The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki trans. by Jesse Kirkwood

This is a fun, thought provoking, cozy, magical realism story set in modern Kyoto Japan.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop only pops-up during a full moon and only for those who need its services. Two things sets it apart: the staff are human sized cats and skilled astrologers who  know the star charts of the patrons; and the patrons don’t order but given what will best appeal to them.

Throughout the story, troubled characters, connected to each other in some way, find their individual ways to the coffee shop. These people have lost their way and don’t know what will make them happy. With good food and drink and guidance the cats help them find their path.

Okay, right away, I’m a cat person and any story with cats is a better story. The cats have fun well developed personalities and engage in amusing banter among themselves. As a reader, I enjoyed the cats and want to see more of them.

If you have read The Rainfall Market, you’ll see the similarities. Besides featuring cats, they both show people looking for what will make them happy. I was a bit concerned that a story with talking astrologer cats would be too twee for me but it isn’t. The theme is thoughtful and heartfelt and resonated with me such that I talked about both books with my therapist. There is something in the stories that everyone will be able to relate to. In fact, the messages you can glean from both books are more succinct and relatable than what I’ve found in self-help books. So, yeah, the book talked to me personally and that’s a testament to the skill of the author and translator for both books.

#cats #magicalrealism #coffeeshops #bookstagram #bookreviews #findingyourway #happiness #fulfillment

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline,

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, is a welcome approach to stories set in a dystopian future. It’s a metaphor for both the environment and the people bound to the earth. The setting is Canada several decades in the future. Civilization has collapsed not from some single apocalyptic event but from factors present in our world today: global warming, corporate greed, and devastating pollution. A pervasive sense of hopelessness has set in and people have lost the ability to dream with a rise in suicide.The indigenous peoples of North America have retained the ability to dream. “Dreams get caught in the webs woven in your bones. That’s where they live, in that marrow there”. The authorities are extracting this ability to dream from the bones of the indigenous peoples.

The story is told in the 1st person by Frenchie, a young Metis boy as he escapes the Recruiters of the Canadian Department of Oneirology (study of dreams) who take the indigenous to “schools” where their dreaming ability is harvested. Frenchie finds a family with other indigenous people, also heading north to safety in the forests.

The heart and soul of the story is what Frenchie finds with his new family. The elders are keeping traditions alive, teaching the old ways: being one with the land, learning Language [of the People], keeping the Story [of the People] alive in memories. In turn, everyone tells their “coming-to” stories, how they found themselves there.

There is action but the story is about the deep bonds that form among the People and between the People and the land.

There is a lot to unpack here: the government finding yet another way to exploit indigenous peoples; a warning that the earth can be broken; respect for the land; and the importance of love and support of family. The author has a beautiful, lyrical, way of describing this. The reader, this one anyway, feels a connection with the characters. I wish I knew a Miigwans, the elder leader and storyteller.

The author herself is indigenous and has written an emotionally stirring and affecting story.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

The novel was published in French in 1995 by its Belgian author. I only recently discovered it on YouTube. It’s also short (177 pages on Kindle).

it is a moving story and as I started this review I paused and asked myself, “What wouldn’t I have wanted to know before reading”. Therefore, there won’t be much detail beyond a bare synopsis.

40 women are caged in an underground bunker. They don’t know where they are, how they got there, how long they’ve been there, or why they’re there. The cage is guarded by men who never speak. 39 women have names and memories from before the cage: husbands, lovers, careers, domestic life. The last is a young woman—maybe 16— who has only known life in the cage. She is not named but the other women refer to her as “the child”. The Child is frustrated by the women’s refusal to tell about life before the cage. They say they don’t want to burden her with what she will never experience.The Child is smart but angry and sullen when her questions are ignored.

Is this science fiction? Post-apocalyptic. Will all be revealed? One thing I can say is that it’s Kafkaesque: nightmarish, illogical, powerless characters in an absurd situation, victims of some bureaucracy that even the guards have forgotten.  Shades of  Josef K. in Kafka’s The Trial.

The Child is a wonderfully drawn character and we see everything through her first person narration. Her youth and ignorance are actually strengths in this absurd situation and her unschooled intelligence may be the means to bring the women together. Having grown up in the cage, she doesn't have the hang-ups and baggage of a previous life like the others and she sees things and possibilities differently. She is different.

This is a character driven story with the narrator the glue that binds her and the other women. The absurdity of the situation lets us see the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. As we get to know the women as everyone ages, I also found myself misty-eyed so have a hanky handy.

Being short, the story is tight and doesn’t bog down. As a reader I was always anticipating that an answer might be on the next page.

This isn’t a feel-good story but also not depressing. I'm not sure how I felt at the end. Contemplative? Left in a brown study. A bit haunted. Certainly affected.

Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

The story picks up where A Psalm for the Wild-Built ended. Sibling Dex and his robot friend Mosscap continue their journey across Panga on their way to the City, the capital. This short book (149 pages) is really a series of meditations in story form. I say meditations because the events give the reader much to meditate on. As in A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Mosscap’s questions in an attempt to understand humans initiates much of the discussions. But something new is added. Mosscap experiences a sort of existential crisis as his observations of  humans causes him to have doubts about his own purpose, to become introspective in a human-like way. Another section shows the reader that the robots have their own moral and ethical codes and an interesting discussion ensues between Mosscap and humans.

I much enjoyed how the contrast between the artificial and humans is used as a means to introduce philosophical, moral, and ethical issues and dilemmas. Additionally, Mosscap’s fascination with the natural world—(he keeps several favorite rocks in his pouch—instills in Dex the sheer joy of experiencing nature, something we all should do.The author does so not by bludgeoning the reader but in the context of social interactions and frank, intimate conversations between Mosscap and Dex.

The two Monk and Robot books are among my favorite reads and I’m to seek out the author’s other works. I don’t know if the Chambers has a 3rd book planned but the series could end here. The final scene is really very sweet and smile inducing and a fitting conclusion to the tale.

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Ok, this will appeal to readers with a strong bent for the dark.

Winifred Notty is hired as governess to the two Pound children at Ensor House, formerly a medieval house. Ensor is in the village of Grim Wolds, a Dicknsian name if there ever was one.We quickly see that something isn’t right with Mis Notty. Indeed, flashbacks show how not right she is. There are hints early on as to what she is capable of.  What is her motivation for coming to Ensor House? Who is she really?

The book is short (195 pages) and the pacing moves the reader along without a lot of unnecessary exposition, which I liked. The story didn’t need to be longer.

For me, Miss Notty’s wry, sardonic observations about the Pound family (mother, father, son, daughter)  and their acquaintances, the pretentious class structure, character and  deficiencies therein of everyone had me going from the beginning. About herself, Notty observes “I open my mouth wide in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the Darkness within me, to spy it peeking out of me, slick and muscular and toothed, like a lamprey swallowed whole.” Very vivid writing.The Darkness is always present and we have no doubt Notty does not have good intentions. She does something truly horrible about half way through but her cover-up made me laugh and delightfully skewers society. I did feel a bit guilty at this.

The story goes full-on bonkers at the end and I really mean full-on. If you read that far, be prepared.

I enjoyed this darkly twisted tale and will be adding her other novel, Mrs. March, to my TBR list.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind translated by John E. Woods

 

Perfume was first published in 1986 and the Viking edition I read in 2001 so it’s been around for a while. 

To use 1984 Newspeak, it’s probably a doublepluscilantro book: love it or hate it. In parts Marmite if you're British. it is gross, distasteful, offensive, and horror. It also utterly fascinated me.

This is a historical crime novel set in the 1750s and ‘60s. It opens with a lyrical, even poetic description of the unbelievable stench that pervaded the cities at that time, specifically Paris, and the sources of the stench. My first reaction is that I’ll probably never look at a film set in this period in the same way again. Sure the actors and costumes are beautiful but imagine how they smelled back then.

Our protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, is born in a fish stall amid fish heads and guts and unaccountably survives the horrifying conditions of his early years. Orphans in a Dickens novel lived in luxury compared to Jean-Baptist.

Grenouille is notable for several reasons: first, as mentioned, he survives; second, he has a supernatural sense of smell and is able to catalog and instantly recall all the smells of the city; third, he has no scent of his own, something that makes people around him uneasy. His sense of smell is so acute that he can follow the faintest trace through the crowded city.

His obsession with scents leads him to the shop of a perfumer Giuseppe Baldini, whose glory days are behind him. Baldini sees a way to reclaim his status and employs Jean-Baptiste who quickly takes over the formulation of new scents. For his part, Jean-Baptiste is willing to put up with the trivial matter of concocting scents for the well-to-do as long as he can learn the techniques of the perfumer and pursue the ultimate scent.

After some years as an apprentice, Grenouille convinces Baldini to release him and he heads south to Grasse where they practice a technique to extract the essence of scents that Grenouille believes will enable him to achieve his goal.

Darker themes and horror have strong appeal for me and this well written story certainly satisfies that appeal.

Before I go, further let me bring up the aspect of the book that will most likely offend sensibilities: Grenouille finds that harvesting the essences of virginal young women is how he will develop the ultimate scent, one that would allow him to rule the world if he desired, and he becomes a serial killer. This is where I’d say the story slips into horror and horror has a tradition of exploiting women. As horror, I don’t think the story could have been constructed otherwise and as someone who enjoys well done horror, i.e not the splatter variety, I appreciate how the author carried it off.

Perfume is a translation from German and I think it’s beautifully done. I wouldn’t have known it wasn’t written in English. I'm not sure how to explain it but the words flow across the page even if they are disturbing words.

Süskind moves the plot along nicely and the scene setting, character development, and background information don’t bog down the flow of the narrative. For me, those elements enhance the story. Grenouille is shown as completely amoral and everything and everyone around him are but means for him to achieve his goals. He is not in the least sympathetic and his amoral nature is captured perfectly.

I was most fascinated by the author’s descriptions of the techniques for extracting essences and combining them to form an appealing scent. I don’t know how the techniques are applied today since they aren’t applicable to mass production but I was completely captivated by the process of recognizing, extracting, and layering of scents. This is probably my favorite part.

Perfume was made into a film and it is one of the best book-to-film adaptations I have seen. The screenwriters capture the essence (see what I did there) of the story including the rather amazing scenes at the end. I recommend reading the book first so you can see how expertly the words are translated to action.

After Annie Bot, I wanted a different sort of robot story so I pulled this out of my TBR file where it had been for several years.

Klara is a robot  female Artificial Friend marketed as companions for young people. We first meet in the store hoping to be chosen. She can only see part of the street and sky outside the store and spends her time studying what she sees. The robots are solar powered and, Klara personifies the sun as the nourisher, deity-like entity. She’s probably the only robot to have formed something like a religion. Klara is remarkably perceptive, observant, and curious about what she sees. She’s naive but is able to reason very well based on what she sees. Her conclusions often make the reader smile.

She and a sickly young girl, Josie, bond over several visits and Klara finally finds a home. Her loyalty and devotion to Josie’s well-being are without limits. When her young charge falls deathly ill, Klara makes a desperate plan, consistent within her logic, to save Josie.

Klara and the Sun is a fable of limitless, selfless devotion toward another. To grab a Bible quote out of context that applies here: Matthew 25:23 — Well done, good and faithful servant. Klara is the only likable, relatable and perhaps the most human character in the book. Frankly, humans don’t come out all that well. I doubt there is a reader who wouldn’t want a Klara in their lives.

Because this is a fable and we’re seeing the story through the eyes of a naive robot, the prose isn’t complex but it is very affecting. I loved every bit of the story and the way it is written.

I should warn you that it will rip your heart out, at least it did mine.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang

Bright Haven is a city with familiar technology powered by magical energy siphoned from the Otherrealm. It is protected from the Kwen, the outside, by an energy barrier. Outside, the Blight strikes, seemingly at random, and causes living things to messily and painfully come apart. Within the city, it is believed that the Blight is a sickness brought upon the Kwen inhabitants because of their degeneracy and refusal to accept the recognized religion.

Sciona Freynan is a female mage with the single minded goal of becoming a high mage and achieving power and glory. She passes the exam and earns the white robes as the first female high mage. Unfortunately, the ranks of the high mages is very much a misogynistic boy’s club. To humiliate her, Tommy (or Thomil), a Kwen refugee and janitor, is assigned as her assistant. But Thomil is smarter and quicker than the other mages imagine and he and Sciona become a team. Together they uncover a secret that could bring down Bright Haven and destroy everything Sciona believes.

Sciona isn’t a particularly likable character. Her thirst for power and glory is unfortunately combined with a naivety of the real world and that leads her to do and say dumb things and make poor decisions.

The magic system is pretty neat. The mages siphon energy from the Otherrealm and use it perform actions using what we recognize as computer programs. I really enjoy how the author builds the magic system and it makes it more real.

The story went in a direction I didn’t expect and I was sad at the end.

Blood Over Bright Haven is a well developed and entertaining stand-alone novel with interesting, if at times cardboardy, characters. I hesitate to call it a fantasy because the magic is grounded in what I know from my previous profession. But it has magic and mages so fantasy. I think it would be perfect for someone dipping their toes into fantasy for the first time.

You might be interested in Henrik Ibsen’s play, An Enemy of the People, for a classic companion read.

The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang

Serin is a Korean school girl who desperately wants a ticket to enter the mysterious market that is only open during the rainy season. She wants to escape the soul crushing poverty she and her mother suffer. People write to the market describing their unhappiness with their life and if deemed worthy, receive a ticket. Sarin receives a golden ticket allowing her to observe multiple possible lives before choosing one.The market (bigger on the inside) is inhabited by a community of Dokkaebi (Korean goblins) who will sell a ticket holder a globe containing a possible life.. Accompanied by a spirit guide cat, Issha, Sarin attempts to find the life that will make her happy.

“The author set out to write a light, fun read that was still packed with meaning…that left readers with a lingering sense of warmth”. She succeeds. Sarin is a sensitive, empathetic girl but she also has a kid’s naivety when it comes to thinking what would make her happy. The world within the market is fun to explore and the Dokkaebi are eccentric and amusing . The story is very good and has humor and some peril. The message isn’t heavy handed and is pretty clear: what you think you want may not be what you need; and maybe happiness is closer to home than you think. And it does leave you with a warm feeling that lingers.

The book can be read both by adults and young persons. I know I would have loved it in middle school. There are some scenes that would have had me howling and had me sniggering today.. The Dokkaebi make their goods from things they harvest from humans such as the essence of human words, forgotten human memories, the sweat and tears humans shed in pursuit of their goals. and this is part of the message: look at all the things that make us humans. It can be read and enjoyed as a cozy fantasy but it will also appeal if you're down or wondering about your life and how it could have been different.

I wish I had a kid to read it with. Maybe that’s what would be in my globe.

The Brave New World Collection by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a 1931 classic dystopian novel by British author Aldous Huxely. It is a world where people are grown in bottles and their caste — Alpha to Gamma is predetermined in vitro.  Parent, mother, father, and pregnant are offensive words that are repulsive.. Promiscuous sex, feelies, the drug soma to level you out or take you on a holliday, and socially mandated activities that make sure no one is alone, keep everyone “happy”, content, and unquestioning.

The first part of the book reads like a catalog of how this world differs from our own.Things get more interesting when the Alpha Barnard visits a reservation of savages and finds John, a young man whose parents are from the outside. Seeing this as a way to increase his social status, he takes John back to the world. John is dubbed John Savage and is an immediate sensation with Bernard as his manager. John isn’t dumb, he’s a keen observer who quotes Shakespeare in response to this “brave new world” with its artificial and superficial happiness. He finds that the solitude he craves is forever out of reach.

Brave New World is a dystopia masquerading as a utopia and a warning how technology and complaisance could lead to a totalitarian dystopia. Huxley explores this in Brave New World Revisited.

Brave New World Revisited is a series of essays published in 1958. Here Huxley contrasts the totalitarianism of Orwell’s 1984 with that of Brave New World. Huxley is pessimistic that overpopulation and over organization inevitability  is going to lead to totalitarianism. He also skirts alarmingly close to espousing eugenics. The chapters on propaganda and manipulation apply as much today as when Huxley wrote them. Perhaps more so given the way broadcast media can disseminate propaganda and manipulate people’s thinking. See the 2024 election.

Brave New World is an extreme look at a possible future for society given advances in technology and other stressors but I found Brave New World Revisited much more relevant and thought provoking. The reader sees just how easy it is to manipulate people.

Read Brave New World, Brave New World Revisited, Orwell's 1984, and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for a good look at possible paths toward totalitarianism. All three books are still relevant today.

Bunny by Mona Awad

After finishing Rouge I decided to reread Bunny and I’m glad I did because I’d forgotten much of it..

To summarize, Samatha (Sam) Mackey, a scholarship student at an elite, highly selective New England university, finds herself inexplicably drawn into the circle of the other 4 members of the all-female cohort of a MFA program in narrative arts. These are the self-named Bunnies who are everything Samatha is not and who she finds repelling, even hates. When they invite her to join them, she is unable to resist and her insecurities win out. She finds that the Bunnies are not only the mean girls clique she imagines but a cult and she finds herself taking part in some pretty disturbing rituals. As she becomes enmeshed in the cult she drifts away from her best friend Ava. Can she escape the Bunnies or will she lose herself?

Awad’s writing is stunning. razor sharp, flowing, witty, and funny. I was grabbed from the opening pages where Samatha and Ava are at the Narrative Arts Department’s welcome back Demitasse (nothing as low class as a party) observing, mocking, and scoffing at the Bunnies. Sam’s made up dialog of what the Bunnies are saying to each other is wonderfully snarky. As she falls under the influence of the Bunnies and some elements of horror appear, the writing becomes more hypnotic and trance-like as Sam’s sense of self starts to slip away. You also see this in Rouge. I wondered if the events were real or happening in Sam’s mind or made up by Sam. I think I know but to say more would be a spoiler...maybe..

Bunny satirizes girl-cliques and pretentious academia and is often very funny but it also looks at Sam’s need to belong even if it means becoming what she says she hates. Bunny doesn’t have the body horror of Rouge but there are a few ewww moments.

With Bunny and Rouge, Awad has become one of my favorite and always read authors. I’m looking forward to the sequel, We Love You, Bunny, which will be published September 2025. It’s told from the viewpoint of the Bunnies and I hope  answers some of my questions.

Julia by Sandra Newman

My triad of totalitarian/dystopian novels—1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451—is now a quartet. I just finished Sandra Newman’s Julia which tells the story of George Orwell’s1984 from the viewpoint of Winston Smith’s lover, Julia Worthing (Orwell didn’t give her a last name). Newman has given us a fully fleshed out female protagonist with her own backstory, agency, and motivations. There is a lot more to Julia than what we see in 1984.

We see Julia’s interactions with Winston and events involving Winston through her eyes. She refers to him as Old Misery because of his dour disposition and apparent dislike of women. Between these scenes, we are shown the lives of Outer Party women in Big Brother’s London in grim detail. Unlike Winston who has his own apartment, Julia has a bed in the open bay, barracks-like hostel, Women’s 21. This gives us an intimate look at the daily lives of the women living in close quarters. Likewise, through Julia we see the lives of the proles (i.e. non-party members) with whom she engages in black market activities.

Julia is an excellent companion to 1984 and skillfully shows us a different side to the story. I very much recommend reading or rereading 1984 first, before opening Julia. You need to have the events of 1984 fresh in your mind. I really can’t give more detail about Julia because I don’t want to spoil the story but I love everything about the way Newman builds on the story of 1984 and gives it her voice. Julia takes nothing away from 1984 but rather blends the two storys.The ending is superbly understated and made me sit back and say hmmm.

I got Julia from the library but need to add it to my permanent collection.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I  recently realized that I had never read Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë despite having been a lit major. I’d only seen the 1939 Lawrence Olivier film version. Much embarrassment. To fix that I listened to the Blackstone audio book narrated by Carolyn Seymour and read a Kindle edition.

I haven’t read any critique of the story other than it is considered one of the greatest novels ever written and a love story that transcends the grave. There are probably deeper meanings that I missed. Since it is over 170 years old I’m not going to worry about spoilers or describe the story in detail. 

Basically, Heathcliff is brought into the Earnshaw family at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff and Catherine(Cathy) Earnshaw love each other dearly but he misunderstands a conversation he overhears  and runs away for three years. During that time, Cathy marries wealthy Edgar Linton thinking she will be able to uplift Heathcliff on his return. He doesn’t take this well. Cathy dies in childbirth. Heathcliff becomes even more deranged. Revenge, retribution, and abuse ensue.

My observations

• It’s raw and probably had ladies clutching their pearls at how awful the people are.

• It depicts extreme mental, emotional, domestic, and physical abuse to adults and children and the lasting effects of that abuse

• Romance? It certainly shows what can happen when a deep love is thwarted and the scarring effects on someone already mentally unstable, i.e.Heathcliff

• Rage, lots of rage

• You should read it if only for the cultural references

• It’s a well constructed story though the highly charged language and drama can be a bit much for modern readers

• I admire Brontë’s writing. Her use of language is both brutal and beautiful. She didn’t compromise at all in realizing her characters, the good and bad.

• People can fall deathly ill at the drop of a hat

• Seymour is an excellent narrator, almost too good. The near constant shrieking, bellowing, growling, and raging are jarring to the ear. I needed to switch to reading for relief

• I really liked the contrast between Edgar Linton’s Thrushcross Grange and The Heights. Wuthering Heights is wonderfully described in its soulless bleakness

Amusing (to me):

• When the reader narrated Joseph’s (servant at WH) dialog I thought of Gabby Johnson in Blazing Saddles who spoke authentic frontier gibberish (available on youtube). Joseph spoke in authentic Yorkshire gibberish.

• In Jasper Fforde’s The Well of Lost Plots, Thursday Next, a literary detective, visits Wuthering Heights where the characters are in a mandatory rage management session to keep the rage in the story from getting out of control as happened with Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. You also get a pretty good overview of the story.