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

The Black Spectacles (1939) by John Dickson Carr

🕶 The story opens with Marcus Chesney, a wealthy man and the owner of Sodbury Cross, who was on holiday to Greece. He was accompanied by her niece Marjorie Wills, his brother Doctor Joseph (Joe) Chesney and a few friends. Marjorie's fiance completed the group, he's a photographer called Geoege something (I forgot). Inspector Elliot from Scotland Yard was also on the same tour, and he intently watched how things get awkward with the family as soon "poisoner" was mentioned. From here we get to know that Marjorie Wills had been suspected to have poisoned some chocolates in the local shop, causing death of one little boy.

🕶 Inspector Elliot was involved in this case, and while discussing the matter with the Superintendent and Chief Constable, a news came that Marcus Chesney has just been murdered, apparently, in front of eyewitnesses. Marcus held a conviction that eyewitnesses are mostly unreliable; they wouldn't relate accurately of what they had seen. He also solved To proof his theory, he staged a test for the family and friends - all who had accompanied him to Greece. George was tasked to film the whole procedure, while Joe Chesney couldn't attend due to his being summoned by a patient.

🕶 Marcus was helped by someone who was masked and disguised, who would given Marcus a green capsule, supposedly, to contain poison. You guest correctly if you think the capsule did contained poison, and thus, a staged murder became a real one. But if the other three persons were all spectators, who, then, was the murderer?

🕶 While the story unfolds, we get to notice that Inspector Elliot is not going to be the star investigator. Especially when it's clear that he was infatuated with Marjorie, and he let his emotion clouded his logical mind. He consulted Doctor Gideon Fell, and the latter it was who would become the mystery solver.

🕶 This was my first Carr, and I was thoroughly impressed. No wonder too, since The Black Spectacles is daubed to be Carr's masterpiece. The plot is genius, with minimum suspect, and lack of clear motive. There are two cases of poisoning too, the chocolate poisoning seems to be a random case. No one could predict who's going to buy the poisoned chocolate among the harmless others. So, what's the motive? And Marcus' murder, is it to prevent him revealing the chocolate poisoner? Or something else? On the whole, it's an ingenious mystery, a perfect read for true murder mystery/detective novels lovers, highlighted the psychological aspect. One slight problem for me is the lengthy explanation from Doctor Fell on the psychological theory; it's interesting, but a bit too long to be entertaining.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Bird Found the Body (2023) by Bailey Booth

🦜 As I love birds, naturally I was drawn to read a cozy mystery where the bird has significant role in the investigation. Moreover, I have read Bailey Booth's cat-themed novella a few years ago. It was okay, a promising debut, at least. And I was curious whether her writing would be improved in this new series. Well, it is not, significantly. I found it just another okay, but a very cute story if you are a bird lover.

🦜 Keela arrived at a tropical island of Half Moon Cross with her cockatiel, Chicken. She was summoned by her Aunt Astrid, to take over her business, a bird-pirate-themed tour company called Parrots of the Caribbean. However, just on her first day of leading a tour, Chicken, her cockatiel - dressed in cute pirate costume, no less - led the group into finding a dead body. It belonged to a former employee of Parrots of the Caribbean too. It was a terrible way to start a new job. Worse still, the police suspected Aunt Astrid to have committed the murder, since the deceased had been seen quarreling with her before she left the company. Keela couldn't let that happen. First of all, Aunt Astrid is a kind, compassionate person, and secondly, if her aunt went to prison, what would happen to Parrots of the Caribbean, and where she would stay, considering that she has just left her former painful life behind?

🦜 But who had the motive and opportunity to murder Vanessa, the former employee? Keela is a newcomer, and she needs more time to know everyone. Especially Ruby, the scarlet macaw belongs to Aunt Astrid, who is the mascot of Parrots of the Caribbean. It is more attached to another employee, whose ambition makes him one of Keela's suspects. The other is the owner of Parrots of Caribbean's competitor. But not only them, Keela even, at one point, had a little apprehension whether her new friend - also employee to the company - might have done it. The same applies to a handsome bartender and ex-police who has a crush on her. 

🦜 All in all, it's a cozy mystery which is too cozy for my taste. The premise is cute and refreshing - the birds, the sanctuary, even the pirates-themed tour, but I couldn't get my myself absorbed into the mystery. It's entertaining enough, but not a cozy mystery series I'm going to follow closely.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

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.

********

The reviews:
- Mallika's
- Fanda's


Please put link to yours 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?