The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa: Book Review & Thoughts

🚨SPOILER ALERT 🚨

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai

"Books have tremendous power."

Well, indeed they do. ❤️

The story follows Rintaro, a young book lover who has just lost his grandfather, the owner of a secondhand bookshop. While Rintaro is grieving, a talking tabby cat named Tiger suddenly appears and takes him on a series of strange journeys through four magical labyrinths.

In each labyrinth, Rintaro has to save books from people who have very different ideas about what books are for.

It sounds like a whimsical fantasy, but underneath the talking cat and magical labyrinths, I think the book is actually commenting on some very real problems with reading today.

The first labyrinth is about books being imprisoned. A man owns an enormous collection of books but treats them more like trophies than something to actually read.

The first labyrinth is about books being imprisoned. A man has an enormous collection of books, but he treats them more like possessions than something meant to be read.

I especially liked this one because it reminded me of myself. 😂

I buy lots of books, proudly put them on my shelves… and then sometimes don't actually read them.

Yet. 😂

It made me think about whether owning books is the same as actually appreciating them.

In the second labyrinth, Rintaro encounters a professor who cuts books into pieces and simplifies them so people can read them more quickly.

And honestly, I could kind of relate to this one too. 😂

There are definitely times when I look at a really thick book and think, “Is there a shorter version?”

But the story makes an interesting point: sometimes the effort of reading is part of the experience. If we remove all the difficult or challenging parts, we might also lose something important along the way.

The third labyrinth focuses on a publisher who sees books mainly as products.

Books that don't sell are considered worthless and are thrown away.

This one made me think about how easily books can become just another commercial product. We talk about bestsellers, sales figures and what everyone else is reading.

But does a book's value really depend on how many copies it sells?

Sometimes a book that sells very little might still have a huge impact on one particular reader.

And then comes the fourth and final labyrinth, which is probably the most personal one.

Rintaro has to rescue Sayo, and this time the challenge goes beyond simply saving books. He begins to understand that the real power of books isn't just in the physical books themselves.

It's in what they can do for people.

They can challenge us, change how we see the world and, most importantly, help us understand other people.

I think that's probably what stayed with me most.

This book also made me think a little more about why I read. Books aren't just something to collect, finish or tick off a reading list. They can make us think, make us feel, and sometimes help us understand people who are completely different from us.

At the same time, I have to admit that some parts felt a little too preachy for me. The message about the importance of books is quite clear, and sometimes I felt the book was trying a little too hard to make sure I understood the lesson.

And perhaps the biggest takeaway for me is that reading isn't really about how many books we read.

It's about what those books do to us.

If you love books about books, reading and the power of stories, this is definitely worth picking up. ❤️

May xx

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata | Book Review & Thoughts on “Normal”

This was a short but surprisingly thought-provoking read.

It’s funny in a very dry way and sometimes quite uncomfortable — because the person who seems “strange” may actually be the one who understands the world most clearly.

The story follows Keiko, a woman who has worked at the same convenience store for 18 years and is perfectly happy with her life.

Keiko has always been considered unusual. Even as a child, she reacted to situations differently from everyone else.

But because she doesn't follow the usual path of getting married, having children and building a conventional career, everyone around her thinks something is wrong with her. They think she needs to be “fixed.”

I actually liked how the book made me question what “normal” really means. Why do we assume everyone has to want the same things in life?

And then there’s Shiraha. 🫩

The more I read about him, the more I kept thinking, is there really such a human being? And how can someone like this exist and live their life?

What an arrogant, useless human being. I honestly found him so infuriating. 😂

He drove me crazy, but perhaps that's also what made his character so memorable.

Maybe that's part of what makes the book so good — it makes you uncomfortable, makes you question society, and definitely gives you someone to hate. 😂

Not sure I loved the book, but it definitely gave me a lot to think about.

Maybe the biggest takeaway for me is that “normal” is not necessarily the same as “right.” We all have different ideas of what makes a life meaningful, and perhaps we should be a little less quick to decide that someone else needs to be “fixed.”

May xx

Book Review: A Quiet Place by Seichō Matsumoto

🚨 SPOILER ALERT 🚨

I read this book a month ago and am now trying to get back on track with my reviews. 😂

The story follows Tsuneo Asai, a Japanese government bureaucrat whose younger wife, Eiko, suddenly dies of a heart attack while out in Tokyo.

At first, Asai accepts her death. She had a heart condition, so a heart attack isn't completely unbelievable. But one thing bothers him, and he starts investigating.

Asai's suspicions about Eiko are basically correct.

And then things take a very different turn.

The man who begins the story investigating a mysterious death eventually becomes a murderer himself.

But the ending felt so strange to me...

The first part reads almost like a very quiet detective story. You're slowly uncovering what Eiko had been hiding and trying to understand what really happened.

But ultimately, I don't think this book is really about solving the mystery of Eiko's death.

It's more about jealousy, obsession and how the need to know the truth can slowly consume you.

And that ending... I still don't know how I feel about it. 😂

Maybe the unsettled feeling is exactly what the author wanted to leave us with. 😮‍💨

May xx

Early Mornings at the Laksa Café Brought Back My Wet Market Memories

I still have quite a bit left to finish Early Mornings at the Laksa Café by Janet Tay. I’m only at Chapter 9. But I felt like sharing this now, while the thoughts are still fresh.

There’s a paragraph about Ah Hock buying spices from an old shop at the Main Bazaar — “big plastic bags of shallots, garlic, dried chillies, candlenut, cumin, cardamom, clove, nutmeg. Thirty ingredients altogether.”

When I read that line, I paused. I even told my boyfriend about it straight away. Somehow, it reminded me of going to the wet market with my Mum.

To be honest, I never liked going to the wet market that much — especially the seafood section. The smell, the wet floors… not exactly my favourite place. But funny enough, those are the memories that stay.

Wet market memories are like that. You don’t think about them often. But one mention of spices, and everything comes back — the smell of dried chillies, the slightly damp floor, stall owners talking loudly over one another.

Image recreated with ChatGPT.

I remember standing quietly beside Mum at the spice stall. The aunty would scoop spices into small plastic bags without measuring anything. You just tell her what you’re cooking.

Maybe something like,

“Auntie, wa ai zhu kari hanga hu.” (stingray curry) Or “Wa ai zhu kari kay.” (curry chicken)

And she would just nod.

No recipe book. No weighing scale. No hesitation. Her hands already knew what to scoop.

Thinking about it now, they were like magicians.

I didn’t realise then that I was watching skill. I just thought it was normal.

There’s something about Asian food culture that carries so much unspoken knowledge. Experience passed down not through instructions, but through doing. Through watching. Through years of practice.

I haven’t even finished the book yet. Maybe the story will go somewhere else entirely. But today, at Chapter 9, it brought me home for a moment. So I’m sharing this before I turn the next page.

Sometimes reading isn’t about finishing quickly. Sometimes it’s about pausing when a memory knocks. Especially this one.

Do you have a food memory that comes back just from one smell or one line in a book?

May xx

Book Review: Strange Pictures by Uketsu

I just finished Strange Pictures, a Japanese mystery novel by Uketsu, translated into English by Jim Rion. Honestly, it’s one of the strangest mystery books I’ve read in a while — in a good way.

The story is built around drawings and split into four chapters. At first, I didn’t realise they were connected. After Chapter 1, I was like… huh? That’s it? Then slowly, everything started to click. Different people, different events, all linked through the pictures. Suddenly, the story made sense.

I liked how the mystery unfolded quietly. No big drama, no action scenes — just clues hidden in sketches, diaries, and memories. It really felt like solving a puzzle together with the author.

The writing is simple and easy to read, but the ideas are clever. Some parts gave me chills because they felt so ordinary yet so sad. The book shows how trauma, loneliness, and misunderstandings can hide in plain sight.

The concept is fresh and memorable. I kept thinking about it after finishing.

There were quite a few names and connections, so I had to flip back pages sometimes to remember who was who 😅

But maybe that’s part of the puzzle feeling.

This book is quiet but disturbing. Simple drawings, simple writing, but dark truths hiding underneath. It’s not a loud thriller, but it stays with you.

If you enjoy psychological mysteries, puzzle-like stories, or Japanese fiction with unusual ideas, this one is worth checking out.

If you’d like to read it yourself, you can check out Strange Pictures here: https://amzn.to/3OB2Kpu.

Rating

⭐ 4 / 5

May x