The Kamogawa Food Detectives (2013) by Hisashi Kashiwai #JapaneseLitChallenge18

🍜 Tucked away in a quiet backstreet of Kyoto is an unusual Diner. No sign appears on the outside of the unassuming buiding, but once you open its sliding door, you'd find a cozy restaurant. Run by Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Koishi, it's a special restaurant combined with a detective agency in the back office. How can a restaurant be mixed up with a detective agency? Well, the agency doesn't take the usual criminal cases, it deals with food - recreating food, in particular.

🍜 A potential customer would first be served with a set menu curated by the Chef, Nagare. After enjoying the meal (every customer do!), he or she would be directed to the office, where Koishi would interview the client of what dish he or she wants them to recreate. It could be a childhood dish, or a memorable dish important for the client. She would ask some further questions concerning the background, location, etc. And based on these information will Nagare then track and investigate the dish concerned, and try to replicate it for the client in a fortnight.

🍜 This book is a compilation of these cases, or shall we say, these dishes. Each dish isn't only centered on the food only - they all met, or perhaps, even, exceeded the clients' expectations - but more than that, Nagare's investigation usually reveals deeper aspect of emotion behind a plate of delicious food - memory, loved ones, forgiveness, understanding, and new hope. All in all, it's a collection of heartwarming stories with mouthwatering foods, with a sprinkle of mystery.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Japanese Literature Challenge #18

hosted by Dolce Belleza

#MurderEveryMonday: Same Book, Different Editions

Murder Every Monday was created by Kate @ Crossexamining Crime and @ArmchairSleuth. Put simply, the plan is for readers to take a photo of a crime fiction book (novel or short story collection) which meets a given week’s theme criteria and to then share it online, using the hashtag #MurderEveryMonday.

This week's theme is:

Same Book, but Different Editions

My first mystery books are of Agatha Christie's. My late father used to take me to our favorite bookshop, and let me choose one (sometimes two) Agatha Christie's to take away. Those were happy days!! And he even do the covering for me, his were always so neat and clean. I still keep some of those with me, and I will share here two of my most favorites (Indonesian translations), along with the e-books in English which I have read as adult.

Have your read any of them? Which cover(s) do you like most?

If you want to participate, here's the list of the weekly theme.

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2025

I think I have participated in this challenge once years ago, but failed completely. This year seems to be a perfect time to re-enter the challenge, as I think my reading will be more organized, and (hopefully) less frantic than before. Cloak and Dagger reading Challenge is hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook. Click the link to find more details on the challenge. It runs from 1 January to 31 December 2025.

I am aiming the Detective Level (16-25 books). And here's my list (I'll add titles after I've read and reviewed it), and this would be my goal post, to add links to my reviews.

1. The Bird Found the Body by Bailey Booth (2023)
2. The Black Spectacles by John Dickson Carr (1939)
3. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1908)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) by E.L. Konigsburg

👼 Claudia Kinkaid was restless and yearned for something exciting happening to her, beyond being an obedient eldest daughter taking care of her brothers. So, she ran away. But it's not an impulsive one like any kids used to do. She planned it carefully for weeks; from the financial side (she saved her daily money, skipping Sunday's fudge), to the practical side like where she'd stay in hiding (Metropolitan of Arts Museum - a genius choice, isn't it?), and how to hide clothes she'd need to bring unnoticed, and many little details.

👼 Lastly she carefully chose which brother she'd choose to be her partner-in-crime: Jamie. He's the 'wealthiest' of them all for one thing. And he's the craftier too. So off they went for the carefully planned runaway adventure. No one suspected them, and for a few days they lived 'comfortably' at the Museum. Claudia has thought all the tricks, while Jamie's only task was as a treasurer.

👼 Then they saw a marble statue called Angel, which is believed to be made by Michelangelo, but no one had the proof. The museum bought it cheaply from an art collector, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Since they practically lived in the museum, Claudia and Jamie accidentally found a clue to the true maker. Will Claudia be a heroine who found the clue to Michelangelo's unknown masterpiece? Will she come home a different Claudia than the one who ran away? Because that's the whole point of running away, isn't it?

👼 I loved this book. Not only adventurous, it's also educative. Who wouldn't be thrilled to live in an art museum - free to roam around and look at one's favorite art at leisure without being jostled here and there by the crowd? Most interestingly, the story is told as letters and files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler to her lawyer. We know this from the start, and it creates a bit of mystery how she would meet the Kinkaid children. All in all, it's a cheerful and funny middle grade story, a wonderful read.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: JANUARY #AgathaChristieSS25

First of all, I would like to thank you all who have been, completely or partly, participating in the #AgathaChristieSS24. I'm sorry for not being able to comment on all of your reviews, one by one, though I have read most of them. If you are participating again this year, I'm very grateful! Here you can find the LIST OF STORIES we're going to read along the year. You can put links to your reviews on the comment section of the monthly posts like this one (you can find them on my right side bar).

For January we will read one Poirot and one Tommy & Tuppence. Interestingly, they are both concerning flats (or at least the word 'flat' is on both titles...).

THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHEAP FLAT

Too good to be true, a flat is rented at a suspiciously low rate and Poirot intends to find out why. He takes an apartment in the same building, and lies in wait. Will his suspicions prove well-founded? The story was first published as a book in the collection Poirot Investigates, 1924, by Bodley Head.

A FAIRY IN THE FLAT

Following WWI Tommy and Tuppence are seeking some adventure. Luckily they’re soon offered a position covering Blunt’s Detective Agency, Tommy taking on the role of Mr Blunt, Tuppence as his secretary. They are told to be wary of the number 16; should they stumble across it, they will be one step closer an international spy ring. This story was published by Collins in the collection Partners in Crime in 1929, and had its title changed from Publicity to A Fairy in the Flat/A Pot of Tea.


Please put link to your reviews on the comment section. Happy reading!

Six Degrees of Separation, from Orbital to This Side of Paradise

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from yet another book I haven't read:

0. Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft above the earth. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

I didn't read too many science fiction, but here's another space-themed novel I have enjoyed in the past:

1. Contact by Carl Sagan

This is one of the books which I have read after watching the movie adaptation. The movie was my first introduction to the inimitable Jodie Foster. Which reminded me of another book-made to-movie with Jodi Foster playing the main character:

2. Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon

I loved Jodie Foster as Anna Leonowens in this movie, an English teacher who arrived in Siam (now Thailand) to teach the King's children. She played alongside Chow Yun Fat, playing the Siamese King. Their chemistry was perfect, and I loved the Siamese culture background. The book was much more realistic than the movie, but that's understandable.

Another book I've read lately with rich Asian culture background is:

3. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan Philipp Sendker

The story is about a woman who's seeking her father who disappeared years ago. The father's story is a remarkable one. His childhood with blindness caused by cataract was moving as well as inspiring.

Coincidentally, my very next read after this one was another book with also a cataract-induced blindness in a boy. Quite a serendipity, eh? The book is:

4. Babbacombe by Susan Scarlett

The near-blind boy in question is the younger brother of the main character in this book, a young woman called Beth. She works as junior salesgirl at a department store, Babbacombe's. As I have mentioned in the review, there are aspects of this book which I found is similar with:

5. The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola

The premise of this classic is very similar to Babbacombe's, a junior sales girl falls in love with the handsome owner (or son of the owner in Babbacombe's) of department store which she works for. Other than that, it's difficult to find similarity with other books - Zola's is quite inimitable. So, for my last chain I'll go with the word Paradise in the title:

6. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This one is about an altogether different kind of "paradise". It's a wonderful work of Fitzgerald; the epitome of Jazz Age era.


Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?

Greenglass House (2014) by Kate Milford

❄ It's few days before Christmas, and twelve year old Milo had expected a quiet holiday with his parents (foster parents, since he was adopted) at their inn, the Greenglass House. But to his great dismay, one guest arrived, then another, then another, until there are five guests staying in the house, plus the cooks who are helping. Christmas holiday is practically ruined. Or so thought Milo, before he found a strange map, and a girl his age, the cook's daughter Meddy, who invites him in a role play game.

❄ Greenglass House is not a regular inn. It had belonged to a famous smuggler, and to that day, smugglers are among the inn's frequent guests. The building itself is a unique one. Five stories high, with colorful glass windows, and located on top of a steep hill. To reach it from the bottom, the guests must use a rail car. I have been to Paris in the 2000, and I imagined this rail car is like more rustic model of funicular I took to reach Sacré Coeur in Montmartre.

❄ Milo found an usual map, like a navigator's one but with strange pictures, on the snowy ground, that one of the guests must have dropped. But whose is it? And what is the map about? It was to solve this mystery that Milo and Meddie started the game in the first place. Then some guests belongings begin missing, and one of them is seen entered another's room suspiciously. Is there a thief in the house? They also notice that the guests seem secretive; their reasons of coming to Greenglass House aren't for holiday, but for their own, which are related to the house's history. What's happening? Who's the thief, and what's the motive?

❄ This story has everything you'd want to read during the season - adventures, mystery, snowy nights, smugglers, big house with attic full of interesting stuffs, and a tiny touch of gothic (which I won't reveal so as not to spoil the story). And last but not least... the surprise. It is so unexpected, yet I should have known from the first - the clues are there from the start. Anyway, this is the only Christmas-themed story I'd read this year, and I'm glad I had. It's satisfying, heartwarming, and full of fun. I loved how Milford delving into a mildly serious issue of  Milo's insecure related to his being orphan. It added a bit of depth into the already satisfying read. This will also be my last reviewed book of this year.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2