Book of the week
“Water Moon,” by Samantha Sotto Yambao(2025, 374 pages, Genre: Fantasy) There is a very popular – and very small – ramen restaurant in Tokyo. People wait in line for a table and it takes a bit to get one. But when some people pass through the door of the restaurant they find themselves in an otherworldly pawnshop instead. It is literally in another world, and in this pawnshop you can rid yourself of your deepest regret. Hana has...
book of the week
“What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma,” by Stephanie Foo(2022, 329 pages, Genre: Memoir) Stephanie Foo is an award-winning radio writer, editor, and producer who spent years burying herself in her work to avoid dealing with her past traumas. Unfortunately, the day comes when she can’t hide in her work anymore and she must face the consequences of a diagnosis of Complex PTSD. The prognosis is not good, but Foo is...
Book of the week
The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves (2024, 372 pages, Genre: Mystery, Vera Stanhope series #11) A social worker is found murdered on the grounds of Rosebank, a “home for troubled teens.” And 14-year-old Chloe, who lives at Rosebank, is missing. Vera doesn’t want to believe that Chloe is the murderer. But they need to find her quickly. Then another body connected to Rosebank is found in the countryside, near the coastal village...
Book of the week
“Orange World and Other Stories,” by Karen Russell (2019, 271 pages, Genre: Short Stories) Karen Russell’s imaginative stories in this collection grabbed me from the first page and kept me entranced to the end. In eight fantastical stories, you will find ghosts, possession by a plant spirit, a drowned Florida, Madame Bovary’s greyhound, a boy in love with a perfectly preserved bog body, a woman who believes she must nurse the devil to...
Book of the Week
“The Restaurant of Lost Recipes” by Hisashi Kashiwai (2014 — translation copyright 2024, 210 pages, fiction) This is another book by the author of The Kamogawa Food Detectives, featuring the same unique father-and-daughter duo who cook and solve mysteries. Their restaurant is hidden in a backstreet in Kyoto, and you might only discover it through a small advertisement in the Gourmet Monthly magazine. The building looks unassuming,...
