Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

 

Blurb from Goodreads:  Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier.

When Takako's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.

My thoughts:  This novel is quietly enchanting, especially the first half. I loved Takako's time at the bookshop with her uncle, and how books and reading became so important in helping her find her way out of her depression. I also loved reading about Jimbocho, Tokyo's famous book district. What a cool neighborhood! In the second half, Takako leaves the bookshop and her aunt, Momoko, who has been gone for five years, comes back. I didn't like Momoko very much, and Takako doesn't spend much time in Jimbocho or at the bookshop in this part of the book, so I didn't enjoy the last half nearly as much as I did the first half.  

Here are two of my favorite quotes from this book...the first one is Takako's Uncle speaking of his adventurous youth traveling the world, and the second one is Takako talking about her newfound love of reading.  

"I wanted to see the whole world for myself. I wanted to see the whole range of possibilities. Your life is yours. It doesn't belong to anyone else. I wanted to know what it would mean to live life on my own terms."

 

 "It was as if, without realizing it, I had opened a door I had never known existed. That's exactly what it felt like. From that moment on, I read relentlessly, one book after another. It was as if a love of reading had been sleeping somewhere deep inside me all this time, and then it suddenly sprang to life. ... I'd never experienced anything like this before. It made me feel like I had been wasting my life until this moment."

Happy Reading!

P.S. This book counts towards Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge. 

 

Two Quick Bookish Books Recommendations...

 

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

First Thea gets laid off. Then she discovers that her husband of twenty years is cheating on her with one of her friends. So when she finds out she's inherited her great uncle's house and antique book collection, she gladly escapes to Baldochrie, Scotland to claim her inheritance. One thing leads to another and soon Thea is happily working at the local bookshop for the grumpy (and handsome!) owner, Edward Maltravers. 

Scotland and a bookshop? Yes, please! Those are two of my favorite things to read about. And I loved how Thea's and Edward's humorous bickering led to some very honest conversations, friendship, and ultimately deeper feelings of love.   4/5 stars. 

Bookshop Cinderella by Laura Lee Guhrke

1895, London. The Duke of Westbourne has just made a bet to turn a quiet and plain bookshop owner into the bell of the ball. And he has six weeks to do it. Evie Harlow isn't interested in his proposition until her bookshop suddenly needs some major repairs. She agrees to help him with his bet, but neither one of them planned on falling in love. 

This is a fun if predictable romance with two engaging characters. I liked that Evie knew about the bet right from the start, and I thought their dancing lessons were very cute.  3/5 stars. 

Happy Reading!

P.S  These two books count towards Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge.

The Library by Bella Osborne

 

The Library is the story of an unexpected friendship between two very different people. Tom is a lonely teen who feels invisible. His mum is dead and his dad is an alcoholic. Tom struggles to talk to people, especially girls. Then he gets the idea that maybe reading a few romances will help him with that. So he heads to the small village library. And there he meets Maggie. She's a pensioner in her 70s, and she loves to talk to people. But living alone on her small farm gets lonely. Her Saturday trips to the library for her book club is the highlight of her week. And when she starts to talk about books and life with Tom, she realizes, "She'd found a kindred spirit in the most unlikely place and she was going to hang onto him as if her life depended on it."

This is such a delightful read! I loved Tom and Maggie, and how Maggie becomes the family Tom needed so much. His surreptitious reading of romances made me laugh, while his struggles with his dad felt heartbreakingly real and so poignant. This book definitely has all the feels. Maggie's rallying the community to save their library from being shut down did feel very familiar and predictable, but everything else about this book was so good, I didn't mind the lack of surprises at the end. This is another 4-star read for Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge.

Happy Reading!

Similar books (that I also loved):

The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

The Lonely Hearts Club by Lucy Gilmore

The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

 

From the blurb:

"Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely...but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane's day that when Arthur doesn't show up one morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.

"Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden...and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur's gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages."

My thoughts:

This book is aptly named. The five members of Sloane's and Arthur's book club are all experiencing loneliness in their lives, although most would never admit it out loud. As they share books and food together they find more than friendship, they find family. And that's what I loved so much about this one. All their awkward interactions, humorous banter, personal struggles, and honest caring about Arthur and each other, tugged at my heart. The books they read together, and the importance each of the novels plays in each character's life, made me love this book even more. It's a poignant, captivating and heart-warming novel. And another one for Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge.   ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

 

I've always loved retellings of Beauty and the Beast, and By the Book is a captivating take on a favorite trope. It has humor, romance, and two very appealing characters. 

Isabelle Marlowe is an over-worked, under-appreciated assistant at Tale as Old as Time, a publishing company in New York; but she has dreams of becoming an editor and maybe even a published author someday.

Beau Towers is the son of two celebrities and a former teen hearthrob known for his bad behavior; he's supposed to be writing a tell-all memoir, only for the past year he's pretty much become a recluse. 

Isabelle's boss is sure Beau is never going to finish his memoir; Isabelle has her doubts, too, but she impulsively volunteers to go to Santa Barbara to talk to him in person. And at first, Beau is brusque and rude....but mostly he doesn't have a clue where or how to begin writing his book. Luckily, Isabelle is persistent and refuses to give up. She convinces him to let her help and as Beau starts to write his story, a friendship develops between them that slowly grows into something more. 

My thoughts: I liked how Isabelle's and Beau's relationship developed and deepened so naturally over the course of the novel. Their misunderstandings and angry accusations were resolved with apologies and honest, heartfelt conversations, which I also appreciated. And I thoroughly enjoyed their witty banter, Isabelle's surfing lessons from Beau, and their shared love of snacks. I also loved all their bookish interactions as Beau struggles with his writing and Isabelle helps him work on his book. And their closed-door romance? Very sweet and swoony. I'd definitely give this one 4 stars. 

Happy Reading!

P.S. This is also another good one for Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge.

The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

 

The plot:  June Jones once dreamed of attending Cambridge University and becoming a writer. Instead, she ended up staying in the small English village where she grew up, working at the Chalcot Library as an assistant librarian. She's 28 and shy, one of those introverts who would rather get lost in a good book than go out, though several library patrons count her as their friend. When she finds out that the county council might close the library for good, June doesn't know if she has the courage to join in the fight to save it. But in fighting to save the library, she just might save herself.

My thoughts:  This is a novel about the power of books to change lives, as well as a love letter to libraries. It's got humor, and charm, delightful and eccentric characters, unexpected friendships, and even a bit of a romance. I loved how June classified everyone by the books they read, and how she had her own favorite books that she turned to when needing escape or comfort. And I liked how she found her voice and her fighting spirit with a little help from her friends--friends who range from a crossword-loving elderly gentleman to a precocious 8-year-old boy. Everything about this book made me smile, including the predictable twist at the end. It's a truly lovely read.

Happy Reading!

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