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Mixed feelings but I'd recommend it to beginners
I’d like to give two separate ratings for this book—one for those who conceived or “produced” it and another for the person who actually authored and translated it.
The Producers (2.5/5)
The production quality is not up to mark. The bolded words are slightly blurry, though still legible. The story titles use large fonts that encroach on the furigana above them. None of these are deal-breakers.
Each story is first presented in full Japanese, then rewritten paragraph by paragraph, with the Japanese followed immediately by an English translation. Furigana is included in both the “full Japanese” and “Japanese + English” sections, which is a major flaw. There’s no way to read comfortably without hints unless you manually cover the furigana.
That said, I would still recommend the book because of the stories.
The Uncredited Author (5/5)
It’s not quite accurate to call these “stories.” The 20 pieces squeezed into this book are more like brief episodes—often almost completely uneventful—taken from people’s lives. They appear to be written by a native Japanese speaker or someone very comfortable with the language.
The level of vocabulary is excellent for beginners—great for building confidence without feeling dumbed down. I’m familiar with several thousand words, yet each story contained a handful that were new to me. A couple of the stories were really endearing.
The author has done an excellent job, which makes me overlook the book’s other flaws and recommend it.