joymargot's reviews
100 reviews

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

3.0

I read this years ago and remembered absolutely nothing about it, but I’ve been on a bit of a Japanese-books-with-cats-on-the-covers spree recently and picked up a another copy.

Since reading it for the first time, I have adopted and had to say goodbye to my feline soulmate so I found the sadder moments all the more difficult,

especially the neighbours’ refusal to let them pay their respects to Chibi and the ambiguous implication that the book ends on.

With that said, it’s a cosy and charming “slice of life” novella but I’d say it focuses more on home and the passage of time than cats. If you’re looking for a more feline-focussed cosy Japanese read, I highly recommend “She and Her Cat” by Makoto Shinkai and Naruki Nagakawa.

Bellies by Nicola Dinan

4.0

A beautiful tale of romantic and platonic love. I really enjoyed the recurring exploration of how love persists when a romantic relationship ends.

The pacing is a little patchy and I wasn’t as hooked by the middle section but still a great read.

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

5.0

Heartbreaking, beautiful and deeply moving. A must read for everyone, especially right now.

Palestine will be free! 🇵🇸

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, and Grief

The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

4.0

A prime example of when judging a book by its cover pays off 💁🏻‍♀️

There’s definite parallels with Stranger Things from the setting and the characters to the unexpectedly moving and heartwarming moments.

A speedy and enjoyable read.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

3.0

This was a re-read to re-cap before reading the sequels.

As with my first reading, I wasn’t blown away and didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped. It takes a while to get going for such a short book and lacks some of the warmth and heart of other Japanese novels.

Much like other books that follow the same format (What You Are Looking For is in the Library & The Kamogawa Food Detectives) it’s quite repetitive, perhaps so that each chapter can act as a stand-alone story.

With that said, it’s a cosy quick read and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the rest of the series.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

4.0

Knowing that queer kids get to grow up with books like this makes me so happy 🥹

I’m a millennial and have no idea if this is representative of how the kids actually talk these days or if it’s totes cringe, but this was a super enjoyable and quick read that genuinely had me laughing out loud 🌭

Becky shared so much of her own experience in this book and I highly recommended listening to her episode on the A Bit Fruity podcast with Matt Bernstein.

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

4.0

This was a long awaited paperback release for me after seeing so many of my fav bookstagrammers rave about it. It’s always tricky going in with expectations and I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped to, but overall it was an enjoyable read.

It’s pretty clear this is a first novel but the story and characters are full of heart and I really related to Clover.

It’s pretty light and cheesy for a book about death, but genuinely touching in parts and it provided some interesting insights.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Wilding by Isabella Tree

2.0

Yeesh. I’m all for rewilding and conservation but this was absolutely dripping with privilege, condescension, arrogance and self-righteousness. Sure, there’s a few interesting tidbits sandwiched between wildly dull rambling paragraphs and Tree’s classist, ableist and xenophobic remarks.

I found the “pasture-fed” chapter particularly distasteful. Tree at one point refers to deer as “free-roaming protein” and assures us that eating Dartmoor ponies has “given them a new lease of life” 🧐

If you’d like to read a less offensive book about nature, I can’t recommend Braiding Sweetgrass highly enough.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Classism

The Life of a Banana by P.P. Wong

4.0

PP Wong was the first British-born Chinese author to get a publishing deal in the UK (in 2014!) which perfectly illustrates why stories like The Life of a Banana are so important.

I’d say its aimed at a younger YA audience than I’m used to reading and I didn’t totally love the phonetic spelling of words she didn’t understand, but the story itself is incredibly moving, achingly sad, surprisingly funny and full of heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Transphobia

Occasional use of transphobic slurs such as “tranny”.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

4.0

The Kamogawa Food Detectives follows the same format as Before the Coffee Gets Cold and What You Are Looking For is in the Library: Each chapter focuses on a different patron of the Kamogawa Detective Agency in search of a long-lost dish. I’m not sure if each story is intended to be a stand-alone short story, as some seemingly innocuous conversations are repeated in every chapter.

It’s not my favourite Japanese novel with a cat on the cover (I’ve read a lot!) but it’s wonderfully cosy and I loved the descriptions of the delicious-sounding dishes.