The Bookshop (1978) by Penelope Fitzgerald #20booksofsummer24

📚 Florence Green is a middle-aged widow lived in a small English seaside town of Hardborough, in the 1959. Alone in the world, Florence was forced to do something she knew she's capable of, in order to have a comfortable life. She was aspired to open a bookshop, something that the secluded town didn't have. She had formerly worked in a bookshop, so she knew enough how the business work, so, why not?

📚 Her first step was buying the premise, an abandoned damp place called the Old House. She had a difficult task of convincing the patronizing bank manager for a loan, but in the end she persisted and won. But that wasn't her only problem. The most influential lady of the town, a Mrs. Gamart, tried to persuade her to change her mind, as she had her own plan to use the Old House as an art centre. We all know why Mrs. Gamart did that - etty jealousy! If she, indeed, wanted to have an art centre, she could have proposed to use any other building, right? Why must an old damp haunted house be her only choice? And why now? It's simply that she's afraid that Florence would have become a more important figure in town than herself.

📚 At last Florence got to open her dream bookshop. Amidst all the obstacles - namely the 'rapper' (poltergeist) and some slow furnishing process, Florence was on business. She hired a local girl as helper. Her first - and in the end proved to be the only one - is a recluse who admired her brave action, and even suggested of starting a library. Her enemy, though, hasn't ended her subtle yet relentless campaign to defame the bookshop.

📚 In the end, the presence of a new bookshop and library, which the town needed very much, was nothing compared to the cheap small town politics, just because an arrogant woman couldn't endure being outshone by another woman. Florence should have been wiser in treating the lioness - customer is, nevertheless, always the king - she should have remedied what her staff has done to Mrs. Gamart. Though, I believe, the lioness would have won her cause anyway, whatever Florence done.

📚 My only regret is that Florence's only benevolent supporter's heroic action had gone unnoticed, especially by Florence. It would have meant a lot to her. All in all, this novella is a sad and thought provoking satire of the power of small town politics.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

20 Books of Summer 2024

hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books

Days at the Morisaki Bookstore (2010) by Satoshi Yagisawa #JapaneseLitChallenge17

📚 Jimbocho district in Tokyo is probably every booklover's dream. I googled it, and found that it is indeed daubed as a book town. As of 2021 it has 176 used bookstores. Imagine being lost there! The Morisaki Bookstore in this story is one of these used bookstores, which belongs to three generations. Its current owner is Satoru, uncle of the heroine, a twenty-five-year girl called Takako.

📚 After a bad breakup with her boyfriend, who married another girl, Takako was total wreck a d jobless. She accepted her uncle's invitation to stay rent-free in a room above the store. She isn't a reader, and at first felt suffocated sleeping with piles of books around her room. But little by little, she regained calmness, with the help of her caring uncle (whom she felt more connected with), and of course, the healing power of books. She even gets to know a bookish young man at her favorite coffee shop.

📚 If only that story was elaborated more, this book would be my favorite. But no, after she's feeling better, Takako decided to look for new job, and it means that she must move out of Morisaki Bookstore. Then the story began to shift to a totally different direction.

📚 Satoru leaves alone at the bookstore after his wife Momoko left him five years ago. She left just like that one day without ever contact him, and so he lost hope of ever seeing her again. Then one day, several months after Takako left, Momoko returned. She just came without explanation, as if she never left. Satoru asked Takako's help to solve the mystery around her uncle and aunt's past dark secrets.

📚 This second part of the story didn't even centered in the bookstore. The revelation and the secret itself took place at another village. Why titled a book "Days at The Morisaki Bookstore" if half the story wasn't connected to either the bookstore or books at all? And I hate Momoko's character - a coward with fake personality and a selfish woman. She disappeared for five years, and then suddenly came back like nothing happen! Are we readers supposed to sympathize with her and her struggles? No! Her conducts are inexcusable. I felt really sorry for Satoru, he didn't deserve Momoko - but then, love is often blind, so...

📚 In short, this story is too disintegrated and quirky for my taste. The first part is quite lovely, I loved Satoru and the bookstore, but hated everything in the second part.

Rating: ⭐⭐1/2

I read this for:

Japanese Literature Challenge 17

hosted by Dolce Bellezza

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore: An Audiobook Review

💗 Sloane Parker is a librarian who loves her job in a small town. One of the patrons is an old curmudgeon called Arthur McLachlan, whose rudeness is not new to the staffs. Sloane had had her share of rough dealing with him too, but she also enjoys their literary banters.

💗 One day Sloane realized Arthur hasn't visited the library for some time. Worried that something's happened, she visited his house where he lives alone - against the library's rule - and found him really ill. From then on Sloane takes care of Arthur, in disguise of working with Arthur's personal library. In doing that, Sloane sacrifices a lot: her job (she got sacked) and facing the grudge of her fiancé. But she is happy.

💗 Besides Sloane, there is also Maisie, Arthur's nosy but kindhearted neighbor who also cares about him; Greg, Arthur's estranged grandson; Matteo, Sloane's ex-colleague who's hired to be Arthur's health nurse. The four of them gather regularly at Arthur's house to form a book club.

💗 Each member of the book club alternately narrates their story from their own point of views. And through these chapters, we slowly get to know each one of these characters - strength and weaknesses, problems and struggles, hopes and dreams, rejection and loneliness.

💗 I love the premise of this story, which is books. It is books that unite these strangers from various backgrounds. Through books that they discuss, they get to learn about themselves and their mistakes. Through books, they find courage to accept themselves and their loved ones, and to build their own future. Through books also, they cement their loves and friendship, and learn more about human's nature.

💗 Among various book titles mentioned throughout the book, Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day and L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables become two most important ones. Remains because it's their first book for the club, and Anne because they use it (by highlighting its passages with different colors - each represented certain person) to express their feelings to one of them. It would certainly be the most valuable gift a bookish person could ever receive, isn't it? Especially if the book happens to be his/her favorite. 

💗 All in all, it is a book about love, friendship, family, forgiveness, and redemption; sweet and heartwarming. And it makes me wanting to re-read Anne of Green Gables! I have listened and enjoyed this story from an audiobook, very well-narrated by Angie Kane. Given that this book is narrated alternately between the characters, audiobook is a perfect way of reading it, and I'm glad I've done that.

Rating: 5 / 5