The Healing Season of Pottery (2023) by Yeon Somin #WITMonth #20BooksofSummer2025

🏺 My first interest of this book was pottery. I always admire people who are passionate about something - either hobby or career; and you rarely read about pottery. Add "healing" with that, and an image of a cat sitting near the potteries - well, it sold me instantly! And I think it would be a good choice for this year's #WITMonth. A feel-good story with a tinge of slow-burning romance, set in an Asian country.

🏺 Jungmin has just quitted her job as broadcasting writer, and is now living as a recluse at her apartment in Chestnut Burr Village (what a name for a village!). After days of holing-up, without ever once going out, Jungmin suddenly emerged. She wanted to find a cafe, but stumbled instead upon a quiet pottery studio. The owner invited her in, and what with a cup of coffee and fresh smell of clay, Jungmin felt calm and composed for the very first time after a long while. And so, it's not a wonder that Jungmin started to learn about pottery.

🏺 As the story unfurls, we get to know more of the other members of Soyo Workshop, and most importantly what Jungmin had had experienced to shape her like that. I loved the interaction of the owner, Johee, and the other members: Jihye, Gisik, Jun, and Hyoseok. They all had a troubled past, and were struggling to build a future. Working the pottery wheel seems to be what everyone needs to shake off the past, while shaping a way to better future. In short, pottery was portrait here, not only as a hobby or pastime, but a way to embrace life.

“Whether it’s pottery or life, it takes more than one attempt for them to come out right. And all that effort makes the end product more valuable, too.”

🏺 As is in most Japanese feel-good novel, the pace is quite slow. I enjoyed it every time they work on the pottery; I could almost see the end products. It's pretty satisfying when they sold out all the vases, dishes, and bowls during a bazaar. And I agree, that a handmade pottery product, no matter how imperfect it was, is a perfect gift to someone who means a lot to us - it's private and unique; especially when the dish or vase had been made with that person always on the maker's mind.

🏺 As a feel-good novel, this is actually a bit dark. What Jungmin had experienced is deeper than what I had thought at first); it's a layered psychological problems that I think need more than pottery to heal. But on the whole, it's a slow-paced heartwarming read. I loved the end!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Dear Mr. Henshaw (1983) by Beverly Cleary #20BooksofSummer2025

✍🏼 Leigh Botts's favorite writer in the world is a children books' author, Boyd Henshaw. Since Leigh was in second grade, he has been writing letters to "Dear Mr. Henshaw". At first because of his teacher's assignment, but then he keeps writing because his mother told him too. Being a famous writer, you would think that Henshaw would ignore these childish letters; one in particular containing a list of questions that Leigh made Henshaw answer. But funnily, Henshaw wrote back with his list of questions for Leigh to answer. And composing these serial letters containing the answers are how Henshaw taught Leigh to be a good writer.

✍🏼 Leigh's parents were divorced, and he lives with his mother who can barely support for both of them. His father is a delivery-truck driver who's always on the road (the reason why his wife divorced him), and his support checks often came late. Leigh misses him, and is always waiting for his father's calls (that are almost always late too). The one thing that helps Leigh is writing a diary, as encouraged by his favorite author Mr. Henshaw. And through this diary, and occasional letters to Mr. Henshaw, Leigh grew up towards adolescent, slowly realizing that his dreams of normal life of a family might never came true, and that he could actually be a writer someday!

✍🏼 All in all, it is a heartwarming epistolary novella, with a lovely main character. I loved how Mr. Henshaw, though we knew nothing of him, and his writings to Leigh were never actually revealed, has become the lighthouse of Leigh's otherwise bleak existence. Through his silence, rather than over-indulgence, Mr. Henshaw has built in Leigh, courage, resilient, and self confident. He was what Leigh's father lacked of, continual presence and guidance. Thanks to his suggestion of writing a diary, Leigh could pour out his frustration and disappointments into writing, and with that, he also sharpens his skills to be a writer.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
  

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Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: AUGUST #AgathaChristieSS25

Our two stories for August seem to be a mixed theme. There's one engrossing murder mystery for the Tuesday Night Club (Miss Marple) to solve, and another, a delightful - apparently - non mystery story.

THE BLOOD STAINED PAVEMENT

(A Miss Marple story)

 
The Tuesday Night club listen to Joyce's story when she accidentally painted drops of blood on the pavement during a holiday, which she was told to be a warning that a death will occur within 24 hours. Soon after a woman drowns. Joyce was shocked, but Miss Marple is not one to believe in coincidences...

The story was published in the Royal Magazine in the UK in 1928 and in the US, under the revised title Drip! Drip! later that year. It was then included in the 1932 collection of The Thirteen Problems.

THE MANHOOD OF EDWARD ROBINSON

(A non detective story)

A young man wins the lottery, buys a car, meets a beautiful woman and accidentally steals a necklace.
The story was inspired by Agatha's Christie's love with her own car and the thrill and freedom of driving. It was first published in the UK collection The Listerdale Mystery in 1934 and then in 1971 it appeared in the US collection The Golden Ball and Other Stories.

While it's not promising any mystery, it still sounds like a delicious story to read!

The Upside Down River (2000) by Jean-Claude Mourlevat #ParisInJuly2025

 

🚣 While searching for an audiobook of Garlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil - an essay by Jean-Claude Izzo - I've planned to read for #ParisInJuly2025 (it's a satisfying essay to read, by the way), I came across this audiobook by another Jean-Claude - a middle-grade fantasy story. And it turned out to be a gem, I loved it! The Upside Down River is a two-parts story. The one I listened to is the first, which is subtitled: Tomek's Journey. 

🚣 Tomek is a seventeen year old orphan boy who runs a store that sells everything. By everything, it means everything you can name. One day, a girl of his age came to the store, buying some barley sugar. When the girl asked for a drop of water from river Qjar, Tomek realized three things: one, that his store doesn't sell everything after all; two, that he's actually been bored for a long time, and longed for an adventure; and three, that he's fallen in love with the girl, whom he didn't have chance to ask the name.

🚣 From an old man whom he always calls grandfather, Tomek learned more about river Qjar - it's a magical river; an upside down river that runs from sea, up to the mountain. And drinking a drop of water for that river is believed to make the person immortal. Tomek was intrigued, he wanted to meet the girl, whom he knew would be on the quest of river Qjar, and he also wanted to bring the old grandfather a drop of its water. So, off he went for his journey one fine day. And what a journey and adventure it would proof to be, and what interesting characters he would meet on the way! My favorite is Marie, a widow who travels with her cart and a donkey that farts a lot :)). He met her just at the edge of Forest of Oblivion, inside which one would forget everything that happened before entering, but right after leaving, the memory would return. Not mentioning the colony of huge bears that lived in the forest, and who were blind, but had sharp hearing. Marie was a good travel company, and it's she who give Tomek encouragement to go on his journey.

🚣 But the most exciting of all, is perhaps when Tomek finally met Hannah - the girl who bought barley sugar - and they'd go together to the river Qjar. But not before Tomek went into a sort of comma after smelling a poisonous big blue flower, and got rescued by a group of farmers; and several others strange adventures. But would Tomek and Hannah succeeded to find the river Qjar? And would they get the drops of water from it, up on the summit of the mountain, to bring home? Hannah wanted to save her most beloved bird, I forgot to mention. 

🚣 All in all, it's a short read, but packed with fun adventures. Jean-Claude Mourlevat is, surely, a great fairy tale, fable and fantasy books writer! I might perhaps get to read (or listen) the second part of this book someday (Hannah's Journey), but for now, it's my last read for #ParisInJuly2025, and a very satisfying one to wrap it up! Thank you for Emma for hosting it this year. Au revoir!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

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The Martian (2011) by Andy Weir #20BooksofSummer2025

🗼 Science fiction is never my cup-of-tea, but from time to time I would read one that's interested me. I have bought a copy of The Martian solely because I have watched the movie - and quite liked it. Now I read it for year 2011 of my A Century of Books project. And it's not disappointing!

🗼 The story was told from Mark Watney's perspective. He's one of six NASA astronauts who were sent to Mars to collect samples. Each of them has unique expertise, and Mark's are botanist and engineer. One day during their works, a severe dust storm occurred, caused them to frantically returned to the hub, but Watney. He was injured, and since the other crew couldn't found his location, and thought him dead, in the crucial moment, they left Mars without him. But Mark Watney wasn't dead - he's alive and uninjured! For now at least, but how would he survive in Mars, alone, with limited quantity of food and supplies, and - with the communication tools dead thanks to the storm - without a way to communicate to Earth that he's alive?

🗼 And so, the heroic, relentless, and grueling efforts of Mark Watney to survive begins, the essence of this remarkable book. His ingenuity - farming potato in Mars, for instance - and his MacGyver-ish capability of quick thinking and assembly stuffs from limited equipment are wonderful. But most of all, is his determination to never quit. I think his huge courage helps - when one is not hampered by the scare of death, one could think more clearly, and decision making in every step would be much easier. That's my opinion , at least. I admired how Watney is always able to decide the next most crucial task he has to tackle first, after an assessment post incident. There are a lot of things to do, but he's never daunted by this. One thing at a time, is always his approach. The possibility of death is so huge, but he doggedly thinks and works to survive - at least for the present. 

 🗼 The Martian is not only a science fiction, with tons of scientific and technical jargons which, though I only understand perhaps 20% of it, still was entertaining. But the message behind Mark Watney's struggle of surviving is the most important element of this book: the beauty of humanity at work. The save-Mark-Watney project turned out to be, not only national, but international, interest. Though I doubt it will happen in reality, but I was really touched by this united warm humanity showed all over the world. This made the book awesome - not mentioning the dry and sarcastic humour showed by Watney; kudos to Andy Weir to draw the character so deeply!

🗼 Even when I don't really care much for science fiction, there's a priceless lesson to be drawn from this book: how to not succumb to desperation. Everytime I were in desperation, I'd remember Watney's attitude. He'd go from swearing, whining, then quickly to his optimist self once more. Like in this scene, right after something goes awry:

"Just once I'd like something to go as planned, ya know?...."

But then 3 sentence later...

"Okay, enough self-pity. I'm not doomed. Things will just be harder than planned."

I'm not doomed. Things will just be harder than planned - would be my future magic sentence to self control!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Garlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil (2003) by Jean-Claude Izzo #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🧄 This short book is an essay written by Jean-Claude Izzo, a native Marseilles poet and writer. The main theme of the essay are his love of Marseilles - its sea, its cuisine, its people and culture; and the subject that made him famous: Mediterranean Noir. Izzo wrote three noir novels of the Marseilles Trilogy: Total Chaos (Total Khéops), Chourmo, and Solea. 

🧄 You would get how Izzo loved and was proud of his Marseilles from what he wrote in this essay. I loved how he described the view of the sea from uphill; but especially how he described the food! He titled this essay garlic, mint, and sweet basil not for no reason. To Izzo, the three ingredients symbolized the simple unpretentious dishes you'll love in Marseilles: "I like to feel Marseilles pulsating beneath my tounge." Family atmosphere in restaurant is what Izzo looked forward to. He talked a lot about fish and vegetables, Boullabaise, pizza on the sea, and bread rubbed in garlic.

🧄 Izzo loved garlic and talked a lot about it! First girl he kissed smelled of garlic, one summer, when he's 15 years old. Garlic reigned supreme in Izzo's kitchen, because:

"Garlic welcome all the flavors."

"Nothing goes better with garlic than wine. Preferably red wine."

"[It's] like the intoxication of first kisses."

🧄 Imagine reading about mouthwatering food in the poetic beauty that poets usually writes. That's what this essay is about. Of course Izzo talked about mint and sweet basil too. Can you imagine mint as a love potion? Well, reading what Izzo wrote will change how you see mint. "Spread mints around you. Breath in those peppery smell, and you'll add 1001 nights to your dreams."  And do you know that basil frighten away insects? Putting it on your kitchen's window sill, will keep the insects away. But will that make you house full of basil's fragrant? Well, believe Izzo when he said: "An excess of basil is like an excess of love, (it) will not damage the heart." He's a sweet dear, wasn't he?

🧄 This essay might be light and and short, but I guarantee, you'll want to go to Marseilles right away! A tip from Izzo: The best time to arrive in Marseilles is by sea, in the morning, in certain sunshine. Because Marseilles plays with perspective. And remember to visit the markets when you're there, because it's in the markets where Izzo had found "the wonders of the world" - "Here's where you'd find basis of taste... Pleasure of the day - the happiness of living in the south." What a refreshing read this had been for me - loved every single sentence in this little essay! - and what a perfect read for #ParisInJuly!

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The Greengage Summer (1958) by Rumer Godden #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

💚 The titular greengage summer is the summer when five siblings were staying at Hotel Les Oeilletes in a French seaside village. The story is narrated by Cecil Grey (13 y.o.), girl number two. The rest of the siblings are Joss, the eldest girl of 16; Hester (third girl); and the Littles, Will and Vicky. But wait, are they holidaying to France unchaperoned? Initially, their widowed mother took them there to see the Battlefield of France, however she got very ill on the way, and collapsed right upon arrival at the hotel. The proprietress, Mademoiselle Zizi almost let the family away - what hotel would receive a very ill woman with five children anyway? - but her charming and mysterious lover Monsieur Elliot interfered, and rescued them. He put Mrs. Grey into hospital, and the children are staying under his care.

💚 Without their mother's care, Joss and Cecil turned to womanhood, faster than any would expect. Especially Joss, she turned to be a very attractive woman, and this brought the children, previously left alone and unnoticed, to be under limelight. I loved all the children, from Hester who's always honest, to Will with his fashion aficionado. Even Vicky, who has the least role in the story - I loved how she's always hanging out in the kitchen with the old cook (and who always supplies hot news to her siblings!).

💚 At first, it seems like a perfect holiday for the siblings - loitering leisurely around the orchard, among greengage trees, picking and eating the fruits, and be free. But of course it's not that. I knew instantly that Elliot wouldn't have received them without reason, there's a catch somewhere. The children were drawn to Elliot instantly, and also with few of the other residents. Monsieur Armand the painter is my favorite! However, little by little they noticed strange, inexplicable things, mostly concerning Elliot. You'll be wondering all the time, whether he is a good man (he really took care of the children) who was misunderstood, or a genius villain hiding his crime behind his kindness? 

💚 I won't reveal further of the plot, because what happens next is the key to enjoy this book. In short, it is, unexpectedly, a rather intense coming-of-age story with a hint of mystery and a sinister plot twist at the end. It was an evocative reading, not the lazy one you'd enjoy during summer holiday - but definitely a perfect one for #ParisinJuly; it celebrates the glorious summer of a French seaside village!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
 

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A Picture of Murder (2018) by T.E. Kinsey #20BooksofSummer2025

📽️ T.E. Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle's Mysteries is one of the cozy mystery series I love to read through. Besides being a period cozy mystery (the early 1900s), I like it because for once, the amateur sleuths (Lady Hardcastle and her maid/companion Florence 'Flo' Armstrong) are women with strong characters, and without any personal 'problem'. Most cozy mysteries I've read these days seem to depict a 'broken' heroine, who had endured some sort of problems in the past, and now they must juggle between solving a murder and their own problem. I'm tired of it all, for once I want sound-minded heroines who solve murders just because they love doing it, not for saving someone or something. Lady Hardcastle and Flo are just that.

📽️ We are back at the small village of Littleton Cotterell. Lady Farley-Stroud asked Emily (Lady Hardcastle) to host a group of movie maker and actors on her behalf, due to a little fire that had just happened at the Grange (the Farley-Stroud's abode). Emily agreed to that readily; in fact both Lady Hardacstle and her maid Flo and the servants were all excited. For Lady Hardcastle especially, as she had been nurturing a new hobby: moving picture. The first night of screening would play a movie called The Witch Downfal, to mark the coming Halloween. But not everyone in Littleton Cotterell was excited; a group of church-fanatic were against it, and even put protest signs during the first screening. That night, one of the actors died, murdered, the same way as a character on the movie died. Then another was following, with the same pattern; this time the murder even happened at Lady Hardcastle's house.

📽️ As usual, Inspector Sunderland from Scotland Yard, who was supposed to lead the investigation was busy, so he called upon Lady Hardcastle and Miss Armstrong to help him (it's nice that for once it's the police who wanted the amateur sleuth, instead of the amateur sleuth who interfering with the the police work!). Who could be the murderer? The main suspects were the church-fanatic leader and another movie maker who claimed that the group had stolen his idea. But of course, the victims' friends were also suspects. But what was their motive? Would a movie maker or actor murder his friends and jeopardizing his work?

📽️ I loved this fourth book of the series; in fact, I think it's my favorite so far. Not only the story is compelling, it provides a backstory of Lady Hardcastle and Flo's past adventures. It had been a mystery so far - we only know that something happened when they were on a mission in Shanghai, China, but what mission, how dangerous it was, or how they have escaped it, were mystery to us from first book. I'm glad that Kinsey finally fulfills our curiosity. In short, I loved every single element of this story - Lady Hardcastle and Flo Armstrong's dynamic relationship; their mocking and teasing of each other were constant entertainment to us, with dry humour that made you chuckle - and the unexpectedly dark nuances of the case - all provide the perfect element for a not-too-cozy mystery to read for Halloween!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog (2006) by Muriel Barbery #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🦔 The story takes place in an elegant apartment building in central Paris, where two of our heroines live. One is a genius teenage girl from a bourgeois family, the other is the concierge. Paloma, the little girl, is planning to end her life by committing suicide, because she feels she'd never fit in the world. Nobody understands her - neither her family, her schoolfriends, nor her teachers. Paloma feels she would never manage to be whatever the world expect her to be. So, ending her life seems the only possible solution.

🦔 Having the entirely different background than Paloma, Renée, the concierge, is also having the same predicament. She is actually an intelligent and cultured woman, though autodidact. She loves art, literature, and even Japanese culture. However, the apartment tenants regards her as a server. So, she hides her talents as best she could, and appears to be the dumb concierge everyone expect her to be. Both Paloma and Renée hide into obscurity, because the world would not have them to be different from themselves.

🦔 Paloma and Renée would have lived through their lives as usual, albeit separately - if Monsieur Ozu, a wealthy Japanese man, hasn't arrived in the building as a new tenant. From the on, both lives change completely, because Mr. Ozu isn't like everybody else. He is himself an intelligent and cultured man, and on his first encounter with both souls, Mr. Ozu noticed right away, both Paloma's and Renée's hidden talent. 

🦔 Someone has given me a hint before, that at the start the story seems boring, but it would get much interesting after Mr. Ozu's appearance. I must thank that hint, since without it, I might have stopped reading after several chapters. They were so boring (I skipped a lot of the philosophy stuffs), and yet I felt that Barbery could have made it that way purposely. It was like the kind of life Paloma and Renée had expected they would have to endure the rest of their lives. But if they waited a little longer, something unexpected, more exciting and meaningful might come from the next corner. It's a lesson for us all to never lose courage.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

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20 Books of Summer 2025
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Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: Reviews for JULY #AgathaChristieSS25

The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb

It is always a treat when Christie indulged in her fascination about archeology and ancient Egypt. In this short but engaging story, an excavation of the tomb of the Pharaoh Men-her-Ra had suddenly became public's fascination after two men involved died one after another in just a fortnight - one of a heart failure, the other blood poisoning. People had been questioning whether the curse of the Pharaoh hunted the excavation, when the third death occurred, this time a suicide.

The widow of the excavation's leader, Sir John Willard, asked Poirot's help to protect her son, who now led the excavation. So Poirot and Hastings left for Egypt, and stayed the night at the camp. They felt the forces of evil in the air - Christie used this a lot in her novels. Things began to be out of control when Poirot choked on the tea brought by the servant. Was he being attacked by the desperate murderer, or this was just one of Poirot's theatrical acts to reveal the murderer?

On the whole, it's fun to read. The exotic expedition in Egypt, the superstitions, and the little dramatic act. It was what I always expect from Christie's shorties.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger

It's a boring day at Blunt's International Detective Agency. The blue letter or number 16 that they must be wary of, had, so far, never come. But three arrivals broke the dull; the first was a package, the second a letter, and the third a client. The package contained Tuppence's purchase, a silver cigarette case with "to Francis, from Tuppence" engraved on it, which was a gift for a General Francis, whom Tuppence drove for at war. The letter was the blue Russian letter that they've been looking forward to. However the client's arrival checked their discussion. Moreover, the client seemed to be eyeing on the letter, longer than he should have been. Was he a real client, or the disguised enemy?

This one was a highly entertaining story, a reminiscent of The Secret Adversary, albeit the tiny-weeny version of it. Friend-turned-foe, deception, decoy, fast-paced action - all was packed into a well-proportioned short story. My favorite part is the different fictional-detective-style that the Beresfords always adopted on each case. This time they adopted Francis and Desmond, the Okewood Brothers, created by Valentine Williams (1883-1946). Usually these were just to add humor to the story, but this time, it was key to their victory. A clever move by Christie!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Jacqueline in Paris (2022) by Ann Mah #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🔻 A little confession... I have picked this book just because of the title (everything with "Paris" attracts my attention) and the cover (again, every images of Paris will catch my attention).  I knew vaguely that this was set in post World War II, but had no idea what (or more importantly who) this was about. Although the heroine's name: Jacqueline Bouvier seemed vaguely familiar, I must have been almost mid way through before I caught 'White House' being mentioned casually. I thought, why would Jacqueline go to the White House, and what was the significance? I then browsed about this book, and just realized that this book is actually a historical fiction about the inimitable Jacqueline Kennedy!!

🔻 The story covered Jacqueline's earlier life, when she, in her twenty, spent one year in post-war Paris to study. Away from her mother's pressure to find a brilliant match, and the rigid social circle of New York, Jacqueline found freedom in Paris. She and some of her friends from the college were billeted with de Renty family. She soon found that Madame de Renty and her deceased husband had been spies during the war - Madame had even spent time in a women's concentration camp. It was unimaginable for Jacqueline, and so, instead of spending much of her time with her friends to museum, theatre, or dances, Jacqueline started to have interest in the war. She visited the poverty stricken post-war Germany, where she met John.

🔻 John was an impoverished writer, and for his new novel, did many researches on Communist communities - which were starting to emerge during the post-war. From de Renty family, she came to know that Communist spies had been spreading their wings around France. It's difficult to know the difference between real friends (or lover) and enemies. Was John, with whom Jacqueline was falling in love, the man he told her he was? Or was he a communist spy which one of de Rentys accused him of? Even if he's not, how would her mother react to their relationship?

🔻 At first, this book seemed to be about a girl's having fun in post-war Paris for a year. It was, until midway. After that it's a mixture of semi-political story with a tiny bit of mystery. But on the core, it was a coming of age re-imagining of Jacqueline Bouvier's earlier life. That one year in France touched and influenced the girl who would become one of the most famous first lady of the United States. I felt related to Jacqueline's first love to France, and I'm happy for her that she could always bring that in the next stage of her life. I loved that Ann Mah didn't stopped at Jacqueline's departure from Paris, but ended the story with her coming back there after she became Mrs. Kennedy. It was a bitter sweet way to end a book!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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20 Books of Summer 2025
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The Red Notebook (2014) by Antoine Laurain #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

📕 Antoine Laurain has become a staple author for me. His books (so far) are always highly entertaining, and so I had decided two or three years ago that I will read at least one Laurain's every #ParisInJuly. This year, The Red Notebook was my choice - red is my favorite color too - and again, I loved it! Laurain never disappoints, and I can't wait to read more of his next year. Now to the story...

📕 The red notebook belongs to a Parisian woman in her forty, who had been mugged one morning, and lost her handbag. Her head got hit quite hard from the incident, and for several days she was in hospital, having a coma. Meanwhile, the thief thrown the bag (after stealing the smartphone and purse, of course) on nearest garbage bin.

📕 That morning, bookstore owner Laurent Letellier was on his morning stroll when he noticed a mauve handbag discarded on top of a garbage bin. On impulse, he saved the bag, intended to drop it at the police station. But one thing led to another, he ended up taking the bag home to his apartment. Searching for any identification (which was none), he was fascinated to read the contents of the red moleskin notebook, which was a diary. Little by little Laurent came to "know" the woman, though not her name or address. Laurent was then on a mission to track down the woman, using some of the bag's contents as clues: a dry cleaner's receipt, a key ring with hieroglyphics, and a signed copy of Patrick Modiano's book. Would he succeed in his quest? 

📕 A little mystery, a quest, and a budding romance are the best ingredients for a lovely light book, and this one has all of them. Rare glimpses of the exotic profession of a Gilder added the charm; not mentioning the everyday life in Paris' apartment buildings, streets, and cafés which seeped through every lines of the story. Together, they create a little bubbling of happiness I always feel during #ParisInJuly, especially while reading Antoine Laurain's! ;)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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A Year in Provence (1989) by Peter Mayle #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🍷 A Year in Provence became my first entry for #ParisInJuly2025, hosted by Emma @ Word and Peace. It's the first of a series of memoir written by Peter Mayle, an American guy who moved to France with his wife and two dogs in the 1980s. My initial choice had been Toujours Provence (the second book in the series) - planning to read it for A Century of Books project, but unfortunately I couldn't find any available ebook. So, I picked the first book, which was available, and someone has commented that it was slightly better than the second. In the end, I'm quite happy with the book - it was an entertaining read.

🍷 The premise is quite cliché - a foreigner found Provence a charming place, fallen in love with the Francophile life, decided to move in, then struggle to adapt at first, but loved the adventure anyway. There are more than a dozen books similar to this, I believe. And so, it's the narrative that would make one book different from the other. In this case, I loved Mayle's witty and humorous prose, with steady pace, alternating between frustrating and triumphant moments.

🍷 The Mayles chose a small and remote Southern French country called Lubéron as their new homeland. They found a 200-year-old dilapidated stone farmhouse, and bought it. And this book is a yearlong story of their introduction to the new Provençal life. They not only endured the mistral or frosty winter, but also with the fact that living in a farmhouse means never-ending repair works to be done. And with the Provençal laissez faire way of life, it may frustrated town people on their first arrival in Provence, but little by little Peter and his wife got used to it. Mrs. Mayle even came up with a clever way to get the repairmen worked their house faster - a gentle kick it was - and very efficient, and wonderfully hilarious!

🍷 On the whole, it might not be an enlightening book (you'll read many of these kinds), but if you are yourself a Francophile, this would be a charming and delightful book to read. It'd transport you to Provence, And together with the Mayles, you'd experience the charm and beauty of living in a Provençal farmhouse. You'd be imagining harvesting your own grapes, or hunting your own truffles, or cooking your own French cuisine. I loved this book, and enjoyed every page of it. It's rather difficult to convey the nuances I got from this book, but I found a passage that might describe it well:

"And, as for the oil, it is a masterpiece. You’ll see.” Before dinner that night, we tested it, dripping it onto slices of bread that had been rubbed with the flesh of tomatoes. It was like eating sunshine.”

Well, can you imagine what I have felt, and why I think his is a perfect book to read for #ParisInJuly2025, n'est-ce pas?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Paris in July 2025

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2025
hosted by Annabel and Emma

Mid-Year Check-In Book Tag

I found this book tag at Cathy's 746 Books (it originated with Eric Karl Anderson at Lonesome Reader on YouTube), and thought what fun it would be to do it to mark the midway through this turmoil year! 

How many books have you read so far this year?

I have finished 34 books, with 30 reviews already reviewed, 3 on the queue, and one DNF. I originally planned to read 45, but... things happened, as always... 

What’s your favourite book so far this year?

It's between The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, and Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. But after long consideration, I think Sweet Bean Paste is the most poignant of them.

What’s the most disappointing book you’ve read this year?

Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. Actually John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire was worse, but then I DNF-ed it, so it didn't count, did it?

What genre have you read most this year?

Literary Fiction, with Crime/Mystery closely following.

Name a new favourite author that you’ve discovered this year.

Rosamunde Pilcher - After The Shell Seekers, I am most definitely going to read more of her! What's your favorite from Pilcher?

What’s the most surprisingly good book you’ve read so far this year?

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa. From the title (not mentioning the cover), I have thought this was a bitter sweet story of life struggle, with a hint of romance, perhaps. But boy, how wrong I was! It's far deeper than that.

What are your favourite and most anticipated 2025 releases?

Since my taste has been switching to the 20th century lately, I haven't read many newly published books, so... my favorite's got to be The Venice Murders by Merryn Allingham, because that's the only one I've read so far that's been published this year. The most anticipated release? I don't follow new releases, but there's one book (it's been released very recently) that I can't wait to read: Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jessie Sutanto - it's the second in a cozy mystery series that I loved! Here's the first book, if you're curious. 

What’s your next big priority for your reading?

I'm still behind schedule of my reading plan, especially for A Century of Books - my project to read one book for each year in the century - which I have started last year. I've been through 49 at the end of 2024, and intended to read the rest this year. Right now I'm still about 6 books behind, and is hoping to catch up soon!

What’s been your bookish highlight of the year so far?

The 1952 Club back in April. The club is one of my most favorite events of the year, and now I can't wait for the upcoming #1925Club next October!

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: JULY #AgathaChristieSS25

This post marks the end of the first semester of 2025, and that we are entering the second half of the year. how have you been doing so far? I'm personally proud of myself to have read all the twelve stories intended for 1st semester. Some I adored, but some are 'meh'. But now, let's see what we are going to read this month. Both are adventures (by title), and so I hope we are going to have some fun, with Poirot and our beloved couple: the Beresfords!

The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb

(A Hercule Poirot story)

Here Christie brought one of her favorite themes: ancient Egypt. An ancient Egyptian curse is murdering anyone who evacuated the tomb of Pharaoh Men-her-Ra. And it depends on the little grey cell of Hercule Poirot to solve the case. It reminded me instantly of one of my favorites in Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin: The Prisoners of the Sun. So, hopefully this story is at least as fun as I have expected.

The story was first published as a book in the collection Poirot Investigates, 1924, by Bodley Head. In 2004 the story was adapted for the Japanese anime series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives as a two-part episode, titled The Riddle of the Egyptian Tomb, where Poirot teams up with Miss Marple's great niece to solve the mystery. How exciting it sounds!

The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger

(A Tommy & Tuppence story)

This time the Beresfords must solve a mystery of some seemingly unrelated incidents: a mysterious cigarette lighter, the first anticipated blue Russian letter, and a doctor who keeps receiving hoax calls. Are they really unrelated? 

This story was published by Collins in the collection Partners in Crime, 1929, where the Beresford’s adopt the style and methods of Francis and Desmond, the Okewood Brothers, created by Valentine Williams (1883-1946), writing as Douglas Valentine. The Okewoods’ methods typically involved Desmond getting into a life-threatening scrape, only to be rescued by Francis, who “turns up as the gardener or something in the nick of time, and saves the situation.” In this case Tuppence unwittingly takes Francis’s role. Can't wait to read this one!

The Black Cabinet (1925) by Patricia Wentworth #20BooksofSummer2025

⚫ I've just realised, while starting this review, that I should have saved this book for the #1925Club next October! But then I thought, I would have forgotten altogether what the story is about by then, so here it is. I have planned to read it for #20BooksofSummer2025 anyway, and it did not disappoint me. Patricia Wentworth never disappoints me - so far.

⚫ Young, pretty, independent, sensible Chloe Dane worked at a dressmaker. She had been born in a wealthy family in Danesborough, but then the family fell on hard times. She didn't enjoy stitching fine clothes for rich but tasteless women, and was keen on doing something more exciting. It came to her unexpectedly soon after a party. A wealthy man called Mr. Dane, who was distant relative of hers. He had bought Danesborough, and made Chloe his heir - despite of her reluctance. Along with the property, is a black cabinet that had always been a fixture when she was a child.

⚫ Apparently, Mr. Dane's fortune came from blackmailing. He had built a safe inside the black cabinet, with intricate locks. He showed Chloe how to open the safe, and its contents - packet of letters which some people wouldn't hesitate to murder to be in possession of. Mr. Dane also warned Chloe not to trust anyone. Short time later, he died, and Chloe found herself a mistress in Danesborough. But it's not what she had expected. She felt alone among the pack of wolves in sheep's clothing. Mr. Dane was right, she couldn't trust anyone - not even the two suitors who said they loved her. Was one of them worked for the enemy? But which one? Or was it only her illusion? Was she really alone with no one to trust?

⚫ This was a delightful mystery-thriller to read, and I had so much fun reading it! Though sometimes romantically foolish, Chloe is brave and intelligent. Her determination of not letting anyone gets into the letters, and of refusing Mr. Dane's fortune when she'd come of age, was exemplary. Overall, it's a cozy thriller, the hapless heroine fighting alone against the enemies, with great plot, and sweet romance. It's another success for me with Wentworth, and I can't wait to read through her other numerous books!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

20 Books of Summer 2025

hosted by Annabel and Emma

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: Mini Reviews for June #AgathaChristieSS25

Ingots of Gold

It's Raymond West's turn to tell a mysterious story when The Tuesday Night Club next re-convened. It involved his newest acquaintance, at whose abode in Cornwall, Raymond had been invited to spend the Whitsun. It was an unsolved mystery, and which he expected the club would discuss and find a solution.

John Newman had bought rights from Spanish Armada to salvage the wreck of a sunken ship, which he believed contained of treasure. On the way to Newman's, Raymond met a Police Inspector, who was investigating another, more recent shipwreck with ingots of gold in it which had been stolen. Throughout his stay, Raymond felt a foreboding of something bad about to happen; with the menacing pub's landlord, and big storm. On top of it all, Newman was missing - apparently abducted, and witnessed a smuggling. Was this the answer of the stolen ingots of gold? In the end, it was, as usual, the meek Miss Marple who solved the mystery. Quite an entertaining one!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sing a Song of Sixpence

I have found that the stories from The Listerdale Mystery collection are by far my most favorites. This one is no exception. Sir Edward Palliser received a visit from a young woman, Magdalen, whom he'd known years ago, and whose plead for help he couldn't refuse. Magdalen's eccentric aunt had been murdered, and the household - consisted of Magdalen, her brother, the aunt's nephew and his wife, and a devoted servant called Martha. To clear her family's reputation, Magdalen asked Sir Edward to investigate.

From his visit to the house, and his interview, Sir Edward found himself with a puzzle, but without nothing to suggest how to proceed, until, by chance, he caught a sight of a shop. And then, eureka! He saw how the murder had been committed. The key is the nursery rhyme which Christie used as this story's title. I loved the solution and twist, which I would've never guessed by myself. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons #20BooksofSummer2025

💙 Flora Poste found herself an orphan and penniless at age nineteen. Her friend encouraged her to take a job, or be trained for something, but Flora had a better idea. She would bestow her numerous relatives - which she didn't quite know - with opportunity to take her to live with them. Accordingly Flora wrote these relatives, and one reply came from the Starkadders who lived in Cold Comfort Farm in Sussex. The fact that Flora - a city girl - must live in a farm didn't deter her determination. 

💙 Flora is a sophisticated urbane girl, level-headed and sensible. She found the Starkadders as coarse and ignorant farmers, isolated from the modern world. They had taken Flora in not willingly, but to atone for an unthinkable wrong once done to Flora's father (which was never revealed througout the book). But that's not the only unsolved mystery in this book - the other is Flora's Aunt Ada Doom, the elderly matriarch who confined herself at her bedroom for the past twenty years, because when she's a child she had seen "something nasty in the woodshed." I'm curious to know what that is, but sadly, it, too, was never revealed. :(

💙 To make the Starkadders more sophisticated and happier, was the job that Flora had taken herself during her stay. There's cousin Amos with his obsession to religion; Reuben who knew how to improve their badly-run farm but can't do anything because brother Amos was taking charge; and Elfin the unruly passionate young girl, for whom Flora had to arrange an honorable marriage. Not mentioning Aunt Ada, whose presence hindered everyone's happiness. Not too subtly, but unflinchingly, Flora forced changes upon changes into the family, bringing the family to more adept to modern world.

💙 It was really a humorous and witty satire of rural life in early twentieth century, with a touch of romance. Despite of her self-centered manner, I couldn't help to be fond of Flora right from the beginning. In certain books, her character would be much annoying, but here, it provides many hilarious scenes.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐12

Read for:

20 Books of Summer 2025

hosted by Annabel and Emma

The Shell Seekers (1987) by Rosamunde Pilcher #20BooksofSummer2025

🐚 The Shell Seekers is the title of a painting which hung on the wall of Penelope Keeling's abode. It was a wedding gift from his father, with herself as one of the shell seekers depicted in the painting. The story opens when Penelope is sixty years old, and has just been out of hospital and recovering from a heart attack. After that, the story runs parallelly between Penelope's past and present, giving us the view of how she had become what she is now, and why she does things that is incomprehensible to her children.

🐚 Penelope is the daughter of a bohemian parents; her father was a painter who married a much-younger French girl. And so, Penelope had been brought up quite unconventionally, and has an unconventional way of thinking too. For her, money means freedom. And it is money that created diversions between the mother and the three children: the bubbly, self-indulgent Nancy, the sensible, businesslike woman Olivia, and the selfish, greedy Noel. Nancy and Noel, especially, have been pestering her to sell The Shell Seekers and other paintings by grandpa Lawrence Stern, whose name had been resurfacing lately in art galleries. But Penelope was adamant, the paintings were hers - her father had given them to her only, and it's up to her what she'd like to do with it. She had done everything to make her children happy - she had even put up with her ill-suited and cheating husband for the sake of the children. And now it's her turn to make herself happy - free and happy. And I agreed with Penelope 100%.

🐚 I loved Penelope from the start, both as young girl and elderly lady. I always believe that when a child is brought up with love and trust, the child would be blooming to be unique, affectionate, and self-confident adult. I loved the relationship between Sophie - Penelope's French mother, and her daughter. Their relationship reminded me of mine and my mother - not that my mom's a bohemian, but she always put trust in me, and let me be what I want to be. Unfortunately for Penelope, only Olivia who has similarity to her mother; while Nancy and Noel must have inherited their father's character - money-oriented and petty.

🐚 I couldn't decide which part of the book I loved most - each had charm and interesting characters. Penelope's wartime story with, first, her husband, and then with the only man she ever loved, and also her friends who were evacuees, living at the family's house? Or Penelope's story as an old lady living alone in the village, befriended the young gardener and a girl that acquainted to Olivia, of whose future she helped building? Each had its warmth and charm, and I loved how Pilcher interwoven the past and the present into one wholesome story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

20 Books of Summer 2025

hosted by Annabel and Emma

Taken at the Flood (1948) by Agatha Christie

💜 It was during a raid in The World War II, that Hercule Poirot, sheltering in a club, had heard an interesting story from a Major Porter. He was reading a news about the death of one Gordon Cloade, and how his new wife would inherit his estate. He - Major Porter - befriended the wife's former husband, a man named Robert Underhay, who was believed to be dead in Africa, though Major Porter was sure the man wasn't dead, and surely, one day he would appear in England. The story quite intrigued Poirot, and he was reminded to it several months later when he was asked to identify a mysteriously murdered man.

💜 The Cloade family (the late Gordon Cloade's siblings and their family) had been dependent to Gordon; he financed their expenses, provided them with capitals to start a venture - in short, he always told them to never think about money, as his wealth would someday be divided amongst them all. And so, his sudden death left the family vulnerable, and in want of ready money for their household expenses, or to continue on their ventures. They started asking Gordon's widow - a young and naive Rosaleen - for money. Her brother David protected his sister like a lioness protecting its cub.

💜 One day a stranger called Enoch Arden came to the village's inn and blackmailed David that he knew how to find Rosaleen's first husband. This conversation was heard by the landlady, who then told one of the family members. The next day, the man was found dead with his head smashed. Of course, David was instantly suspected. He had the strongest motive, since, if Robert Underhay was found alive, his sister wouldn't inherit the estate after all. But was he the real murderer? And why did Rowley Cloade asked Poirot to find the whereabout of Robert Underhay? Has that something to do with the fact that Lynn Marchmont, his fiance, seemed to be attracted to David Hunter?

💜 All in all, it was an interesting case. I loved that Poirot was not involved in the case until about half the story. If gave Christie ample opportunity to focus on the family dynamic, giving each character (suspects) to reveal their true selves, but without giving up too much to keep us in the dark of the murderer's identity until almost at the end. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Missing or Murdered (1929) by Robin Forsythe

🤎 I have read two Algernon Vereker's mysteries before, and have enjoyed both. One thing that make them interesting is the friendly competition between Vereker - the amateur detective, and Detective Inspector Heather from Scotland Yard. I always enjoy their bantering, usually over a bottle of aperitif or beer at the bar. This book is the first in the series, and the one where they both met for the first time. I've been excited over this one, and in the end it proved to be satisfying!

🤎 Lord Bygrave from the Ministry office seemed to had vanished into thin air the day after he last left the office for a fortnight holiday in his country house. Detective Inspector Heather from Scotland Yard was in charge of the case, and Vereker, being Lord Bygrave intimate friend and executor, joins Heather in the investigation. The first thing to be established is whether Lord Bygrave is dead or alive, missing or murdered,  - hence the title. But that is difficult to determine. A lot of things were discovered, of course, such as the visit of a mysterious veiled lady shortly before the disappearance; bonds missing from his personal cabinet; a proposal to his beloved niece from a man he didn't approve of. In short, there are several possibilities, but very limited clues.

🤎 Like the usual Golden Age mysteries, it has several plot twists and red herrings, and we are continually wondering whether the man is missing or murdered. The story revolves around these possibilities with its many red herrings, till almost the very end. And that made it highly entertaining, besides the challenge between the Scotland yard and the amateur detective, of who could solve the puzzle first - each with his own strategy of pulling the other's legs, though with good sport, without jeopardizing the case.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: Mini Reviews for May

The Million Dollar Bond Robbery

This is a Hercule Poirot story, where Poirot and Hastings were asked to investigate a bond robbery. The story opens with Hastings remarking how often one reads about bond robbery those days. Then a young woman came with exactly the same case. Her fiancee, a bank clerk, had been asked by his boss to take a packet of one million dollars of Liberty bonds on board a ship, for sale in the United States. The packet was placed in a trunk, of which, only the trusted clerk and two managers had the key. Later on the clerk found attempts to force-opening on the trunk, and the packet gone! The ship was thoroughly searched to no avail. Who the theft is, and how they did it?

Upon investigation, Poirot found that the bonds were instantly bought by a broker. And that fact convinced him of the solution to the mystery. This has been a straightforward case, and not hard at all to guess.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Affair of the Pink Pearl

The third story in Partners in Crime collection found Tommy as the star detective for a change! He has just bought a camera "for taking photographs of footprints and "all that sort of thing", while a client arrived. She's a young woman from Wimbledon, whose house guest had lost a valuable pink pearl. Her necklace had been laid aside on a table after the clasp broke, and she forgot to take it upstairs at night. The following day, the necklace was there, but without the pink pearl pendant. There's no doubt that someone inside the house had stolen it, but who? And how did they hide it so that the search revealed nothing?

As Tuppence questioned the servants, Tommy took photographs of the whole room. Both efforts weren't fruitless. Tuppence found a kleptomaniac who'd been hiding spoons on their muff, but Tommy deduced correctly the theft of the pink pearl. On the whole, it's a satisfactory story. I've been waiting to read one where Tommy outwits Tuppence, and here it is!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐