nitroglycerin's Reviews (952)

I was hoping for a natural history book but got a biology science lesson instead. Listening on audio made it harder to follow the science, especially the first 40 to 50%. Thr latter half was a bit more what I was expecting but by then I was already finding it a slog and ended up listening to it at a much faster speed to get through it.

This edition combines both of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop. 

Japanese “healing fiction” is everywhere at the moment and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is one of the ones most of you will have seen around. It was all over the gram last year and all over bookstores too. 

Now I am a big fan of slice of life, especially Japanese, whether in literature or in anime, so these stories are right up my street. I see so many reviews bashing on their quieter nature, but for me that’s what I love. 

In Tokyo, there is a neighbourhood with the highest number of bookstores in the world. It is called Jimbocho where book lovers can browse to their heart’s delight and where hunters of first editions or autographed copies prowl the bookcases.

Takako is lost. Her uncle Satoru is heartbroken. Together, working in the family bookshop, they help each other heal. With a small cast of supporting characters from the neighbourhood and a nearby coffee shop, both Takako and Satoru, over the course of the two instalments, come to terms with their current lot in life and find something to look forward to. And that is what a lot of this genre of “healing fiction” seems to aim for, giving people hope that there’s something to strive for. 

Mayumi Inaba was a prize winning and well respected poet and author in Japan. In Mornings with my Cat, Mii we follow her 20 year companionship with her cat, from rescued kitten to the deteriorating end.

Inabas’ writing is beautiful and calming throughout which makes this a joy to read but can make her appear somewhat detached from the situations she is describing. As a memoir, Inaba also describes her marriage and its breakdown, her life as a writer and its ups and downs, and all the while Mii is there to be her comfort and focus.
 
As a pet owner, she makes many decisions that I don’t think I would make regarding Mii and her quality of life, especially towards the end. This shouldn’t be read by anyone where the death of an animal will be a problem or too uncomfortable. To me though, the inclusion of the end of Miis’ life added a sense of realness and intimacy that other stories or memoirs may prefer to skip over. 

A slow tale highlighting the ongoing violence of colonialism in its obvious and visceral bulletins of the real killings of 1979 and the quiet sinister ways art and language are abused, stolen, wiped out and forgotten. The Colony is brilliant in the way it lets us into the inner workings of so many characters on the island, most of them wholly awful. Lloyd and JP in particular are led by motives that are so incredibly selfish that they can’t see the harm they bring to the Island. Lloyd is ignorant of it while JP is so blinded by his own desires for greatness he can’t see the irony of how his behaviour is part of the problem. 
The real life killings of people through the troubles in 1979 interspersed throughout just emphasise the more violet harm that’s ongoing. 

I loved most of this. Part 1 was brilliant as you follow Natsu and her older sister Makiko navigating life as single, thirty year old plus women. Makiko as an aging single mother to Midoriko concerned with her looks and Natsu as a childless aspiring author. Part 2 set 10’years later felt a little jumpy and could have done with its focus narrowed a bit. It’s in this half that Kawakami really examines Japanese society and norms around womanhood, motherhood, body image, ambition, poverty and how unnecessary men are to women’s happiness.

With so many cosy Japanese fiction novels coming out at the moment, it can be hard to know which ones are worth it and which ones can be skipped. 

This one is worth it. 

For fans of Before the Coffee gets cold. 

Focuses on grief and death. 

First 5 star book of 2025!

First non-fiction translated from Japanese.

Absolutely loved this second chance at life memoir from someone who loves books and reading so much.