Book Review Posts 📝

Written by Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste is a book I struggled to put down, filled with twists and moments that made me ponder isolation, being a member of society, and pursuing an interest despite the challenges ahead. The book starts by setting the scene, where Sentaro, a man who makes dorayaki, a sweet pancake made with sweet bean paste, sees an old woman staring at the shop where he works, Doraharu. Over time, Sentaro engages with this woman, finding out that she was a confectioner capable of making sweet bean paste.

Maybe I have been underestimating cats all along. I have a feeling that cats can communicate with each other; the two cats in my house can share their thoughts and feelings. I am unsure how, but I wish it were true. Cats feel more perceptive, like they understand more about the human world than we give them credit for. These thoughts have been swaying around in my mind as I have been reading—and now that I have finished—The Travelling Cat Chronicles.

To the Professor, mathematics is more than just a profession: it is a quest for the truths that govern the universe. The Professor talks of discoveries in mathematics like an event where one peeks into God's notebook. Up until reading The Housekeeper and The Professor, a Japanese work of fiction by Yoko Ogawa, I had never thought about the beauty of mathematics, how numbers can link together in interesting ways. While I cannot say I learned much about maths, I have a newfound appreciation for the work that goes into understanding numbers and how they relate to each other.

I used to think dictionaries were just a list of words. In school, I rarely referred to a physical dictionary. Online dictionaries were much easier to access. Reading The Great Passage, a work of fiction by Shion Miura, made me realise how much work goes into maintaining physical dictionaries and, to a greater extent, the responsibilities involved in writing definitions for a word.

There are an infinite amount of lives we can live because every decision we make changes the way we live life. The Midnight Library, written by Matt Haig, explores the life of a woman who can travel between lives, allowing her to see the outcome of different ways of living. Unlike everyone else, the main character in The Midnight Library, Nora, can see what happens if she makes—or does not make—a particular decision, without any ramifications.

Peet's Coffee, Tea and Spices was one of the inspirations behind Starbucks. I have read this from many sources. Indeed, the Starbucks we know today does not resemble the initial company. It was Howard Schultz who pioneered the idea of rapid growth. The founders of Starbucks based their vision of the business on what they had seen from Alfred Peet, the owner of Peet's based in Berkeley, California. But I had no idea that Starbucks was only one of many businesses who benefited—directly or indirectly—from Alfred Peet and his devotion to selling high-quality coffee.

Strange Weather in Tokyo, written by Hiromi Kawakami, is a tale of a woman in her thirties who develops an affection for an old school teacher of hers. This affection, as the book progresses, turns into a full "official relationship," as the male in the relationship would say.

Continuing my interest in Japanese fiction books, I stumbled upon The Guest Cat written by Takashi Hiraide. I have two cats at home and I have not yet read any books or longer materials about cats. I started to think about the relationships between humans and cats, leaving me to think that The Guest Cat would be an excellent book to read next. The quoted reviews certainly set a high bar for this book, a New York Times Bestseller.

Note: I wrote this blog post before Christmas 2020 and never got around to publishing it at the time.

Note: I wrote this blog post before Christmas 2020 and never got around to publishing it at the time.