According to Goodreads I started reading War and Peace back in July 2010. I did give it a good go, but then I put it down and just didn't pick it up again. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it, but I just stopped.
At the beginning of last year I decided I was going to try and read alongside the chapter a day readalong. I didn't join the group or anything like that. I just kind of kept up with the schedule. I was doing well until I started working again and I fell behind when I was about 2/3 of the way through. It sat on my desk, taunting me every day. Finally, I decided I was going to finish it, once and for all. And so I did!
Today I am sharing a number of thoughts about reading War and Peace. Fair warning....some will be deeper than others.
This isn't my first Tolstoy. Years ago I read and loved Anna Karenina when Oprah chose it for her Classics Book Club. I loved reading along with other readers and discussing the experience, even if not everyone loved it. I should have joined the readalong for this book but I chose to read alone. I knew that I could read Tolstoy but it was still daunting and it definitely felt like an achievement when I finished it.
I think the thing that I do enjoy about these books is the humanness of the characters and how relevant that is still today. Yes, Tolstoy goes off on massive tangents, and spends paragraphs talking about the fact that battles were won despite no one doing what they were ordered to do. I particularly thought where he was talking about the fact that we look back and say this one thing or one person was decisive but really there were many people and incidents that contribute to the eventualities was very perceptive. I think we see this evidenced in the fact that we say that WWI was started because of the shooting of the Archduke Ferdinand. It was, in effect, the straw that broke the camels back, but in reality tensions had been building for years. Another example is that the American's entered WWII due to Pearl Harbor but there had been many events that led up to that one decisive moment.
Getting back to the humaness of the characters, we saw characters who undertook big transformations due to their experiences, such as Pierre going from illegitimate son, to rightful heir, to husband, to member of the Masonic Lodge, to outwardly losing everything. And similarly the female characters such as Natasha and Princess Marya experienced love and loss, and were bound by duty but ultimately achieved happiness.
Whilst the title is War and Peace, it could just as easily have been Love and Loss or Power and what ever the opposite of that is.
Humour isn't the first word that comes to mind when I think of Tolstoy but there was definitely humour in the book, from the inept armies who couldn't follow orders and still triumphed to single lines that just made me smile, like the one late in the book which said about Pierre "Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered."
Would War and Peace qualify as having one of the longest epilogues ever? There are two parts to the epilogue and together they are nearly 100 pages long which seems crazy. One was an epilogue in the more normal use of the word where we found out what happened to the characters after the main part of the story. The other part was more philosophical thoughts about war.
I read the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation of the book because theirs was the version I read of Anna Karenina. It felt quite accessible, and I liked that they kept a lot of the French in the books.
Ultimately, reading a book like War and Peace is a commitment, and I am so glad that I was able to finish it this time. I did close the book with a sense of achievement, but also relief that I had finally got to the end. If you asked me to name Tolstoy books I probably would only be able to name this one and Anna K, but there are others out there, which I might try to read.....one day.
This book counts for the Books in Translation Challenge hosted by Introverted Reader, for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I hosted, counts as one of my 20 Books of Winter and was read for the Marathon reader prompt of the Spring Goodreads Challenge.
Earlier this year I decided that I am going to try to read some classics this year. I therefore decided to join in with the Classics Club Spin and the first selection for me was The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa whose titles were 11th Prince of Lampedusa and 12th Duke of Palma. He wrote this book over a period of years but it was only published after his death.
I was pleased that this was the book chosen as it was quite a small book compared to some of my other options! It felt like quite an accessible start to my Classics Club Spin adventure. I then decided that this is was the perfect book to read on my recent long haul flight, which it was and it wasn't.
The Leopard tells the story of the coming of change to Sicily from independence to being part of the Kingdom of Italy. The Sicilian Prince of Salina is a man who is walking on the edge of a precipice. He is used to a certain way of life, of wealth and the privilege that comes with it. But times are changing, and the days of Sicily being independent are coming to an end. It is the 1860's and Garibaldi has overthrown the royal family in Naples. The Prince and his aristocratic family needs to adapt and quickly.
The Prince has several children but really his most beloved is his nephew Tancredi, who he does everything he can to assist. When Tancredi declares that he is joining Garibaldi's army, known as the Red Shirts, the Prince sees it as an opportunity to have a foot in both camps. Later we see Tancredi as he falls in love with Angelica, the beautiful daughter of a nouveau rich neighbour, which will be extremely advantageous for a man with a good pedigree but no real assets. This leave one of the Prince's daughters heartbroken
The writing in this book was quite dense at times, so it did take me a bit longer to read than I might have expected. I was, however pleasantly surprised by how funny some sections of the book were. For example, there is a funny scene where The Prince is having a bath and the priest comes to visit him and the Prince basically shows him everything! It bought to mind the story of Winston Churchill working while in the bath during WWII.
There were, however, odd little elements of foreshadowing where we find out that things are going to happen, particularly during WWII.
I am so glad that this was the book that came up for this Spin. Let's hope the next Spin works just as well for me.
This book not only counts for the Classics Club Spin but also for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here. It also counts for the Books in Translation challenge as the book was originally written in Italian and is translated by Archibald Duke. The book also includes a few extracts of text that were discovered after the book was originally published.
Last year in July, I read Beartown, the first book in the trilogy of the same name, and I loved it. It was always just a question of time before I picked up the second book! Sometimes though, second books in a series can just not quite live up to the first book, but I loved this just as much as I loved the first book.
In Beartown, the town was torn apart by the events leading up to one of the biggest ice hockey games for the club in years. Now, in the aftermath, a lot of the players have moved to play for the nearby fierce rival town of Hed. When the local council announces that the Beartown hockey club is going to be closed down for good, the locals are disappointed.
Enter a shady politician who excels at manipulating people, mainly by pitting them again each other. He gives the club a lifeline in the form of a big name sponsor, but only if the General Manager, Peter, agrees to make certain changes to the club, which will put him in direct opposition to The Pack who are the die hard, extreme supporters who do, on occasion, tend towards violence.
Peter is a man under siege. He is blamed by many people for everything that has gone wrong, especially seeing as his daughter, Maya, was at the centre of the events. His family are receiving constant threats, his marriage is under pressure and his young son is making some bad decisions. It also seems that he can do nothing right at the club. No matter which way he turns, there will be someone who won't like it.
Given that they lost a lot of players at the end of the previous season, the new coach, who is a woman (shock horror) needs to build a new team around Amat, the fastest skater in town, and Benjy, who long has been the heart and soul of the team. And then there is Vidar, the troubled goal keeper.
Whilst this is a book about ice hockey, it is also a book about so much more. The way that Backman writes relationships is exceptional. Even the secondary characters can grab your heart and rip it out. In this case it was the relationship between Ann-Katrin (a player called Bobo's mum) and Amat's mother, Fatima, that really captured my heart.
Backman also has the ability to really make you care about individual characters. Benjy is one of my favourites. He has a secret but when it comes out, everyone has an opinion. Does his ability on the ice make up for his otherness or is too much for the town to accept. The one things that Benjy does know is that his fearsome sisters will always have his back.
I loved this quote about Benjy!
Everyone in this town knows that Benji is dangerous, because he strikes hardest. Yet few people seem to appreciate that everything about him does just that - strike hardest, beat hardest - the whole time. Including his heart.
Backman is fabulous at building the tension. You know that things are going to come to a head, but the question is what is going to be the catalyst, and what will the lasting impact be. The author has a very interesting way of writing. There is a lot of foreshadowing, some of which might be referencing things that will happen is two years or five years, so you know that your favourite characters are going to make it, but not everyone does.
Once again I was fully invested in the events that were occurring in Beartown. I have already picked the second book up from the library. I was surprised to see how thick the final book in the trilogy is! It's going to be a commitment, but I can't wait to read it and see how everything plays out!
I am sharing this review with the Books in Translation challenge hosted at Introverted Reader.
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina (translated by Lucy Rand)
Last year I read and loved The Library of Heartbeats, so I was very keen to read more from this Italian author who has lived in Japan for many years. Like Library, this book has a fundamentally sad premise but the way that it is written is so beautiful that it is easy to close the book with a smile, even while you ponder the emotions that you have felt while you read.
Near the coast there is a place where there is a man who has a disconnected phone booth, some times known as a wind phone, installed in his garden. People come from miles around to pick up the phone and speak to the people that they have lost. Some times they speak softly and tell their stories. Some times they yell at the top of their voices.
Yui has suffered great loss when her daughter and mother were killed in the 2011 tsunami. Yui finds herself drawn to the garden time and time again, despite the fact that she can't bring herself to actually pick up the phone to speak to her loved ones. There she meets Takeshi who has lost his wife and now his young daughter refuses to speak at all. Can these people who have lost so much, find something to help them be able to live a more full life? Can they allow themselves to be happy.
I have a friend who is a Japanophile and I was talking to her about this authors books, and she started to cry because she said that the stories just sound so Japanese. Interestingly, it seems that this idea of a wind phone has spread around the world. I recently learned that we have some in Australia. There are also at least three Japanese movies/short films about wind phones.
I also wanted to mention how much I love both of the covers on this authors books. They are so simple but totally beautiful!
I don't think any more of this authors books have been translated into English, but if they are I will be reading them!
Rating 4/5
The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama (translated by Takami Nieda)
A while ago I read What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. Whilst I mostly liked it, I did struggle with one particular aspect. So while I looked a this title and think that looks like fun, I was a little nervous. Unnecessarily so it turns out.
This book is set in a Tokyo neighbourhood where there has recently been a new apartment block built. Nearby, there is a small park where one of the installations is a rather worn plastic hippo whose name is Kabahiko. He has scratches on his body and paint where he shouldn't have. But that doesn't stop people from coming to visit the hippo. You see, there is a local legend that if you touch the hippo in the place where you feel pain, then you will be healed.
As the new residents move into the area, we get to understand where their pain is, from a struggling student to a new mother who is feeling lonely and a young man who fakes an injury to get out of sports at school and more. They each find their way to Kabahiko, and slowly they also find others in their community.
Like so many of these cosy, feel good Japanse books, this one of these stories which is episodic in nature. The characters are seemingly very separate but as the book comes together we see how the lives are interconnected.
I was relieved that there was no such issue in this book, and I am really excited that this year we get two new books from Michiko Aoyama, the first of which is called Hot Chocolate on Thursday and it is out in February!
Rating 4/5
Both of these books qualify for the Books in Translation challenge hosted by Jen at Introverted Reader. Healing Hippo also counts for the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted at Dolce Bellezza, and I am sharing this post as part of my personal January in Japan event!
When I reviewed three Japanese foodie books last week, I had no idea I would be back so soon with another one but here we are.
Over the last few years I have been reading more and more Japanese and Korean fiction, and a large proportion of those have been set in restaurants and cafes. I have also read several books that have been set in bookstores or libraries. So when you find one which is Japanese, foodie and set in a library, of course I am going to have to read it!
Otoha Higuchi really wants to work with books, but working in a large chain bookstore isn't working for her at all. When she is contacted by someone known only as Seven Rainbows offering her a job at a library known only as The Night Library she is at first hesitant. The money isn't great, but it does include board and some food. Whilst her ambitious parents aren't pleased Otaha needs to get out of her current situation so she accepts.
The Night Library isn't really a library in the normal sense of the word, especially seeing as you can't borrow any of the books. It is more a collection of books that have been donated by many authors after their passing. It might include their own books, their research books, the books that they personally loved to read. The people who loved their books might come to the library just to look at the books that their favourite authors loved, or researchers might come to look for specific references. You could call it a book museum.
It is called The Night Library because of the unusual opening hours which are from 7pm to midnight each day.
One mystery about the library is who the owner is. No one has ever met them which the employees do find a bit odd. All instructions for them come via the manager, Mr Sasai.
Otoha's first task in her new role will be to unpack, sort and catalogue all the books as the come in from the various donations. They will then be stamped with an individually designed stamp for each author and then shelved in the library. I did find myself googling to see if the author's that were mentioned were real Japanese authors or made up. I think it is a combination of both
If you have read book like Before the Coffee Gets Cold, you know that often these styles of stories have a fairly standard structure that are almost like connected short stories. This book is far less episodic than most Japanese books I am reading. There is a through story as we follow Otoha as she gets settled into her new role but we also get to hear the stories of the other characters including the manager Mr Sasai, and co-workers Ako and Minami.
Throughout each of the episodes we find out what happens when a new collection arrives, we meet some of the people who come to the library to look at the collections from specific authors for their own reasons, we hear about the team members who has fallen out of love with reading, and about books that start mysteriously appearing in the library but aren't part of the collection. We also meet an author's sister who just wants all their books gone, immediately. Finally, the whole team must deal with the news that the library is going to be closing for a while, but could the owner really be meaning to close it permanently?
I mentioned that this was also a foodie book. That comes in the form of the staff dinners which are prepared by the chef Mr. Kinoshita. He creates menus based on mentions of food in various books.
The episodes each have plenty of food references but specifically
Episode One - Shirobanba Curry
Episode Two - Mamaya's Carrot Rice
Episode Three - Anne of Green Gables Bread and Butter and Cucumbers
Episode Four - Seiko Tanabe's Simmered Sardines and Okara
Final Episode -Yoki Mori's Canned Food Recipes
So much of the food sounded really delicious.
In closing, I thought I would share a quote from Episode Three. As you can see from above, the meal being served is cucumber sandwiches, which the chef was serving with a small bowl of peas. I thought this exchange from page 144 between Otoha and the chef was fun.
"Those are green peas sauteed in butter. I finished them by adding a spoonful of sugar. Do you remember how, when they invited Mrs. Morgan to Green Gables, Anne added too much sugar and spoiled the peas?"
"You've read the books very closely, Mr. Kinoshita. Much more than I have."
"No, just the parts about food. I pored over those to come up with a menu."
As always, he served her coffee after the meal, along with a side dish. Brown, slightly large cubes.
"Mr. Kinoshita, this is ....?"
"Chocolate caramel."
"Really? Anne's chocolate caramel? The kind she always wanted to eat?"
"That's right."
"Ever since I was little I've always been curious about what it tastes like. Whenever I eat Morinaga brand Chocoballs, I wonder if that's how her chocolate caramels tasted."
Otoha took one of the chocolate-colored squares and popped it into her mouth. It melted in her mouth, with a thick aftertaste of both chocolate and caramel. A taste similar to the kind of fresh caramel chocolates that were popular here a while ago, but with a pleasant aroma of milk.
"This is so good!
Otoha then suggests they should market the caramels but the chef is adamant that it is way too much work!
I really enjoyed this novel, which is the first I have read by this author. It looks like they have been quite successful in Japan for a long time, but it seems that this is the first to be translated into English, with a new one coming later this year! I will definitely be reading it!
I now have a number of Japanese foodie related series on the go, and today I am sharing about three of them. For the most part, I find them to be very easy, smooth reads which is perfect when you are looking for a book to get lost in.
The Menu of Happiness by Hisashi Kashiwai (translated by Jesse Kirkwood)
Menu of Happiness by Hisashi Kashiwai is the third book in the Kamogawa Detective Agency series which is a series that I really enjoy. So far there are 11 books published in Japan, and I am really hopeful that we will continue to see these books translated into English.
There is no doubt that this book fits a very common structure for lots of these cozyish books. In fact, all three of the books I am talking about today have the same characteristics with short stories where the connection is that they feature the same main characters. Often, the story is about looking back to people who they miss.
In Menu, as in the previous books in the series, we have a several individual characters who come looking for the small restaurant in Kyoto which is home to the Kamogawa restaurant and is also home to the detective agency. And lets not forget also home to the cat named Drowsy
In each story, the character is looking for a very particular taste that brings back memories of a particular time in their life. Food, like music, is definitely a key that can unlock memories of particular people or situations. They come to the cafe and share what details, if any, they remember of the dish and then former policeman turned chef Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Koishi then try to track down the exact dish. Then the customer returns two weeks later to see if they have been able to recreate it correctly.
In this book the dishes that he needs to recreate include
Kake soba
Curry and rice
Yakisoba
Gyoza
Omurice
Croquettes
I like that the food is very accessible. It's not fancy, and some times it is the merest change of an ingredient that changes the dish from just the every day to something that the customer remembers so well!
There are a lot of lovely little details in each story. For example, one of the customers is the person who makes the special lacquerware that they use in the restaurant. Having been to Japan I now have a much better idea of what they are talking about, as we had some meals that were served in some beautiful little bowls
Even though this third book is more of the same as the previous two books, the stories still delight me! Bring on the fourth book.
Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (translated by Jordan Taylor)
When we travel we like to collect Christmas decorations. When we were in Japan last year, we looked in quite a lot of the tourist shops and didn't find any Christmas decorations anywhere. I was aware from previous reading that a Japanese Christmas cake is basically a fluffy strawberry and cream cake and that lots of Japanese people like to have Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Day but that was about it in terms of Christmas traditions, which isn't all that surprising given that the majority religion is Shinto. It was therefore a bit of a surprise to realise that this book is a Christmas book.
This is the second book in the Full Moon Coffee Shop series which features giant talking cats, a magical cafe that generally only comes out on full moons and amazing sounding food and drinks. However, the magical cafe can also pop up anywhere in the week leading up to Christmas and this is when this book is set.
This time the stories are also a more connected than they sometimes tend to be in these styles of books. Satomi works hard and long hours in an advertising agency in Tokyo. She is afraid that her boyfriend is going to propose and that he is going to expect her to move away from the sitter. Koyuki is a temp at the same agency. She does good work but never seems to be able to convert her temp work into a permanent role. The final main character is Junko, who is Satomi's sister in law. She has long been estranged from her parents, but when she gets a message to say her dad is dying, she takes her young daughter to meet him for the first time.
For each woman, the encounters at the Full Moon Coffee Shop helps them to look at both their past and their present to understand what happiness might look like in the future.
I mentioned the fantastical sounding food. In this case there is a Cheese Fondue and Candy Apples, a New Moon Mont Blanc and Sparkler Iced Tea. Here is just part of the description of the tea:
"I have prepared this drink for you," he said placing a rather large glass in front of me. It was transparent and shaped like an ancient vase with no handles. Inside was tea, ice and a sparkler firing off bits of light. "It is Sparkler Ice Tea."
I brought my face close to the glass in astonishment, staring dubiously at the sparkler twinkling inside the liquid. How in the world does it work?
The master said, "Tea and memories are extracted like leaping sparks. It will be ready to drink when the sparks have scattered and the last fragment falls."
I read this one on a plane trip to Brisbane and it was the perfect way to pass the time.
This series currently has 6 books in the series. Once again, I will be looking for the next book in the series.
The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Cafe by Yuta Takahashi (translated by Cat Anderson)
The Chibineko Kitchen is in a small seaside village not too far from Tokyo. They specialise in kagezen, which are traditional meals offered in remembrance of loved ones. The twist here is that it is possible that, for the duration of the meal, you can have one last conversation with them, one last chance to tell them that you love them, and to say goodbye.
This book is the second book in the series, and once again we meet both Kai, the young man who runs the restaurant after taking over from his mother, and Kotoko, who was one of the people whose stories we read about in the first book. And then there is Chibi the calico cat.
There are four stories in the book
The first is about Nagi, a young woman who has been ill for most of her life. She has broken up with her boyfriend when he proposed to her because she thinks it would be unfair to marry her. Now, she has come to the restaurant to talk to her mother, who also died young.
Next, we meet a man named Keita who had basically shut himself in the apartment that he shared with him mother. When she dies, he takes on her job cleaning at the community aged care centre and begins to find a purpose.
The third story is about an older lady named Mitsuyo who feels isolated despite living at the aged care centre. She comes to the restaurant hoping to talk to her favourite singer.
And finally, Kumagai, who is in the same theatre group as Kotoko, visits the restaurant to see his son
What makes this book a little different is that you not only get the stories, but you also get the recipes for the food. They include
Tofu no Misozuke (Miso-marinated tofu)
Buta Bara no Kara-age (Fried pork belly)
Iwashi no Kabayaki-don (Soy glazed sardines on rice)
Shime no Kare (Curry using leftover hotpot)
There are currently 10 books in this series in Japanese but this is only the second one to be translated into English.
It is interesting that not only food and structure connects these stories. Cats also play a part in all three of these stories. The other connection is also that, even though some of these stories feature characters who have suffered great loss, particularly in Menu and Calico Cat, ultimately they are stories about finding hope and joy.
Saturday - Baked chicken fried rice Sunday - Curries, rice and roti Monday - Chicken Stir Fry Tuesday -Sausages in tomato sauce with mash potato Wednesday - Homemade pizza Thursday - Out for dinner Friday - Takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Every month when I share the statistics for The Historical Fiction Reading challenge I go around and look at the books that everyone has been reading. In my post I inevitably say I have added several books to my TBR, and today I bring you evidence of that! Two of these books are ones that I learned about through the challenge.
The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas
Set in 1885 in Paris, The Mad Women's Ball is a short but engrossing read that I thoroughly enjoyed.
The Mad Women's Ball tells the story of the women of the Salpêtrière Asylum. It wasn't a place that you wanted to find yourself as for most of the year it is a very grim place where the women that no one wants in society are hidden behind the locked doors and high walls. Whilst there were some genuinely mentally disturbed people in the asylum, there are also some women who are there because they dared to defy their families, fell in love with someone inappropriate or behaved in some other non-typical way.
Eugenie comes from a well to do family, and she should be living a protected, sheltered life but she mistakenly trusts her grandmother with her secret - she can see ghosts. It is the last straw for her father and she is taken to the asylum to be locked up with a diagnosis of hysteria.
Keeping firm control of the asylum is the Matron, Genevieve. Whilst she is stern, she also does her best to care for the women, especially those who are used as living subjects of Jean-Martin Charcot, a French doctor who is credited with doing ground breaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, although I am not sure he would get away with doing the same living experiments these days
The only time that Eugenie will be seen again is on the occasion of The Mad Women's Ball, an annual event where the patients get the chance to get all dressed up and the brightest lights of Paris come to the ball to watch them dance.
I heard about this book over at Carpe Librum when Traceyreviewed it here. It's a fascinating read.
Victoria Mas is a French author and the translator was Frank Wynne. This books counts for the Books in Translation challenge hosted at Introverted Reader.
Rating 4.5/5
The Florence Sisters by Tessa Harris
The idea of packing up and living in Italy for a while has long been attractive. In Florence in 1940 there are a group of British women who live in the city. They are known as the Scorpioni although they prefer to think of themselves of the English Ladies Art Appreciation Society. However, this is a time when the British are at war with Italy and so they find themselves targeted by the authorities.
Angelina is one of the ladies' half English-half Italian nieces, who also happens to be an expert in art, with a particular fascination for the work of Lucas Cranach. When she first meets art dealer, Edoardo Bernini she doesn't like him. She knows that he can't be trusted. After all, his father was convicted of an art related con and Edoardo is working for the fascists.
When he asks her to verify the authenticity of a recently found Cranach painting she knows that if she says that it is genuine it will disappear over the border to Germany, but if she falsely declares it to be a fake she will put the herself and all of the ladies in danger.
This was my first Tessa Harris and it was an interesting read. I did go down a bit of a rabbit hole regarding the damage done to Venice during WWII and also in looking at the work of Cranach who was an artist that I was unfamiliar with!
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews.
Rating 4/5
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
This is almost a wildcard entry in my reading because it is well and truly outside my normal choices. This book is set in Syracuse in Sicily in the year 412 BC in the days following an unsuccessful Athenian invasion. The Athenians who survived the battle are being held in a disused quarry outside town. The conditions are harsh, the food is scarce and there is no compassion from the locals. After all, these are the men who killed their husbands, brothers and sons.
Our two main characters, Gelon and Lampo, are unemployed potters, who come across as being a bit dodgy, particularly Lampo who sees himself as a wheeler dealer but money just flows through his fingers like sand. They come up with a scheme to use the prisoners to put on a for one night only production of the latest play by Euripides. The scale of the production gets larger and larger involving more and more of the locals. But the big question is, will the crowd come?
This was such a fun read. Ferdia Lennon is an Irish author who has achieved quite a lot of success with this book, including being shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2025. One of the fun aspects is the language. Lennon chooses to give his main characters Irish voices, using words that are so overtly anachronistic that it doesn't matter. It probably shouldn't work, but it does!
There are, however, serious subjects covered in the book including the impact of war, of love, of redemption and so much more.
I first heard about this book when Cathy from What Cathy Reader Next reviewed it. I was very surprised to find it at my local library, but I am so glad that I got to read it!
Rating 4/5
I am sharing all of these reviews with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host.
Over the last few years I have read several books translated from Japanese to English, and I have noted that the books I have been choosing seem to have certain similarities. They are usually episodic with a story connected to one particular scenario and then the next story is about someone else. They often are looking at grief and those who are left behind, often they feature food and there are often cats.
Whilst the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki certainly fits three of these similarities, it is not so much a book about those left behind after a loved one dies, and it has a kind of magical realism running through it! Obviously you can tell from the cover that there are cats, it is episodic in structure (although it does tie together nicely at the end) and the food is out of this world, as you might guess from most of the chapter titles.
The sections of the book include
Aquarius Trifle Lunar Chocolate Fondant Mercury Cream Soda Moonlight and Venus Champagne Float
The Full Moon Coffee Shop is a very unusual coffee shop. It can randomly pop up and then be gone just as quickly, it's waiters are talking cats, and for those who are lucky enough to visit, there is a side of astrological readings and otherworldly wisdom.
The first visitor is a down on their luck scriptwriter named Mizuki. In her twenties she was an in demand writer who had written hit TV shows. These days though, her TV scripts are out of fashion so she is writing for games, she lives in a much smaller apartment and she is something of a recluse. She has recently submitted a script that she is working on.
The second visitor to the cafe is Akari who works in TV and has the horrible job of telling Mizuki that her script isn't going to be picked up, which is difficult because they have a past connection. Akari has a reputation as a driven TV executive who has a mess to clean up when her leading lady gets caught up in a scandal.
Then there is computer guy Takashi who ironically seems to have a lot of technology related issues a lot of the time.
The final visitor is Meguma, a hairdresser who has moved back home to help out in her parents small salon but who is trying to work out what she wants her career to look like in future.
I thought would share a passage from the book to give a bit of a taste of the writing. When I was reading this on the plane, I was amused to see that there was a chapter called Mercury Cream Soda, because I knew I had scheduled a Weekend Cooking post about creaming soda for when I was away. So here is a short passage about Mercury Creaming Soda
At the end of a road, I spotted what looked like a popup cafe.
In front of a truck were several sets of wooden tables and chairs, where the passengers from the train were sitting. I recognised them, somehow, and yet their faces remained a blur.
I took a seat at a free two-seater table. Someone appeared and placed a glass in front of me. "Here you go. A Mercury Creaming Soda."
Unlike the scenery and people around me, the drink was vivid and distinct. It had all the usual components of a cream soda - ice cream and a cherry on top. What distinguished it from the normal version was that its soda wasn't the usual green, but instead a beautiful sky blue, and the ice cream was a greyish-what colour rather than the usual vanilla.
I pulled the glass toward me and sipped the drink through the straw.
The soda tasted pleasant and refreshing as it trickled down my throat, and the sweetness was just right. The taste was vaguely familiar and yet totally new,
The pale grey ice cream turned out to be a lemon-flavoured sorbet that went perfectly with the soda. As the flavours danced on my palate, I caught the sound of a woman's voice from the neighbouring table. She seemed to be complaining about something.
"Emails getting lost, data corrupting itself and now the train's late...Sheesh!"
The woman could have taken the words right out of my own mouth. It was if she was giving voice to my inner thoughts.
"Typical Mercury retrograde, isn't it?" she continued.
There is quite a lot of astrology in this book. Some of it I kind of skipped through, but some of it was very interesting, and some of it was just plain fun!
Interestingly, Jesse Kirkwood also translated the Kamogawa Food Detective Agency series by Hisashi Kashiwai. I might have to check out what else they have translated. The second book in the Full Moon Coffee Shop series is due to be released later this year. I will be reading it!
Weekly meals
Saturday - Out for dinner Sunday - Steak Egg and chips Monday - Normandy pork Tuesday - Chicken Kebabs and baked potato Wednesday - Beef Stroganoff Thursday - Mexican Chicken and Rice Friday - Leftovers
I am sharing this review with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story and Translated Fiction challenge hosted at Introverted Reader.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
I have done very badly in my reading for the Japanese Literature Reading Challenge which I signed up for this year and runs all through January and February. In my head, January should have been a month long extravaganza of all things Japanese, and then I could share a couple more reviews in February! Success! I did go and see a Japanese artist exhibition in January, but never really posted about it, and I have read one book this year, so ....not success?
The books that I do find myself reading when I read Japanese literature have quite a few similarities. Many of them episodic in nature - almost a collection of short stories. Most of them all seem to be looking at the people who are left behind and the grief they feel, and how grief is processed. Another series which has these similar characteristics is the Before the Coffee Gets Cold, which I have posted about previously. I have a friend who lived in Japan for a couple of years ago and we were talking about this recently which was an interesting conversation about the differences in cultures.
Today, I am going to share mini reviews of two books which both have food at their core and both have the similar episodic formats
The first is The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisash Kashiwai, which is the second book in the Kamogawa Food Detectives series. I read and reviewed the first book in the series last year and really enjoyed it.
The idea of this book is that if you can find the restaurant you can tell them about a dish that has such perfect memories for you. The food detective, primarily former police detective Nagare Kamogawa, will then take the clues that you have provided and try to recreate the dish as authentically as possible. There is no magic in this series, unless you count the magical power of food to bring back memories
There are six stories in this book. They are:
A famous swimmer who wants to have another taste of the nori-ben that his father used to make, before they had a big falling out,
A food writer who busily critiques all of the food she is served but then wants them to recreate a hamburger steak which is her son's favourite.
A couple who run a traditional confectionary shop who want to track down a Japanese Christmas cake
A model looking for the fried rice that her mother used to make her
A man looking for ramen that replicates the one he used to have at university
A one hit wonder that had been waiting thirty years for her next hit to recreate a celebration meal but it didn't happen.
The descriptions of the food throughout the book are absolutely mouth watering. The Christmas Cake story inspired me to make a Japanese Strawberry Shortcake, which is their version. I posted about making that here.
The relationship between Nagare and his daughter Koishi who helps him with his detecting underlies the stories, particularly as they take care to honour their wife and mother who has passed away some time ago. And yes, there is a cat! It's name is Drowsy and it appears in all the stories.
There are currently 11 books in this series published in Japan, but only two have been translated into English so far. As soon as more have been translated I will definitely be reading them
The Chibineko Kitchen is the first book in The Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen series by Yuta Takahashi. It is also published with the title The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen.
I know that I probably shouldn't compare this book to either the When the Coffee Gets Cold series or the Yamogawa Food Detectives, but as I mentioned in the intro it is very difficult not too given the similarities in themes, the tone of the writing and the cats. There is one major difference with this book and that is there is a bit of a through story going through the four stories, more than there is in the other books I mentioned.
The Chibineko Kitchen is in a small seaside village not too far from Tokyo. They specialise in kagezen, which are traditional meals offered in remembrance of loved ones. The twist here is that it is possible that for the duration of the meal you can have one last conversation with them, one last chance to tell them that you love them, and to say goodbye.
In this book there are four stories.
The first is about a girl named Kotoko whose brother died and she is struggling with survivors guilt. She come to eat a fish stew made of a fish called fat greenling
The second story is about a young boy who shares an omelette sandwich with a young girl and then she disappears not long after!
The third is about making peanut rice for a neighbour of the restaurant
The final story is making beef hotpot and is for one of the main characters in the book
One of the points of difference to this book is that it actually includes the recipes. Some of them may be somewhat basic but they are there!
There are currently 9 books in the series. The second book comes out in English mid-year, and you can be sure that I will be getting my hands on it as soon as I can!
I know I have mentioned grief a lot here, but please don't think that these are heavy or depressing books. They are both very respectful of the people who are no longer in the lives of the characters for whatever reason, but there is also a joy and charm that lifts the books. As much as they are about looking backwards they are also about finding ways to move forward.
I have about four or five of these styles of books on my Kindle which I am hoping to read when I am visiting Japan and Korea in a few weeks time. That's my plan at any rate.
Saturday - Honey Pepper Chicken Stirfry Sunday - Leftovers Monday - Out for dinner Tuesday - Takeaway Wednesday - Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan Risotto Thursday - Baked Tuscan Chicken and Pasta Friday - Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognaise
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
This year I am participating in Countdown to 2025 hosted by Lynn from Lynn's Books. Today is day 21 and the prompt for today is Santa’s Snack – a book that was a ‘light read’ between heavier books
I'd never read Fredrik Backman before and now I find myself wondering why, as I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
The trouble all starts when someone leaves a frying pan next to the recycling bin and the apartment building is determined to find the guilty party. Lucas likes to be left alone. In his mind, people are the root of all stress and disharmony, so he is more than a little unhappy when he suddenly finds himself in charge of the growing pile of rubbish! And then things get really out of hand.
I have never lived in a building where there is a body corporate and the associated committees but I know people who do and I have heard some absolute horror stories of how things can go wrong!
I thought this was a delightful short read and now I am determined to read more from Backman.
I am sharing this mini review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady Book Reviews and Books in Translation Challenge hosted at The Introverted Reader.
Tomorrow's prompt is Reindeers – a book with memorable critters
Antoine Laurain is a French author who I was introduced to as part of previous Paris in July events. I read my first book last year, but then in the last 12 months I have read 3 more of his books, and I am now halfway through the fourth. I think I have also bought all of the books that I can get in English, except for one. I feel like I should have been more across this author well before now, but better late than ever I am sure!
For today's post, I thought I would share a couple of mini reviews of the books that I have read, which I am sharing with my fellow participants of Paris in July, hosted at Words and Peace, and with Sunday Salon, hosted at Readerbuzz.
The first Laurain book that I read was The Red Notebook. When Laurent Letellier finds an expensive handbag when he is on his way to work, he is determined to return it to it's rightful owner. The only problem is there is nothing in there to help him find out who that it is. Instead, there are a number of random looking items which helps him track her down. Lauren is a bookseller, and one of the items in the bag is a copy of a book by Patrick Modigliani. There are therefore plenty of literary references, lots of Paris and a fun story. Obviously I enjoyed it, otherwise I wouldn't have continued onto read so many more of his books.
The next book I read was Vintage 1954. An eclectic group of people find themselves sharing a bottle of vintage 1954 Beaujolais. There is Hubert who owns the building, Magalie who is an antiques restorer, Julien who is a mixologist, and finally there is Bob, an American widower who is on his dream first trip to Paris. When the group wake up the next day, they find themselves back in 1954. Their mobile phones and credit cards don't work, Paris is very different to the Paris of 2017. The group needs to figure out a family mystery and then how to get back to 2017.
The Reader's Room is more of a mystery, but with a twist. Every one gets excited when a debut novel is found and published to great acclaim. It is a bit odd though. The editor, Violaine LePage, doesn't actually know who the author is, and when there are series of murders that echo those that appear in the book, the police come knocking.
I have enjoyed all of the books, but if you were forcing me to pick a favourite so far it would be An Astronomer in Love, which I reviewed earlier this month (review here). One of the reasons when I like the books so much is that everyone of them is different. There are some commonalities (for example, there seems to be something about smoking in his books, his characters often have interesting occupations, and Paris comes to life in the pages of his books. There are often unexpected connections between the characters which only come to life as you keep on reading the book.
I am currently reading the latest book, French Windows, and then I have The President's Hat, French Rhapsody, The Portrait and Smoking Kills waiting for me on my Kindle. Yes, you can now call me an Antoine Laurain fan!
What a delight this book was! I have read a couple of other books by this author so I did expect to be charmed by it, but this was next level.
We first meet Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de La Galaisiere, astronomer tothe Academie Royale des Sciences, as he boards a ship bound for India. Guillaume has been ordered by no lesser person that His Majesty Louis XV "to measure, with the aid of his telescopes and astronomical instruments, the true (rather than the supposed) distance from the Earth to the sun, on the occasion of the transit of Venus across our star."
As you would expect Guillaume Le Gentil has planned his journey to the tiniest detail. Nothing will stop him from getting to exactly where he needs to be to fulfil his mission. Unfortunately, fate has other ideas and so he ends up on an adventure that he could never have imagined. He builds friendships, has experiences that bring him joy, hardship, utter despair and so much more. All of this is made more interesting by the fact that Le Gentil really existed!
This is a dual timeline story. The other timeline of this story is set in 2012 and features a real estate agent by the name of Xavier. He is a divorced father who only gets limited time with his son. One day, he is called to an apartment that he recently sold. The new owner has found a big chest in a cupboard and they want it gone. Inside the chest is an old telescope. When he sets up the telescope in his window, his attention is caught by a woman in a nearby apartment who appears to have a zebra in her house, and he can't stop thinking about her and wondering who she is.
Whilst the telescope is the obvious connection between these two stories, there is a much nicer connection which really only unveils itself right at the end in the loveliest way. There is at least one weird aspect of the story which feels a bit out of place at the time, but the author brings it all together masterfully!
I have read several Antoine Laurain novels over the last year, and they all are somewhat quirky, including in the way that people meet, and this is no exception. One of the things that I loved about this book is it almost felt like two separate books and yet, it never felt disjointed. The Le Gentil sections are an adventure where there is peril, mishaps and more, and yet the modern part is much more a meet-cute, modern story.
One of the reasons why I found the section about the transit of Venus so interesting is that it connects to Australian history. Captain Cook was in Tahiti for the transit that occurred in 1769, and from there he continued to the east coast of the land that we now call Australia. I had therefore heard about the transit, but I loved learning more through the pages of this book!
I still have a few more of Laurain's books to read. The big question is do a binge read all of them or try to space them out a bit. I suspect I don't need to spell this out but I really, really enjoyed this book, and recommend it highly
Today I am going to be sharing two mini reviews of books I have read for this years Japanese Literature Challenge. I am half way through another and have one more to read but whether I will finish both of those before the end of the month is debatable.
When I reviewed The Kamagawa Food Detectives a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I tend to be reading books which are constructed as a series of vignettes, and both of these books fit this description.
The first book is What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts, who also translated Sweet Bean Paste,which I read and loved last year.
The stories include a young woman who is working in a fashion department in a store. Tomoko doesn't want to stay working there but she also doesn't have the first clue of what else she can do. She starts talking to a young man who encourages her to go to her local library to help learn some new skills. My favourite part of Tomoko's story was when she decides to challenge herself to learn to make Castella, a Japanese cake. I think I might even try to make it.
Other stories include a woman who is working her way up the ranks at a magazine publishing company but finds herself moved into a new role when she returns from parental leave, a young man without a job and an older man who finds himself moving into a new phase in his life when he retires. In a way, each of the stories is about beginnings.
The magic in this book comes in the form of the librarian who can not only help the characters find what they are asking for, but also gives them something that they didn't even know they needed. In addition, she gives them a felted mascot to carry with them.
One thing I really liked was the way that these characters are ever so loosely connected, not in an obvious way, but still connected. They all have the library in common as well.
However, I did have one quibble with this book and that is the way that the librarian, Sayuri Komachi, is described. She is a larger lady and some of the ways that she was described were a bit....off. Maybe I am a bit sensitive to this but it was still a bit of a stain on an otherwise good read. I did see someone else comment on a similar thing recently, so maybe it is a cultural thing.
This book also counts for my Books About Books Challenge
The second book I wanted to mention is Before You Memory Fades which is the third book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is translated by Geoffrey Trousselot. I have listened to each of these books and I expect that I will listen to the next one too, partly because they are pretty quick and easy to listen to. I will say that one of the characters in the first story had a bit of an odd accent but luckily that was only in the first story.
This series has been a Booktok favourite for a while (not that I am on Booktok) so I will only give a brief summary of the book. I did review the first book a couple of years ago.
The first two books are set in a cafe called Funiculi Funicula in Tokyo. This time, the location has changed to Cafe Donna Donna which is in a town called Hokodate on the island of Hokkaido in Northern Japan. It does make me wonder how many other places there may be a time travelling cafe in Japan! Whilst the location has changed, there is one character who has temporarily moved from Tokyo to Hokodate and that is the chef Nagare. Fortunately, the rules are the same for anyone who wants to travel either to or from the past, otherwise that might get a bit confusing.
You must sit in a particular chair in the corner and the you can't move from the chair
You can only meet people who come into the cafe
Nothing that happens in the past will change the future
You must finish the coffee before it gets cold in order to return to your own time
I liked the change in location. The cafe stands on a road which goes up a mountain and so you can look out across to the harbour. It sounds like a beautiful place, and be changing the location the author was able to share different cultural events with us
Once again we have four stories that make up this book along which almost stand alone although there are regular customers who appear in all the stories. One of the cute ideas running through this novel involves a young girl who is reading a book which asks 100 questions about what would you do if the world was ending tomorrow. It's a fun mechanism to get the characters talking to each other.
Once again the stories feature people who have lost someone wanting to make one last connection. This does mean that there is a certain sameness to the stories, but I guess it makes sense because those are the people who would want one last conversation, one last chance to see their loved ones.
Before you can sit in the designated chair, you have to wait for the ghost who normally sits there to get up and go to the bathroom. In this book, the ghost is a man who appears to have been there for years. It might be interesting to get to hear the ghost's stories, especially how they got stuck in the cafe, unable to move on.
I think for next year I will try to focus on a longer, single story for the challenge, in addition to these episodic type of books.
.png)
