Reviews with content warning for Child death - Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Das Gefühl, dass sich in einem beim Lesen dieses Buches breit macht, ist unbeschreiblich schön. Man leidet und man freut sich mit den Charakteren - mit jedem einzelnen von ihnen.

Das ist ein Buch, dass ich immer wieder lesen könnte!

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peasandpancakes's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

First of all: Why has every version of the cover art a cat on it when there are a grand total of 0 cats in the book?

I read this book in Dutch and I am sure most of my opinions on it are because the translation felt very bad. The sentences just did not flow well at all, which made it jarring to read. Besides that, I wonder if there is just too much of a culture gap here for me to understand this book and its characters.

I disliked the main character, Takako. Sure, she got out of a bad relationship and was feeling depressed, but she was behaving like such a whiny child that I often forgot she was supposed to be 25.

The whole storyline with the aunt that came back after rudely disappearing for 5 years, was so weird. Were we supposed to feel for her? Because I kinda didn’t. Sure, she was still processing the loss of their child, but it still felt flat.

I’m also going to say it, there are some… questionable things in the story and language used. First, the bath scene felt weird. Second, why was Takako asked if she was into girls when she was (in a strange way I agree) trying to hug her aunt? She was asked the same when she looked at a waitress for 3 seconds earlier in the book. To me that is just not something to joke about

So yeah. Me and this book did not vibe, but if I ever get the chance to read it in English, I am willing to try it.

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books_tea_blanket's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An adult coming-of-age about recovering from depression.

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james_burridge's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a book about learning to take a break and I loved it the writing was EXCEPTIONAL and it was translated from Japanese which is jaw dropping.

It’s incredibly cosy and heart warming (I also loved the little romance sub plot) and I feel a great book to start with when it comes to translated novels. I literally felt like this was a studio Ghibli film in a book.(I also binge read the absolute HECK out of it).The story was like reading the life of a nice person and I liked that.

However, I feel like the characters were a bit 1-sided and never really had any development apart from their relationships.(apart from Takako and Momoko)Also, the 2-part story Just felt like two separate story’s not one and they didn’t really link in any way.

Overall,I like the book(btw this is 3.5 stars rounded up)

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lucyatoz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

"A tale of families, love, new beginnings, and the comfort that can be found in books."

The first line of the synopsis for Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa does kind of sum up the story of Takako, who finds herself unexpectedly living in the room above her Uncle Satoru's secondhand bookshop in Tokyo. This novel is in two parts and deals with lost of relationships and how one young woman navigates the challenges of these so that she and her Uncle can move onwards in life.

I would highlight that issues around loss and grief are part of the story and how this effects the relationships with those we love the most. It is written in a very poignant way and had a profound impact on me.

I own a copy of this book and listened to it on cloudLibrary. I read this for prompt 28, a yellow spine, for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2024.

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