Shanghai, 2007: Fourteen-year-old Alva has always longed for more. Raised by her American expat mother, she’s never known her Chinese father, and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva’s hopes are dashed, and so she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai.
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Did not connect with the characters
- By Maryanne T. on 04-18-24
By: Aube Rey Lescure
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Dial A for Aunties
- By: Jesse Q. Sutanto
- Narrated by: Risa Mei
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline.
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Weekend at Meddy's
- By Kentucky Bohemian on 05-02-21
By: Jesse Q. Sutanto
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Women of Good Fortune
- By: Sophie Wan
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Bride-to-be Lulu is about to marry Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor. She just has one secret: she isn't in love with him and is only marrying him to fix her family’s financial issues. But for Lulu and her two best friends, her upcoming nuptials may offer a different opportunity entirely…
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Such a cute story
- By L. Katz on 03-08-24
By: Sophie Wan
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What listeners say about Rental Person Who Does Nothing
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Jennifer A. Cummings
- 04-21-24
charming
Charming, easy little read that speaks to how we're wired as social mammals. Made me wonder if being a rental person could become an actual profession.
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