Tsubaki Stationary Store by Ito Ogawa

Tsubaki Stationary Store by Ito Ogawa, 304 pages

Hotako runs a stationary store that she's inherited from her grandmother. Visitors request her services as a scribe, and she drafts letters using words and stationary that almost-magically solve the customers'problems. This is from a sub-genre of cozy Japanese novels where a business or similar instituion solves problems for patrons with intuition and know-how.

I dunno, it was okay. I mainly wanted to try this sub-genre to see what it was about. I could see occasionally being in the mood for something that was realy chewing gum for the eyes (or in this case, the ears, as I listed to the audiobook). But I get the impression that the readers of this type of novel really want predictability and I can't see myself going through a pile of books that are so similar. I recommend it if you want low-stakes, squeaky-clean relaxation. Or if you're into pens?

Japanese Gothic

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker, 352 pages

In one house, 150 years apart, two young adults are living through their own horror stories. In 1877, Sen is a young female samurai, hiding from the imperial forces when her father takes a monstrous turn, placing her between the danger of her father and the soldiers, either one of whom could kill her whole family. In 2026, Lee has retreated to the same house with no recollection of why or how he killed his roommate, but sure that his father's new home will provide sanctuary from investigators half a world away. When the two meet, they discover that they may be able to help each other, whether it's through searching the archives to find out how and when Sen's family died or helping Lee sort through his untrustworthy memory.

The idea of this book is really interesting, and I thought it played out well. It was definitely atmospheric and creepy at times, and there was true horror as the falsehoods were stripped away. I don't know that it's the best example of the horror genre, as the plot beats were a bit too predictable, but it was definitely an enjoyable read.

The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee

The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro, 304 pages

When a romantic getaway turns into Momoko getting dumped by her longtime boyfriend, she gets drunk and passes out in a mostly empty 24-hour cafe. When she wakes up, the proprietor and one of his regular customers, a Buddhist monk-in-training, listen to her woes and give her the chance to cook her ex's favorite chicken curry dish in an attempt at closure. When the meal turns out to be better than most of the food currently on offer in the cafe, the trio decides to form the titular committee, giving patrons the chance to exorcise their relationship demons while letting go of the meals that tied them to their exes.

This type of cozy food-based loosely-connected story is pretty popular in the Japanese literature that's making its way to the U.S. (see: The Kamogawa Food Detectives, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, etc), and this one seems to be a bit more of a cohesive overarching story than many of those. That said, there are some moments that pulled me out of the story, actions or statements that were so abrupt that it almost felt like I was trying to read a prose version of an anime (yes, I mean the movies, not manga) — I could almost picture the fast animation of Momoko crying out an exhortation and flinging her arms dramatically. However, it is an intriguing entry into this subgenre, and the included recipes made me hungry.

A selection of March graphic novels

 Alice Guy: First Lady of Film by Jose-Louis Bocquet with art by Catel Muller (2021) 400 pages

I have read several graphic biographies. They are often fairly slim and only highlight a few moments from the person's life. This one has over 300 pages to graphically tell the story of Alice Guy's life. Her childhood was fascinating and international. The episodes showing her early positions as stenographer/secretary does not ignore the sexism of the male workforce. Her work relationship with Gaumont who takes a photography shop in Paris into the emerging, innovative motion picture industry was stern, but supportive. Rather than documenting events or making magic trick films, Alice had ideas for fictional films and directed many, many herself, though only a few still survive. In the early days of film people were already experimenting with synchronized sound. Alice directed several early "music videos" too. She meets and works with Herbert Blaché who would become her husband. They go to America. They have two kids. He is unfaithful. They found their own film studio. She continues directing, but then fortunes turn. It is brief, but still fairly detailed in tracing her later life. The writer then provides 75 pages of a timeline and biographical notes. Overall an excellent book.

Guardian of Fukushima by Fabien Grolleau with art by Ewen Blain (2021) 144 pages

I also read the free comic book day preview a couple years ago and it stuck in my mind. I enjoyed reading the full graphic novel. The mythological elements mixed with the true story works well. The writing and the art complement each other so well. As the bonus material at the end sums up, it was a triple tragedy of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011. Naoto Matsumura caring for all the pets and farm animals left behind in the irradiated zone is so heartwarming. Based on the preview, I expected more of the story to be about the day to day life of caring for these living creatures that share our home. The final chapter actually involves Naoto being a spokesperson campaigning for less reliance on dangerous nuclear power.

The Library Mule of Cordoba by Wilfred Lupano with art by Leonard Chemineau (2021) 263 pages

Since I work in a library, you might expect this is right up my alley. You'd be right. I loved this comic adventure. I mean comic as in funny haha. Historical fiction with well-drawn characters. The twists and turns that the three heroes and the mule encounter on their journey/escape kept surprising me. Zealots in Cordoba in the late 900s begin burning books that do not fit their interpretation of religious texts. A librarian and two assistant copyists escape with about 100 books overloaded on a stubborn mule, the worst mule in the world. Cunning misadventures boosted by knowledge from these books helps the escapees survive and narrowly avoid capture or death. The storytelling is complex with multiple flashbacks and details about the time period. I think this was planned as a complete work, not separate issues/chapters that were later bound together. The art is incredibly emotive and humorous. The writer and artist obviously love books, and knowledge, and libraries. There is a fantastic afterword with a bit more history too.

The Outside Circle: A Graphic Novel by Patti Laboucane-Benson with art by Kelly Mellings (2015) 128 pages

The art work took awhile to grow on me. The Outside Circle is about indigenous/aboriginal men from broken homes in Canada. Once the main character Pete is in the prison infirmary and the In Search of Your Warrior program is offered as rehabilitation the story really takes off. The writer is a researcher of native counselling services in Alberta, so this is a real service she wants to share with the world. The men, many with gang affiliation, learn about their roots and learn to break generational trauma from residential schools and families being torn apart. There is a symbolic use of masks throughout. Pete imagines a mask covering his face when he uses violence. Later, the Warrior program has the men make plaster masks of their faces to contemplate their true inner person as they near graduation. Pete finds the strength to stop his gang involvement and reconnects with his younger brother, an uncle he never knew, and a daughter he had rejected. It is uplifting and inspirational.

A selection of January graphic novels

 Battlefields: The Night Witches by Garth Ennis with art by Russ Braun (2009) 79 pages

It is fascinating that Russia did have women pilots in their air force during WWII. Half the story is following a German squad pushing into Russian territory with one conscientious young man as our narrator. The other half focuses on just a couple of the women pilots who fly night missions dropping bombs. One in particular, Nadia Anna, achieves the rank of Captain and is a survivor despite a brief romance with heartbreak and her plane going down. The story succeeds in showing the horrific tragedy of war. The art work is a bit cartoon-y, but not far-off in portraying the gritty realism.

Hokusai: A Graphic Biography by Giuseppe Latanza and Francesco Matteuzzi (2021) 128 pages

I really enjoyed the art and the biographical story. Like Hokusai making woodblocks to stamp multiple prints of his art, some of the graphic novel's images are repeated. In between the story of his life there are full pages of text with historical background about Japanese art, or explaining terms and historical periods. Some of this felt repetitive, unfortunately, like a different author had lost track of what had previously been explained. However, this did not drastically lessen my enjoyment. I thought the book was aimed at teens at first, but it does mention and show a bit of the erotic art that Hokusai made during one part of his life.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (2021) 240 pages

I loved this even more than Fun Home. Bechdel is even more revealing about herself, and explores engrossing related topics. Exercise trends through the second half of the 20th century, Romantic poets, Transcendentalists, Kerouac, Zen Buddhism are all connected. She explores mountains as a symbol for human achievement. The aphorism "it is about the journey, not the destination" comes across.

Will Eisner's New York: Life in the Big City by Will Eisner (2006) 421 pages

I've read a couple of his other realistic graphic novels and highly recommend this one as well. "New York: The Big City" consists of short vignettes. "The Building" tells the backstory of four ghosts who hang around a particular intersection where a historic building has been torn down and a new one constructed in its place. These stories reveal the tragicomic world Eisner is drawn to portray. "City People" is filled with more observations in mostly one or two page vignettes. A longer tragic story is told in Collisions. "Invisible People" contains three longer stories. Sanctum tells the sad story of Pincus Pleatnik. The Power tells a symbolic story of a healer named Morris. Eisner says of Mortal Combat, "In relating the story of Herman, who became the unwilling prize in a clash of wills, I hoped to evoke the helplessness of a person caught in an intersection of the traffic of life."

Past Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in Therapy by Sacha Mardou (2024) 336 pages

A courageous memoir. I picked it up at my new comic shop because it is by a local St. Louis author. Her journey to overcome her anxiety and unpack her childhood trauma is fascinating. She specifically delves into a therapy model called Internal Family Systems (IFS) because she finds it helpful after some initial skepticism. Mardou's art style is a bit loose, but expressive. Freeing herself from generational trauma reveals truly healthy outcomes.

The Puzzle Box

 

The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni (2024), 320 pgs.

As the full moon rises over the imperial palace in Tokyo, Mike Brink prepares to face his greatest challenge yet: solving the unsolvable Dragon Box. He has confronted many puzzles like this before--solving each with ease, due to his savant-like ability to recognize patterns and photographic memory--but this puzzle box is unique in that every person who has attempted to solve it has died in the process. With Sakura, the Emperor's aide with mysterious motives, at his side and the imperial guards watching on, can Brink figure out how to open the murderous Dragon Box before the full moon sets? And, perhaps even more importantly, can he trust those around him?

My experience reading The Puzzle Box reminded me of watching an action movie. I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. Each scene unfolded in my mind as if I were watching it onscreen. Dramatic reveals, strategically placed on the final pages of key chapters, felt primed for film transitions. I could almost hear the swells of music in the most action-packed scenes. Fans of the MCU, Bullet Train, or The DaVinci Code will enjoy this book.

The Puzzle Box

The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni, 324 pages

Since an accident in his teens rewired his brain, Mike Brink has been nearly unstoppable at solving puzzles of all kinds. So when he is invited by the Japanese emperor to attempt solving the legendary Dragon Box (a possibly mythical puzzle box that has, legend has it, killed all previous potential solvers, and even those who have simply touched it), he can't back down from the challenge, no matter how potentially deadly it is. However, as complex as the puzzle box is, there are even more complications involved, as a rival group is doing everything it can to stop Brink's effort and steal the box.

It's been a long time since I've read a good puzzle-centric thriller, and this one definitely is a propulsive page-turner. Is it 100% believable? Not at all. But it's a fun read, one I'd recommend to anyone that misses the puzzly bits of The Da Vinci Code. This is the second book in the series (The Puzzle Master is book 1), and I enjoyed it even though I hadn't read the first one. I will definitely be going back to do that though.

What You are Looking for is in the Library

 

What You are Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama  300 pp.

I came close to giving up on this book after the first chapter because I didn't find it interesting. When I started the second chapter I decided to continue and I am glad I did. The story begins with a woman whose lucrative career is derailed by the birth of her baby. A visit to the library in the local community center leads to a meeting with the reference librarian, who is an unusual woman with a hobby of making small felted items. The librarian gives the woman a list of the books she requested but includes an entirely different book which turns out to be just what the woman needs. The same pattern occurs in subsequent chapters with different characters who visit the library. In addition to the library visits, there are other random connections between each character. It's a slow starter but worth continuing to the end.   

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

 The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (trans. Jesse Kirkwood), 201 pages.

Father and daughter pair Nagare and Koishi run both the (extremely hidden) Kamogawa diner and the attached Kamogawa detective agency. The detective agency doesn't solve crimes, rather it uses Nagare Kamogawa's police detective background to track down the details of dishes from client's memories and recreate them perfectly. This series of six related vignettes follow clients requesting these services for all manner of reasons. 

This book sounds extremely cozy, and it is that, but unfortunately I found it a bit of a letdown overall. Mostly because I found it very repetitive. In each chapter the client: struggles to find the restaurant and isn't sure it's the right place, enjoys a meal that is vividly described in the diner, follows the hall back to the detective agency and comments on the food photos on the walls, gives an extremely vague description of the food they're looking for with a couple of mysterious details, and Koishi says this will be a difficult one. Then we come back a couple weeks later and Nagare describes what all of the mysterious half-remembered details meant and how he successfully recreated the dish, then the client leaves and Koishi and Nagare plan their own dinner. I also found that the prose reminded me a lot of a middle grade book, which made the book a very quick read, but didn't particularly impress me. I suspect this book might be more enjoyable if I knew more about the very specific regions and dish brands we spend a lot of time on, but overall I'm afraid this one was a bit disappointing for me, especially since it seemed so precisely like the kind of book I would be interested in. I do think people looking for a tidy and low stakes book might enjoy it as an easy and relaxing read.

The Kamogawa Food Detecitves

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, 200 pages

On a tiny street in Kyoto, there's a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where the proprietors, a retired police detective and his daughter, make incredible food from a wide variety of cuisines. But what really pays the bills is the Kamogawa Detective Agency, in which the restauranteurs track down and make the comfort food recipes that their clients can't seem to replicate. Told in episodic format, they find everything from a beef stew served more than 50 years earlier at a vaguely remembered restaurant to family recipes created by long-dead mothers to tonkatsu made by a dying ex-husband who was also a chef. This is a supremely cozy and satisfying book, a warm hug of a novel if ever one existed, and a wonderful respite from everyday stresses. Highly recommended.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library

 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (trans. Alison Watts), 304 pgs

These five stories all orbit one small community library in Tokyo. Each of the protagonists feels stuck in their own lives; until, by some circumstance or another, they end up in the community center library and meet it's enigmatic reference librarian. She gives each of them the books they are looking for, as well as one book that seems strange and random, and one small felted toy. Each protagonist soon begins to feel like fate is pushing them in the direction they want to go, and begin feeling like their lives are changing for the better.

This is a phenomenal book. I feel like it's especially resonant in January, but it would be great at any time. Each of the protagonists is very different, but their problems are all very mundane and common. It feels very comforting that the steps between the life that was draining their spirits and a much more fulfilling life are often small, nearly insignificant changes. It makes fulfillment feel very attainable. It was also very interesting to see each of the protagonists occasionally weave into each other's stories. Realistically these stories take place in a very small area, but it is still very interesting to see the ways in which lives are connected to other lives, and to get little peeks at how previous protagonists are doing. It also helps emphasize the aspects of community building that are a major theme that runs through the novel. I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone, and I'm planning on buying a copy for myself to reread.

Last Boat out of Shanghai

 Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, 499 pgs. © 2019

Wow, what a book. I haven't really tapped into a whole lot of historical fiction but this book is of a very high academic caliber that really makes the time and place come alive. The author did extensive research and conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with the survivors that she details here. The book chronicles four children from Shanghai as their lives and families are forever impacted by the Japanese military and later, communist China. Each short chapter is dedicated to one of the four main characters, so it's a good idea to make notes in order to keep everyone's journey separate in your mind--so much happens to these young people that it makes you angry and heartbroken. I spent a lot of extra time Googling things I'd heard names of but had no idea what they were about--the Rape of Nanking, the grotesque practice of foot-binding--there's so much to draw from this book through the lives of the characters that it can be overwhelming. Their stories are true lives lived, who are part of the Chinese diaspora trying to seek shelter from war and seize on whatever opportunities they can to survive. Some make it out of China and head for America, earning degrees and starting businesses, finding love and starting over in a time of intense hostility towards Asian people. At the end of the book, we learn that Bing, kept the secret of being sold to a rich family and adopted for 70 years, telling her daughter Helen, who then turned that into this amazing work. It's a stellar piece of history and journalism that reads like a piece of fiction but was very, very real. This work concluded the Yiddish Book Center's Stories of Exile discussion book club. Highly recommended for adults. 

Fifty Words for Rain

 Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie, 449 pages.

Nori Kamiza's first and most important rule in life is to obey. So when she is left at her grandparents' house at the age of eight she does not resist. She is subjected to years of isolation in the attic, burning chemical lightening baths, and general physical abuse not only for being the bastard daughter of a Japanese aristocratic family, but for being visibly mixed race (a particularly embarrassing thing for a noble family in Kyoto in 1948). This persists for years with no resistance on Nori's part until her half-brother comes to live with them, and the two form an inseparable bond. He begins to teach her some of the joy that can be found in life, but nevertheless tragedy follows them.

I was unfortunately very disappointed in this book. As a series of increasingly improbably terrible things happen to Nori, it feels less and less like a cohesive narrative and more like a game of trying to figure out how terrible things could conceivably be for our protagonists. Most of the characters felt pretty two-dimensional, which only made it more evident when they acted out of character to further the tragedies. Finally, a sort of nit-picky detail, but I couldn't get over how strange it felt that the protagonist's very traditional family is Christian, without ever acknowledging that Christianity is a pretty rare religion in Japan. Especially in the 1940s and 50s Christianity probably would have read as more American than Nori's dark skin. This is a small issue, but it does feel like it feeds into the larger issue of this book under-utilizing it's own setting. 

(Also, as a warning, this book has pretty much every common trigger warning common in books about violence against women)

The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 1177 pp.

This is one of the books selected for the adult summer reading discussions. It is a book that had been on my "to read" list for many years but its length made me keep putting it off. Kara's commentary is excellent and I don't have anything to add except that it wasn't quite what I was expecting, although I'm not even sure what I expected. I do enjoy Asian literature although this is the first I've read with 1000 years of age on it. I'm glad I finally crossed this one out of my "to reads". 

The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, translated by Dennis Washburn, 1177 pages

Written more than 1,000 years ago, The Tale of Genji is often considered to be the first psychological novel, as in it deals with emotions and relationships instead of action. And indeed, this book is ALL about the relationships, particularly those surrounding the super-attractive son-of-an-emperor Genji and the many ladies of his life. He might be "radiant" and swoon-worthy to the Heian court, but so many of his actions are abhorrent to modern readers and eye-roll-inducing to even the narrator. I appreciated the subtle sarcasm and the strong female characters (despite the fact that most of them don't have actual names), as well as the insight into Heian Period Japan. At times, it was hard to keep track of timelines and characters — though with all of Genji's wives and consorts, I'd be shocked if a first-time reader could keep them all straight — but overall I'm glad I read this monumental book. I'm curious what the final word will be on Genji at our last adult summer reading discussion tomorrow night.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa  149 pp.

This is a sweet, small book translated from Japanese by Eric Ozawa. It's about two of my favorite things to read, Asian culture and bookstores. The protagonist, Takako has an unfortunate romance and while she is recovering from it and the loss of her job, she goes to work in her uncle's used bookshop (formerly her grandfather's shop). Her uncle has been running it alone since his wife left him. Soon Takako moves on to a new job when things take an interesting twist. Actually two twists. The characters are gentle people going about their quiet lives without much turmoil. In spite of the tranquility of the tale, there is just enough movement to carry the story along. 

Plum Rains

 Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax, 389 pages

Kara wrote about this book here when it was actually the Orc & Aliens book two months ago. I am late to the party, but this book was interesting enough that I wanted to come back and finish it anyways.

This book moved at a pretty leisurely pace, but I think it stayed interesting throughout. The juxtaposition of historical fiction and science fiction segments created some interesting back and forth. It actually reminded me quite a bit of the short story "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling" from Ted Chiang's Exhalation, which I just recently reviewed. My only gripe is that I didn't like how it ended very much. Overall I would still recommend it.

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami 400 pp.

This early, award-winning novel is two parallel stories presented in alternating chapters with none of the characters named. Hard Boiled Wonderland involves Calcutec, a human data processor and encryption system who uses his subconscious as an encryption key.  He works for a secretive scientist in an underground Tokyo. End of the World involves the Narrator who has had his shadow removed thus removing his memory of his former life. He is tasked with reading the dreams housed in the skulls of dead animals with the assistance of the Librarian. Those descriptions don't even begin to cover Murakami's work. The best I can do is say you need to read it because I can't explain it to you.  

Bullet Train

 Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka, 352 pages.

This book takes place on a bullet train from Tokyo that is absolutely chock full of assassins. Like ridiculously full of assassins. Everyone is there pursuing their own mission, and (as they begin to realize the truly absurd number of other professionals on the train) do their best to not be noticed by the others, as it slowly becomes clear whose agendas are driving the events.

This was a really fun book, and I'm especially fond of the assassin who is essentially a walking case of Murphy's law. It's a pretty tight novel that's listed as a satirical thriller, which sounds at least more or less right, but it's mostly a lot of deeply weird characters in weird situations trying to get everything sorted out.
 

Nothing But Blackened Teeth

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw, 125 pages

When a group of horror-obsessed friends arrive at a remote haunted Japanese mansion for a creepy wedding, they're *hoping* something supernatural and scary happens. After all, they love having the wits scared out of them. But no matter how much they say they expect it, they certainly can't handle it when the ghost of a buried-alive bride-to-be manifests and begins wreaking havoc. This is a short and scary book, full of horrific Japanese supernatural beings and division among friends. It's great, and fully worthy of that creeptastic cover.