From Jansson, to Montgomery, to McCall Smith: Mini Reviews

Starting from February, my blogging time would be reduced to, perhaps, one post a week or two. No, I'm not in one of those blogger-block phases. I am, actually, taking part in weekend tax certification course (for my work), which will be going on until end of May. Thus, there will be very limited time for me to do reviews. I will keep reading, and participating in reading events, but unfortunately, my reviews will be very-very short. Now, here are my mini reviews for three books I have read these past two weeks.

The Summer Book (1972) by Tove Jansson

🏕 Sophia, six, and her grandmother, are staying in a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. This book contains vignettes of their summer activities; a unique experience you'll ever have when staying by yourselves in a tiny island. They are exploring the island, midsummer boating and watching bonfires, and, for Sophia, sleeping in a scout's tent.

🏕 All the while, they are discussing about life and nature - a discussion that an elderly woman and a six year old precocious child could possibly have. The book isn't a plot driven story - indeed it hasn't any - but more of a character driven one. The nature - the woods, the sea - is the most important of all, as it invites us to its embrace. It's a subtle, but also poignant read. Not my favorite, but the summer description and activities are quite refreshing.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Blue Castle (1926) by L.M. Montgomery

💙 Valancy Stirling - what an unusual name! - has been brought up by a snobbish, overbearing mother. She is more like his deceased father, though, a child with free spirit. But her "imprisonment" within the family (numerous aunts and uncles) made her insecure and clumsy. Moreover, Valancy, being not beautiful, is still single in her thirties. She had had no life at all, and only her imaginary Blue Castle and books of a certain writer that keep her alive, well, barely. But all these would soon change after she got a diagnosis of severe heart problem, with one year more to live. Having nothing to lose, Valancy now determined to live her life as she wants it to be. Forget all the family conviction; it's her life, so she makes her own rules. Including marrying the man she loves; no matter what others say, and even, no matter whether the man really loves her or not. The question is, will she be happy? Or will her life be ruined by her decision?

💙 I loved Valancy's transformation. It only proves, again, what we've learned from novels, that society often ruined one's life with its dictatorial rules. How freeing it is to be what one wants to be!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (1998) by Alexander McCall Smith

🕵🏽‍♀️ Precious Ramotswe, a widow, is opening the first ever female detective agency ever in Bostwana. This book, the first of a series, tells us Mma Ramotswe's personal life and struggles, in the social and cultural background of Africa near the turn of 21st century. Almost one third of the story is about her life, while the rest are first mysteries she solved, from missing husbands, as well as cheating ones; to a more serious and dangerous case - the missing of an eleven-year-old boy. 

🕵🏽‍♀️ All in all, it's a fascinating and quite funny book with interesting bits of African people and culture. I loved Mma Ramotswe's unperturbed character - a good quality in a detective. Now I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: FEBRUARY #AgathaChristieSS25

For February, we will be reading one Miss Marple's story, and the other with no detective. 
You can find the complete reading list here, and please submit link to your reviews of this months' stories on the comment section of this post. Happy reading!

THE TUESDAY NIGHT CLUB

First published in 1932, this was the first story in Miss Marple's The Thirteen Problems. It was the first meeting of the newly formed Tuesday Night Club, where each must tell a mystery, and they would discuss as a group. It opens with Sir Henry's story. Three people were poisoned at dinner, but only one has died.

THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY

The story was first published in a collection in June 1934, under The Listerdale Mystery. It was not published in the US until the 1971 collection The Golden Ball and Other Stories. This was also the first story in the collection. Down on her luck and living with family in a boarding house, Mrs St Vincent comes across an advert to rent a beautiful house with a benevolent landlord.

Sweet Bean Paste (2013) by Durian Sukegawa #JapaneseLitChallenge18

🌸 Sentaro works at Doraharu confectionery, making dorayaki. Dorayaki is a common street food in Japan; a pancake filled with sweet azuki bean paste. Sentaro works only to pay his debts to the owner, and he can't wait to leave his grilled pan and spatula behind. But it all changed when an elderly woman with disfigured face and crooked fingers came to Doraharu, one beautiful spring day, when the cherries were blossoming.

🌸 Tokue is in her seventies, but she asked for a job at Doraharu. Sentaro couldn't afford a staff, but Tokue is happy to make bean paste for half the pay; she has been making bean paste for the last fifty years. Tokue's bean paste is indeed sweet and delicious, far exceeding the factory-made ones Sentaro used to buy for his dorayaki. So, he took her in.

🌸 Tokue's been paste brought happy customers to Donaharu, and her sweet gentle presence brought peace and comfort to Sentaro, and a school girl who's a regular to Donaharu. However, there are people who don't approve of Tokue's presence, due to her bitter and secret past. And this secret, when it was revealed (which threatened to ruin Donaharu business), quite blew me away. I didn't know that that thing still exists, and is still a concern in Japan in the 21th century. And this changed completely the direction of the story.

🌸 The seemingly sweet premise the story has been woven with, was slightly touched with bitterness of Tokue's suffering, resulting to a deeper taste. As Sentaro said a few times, Tokue has been through a lot. Yet, she maintains her positive attitude towards human kind, thanks to her embracing the power of nature. In the end, this is a compelling, poignant story, wrapped in the sweetness of Japanese cuisine and its street food stalls. My first five stars read of the year, and now I'm craving for dorayaki! I read the audiobook, narrated, just as beautifully as it was written, by Cindy Kay.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Japanese Literature Challenge # 18

hosted by Dolce Bellezza

The Convenience Store Woman (2016) by Sayaka Murata #JapaneseLitChallenge18

🏪 Keiko Furukura grown up as an unusual child. She never fits in, neither at home, nor at school. It's just that she thinks differently from other children. Like, when they found a dead bird, while the other children were devastated or crying, Keiko was thinking that her father would like to have the bird cooked for dinner tonight. I think I will feel similar to Keiko - dead bird is just, well... a dead creature. It would be different if it was my pet, but a random dead bird is just natural. That's just one example, but Keiko's family was worried, and always think she needs to be cured.

🏪 At eighteen, Keiko still doesn't fit in in college. At this point, she took a part time job at a convenience store. It was a God-send to her, so to speak, as she finally found peace inside the regulated small world of convenience store. When one works in a convenience store (the kind that are numerous in Japan, as well as other Asian countries), one becomes a store worker; no matter what one's gender, sex, education, race, or social background is. One is only expected to perform based on the store manual. One would not be expected to be, to feel, to look like anybody else, since during working hours, they are all one entity, convenience store workers. Then, and only then, does Keiko feel happy, safe, and comfortable. No wonder that she never leaves the job, and becomes more and more attached to it.

🏪 Now Keiko is in her thirties, still a part-timer, still unmarried. Her family and friends are uneasy, often annoy her with their comments, insinuations, persuasions. Apparently, Keiko still doesn't fit the society. What is her fault? She lives independently, doing a good job, doing no harm to others, and more especially, completely happy and peaceful with herself. What's wrong with that? Well, it's wrong because the society dictates that a normal person should marry and procreate, and he/she should always improve in career. Being comfortable in one place for the rest of one's life isn't normal. It seems that all the Keikos in the world have only two choices: being happy of their own values, but being shunned forever from the world, for rejecting the society's convention; or accepted in the society, but forever living as a soulless creature, always conform with others.

🏪 Who would have thought that this seemingly nice and sweet little book is actually so thought-provoking, though in a fun and easy going way, without judging or condemning? Beyond the main theme, I loved its convenience store dynamic atmosphere as the background, but also, almost, as a living entity in the story. As an Asian, I, too, can't live without convenience stores. We even have four inside the apartment complex, two of them with ATM machine, where I can buy bread, fresh fruits, and sometimes hot snacks in about five minutes walk. Very convenient indeed!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Japanese Literature Challenge #18

hosted by Dolce Bellezza

Mini Reviews: Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025 - JANUARY #AgathaChristieSS25

The Adventure of the Cheap Flat (1924)

Hastings told Poirot that a woman called Mrs. Robinson had told him at dinner party, that she had just acquired an incredibly cheap flat. Everyone else thought it good luck on behalf of Mrs. Robinson, but Poirot smelled rat, there must be something goings on. He rented another flat in the same building, and at night watched the suspicious flat, together with Hastings. His suspicion was not unfounded. 

It's perhaps my least favorite from Poirot's short stories so far. Similar to any other Poirot-Hastings stories, this one is also a bit hilarious. The pair using the coal lift to reach the suspicious flat, for instance, was a quite funny scene to imagine. But other than that, the solution is just okay, it left no impression at all.

 Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

A Fairy in the Flat (1929)

This one, in fact, was the first (very short) story in Partners in Crime. It took place six years after Tommy and Tuppence's adventure in The Secret Adversary. They were married, and Tuppence was bored - life has been dull. If only something exciting would come their way. The answer to her wish came when Tommy's boss offered them to take over a detective agency. It would serve as some kind of post for the secret service, but they were free to take on any case that may come their way. They were only to be wary of the number 16.

I realized right after finishing the twenty something pages, that this story served as introduction to the the whole collection. There's nothing going on in it, besides the news from Tommy's boss. It should be pairing with the following one: A Pot of Tea. Well, we will get to it in March, so I will be patiently waiting. Meanwhile, I will not rate this one, because there's no mystery whatsoever to rate!

Bud, Not Buddy (1999) by Christopher Paul Curtis

🔵 Bud Caldwell was named Bud by her mother, and before she died, she thought him to not let anyone call him Buddy. From this only, I could imagine that Bud was brought up finely by his single parent, despite of being poor. But where was Bud's father? We could only guess from Bud's point of view, of which this story was written, that he had left his wife and son on the lurch - a fact that his mother was often angry of.

🔵 Another stuff that his mother left Bud before she died was some posters of a band, her portrait, and some pebbles with dates scribbled on it. All these, and a blanket, were all of Bud's treasured belongings, put inside a worn suitcase, which he always carries with him wherever he goes.

🔵 Bud had stayed in an orphanage, then in a foster home, where he was showered by injustices, that he had had enough. Her mother also taught him that 'when one door is closed, another will open'. Bud didn't understand at first about this closing and opening of doors - he's just a ten years old boy anyway. But now that he's thirteen he began to understand. It's like when he had had enough being bullied at the foster home, that he ran away. That was closing of one door, and sure enough another door was immediately opened.

🔵 One more thing that Bud began to realize, is that the man playing saxophone in the band posters, was definitely his father - though he couldn't understand why her mother was always angry when she saw those posters (but we knew, of course). And now Bud is sure that he must find his estranged father. Can he? Is his father still a musician? And if - big if - Bud could find him, the bigger question is, would he accept Bud as his son?

🔵 I loved this book. Its strongest attraction is Bud's personality, which was built finely with love and dignity by his late mother. He's an intelligent, optimistic and funny lad, and quite self-sufficient too - no doubt due to his mother's undivided love and trust. What a simple, tender, and satisfying read it has been, set in Michigan in the 1930s during Great Depression.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Circular Staircase (1908) by Mary Roberts Rinehart

♦️ Rachel Innes, a spinster, related a nerve-wrecking series of incidents she must endured when she rented a Gothic-styled countryside house in summer, with her niece Gertrude and nephew Hayles. It belonged to a successful banker Paul Armstrong. Upon her arrival with her old maid, she had been warned about a ghost that haunted the house. And there it was, night after night, mysterious sounds and misplaced stuffs - even stranger's invasion - happened in the house. All seemed to happen around a circular staircase.

♦️ Gertrude and Halsey arrived later with a friend, John Bailey, who was, apparently, Gertrude's fiance. The next day, though, the two men disappeared. Inexplicable things seemed to happen almost every day, that even baffled the Inspector who's investigating the case. Everything seemed to revolve around the Armstrongs, with the house Rachel was rented became the center. What was it that they tried to find in the house? And why did the Armstrongs strongly persuade Rachel to end her lease - which she insisted not to, at least after she solved the mystery?

♦️ This was a highly entertaining mystery. A gothic house with its creaking wood and dark corners, with so many doors and windows to lock every night, is a perfect setting for a Gothic mystery/ thriller. Add that with unknown objects, and persons who seem to be in and out of the house through secret doors, not mentioning a mysterious hole on the wall or golf stick under the stairs. Financial scandal of a bank, a woman's name that created panic, an orphaned boy, and two romances, only complicated the already intricate story. A satisfying read it has been, and I know I'm going to read more of Rinehart!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2