It’s been a minute since I’ve read a proper book and that’s because I’ve been relying on audiobooks to the point that I haven’t touched my Kindle or a physical book since October! I mainly read on my Kindle anyway but I do have some physical books that I haven’t read that are sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust. >aybe I’ll make a bookish goal of mine to read more books from my bookshelf next year. Speaking of goals, my Goodreads account says that I’ve so far read 57 books this year so I’m making it my goal to read 60 books before the end of the year! If you remember, last year, I read 60 books so I would love to be able to match that goal.
In November, I read three books with my first two books being food-themed which felt appropriate as it’s Thanksgiving in the States. I also read the book that inspired the Wicked musical which I attempted to read when I was younger but I DNF’d because it’s a chonky book! However, now I can say that I read the Wicked book! I have yet to see the Wicked film but that will be another goal of mine for Decemeber. haha
Make sure to follow me on Goodreads to be updated on what I’m reading and on StoryGraph if you’re curious about my book statistics.
My star reading scale
★★★★★/5 – Loved it! Would reread and recommend it to others.
★★★★/5 – Kept me entertained. I would reread.
★★★/5 – Didn’t love or hate but would recommend to others.
★★/5 – Did not enjoy it and probably skimmed through most of it.
★/5 – I hated it and regret wasting my time with this book.
DNF – Did not finish. This will probably be rare because I like to finish every book I start.
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The Kamogawa Food Detectives, #1 by Hisashi Kashiwai ★★★★/5
What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason customers stop by . . .
The father-daughter duo are ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.
I was really excited to start The Kamogawa Food Detectives because I heard it’s very similar to the cozy Japanese books Before the Coffee Gets Cold and What You Are Looking For Is in the Library but with food! There are three stories and each story has a part one and a part two. In the first part, you find out why the person wants to get a recipe and in the second part you find out how the detectives found the recipe for the person and everything is resolved. At first, I felt like something was missing and that the recipe reveals was done too quickly but after the second story I actually liked the pace and that there wasn’t too much fluff. I recently borrowed the second book so that will be one of the books I read in December.
You can purchase The Kamogawa Food Detectives here
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender ★★★★/5
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world. But there are some family secrets that even her cursed taste buds can’t discern.
I forgot who or what it was that recommended The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake but I’m glad I read it. I started this earlier this year but lost access to the audiobook via Libby so I had to wait for this book to become available again for a few months. This is about a 9-year-old girl who one day isn’t able to taste her mother’s food. The concept is strange and there are a lot of odd situations that the main character’s family goes through in which you never get a clear-cut answer, the author leaves it up to you for interpretation. It was a strange read but I do enjoy a weird book from time to time which is why I rated this a 4-star.
You can purchase The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake here
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire ★★★/5
Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens.
I wanted to read the book that inspired Wicked: The Musical just in time for the film. I attempted to read this book back when I was in high school and was listening to the Wicked soundtrack but never got around to finishing it. This book is a prequel to the film The Wizard of Oz, it’s surprisingly a lot more political than you would think but with fantasy elements. There are nods to certain charaters singing, playing an instrument, or attending a musical event but besides that music doesn’t play a main role in the book so for it to inspire a musical is remarkable.
You can surely tell this was written by a man because of the way he describes women’s bodies. The amount of times he mentions a woman’s chest or nipples is ridiculous! I can only count once when he brings up a man’s body like that but it’s only after mentioning a woman’s body first. Maguire is openly gay (I didn’t find out about this until after finishing the book) so maybe he was just appreciating women rather than sexualizing them the way some male authors write women charaters, or you can say it was a sign of the times as this novel was written in 1995.
Based on only listening to the soundtrack and watching The Wizard of Oz I had an idea of what Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West would be about and for the most part I was right. There were a few surprises but overall nothing too groundbreaking. There are four other books in The Wicked Years series but I don’t plan on continuing this series as I don’t think this series is that compelling, I’d rather watch and listen to the film and/or musical.
You can purchase Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West here
Have you read any of these books? What did you read in November?
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender sounds interesting! I read The Kamagowa Food Detectives last year and enjoyed it, although I think I’m a bit burnt out from those cosy multiple character stories at the moment.
I really enjoyed The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, I bet you would too! I love a good cozy read but I bet reading too much would make you feel that way. ♥