October Recap/November Pick
My faaaavourite months of the year are halfway through. The ~ber months. Listen, I love summer. I am a sun and beach and hiking and getting outside human no questions asked. I am also a burrowing deep into my couch under a pile of blankets with a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate, some yummy sweet snackky sniccky goods and some lovely reads to waste away many hours with. Honestly, I blame my extreme love for all types of seasons and weather on the fact that I have lived my life in two halves basically. The first a half of wet/cold following that, a half of dry/hot. I have seen it all and I love it all. A mom at the storytime at the library today complimented me on my positive response to her questions about all the diverse places I have lived. I told her every spot has been a significant place with a culture, community and beautiful thing/hard experience to endure and I love it because it reflects how humans contain a multiplicity of being.
I finished our October book club pick in the second week of the month. I am attaching a short list of book club questions here for further reflection and my responses because as of now I am the only person in this book club. AND THAT IS A-OK. In the new year I have a twinkling of an idea to take this club into the live-osphere but stay tuned on that update friendos. At the end of this post I will share November’s Book Club pick so you can procure it in any manner you see fit. I have a physical copy for this particular read which is nice but in doing so I accept that my child will tear pages and/or smear sticky substances on the cover with her adorable starfish toddler hands.
What You Are Looking For Is In The Library
By Michiko Aoyama, Alison Watts (Translator)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
This book felt like being prescribed warm fuzzies. The story focuses on five different people from young to old, each who are stuck in life with seemingly no trajectory or resolution to their big personal torment. One by one, the characters find themselves, through happenstance, looking for recommended reads from a local librarian, Mrs. Komachi who cuts a rather imposing figure. With a touch of mischief and magic, she manages to procure for them a glimmer of a guiding light to their path forward in the form of some creative book suggestions and gentle conversation. As the story goes on we begin to see the weaving together of the character’s lives and an overarching theme of community and connectedness.
Aoyama’s story has a lovely, heartwarming tone and the experience of each person’s tale feels familiar. The big feelings of being stuck, lost, resentful, and left behind are all very human and very much places we find ourselves at in different points in our lives. This imagined Hatori ward in Japan feels decidedly like the village I grew up in and that’s an impressive rendering for a writer whose book is not set in my hometown not even in my country or Western culture. And yet, there is a tenacity to each character and a liveliness that reminds us of people we have known and been. It flowed very gently and easily along however, at times it was a little predictable and simplistic. I did want there to be something more in one or two of the chapters which felt like they could have been a little more fleshed out. I did feel like some of the chapters landed perfectly. I loved the undercurrent of the indomitable human spirit in each character. The writer also clearly loves books and people’s stories and that joy of reading and connection pops up in a bubbly effervescence through this quick read.
All in all I really enjoyed this book and it is so lovely to read a story that has a good, resolved manner of addressing ending/beginnings in life. Each person finds their way through and achieves it not with some magical wand-waving alleviation of burden but with their own perseverance and commitment. It sort of reminded me of the film Once, which shows us only a snapshot of a person’s life and speaks to the fullness of that which remains unknown to us. A pretty universal them I should say.
Question 1.) Which of the character tales resonated with you the most? Why?
For me, I found the story of the mother who finds herself demoted during maternity leave and struggles with finding balance and joy in motherhood to be the most impactful. For obvious reasons I hardcore relate. It was a beautiful little short story about the reality of invisible labour and the extreme duress undergone during becoming a mother and trying to maintain a semblance of the person you were before without resenting your child for changing your life. I love her resolution and how she found joy and peace in a new opportunity that may not have been the life she envisioned for herself but was an even better fit for the one she had now.
Question 2.) Do you think that the librarian had an otherworldly power to predict the path to success for each person who came to her for answers? Or was she simply astute and a compassionate, focused listener with helpful guidance?
In some respects, I like to believe that Mrs. Komachi had some cognitive ability to perhaps perceive the paths available to the person in front of her. Maybe she could glimpse the great problem they are wrestling with on a visual plane. Perhaps she could see possible futures depending on how the person interacted and responded to her. Certainly, she did not seem particularly present in any other regard other than when focused on helping the individual by finding what they were searching for. Once she did in conversation and through intentional questions she helped guide them, if not to the answer, then at least to a place where they could have a seed take root of an idea. I think maybe from my perspective she was just an empathic person who could discern the troubles of others and was quick enough to come up with a plan in response to their need. The transformation in each character’s life came mostly from their choice to take action over inertia. But then again, the little crochet figures? Now those were too on the nose for there to be no magic involved.
Question 3.) If you were asked by Mrs. Komachi, “What are you looking for?”, what would be your answer?
That is a tough question. Many things, I think she would find me to be quite a dithering customer. I want so much and yet have a hard time articulating what it is that I want. I think that would be a component of my answer. To be able to determine exactly what I personally need to start moving forward into a life that feels fulfilling. Or perhaps to have the tenacity to see through my circumstances and to come out the other end feeling like I lived a good life and am proud of the choices I have made. Or even to achieve what I have always wanted which is to make something that matters and feel like I haven’t wasted my life. I wonder what she would recommend to me. I wonder what my crochet figure would be.
Favourite Quote
““Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Try not to think of upset plans or schedules as personal failure or bad luck. If you can do that, then you can change, in your own self and in your life overall.”.”
November book choice:
The Road From Belhaven by Margot Livesey
Books set in Scotland have been my jam recently so I am very much looking forward to reading this and finding myself transported. This is also a magical realism story so perhaps the book for December we shall deviate a little. The world just feels bleak at the moment so I want to infuse some magic into it for myself.
Also do not be fooled by this lovely (staged) daytime reading picture. I only ever read at night after my baby-toddler has gone to bed. Reading in the day with her? C’est impossible!