Sunday Salon: The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians

This is a mix-up of books I want to read, books read and reviewed, and books currently being read. How many of you have books in these categories of your reading? 

To be read

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

Publication: Jan. 28, 2025; Ballantine, NetGalley

 I read her previous book, Black Cake, which I was curious about as it's about a family from Jamaica, W. I. whose tradition is to make the island's famous black cake for celebrations and special occasions. 

Good Dirt is about the daughter of an affluent Black family who makes the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom- the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor.

 

Reviews:  Booksellers, Book Collectors, and Librarians

The Book Seller and Other Stories by Peter Briscoe, (2022) a specialist in collecting and acquiring books, and who has built library collections at two universities. 

His five stories feature book sellers, librarians, students, book collectors, and early scientific explorers who amassed papers and special collections about their subjects. The Latin American Library Conference is one place where unusual historical books and original papers were available to book sellers, book researchers, and collectors. 

The stories include the rampant theft of valuable materials in some libraries, seen as a universal problem. The stories also show the value of libraries and booksellers in gathering and providing information to the public.

"Librarianship is a continuous selection process.... winnowing the wheat from the chaff."

I was enlightened and amazed by early book collectors and their passion for getting original and good material for libraries.  

 

The Bookseller by Valerie Keogh, March 3, 2025, Boldwood Books. Genre: mystery, psychological thriller, contemporary fiction 

Review: Helen has always wanted to own a bookshop and become a bookseller. She pursues her dream after spending two years in prison for the involuntary manslaughter in the murder of her abusive exhusband, Toby. It was easy to follow the first person narrative, when Helen reveals at the end the real reason for killing Toby.

In rehabilitating herself, the book shows her dedicated searches for books to fill the shelves of her little second hand bookshop - advertising for and finding donors, buying collections from people downsizing their living spaces, going to houses to pick up boxes of books herself. All while mysterious break-ins at her home and the book shop kept her on her toes wondering who "had it in for her."

I enjoyed reading about the business of establishing your own business, especially a place selling second hand books. The collection of books and the attracting of customers, keeping them coming back with rewards - all this was fascinating to me.
good read, both psychological thriller and a great woman's fiction novel. 

 

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson, April 8, 2025; Little, Brown and Company, NetGalley

Stories by real reference librarians, digital archivists, booksellers, collectors, archivists, and others involved with books and reading. I loved these brief essays by the varieties of people who deal with and in books and those that read. I so agree with this quote from one of the essays:

"Students need to be able to see themselves in books, but also to be exposed to and experience somebody else's life through books."

Independent bookstore owners are also valued in the book community, as they give personal attention to their customers, whose reading preferences they begin to know very well. There is a section of this collection with essays written by these bookstore owners.

This is a valuable book to have, with easy to read stories.

Currently reading

I chose this ARC for the colorful cover and the intriguing title, though it won't be published until June 26, 2025.

  

The Satisfaction Cafe by Kathy Wang, Abacus, NetGalley

In this book, Joan Liang travels from Taiwan to California to study at Stanford University, and meets and marries an older, wealthy man with children from his first marriage. Joan comes only second to her older brothers in her family in Taiwan, but is independently trying to make it on her own in California. 

I like her journey so far, especially in quickly divorcing an unsatisfactory man 
Toby, whose sexual preferences she quickly turns away from.  I also like the no-nonsense approach and the easy way she fits into and challenges whatever situation she finds herself in. 

What are you reading this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Contemporary Fiction and a Thriller: Sunday Salon

 Books to be published April 2025: two reviews

Where Do We Go From Here?  by Nick Alexander, April 23, 2025

Source: ARCs from NetGalley, Bookouture

Genre: contemporary women's fiction, family drama

I enjoyed this family drama involving nurse Wendy, her husband Harry, and her two kids, Toby and Fiona. Wendy discovers a remote off-grid eco-cabin in France, outside of Nice, and books it for six months following the tensions with her husband and children during and after the Covid crisis, plus her need for some serious alone-time. 

I loved seeing how Wendy copes with the changes in the winter weather that makes her have to be creative and proactive to survive in her rustic cabin, which uses solar panels on the roof for electricity. Heating is from a wood stove that she has to keep feeding with logs to keep herself warm. Her only help comes from the mail deliverer, Mason, who will deliver groceries that she can't get herself from walking to the local bakery/grocery. Her nature walks in the hills and the descriptions of the hills and forests that calm her down is refreshing. 

Seeing how this solitary time and experience helps Wendy come to terms with herself, her alcoholism, and her family life is a rewarding reading experience. 

What If I Never Get Over You by Paige Toon, April 10, 2025

Source: ARCs from NetGalley, Penguin

Genre: romance, contemporary fiction

Ellie from London and Ash from Wales, both twenty-year-olds,  meet while traveling in Europe and spend three days together. They fall in love and arrange to meet at a certain day in Madrid. When Ash doesn't show up in Madrid, Ellie spends the next several  years trying to forget him. As they had not even exchanged their last names or family details, Ellie can't reach him, and he hasn't used her number to call her. 

A certified gardener six years later, Ellie works as one of the staff on the vast estate of a Welsh family mansion tending the formal and informal gardens and orchards. I loved the descriptions of the gardens, the gardening itself, the varieties of flowers and bushes on the vast grounds. Needless to say, she meets Ash again while she is there. This romance has a few tropes including lovers-enemies and mistaken identities. 

The ending is less romantic, in my opinion, and the new lifestyle of the two people doesn't fit with their personalities, though this is a happy together-again ending.

Currently reading

Gravewater Lake by A.M. Strong, Sonya Sargent, March 1, 2025, Thomas & Mercer

Genre: psych thriller, suspense, Vermont

I've just started reading this thriller and am loving it so far. It involves a woman who finds herself at the edge of the lake with bruises and a bump on the head. Problem is, she doesn't know who she is and her amnesia doesn't allow her to figure out what happened to her. Her rescuer, Gregg, is becoming suspicious to her too, although he says he doesn't know who she is. 

Update: I gave this book a four. The ending was ambiguous romance-wise, but hopeful. I enjoyed the theme of amnesia that fueled the plot of this thriller.

What are you reading this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Books: Cats and their Humans, Fictional and Real

 Fictional and Real Cats and Those Who Meet Them

I'm a dog lover myself, but I see so many books about cats and their importance to their humans that I had to list a few. Japanese authors in particular, seem to love and respect cats as not only good luck, but having a mystical presence.

Here's a recent novel by American writer, Anne Tyler

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler, Feb. 11, 2025; Knopf, NetGalley
Genre: family dynamics, contemporary adult fiction

It took the reappearance of Gail's ex-husband Max with his cat to soften her heart over the next three days in June, when Max showed up to attend their daughter Debbie's wedding to her fiance, Kenneth. Gail at first didn't want the cat in the house, but the cat took a liking to Gail and slept with her in her bed at night. Max also slowly eased his way back into his ex-wife's heart, even though the ending seemed ambiguous as to their future.

I liked that their daughter Debbie did not want to make the same mistake her parents did in their marriage. Forgive and forget seems to be Max's motto, echoed by Debbie. 

I was surprised by Gail's admission to daughter Debbie about the reason for her divorce from Max those many years ago. And Gail, as the story's narrator, admitting that soft hearted Max would never hurt anyone he loved.

An unusual look at a marriage that was, and a marriage to be. The book gave reason to think about family dynamics on another level.

The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi
Published Feb. 4, 2025; Penguin, NetGalley

Genre: magical realism, death and loss

I enjoyed reading about twenty-year-old Kotoko Niki visiting the seaside town of Uchibo to have a "remembrance meal" for her brother at the Chibineko Kitchen. Kotoko feels responsible for the untimely death of her older brother who had risked his life saving her from a car accident on the street.

The Chibineko Kitchen meal comes with added incentive - the spirit of the deceased being remembered could be seen and heard for the brief moment the food stays warm on the table. Kotoko feels this meal is a way to apologize to her brother. There are a few other people who interact with their deceased loved ones at the remembrance meals.

Chibineko means "little kitten" in Japanese, and there is a little cat at the restaurant that is often present before and after the meals. When Kai, the son of the restaurant's owner, wants to close the kitchen after his ailing mother passes away, Kotoko seems to find purpose in helping Kai decide whether or not to keep the kitchen open and continue the remembrance meals.

A very cute story of death, loss, the afterlife, and remembrance. With a little magical cat in attendance.

The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu, February 25, 2025; Putnam & Sons; NetGalley

Genre: contemporary Japanese fiction, cats, short stories

I'm eager to get into this book to see how seven customers of a pet shop are helped by taking home a "blanket cat" for just three days. The cats are mysterious and somehow magical, so that the problems of the caregivers will resolve themselves after just three days with the cats in their homes. 

Clever and unusual idea for a book of short stories with the "blanket cat" theme.

A memoir

Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson 

Publication: April 29, 2025; Crown; NetGalley 

I'm amazed by the description of a memoir by a woman who moves into an old house in Poets Square in Tucson, Arizona and befriends a large group of feral cats.The street cats become her family as they "reshaped her ... empathy, resilience, and the healing power of wholly showing up for something outside yourself."

The stories she tells about the personalities of the 30 cats, on TikTok and Instagram, also helped her save her home. I don't yet know if she takes them into her home, though, but only feeds them in alleyways and wherever they show up. I'll find out when I read the entire book and also see how the author may differ from cat ladies we read about in the news who live in dismal circumstances with an overload of cats in the home.

Advance Praise

'Cats are mystical beings, bridging the spiritual and the tangible. Courtney Gustafson’s Poet Square is a book that helps us connect to this spiritual world, offering a bridge to the ethereal.' Ai Weiwei

What are you reading or watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday 

Review of Weike Wang''s New Novel and Feature of a Memoir by Jon M. Chu, film director

Books by Weike Wang

 I read Wang's third novel, Rental House, reread Chemistry, and already read Joan Is Okay. I gave them all five stars, as I loved the way the books are written and the stories told in an often whimsical style .

 Rental House by Weike Wang

Published December 3, 2024; Riverhead Books

Keru and Nate seem to be opposites, yet they meet at an Ivy League college and land up getting married. Keru's well educated immigrant Chinese family is the opposite of Nate's rural American working class family, and the couple fit each other more than they fit into their own families.

The family dynamics play out in a shared family vacation at a rental house, with both sides spending time with each other, and then later visiting Keru and Nate at their home. The imbalance of their situation and their families leads Keru to take the lead in keeping everyone together. She felt she had to be always present to "right the course" and handle their families together.

"They would take better care of each other and their dog. The unit had to be protected and she would protect them. They were codependent, she and Nate. Without her, he lost grounding, but without him, she could be relentless and too focused."

An amazing solution to a situation full of contradictions and different life styles and expectations from the families of both sides.

Weike Wang is a graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University. Her fiction has been published in or is forthcoming from Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, The Journal, Ploughshares, Redivider, and SmokeLong Quarterly.

Currently reading 

Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen by Jon M. Chu, 

July 23, 2024; Random House

Description

Jon M. Chu, movie director of Crazy Rich Asians and Wicked, has written an inspiring memoir of belonging, creativity, and learning to see who you really are. Long before he directed Wicked, In The Heights, or Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu was a movie-obsessed first-generation Chinese American, helping at his parents’ Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley and forever facing the cultural identity crisis endemic to children of immigrants. 

Growing up on the cutting edge of twenty-first-century technology gave Chu the tools he needed to make his mark at USC film school, and to be discovered by Steven Spielberg, but he soon found himself struggling to understand who he was. In this book, for the first time, Chu turns the lens on his own life and work, telling the universal story of questioning what it means when your dreams collide with your circumstances, and showing how it’s possible to succeed even when the world changes beyond all recognition.

What are you reading or watching this week?

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

Sunday Salon: Three New Books Reviewed

 

Reviews

Kinda Korean: Stories from an American Life by Joan Sung

Genre: memoir

This novel is about a Korean-American girl's immigrant Tiger Mom, but it's about much more too that's just as, if not more, important. It's about growing up Asian in a society that "fetishizes" and "hypersexualizes" Asian woman. The writer discusses being assaulted so many times and "brainwashed" to believe that you should live in shame for who you are.

I found the memoir enlightening about the author's experiences and challenges faced by triple threats - having immigrant parents, being Asian, and being an Asian woman. To be made to feel that "being different" is always a bad thing. It was interesting that even a positive for Asians, being considered studious and hardworking, could be turned into a stereotype that implied that Asians could not experience racial discrimination.

The honest and forthright stories are compelling, amazing, and disturbing. It's a good thing that so many Asian women are finally speaking up, writing books, memoirs, histories that tell their stories and show their points of view and experiences.

I would encourage all readers to read this book, to understand in more depth the immigrant experience in the U.S., which may be similar to those in other countries as well.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for a copy of this book.

The Hunter's Daughter by Nicola Solvinic
Genre: magical realism, mystery, suspense

Anna Koray is a cop, but she grew up with a father skilled in outdoor living and the natural world - a hunter, who taught her about the forest and the creatures that live there. When Anna was still a teen, her father was executed for the murders of young women,. But now young women are being found again in the forests or woods, prepared in a way reminiscent of her father's methods. And Anna is on the case, no one knowing her real name as a child or who her father is.

The suspense was in finding out slowly about Anna's childhood relationship with her hunter father through frequent flashbacks in the narration. The element of magic in her father's belief in a demanding nature god adds to the strange atmosphere of the story. Anna's conflict between law and order and her love for her father add a lot to the understanding of a complex father-daughter relationship to the natural world.

A haunting, magical story mixed in with crime solving, family drama, suspense, and mystery.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book

Code Word Romance by Carlie Walker

Genre: romantic mystery

I like the setting on the Amalfi Coast of Italy, and the plot that involves two women who could be identical twins. Drama follows when Max is asked to impersonate her double, Sofia, a prime minister of a small European country who is on a trip to Italy.

The romantic interest makes the story more interesting, as Max's CIA handler on the trip, Flynn, is a former lover. There is suspense when the two have to flee and hide from would be assassins who want to take out the prime minister Sofia. The book lost me, though, when Max morphs into another personality, suddenly becoming a daredevil involved in drama on the scene. I wish she had remained in her original character, someone who needs Flynn's help to dodge killers while she impersonates Sofia.

I did enjoy the first part of the book, however.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book

Currently reading

She Doesn't Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke

 Mystery writers meet publishers at an up scale wedding on an island in the Pacific Northwest. This romantic mystery becomes a locked room trope as weather traps them all there with a murderer. I'm enjoying it so far.....

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book

What are you reading or watching this week?

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves