The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

 

"Natsuki Books was a tiny secondhand bookshop on the edge of town. The shop didn't lose enough money to be considered a liability, nor did it make enough to be considered a fortune. It wasn't much of an inheritance." 

But the bookshop is all Rintaro Natsuki has left after his beloved grandfather dies. Rintaro is an awkward and reclusive high school student who spends most of his days skipping school and hiding out among the books he loves. Not even Rintaro's pretty classmate, Sayo Yuzuki, can lure him outside. Then one day a talking tabby cat shows up in the bookshop and talks Rintaro into going on several strange and fantastical quests to rescue books. Though, in the end, maybe it was Rintaro himself that needed rescuing.  

My thoughts:  It was the title and cover of this Japanese novel that first made me want to read it. Then finding out it had a talking cat, too? I couldn't resist checking it out right then and there. And I'm glad I did. This is a quirky and enchanting little book. Rintaro's struggle to articulate his love for books and reading made him such an endearing character. The tabby cat was blunt and often rude, but he made Rintaro step outside his shell and that was good. And Rintaro's interactions with outspoken and spunky Sayo made me smile. I liked their friendship a lot. But what's at the heart of this bookish novel is the idea that books truly are more than mere words on paper and are therefore very much worth saving. And I completely agree. 

Happy Reading!

This book counts as one of my reads for Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge.

A bookish gem...

We called him the Professor. And he called my son Root, because, he said, the flat top of his head reminded him of the square root sign.

So begins The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, by far my favorite read of 2015. The Professor was an expert in number theory until a car accident in 1975 causes irreversible brain damage and robs him of his memory. He can remember everything before 1975; but anything after 1975 only sticks in his head for 80 minutes. Then it's gone. Forever. "How exactly does a man live with only eighty minutes of memory?" That's the question this charming novel explores through the eyes of the Professor's new housekeeper and her ten-year-old son.

For the Professor, numbers are the one constant in his life. And it's through numbers, and the way they relate to each other, that he connects with other people. He looks for prime numbers and square roots in the housekeeper's phone number and age; and he is delighted when he finds a pair of 'amicable numbers' in her birth date (220) and the number of his first math prize (284).  He also unconditionally loves her son, spending many happy hours explaining the elegance of numbers to him, from simple baseball stats to esoteric proofs. But every morning, they have to begin from scratch with him because for the Professor, yesterday no longer exists.

This novel is sweet and poignant and I absolutely loved it. In fact, when I was done, I found myself flipping back through it and rereading all my favorite parts. The professor's situation tugged at my heart, and I was glad for every happy moment he shared with the housekeeper and her son, even though I knew in 80 minutes he would only forget again. Who knew such a small book could have such a big impact? It will definitely be at the top of my Favorite Reads of 2015 list come December. (In fact, this bookish gem is one I wouldn't mind owning and reading again and again. It's that good!)

Happy Reading!

On Edge...

In Japan, when a person mysteriously disappears they attribute it to kamikakushi. Kamikakushi "most often takes place in the springtime, usually at dusk. Before the disappearance takes place, a strong wind always blows. If the person who is spirited away is lucky enough to return home, he or she never retains any memory of where he or she has been. Naturally, that leads people to concoct all sorts of explanations for the mysterious experiences."

Saeko is a free-lance journalist whose father went missing in 1884. Now, eighteen years later, she and TV director Hashiba are investigating several new disappearances. What do these missing persons have in common? They all disappeared near an active fault line on a day with unusually high sunspot activity. That's not the only strange phenomena occurring; the value of Pi has mysteriously changed overnight, and it looks as if the stars are starting to disappear one by one.

"If the world as we know it ever begins to collapse, then our first signal would be a small shift in mathematics."

Koji Suzuki's novel Edge is not only unusual, it's unusually cool. As Saeko and Hashiba begin to put together all the pieces of this puzzling mystery, it just gets stranger and stranger. But I think that's why I liked it so much. There's a little bit of everything in this novel from number theory to quantum mechanics. Saeko's relationship with her father is also a key component. There's so much to this novel! It's complicated, haunting and completely unique. Suzuki does a masterful job of creating tension out of nothing. And you'll never guess the ending.

Happy Reading!