The Easy Life in Kamusari (2009) by Shion Miura #JapaneseLitChallenge17

🌳 Yuki Hirano has just finished high school and doesn't know what to do next. So, his parents enrolled him to Mount Kamusari to be trained as a forester. As Yuki was, in a way, forced to take the job, he arrives at the small village grumbling. More so because Yoki Iida, in whose house he would live, snatched and threw his phone away, so that he feels desperate, lonely, and out of place.

🌳 Forestry works are no leisure. Yuki struggles in his first training, but soon gets the hang of it. And it is then that he realizes the beauty of this village at the foot of Mount Kamusari, and appreciates the meaningful job he has in preserving nature. The easy life in Kamusari is far different from his former life in Yokohama city, and he embraces this new life. Yuki even let's himself attracted to a girl older than himself, Nao - a local teacher and sister-in-law of Yuki's boss, Seiichi.

🌳 This book provides a really comfort reading. Shion Miura's writing transported me to the everyday simple life on Kamusari, brought me to meet the people, and learned much about forestry, the little village tradition. I love how the Nakamura team member accepted Yuki in no time, and especially Yoki's household: grandma Shige (Yoki's mother), Miho (Yoki's wife), and even Noko the dog. They grew to love him eventually. But the best part of this book is the detailed description of the forestry work - it's really remarkable, and even kind of epic sometimes. All in all, it's beautiful, refreshing, funny, and warm coming-of-age story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Fresh from the Country (1955) by Miss Read

👩🏻‍🏫 Miss Read is the pen name of Dora Jessie Saint MBE, an English writer and schoolmistress who was famous for her novel series such as the Fairacre and the Thrush Green. She also wrote some children novels, as well as a couple of standalone novels like this one: Fresh from the Country.

👩🏻‍🏫 Anna Lacey is a "fresh from the country" young teacher who's starting her career in a London suburb primary school. The story is about her challenges and struggles. Not only the kind of new teachers would face in their early stage of educational career, like dealing with unrelenting pupils, facing "difficult" parents, or even "rum" characters of her colleagues. Those are minor challenges, as little by little Anna gets the hang of the teaching business. The real struggle for her is the contrast of city life with her countryside origin.

👩🏻‍🏫 Anna experiences a culture shock. Being used to simple life with simple country folks, she's having hard time to adapt with the boasting or greedy people around her. Not mentioning their obsession in money and achievement. Poor Anna is always distressed near the end of term, and can only return to herself after a few days breathing the pure and calm air in the country.

👩🏻‍🏫 Overall, it's a refreshing read that calm you down after work rush, and it makes me want to read the countryside series. This charming and at time funny book was first published in 1955, and re-printed by Furrowed Middlebrow (the imprint of Dean Street Press) in 2020.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Pearl of Price: A Short Story #AgathaChristieSS24

💜 I didn't remember of ever reading a Parker Pyne mystery before. Or if I had, it slipped my memory. In this story Pyne is having a holiday trip to Petra, in the Middle East - a journey which, no doubt, was inspired by Christie's own journey with husband Max Mallowan.

💜 Among Pyne's fellow tourists were a wealthy American with his daughter and also secretary, an archeological doctor, a British politician, and a few others. The American girl is wearing pearl earrings, which her father boasts of costing him very expensively. The earrings' screws are rather lose, and the day before the incident, she had almost lost them, witnessed by the others, coincidentally, after a talk about honesty. 

💜 On their journey to the next day, the girl is, again, losing one of her pearl earring. But this time, they are nowhere to be found. Which means, that one of the men present had stolen them. Which one, though? They searched each other without avail. Parker Pyne must use his deduction ability to solve the mystery.

💜 It is a very straight forward case. I'm pretty sure everyone can easily guess the whodunnit, but perhaps not the howdunnit. Or maybe, if you pay close attention throughout the story, you'll guess it right. It's clever, easy, and pretty straightforward.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/5

#MurderEveryMonday: Covers with City on or in the Title

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:

Cover with a city on or in the title

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:

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024 - FEBRUARY #AgathaChristieSS24

Thank you all of you who have participated in #AgathaChristieSS24 January! I will recap all your reviews (hopefully soon!) and will include the links in the January post.

In February we will read two stories:

THE PEARL OF PRICE

Published in 1934, this is a Parker Pyne story. He joins a party of people from Amman, through Jordon to Petra. When talk turns to the nature of honesty and a pearl earring goes missing, the group suspect each other of theft.

The journey is, of course, inspired by Christie's experiences with husband Max Mallowan. She wrote this particular story after she and Max had visited the temples and rock tombs of Petra, a location which also features in the novel Appointment with Death.

This story first appeared in the UK in Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, and was later included in the 1934 collection Parker Pyne Investigates.

THE AFFAIR AT THE BUNGALOW

A beautiful actress becomes embroiled in a tale of theft, adultery and confusion. Even Miss Marple claims to have trouble solving this mystery.

The story was first published in 1930 in The Story-Teller magazine, then was later included in The Thirteen Problems.

I have found an audiobook (?) of this story in YouTube Soundbook Stories. I haven't even heard about YouTube Soundbook; have you? Anyway, here's the link if you're interested.

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 Secret Guests (2019) by John Banville (Benjamin Black) #JohnBanville2024

👭 First of all, I didn't know that Banville writes crime fiction, lest of all that he writes this genre under a pen name of Benjamin Black. As I'm a fan of mystery, I chose The Secret Guests to be my first #JohnBanville2024, hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books and Kim @ Reading Matters.

👭 As you can see from the cover, the secret guests are two teenage girls - the elder is fourteen, the younger ten. The story opens during German Blitz in World War II, and the girls' parents - like many other parents at that time - are arranging to send their children away. At first I didn't realize the girls' identity. Margaret, the younger, is watching night bombing from the window. The mother calls the elder as Lilibeth. Then I thought, oh she's nicknamed just like Queen Elizabeth II. Silly of me of course, because the girls I'm reading are indeed the two royal princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret. This is a historical fiction!

👭 The British Royal family evacuated the princesses, not to the countryside, like others, but to the neutral Ireland. They're about to stay at Duke Edenmore's estate, Clonmillis Hall, chaperoned by an English secret agent, Celia Nashe, and accompanied by an Irish detective, St. John Strafford (with an "R"). They were escorted to Clonmillis Hall by a diplomat.

👭 First half of the story unfolded at very leisurely pace. We follow the two girls, disguised as Ellen (Elizabeth) and Mary (Margareth), settle into the boredom of rural household - Ellen with her primness indifference, while Mary is in her precocious and inquisitive nature. Celia Nashe and Strafford, on the other hand, started their impromptu cooperation not in a conducive manner.

👭 The plot itself doesn't appear until about the second half through. Someone found picture of the royal family in old newspaper, and was able put two and two together. And so, the princesses are now in danger. Could their two rather questionable guards protect them from imminent danger?

👭 I was slightly disappointed by the detective and the secret agent. Celia Nashe with the insecurities of a female agent among the male dominant field of job, and Strafford with his bad health - a hindrance against, otherwise, an abled detective - in every critical moment. The fast-paced actions in the last chapters are quite entertaining, though I was a bit daunted by too much murders near the end, especially the last cold-blooded one - is it needed, though?

👭 My little disappointment, however, was compensated by Banville's beautiful narration, narrated in equal eloquence by Barrie Kreinik in this audiobook I listened too. It is the writing style rather than the plot that convinced me to read more of St. Strafford series (this book is the first). Hopefully he's getting better next time!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read this book for:

A Year with John Banville

hosted by Cathy @ 769 Books & Kim @ Reading Matters