So, it’s January and we’re back up and running. Well, I’m not running. I had a minor knee surgery this month that left me somewhat housebound. Of course, it’s “only polar bears are happy right now” levels of cold outside, so staying inside has hardly been a problem for me. While sitting on my bum doing crafting and being waited on hand and foot by my family, I have had a lot of extra time to listen to audiobooks. And despite being on a huge Ilona Andrews binge right now, I actually have read a number of Asian authors as well this month.
Manga
The Spellbook Library volume 2 came out recently, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first one. The first volume left on something of a cliffhanger character reveal, and this issue goes into that reveal with more depth. While I did enjoy this story, I am a little disappointed that we’re getting a Big Lore story arc this early in. I was hoping for something that was more monster of the week story-wise.
Mystery
Last year I began reading the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery Series. This month I finally got around to picking up book 2 in the series, Homicide and Halo-Halo. I very much enjoyed revisiting the world of Lila and her friends and family. The main plot for this story revolves around both Lila opening a new café with her best friends, and being a judge in the town’s teen pageant which she won when she was younger. One of the things I really enjoyed about this book, is that it looked at the trauma Lila has from her past in a realistic way. She isn’t fine over night, but she begins to heal, and it was enjoyable to see an author tackle that head on instead of ignoring it or hand-waving it away.
I was in a mood, so I picked up the third book in the series right away. In Blackmail and Bibingka, Lila has opened her new café and started seeking out therapy in earnest. It is Christmastime, which means that we get to see a lot of the traditions specific to the celebration of the Filipino holiday Simbang Gabi. Through the Christmas festivities, Lila and her family have to contend with the fact that her runaway cousin Ronnie has moved back to town to open a winery. When one of his investors dies after drinking his coconut wine, its up to Lila and friends to find the real killer. I found Lila to be more annoying in this book than I have in the others. She was very judgemental and unforgiving of her cousin. It was hard to deal with at times, but the story was generally good.
Another series that I have written about before here is Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mysteries. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish reading this one. In my first review of this series, I mentioned that it felt like the female lead, Lana, was getting dumber as the books went along. This book brought it to an almost unreadable level. It is very clear in the book, from the first chapter, that this is a story about domestic abuse. Unlike every woman I’ve ever met, however, Lana fails to see the signs and instead jumps to the conclusion that the wife must have been cheating on her husband and that’s why he has wound up dead. About a third of the way in I realized that I felt like I was forcing myself to read the book, so I walked away. I still plan to try the next book in the series. Maybe with a different theme, I won’t be so frustrated.
Slice of (Kpop) Life
Last year, I picked up a copy of This Place is Magic by Irene Te. As with many of the good books I buy, this one sat unread for a while until the mood took me. The story is about a Kpop singer from the fictional boyband Apollo (or A9OLLO, as I joked with Irene they would have been called if they were a real group). He misses his plane, and doesn’t have his phone on him. He decides to stay lost and gets adopted by a delightful Korean family who run a waffle café. The story takes a solid look at the stress many Kpop stars are under, and the way that stress can lead to burnout, even if you’re doing something you like with people that you love. In between the chapters, there are interludes of news media, variety shows, and podcasts interviewing the boy band and talking about their music and lives.
This Song is Ours is a sequel anthology of short stories about the weeks following the events of This Place is Magic. If you haven’t seen it yet, we were lucky enough to have the author on our YouTube channel for a virtual book launching. It was a lot of fun and you should totally go check it out. As with most anthologies, I found some of the stories more compelling than others. Overall, it is a fun read, especially if you enjoy stories about Kpop and the lives that kpop singers lead. It was really fun to spend more time with characters who we only met in passing in the first book. The author is adamant that the characters are not based on any specific read Kpop boys, and yet they are so familiarly real.
Cookbooks
Okay, this cookbook is freaking adorable. Kawaii Café Ramen is full of mouth-watering recipes and super-cute artwork. The food looks absolutely delicious and not only covers the different types of soup bases for ramen, and the different ingredients, it also includes recipes for all the different side dishes we often see served with ramen. The instructions are easy to follow (even if the recipes aren’t always very simple) and I was drooling by the time I finished flipping through.
This is a smattering of what I’ve been reading in January. I don’t hold out much hope for continuing one with this many books completed per month going forward. School is back in session, and I can only nurse this surgery-recovery bit along for so long before the family starts to get suspicious, but hopefully I’ll be back next month with some other offerings for you. What have you been reading so far this year? Let me know if you have any recommendations.
