Laurie R. King Virtual Book Club discussion

I like listening to books on audible but I admit it does make it more difficult to go back and check out a fact. I'm wondering where Dreaming Spies falls in the historical context of the U.S./U.K. and Japan. How far are we from war? Is the emperor, the one who declares war? You are discussing now whether Ms. King is writing some of these novels out of sequence. That would make it even harder to place the time of this novel. Could we ask about this on the 30th? Or maybe some of you would know the answer?

Angie wrote: "I like listening to books on audible but I admit it does make it more difficult to go back and check out a fact. I'm wondering where Dreaming Spies falls in the historical context of the U.S./U.K...."

I'm usually a listener, and you're right about that drawback, but this time I read the print version. The preamble takes place in late March 1925. The first part of the book -- the voyage on the Thomas Carlyle, the walk along the Kisokaido, the stay at the Onsen in Arima, and the attempt to recover the book that ended in Darley's and Sato's death -- flashes back to April 1924. The remaining 13 chapters take place a year after that, in April 1925.

Crown Prince Hirohito was the regent, because his father was mentally ill. According to Wikipedia, he became emperor on the death of his father on December 25, 1926, so he was the emperor of Japan during World War II. It's not clear that Hirohito initially favored the war, but he approved the decision of the imperial council to declare war, and appears to have participated actively in major decisions during the war.

Moderators: May I suggest moving this back into the main Dreaming Spies thread (assuming there is a way to do that)?

Angie: Definitely post your question to the Q&A thread for Laurie here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Lenore: sadly, I can't move individual posts from one thread to another. =( I can delete, but can't move.

I can copy the posts in, but it will be posted from me and not the original poster. If you guys are okay with that, I'll happily do that for you!

I guess I am not putting my questions in the right place, but I am new to the book club discussion. Can you help me figure this out?

Actually, I just figured it out. Sorry for the bother.

Angie wrote: "Actually, I just figured it out. Sorry for the bother."

No need to apologize -- I think Goodreads is enormously complicated and takes some practice to use.

Lenore wrote: "Angie wrote: "Actually, I just figured it out. Sorry for the bother."

No need to apologize -- I think Goodreads is enormously complicated and takes some practice to use."

Lenore, one of my perpetual complaints about Goodreads is the complexity of the site! Angie's question was useful, though!

Welcome to the club Angie. I was new about a year ago and love it especially since I don't have a local book club . It's fun to read the posts and think about the question for a while and post later