Reading List For January, 2025

It's now the end of the month, so it's time again for the list of books read during the month. With twelve books read in January, this is most read in any one month since April of 2021 when the monthly count was 15.

This month, I'll be listing the books differently; normally I'd list the books in the order read. This time they'll be grouped by writer.

There were five written by Donna Leon, three by P.G. Wodenhouse, two by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and one each by Haruki Murakami and Larry Denninger.

I'm giving each book by Leon, Wodenhouse and Murakami five stars. Larry Denninger's book receives three stars. Sadly, Toshikazu Kawaguchi's two books are only getting two stars each. These two are part of a five book series - much of what's written doesn't hold up after five books.

The list:

Beastly Things
The Golden Egg
By Its Cover
Falling in Love
The Waters of Eternal Youth   by Donna Leon 

A Damsel in Distress
Right Ho, Jeeves
The Code of the Woosters   by P.G. Wodehouse 

 
Before We Say Goodbye
Before We Forget Kindness   by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 

 
End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland   by Haruki Murakami

 
Songs for Clara   by Larry Denninger

December 2022 Reading List

As I write this post, it is Friday afternoon, December 30. I've just finished reading the 7th book for this month, and although there is still one more day left in the month, it is unlikely that I can finish an eighth book before the month comes to an end. Therefore, I'll write the post now and have it ready for tomorrow.

If it should happen that I'm able to finish another in the time remaining I will edit this post.

Unlike some other months, I haven't posted many reviews in December for the books I've read immediately following my having read them. I did, however manage to write something about A.J. Cronin as well as one book by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. 

I can't say enough about how much I admire the work of Dr.Cronin. His Hatter's Castle is one of the best books I've read this year. More of his novels will be going into the queue for 2023.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I enjoyed reading all three books in Kawaguchi's Café series, and I recommend the trilogy, although I'm looking forward to the day when Kawaguchi spreads out and writes a novel that is not part of the same series.

For the 4th book of December, I switched from fiction to non-fiction, reading Anna Reid's Leningrad : The Epic Siege of World War II.

I don't recall exactly how I discovered Seishi Yokomizo. Yokomizo was a popular Japanese mystery novelist during the immediate post WWII period. His mystery novels have only recently been translated into English. The first in 2019. So far, five of his mystery novels have been translated into English although #5 won't be available until sometime in 2023. I have read the first two - the third and fourth will be the first two I'll read in January.

The final book finished this month (and this year as well) is a mystery novel mentioned by Seishi Yokomizo in The Honjin Murders - The Red House Mystery by A.A.Milne.

Milne is best remembered as the creator of Winnie - the - Pooh. The Red House Mystery is his only mystery novel. He mentions in his dedication of the novel to his father that the elder Milne was a great fan of detective and mystery novels and the younger Milne wrote this novel especially for his father. I, for one, wish that Milne had written more in the genre. I enjoyed reading The Red House Mystery and would liked to have seen the amateur detective, Anthony Gillingham team up with his friend Bill Beverly in more novels.

So, now - here is the list of the books I read in December, 2022. I can recommend all seven.

The Stars Look Down                                         by A.J. Cronin 

Before Your Memory Fades                               by Toshikazu Kawaguchi  

Hatter's Castle                                                   by A.J. Cronin 

Leningrad The Epic Siege of World War II       by Anna Reid  

The Honjin Murders                                          by Seishi Yokomizo  

Death on Gokumon Island                                 by Seishi Yokomizo  

The Red House Mystery                                     by A. A. Milne

Before Your Memory Fades

 

In August of this year, I discovered the novels of Japanese writer, Toshikazu Kawaguchi . At that time, he had published two novels - Before the Coffee Gets Cold and a sequel, Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café. Both tell of a café in Tokyo that allows its customers to travel back in time.

As I mentioned in the blog post linked to above, a third book in the series, Before Your Memory Fades was scheduled for release in November. Naturally, I had to get my hands on a copy of the ebook.

The wikipedia summary of the first novel describes all three novels in the series rather well:

In a narrow back alley in Tokyo lies a café called Funiculi Funicula. In the café, customers have the opportunity to travel back to a time of their choosing, as long as they follow a long list of rules. There is only one seat in the café that allows time travel; the seat is only available when the ghost that usually occupies it goes for a toilet break; once back in time, customers can't leave the seat; the only people in the past who can be met are people who have visited the café; whatever happens in the past, the present won't change; and, most importantly, the customer has to return to the present before their cup of coffee goes cold.

The main difference in the third novel is that the stories take place in a different café (Donna Donna) in Hakodate rather than Tokyo. The same family is charge of pouring the coffee that permits the time travel.

I enjoyed reading all three books in the series, and recommend the trilogy - however, I'm looking forward to the day when Kawaguchi spreads out and writes a novel that is not part of the same series.

The November, 2022 Reading List

Today is the final day of the month and time to post yet another monthly reading list. Like other recent book lists, the list for this month has fewer books than what had been a normal amount for me over the past few years.

At least, I was able to complete Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Wimsey series. Prior to book six in the series - The Five Red Herrings - it appeared that I would finish the 11 books in the series rather quickly. However, as I wrote previously, I didn't care for book six and had decided to take a break from Lord Wimsey for a spell. On November 1, I started back on the series with Have His Carcase.

I've been more or less neutral on the series with books seven, eight, nine, and ten. I found the final book, Busman's Honeymoon to be my favorite among the eleven, although it's not without flaws. The book seemed to flow faster than many of the others, although there were sections of the book which I thought were unnecessary. Of course, I understand the need to highlight Wimsey's new bride, Harriet Vane. It is titled Busman's Honeymoon after all. But I found Sayers' concentration on the marriage over the mystery story trying. I also didn't care for Sayers overloading the final chapters with correspondence written in French.

We learn the identity of the killer in Chapter XX so the continuation of the book for 3 more chapters seemed like a waste to me.

I mentioned in Monday's post that in Busman's Honeymoon , Lord Wimsey's mother writes in her diary about her attempt to read a book entitled The Stars Look Down . This book will be the first book read in December. I've learned that the third novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before Your Memory Fades , has been released. I'm hoping to obtain a copy for the December queue. Wish me luck.

Now, for the list - all written by Dorothy L.Sayers:

Have His Carcase
Murder Must Advertise
The Nine Tailors
Gaudy Night
Busman's Honeymoon

Reading List for August, 2022

August being the anniversary month of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it was originally my intention to read several books on the two bombings this month. However, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I miscalculated the amount of time it would take to read the last few books in July and actually finished reading John Hersey's Hiroshima ahead of schedule.

The first two books read in August were Susan Southard's Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War and The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians edited by Cynthia C. Kelly.

I had read that Southard had been concerned that, although much had been written on the bombing of Hiroshima, relatively little had been written on Nagasaki. She certainly made up for that neglect. Her book was similar to Hersey's in that like Hershey, she concentrated on the experiences of a few individuals. The difference being Hershey's book (or rather magazine article) was 106 pages and Southard writing more than 400.

There has been much written since 1945 as to whether or not the dropping of the two atomic bombs was necessary in order to end the second World War. As far as Hiroshima is concerned, I'm not sure how to answer that question. The arguments both pro and con the bombing seem reasonable to me. But, I have to say that in my opinion, the bombing of Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima was unnecessary and could possibly approach the level of a war crime.

I found the book on the Manhattan Project to be a bit tedious. Most of the essays and stories in that book were more about the "wonderful" achievements of the project, and less about any moral objection to the use of atomic weapons during the war.

When I had had my fill of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I went on to lighter fare. I did not post a review of Tracy Chevalier's book - I did, however write something on my thoughts on the work of Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

In July, I read the first of Dorothy L. Sayer's mystery novels, Whose Body? . I enjoyed that book enough to read more of Sayer's novels in August. I've written posts on two of those books - Cloud of Witness and Unnatural Death. . I've enjoyed the four books by Sayer that I've read this month; I thought I would manage a fifth one - The Five Red Herrings but I was unable to finish that ebook before the end of the month.

I have excuses, of course, as to why I'm still reading The Five Red Herrings . I've recently discovered a podcast which has taken up a lot of my time - The History of English Podcast. The podcast started in June of 2012. I've got quite a bit of catching up to do. I highly recommend this podcast to anyone nerdy enough to have an interest in the history of the English language.

Another reason why I've not finished with The Five Red Herrings has to do with Sayer's writing style with this particular book. The story takes place in Scotland, and Sayer thought it necessary to have many of the characters speak with a heavy Scottish accent. This makes it difficult to read. Here's an example from Chapter VII:

"Ay," said Jeanie, philosophically, "I'm no surprised. She's troubled in her mind aboot Mr. Farren. And nae wonder, wi' him mekkin' a' that disturbance and gaein' aff that gate an' never comin' back for twa nichts."
"Two nights?" said Wimsey.
"Ay. Nicht before last it was he went aff on his bicycle, swearin' somethin' awfu' an' nae ward tae say whaur he was gaein' nor what he was gaein' to du."
"Then he wasn't at home last night for dinner?"
"Him? Hame for's denner? 'Deed no, nor ony time o' the day. Monday nicht it was he come back an' fund Campbell i' the hoose an' sent him packin', an' after that there was sic a collie-shangie it nigh frighted my brither's wife into a fit an' her verra near her time, tu. An' oot he gaes and away, wi' Mistress Farren runnin' oot o' the door after him wi' the tears fallin' doon her cheeks. I dinna ken for why she takes on so aboot the man. I'd let him gae an' be daumed tae him, wi' his jealousies an' his tempers."

At any rate, here's the list of books read in August, 2022.

Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War   Susan Southard
The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians   edited by Cynthia C. Kelly
Girl With a Pearl Earring   Tracy Chevalier
Before the Coffee Gets Cold   Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Tales From The Cafe   Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Cloud of Witness   Dorothy L. Sayer
Unnatural Death   Dorothy L. Sayer
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club    Dorothy L. Sayer
Strong Poison   Dorothy L. Sayer

Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

A few months ago, when I was reading a wide selection of novels dealing with Time Travel, I was unaware of Toshikazu Kawaguchi and his two time travel books - Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales From The Cafe (Before The Coffee Gets Cold Book 2) . Had I been familiar with these two back then, the two would have certainly made my list......perhaps even my my top ten.

The summary from the wikipedia page for the first novel does a very good job describing that novel -

In a narrow back alley in Tokyo lies a café called Funiculi Funicula. In the café, customers have the opportunity to travel back to a time of their choosing, as long as they follow a long list of rules. There is only one seat in the café that allows time travel; the seat is only available when the ghost that usually occupies it goes for a toilet break; once back in time, customers can't leave the seat; the only people in the past who can be met are people who have visited the café; whatever happens in the past, the present won't change; and, most importantly, the customer has to return to the present before their cup of coffee goes cold.
The novel follows the stories of the café staff, notably barista Kazu, and four different customers. The first, a businesswoman named Fumiko, tries to repair her relationship with her boyfriend after he left the country for a job in the United States. The second, a nurse named Kohtake, tries to find a letter her Alzheimer-stricken husband wrote. The third, a bar owner named Hirai, tries to talk to her sister whom she's been avoiding. The fourth, one of the café co-owners named Kei, tries to go to the future to talk to her unborn daughter.

Upon reading the first in the series, I immediately began reading the second book. A third book in the series, Before Your Memory Fades , is due for release in November, 2022.

In 2018, the novel was adapted to film as Kōhī ga samenai uchi ni (title translated to Cafe Funiculi Funicula ). I found the film on a Russian website - ok.ru - fortunately, with English subtitles. Watching it is definitely on my to do list.