December is a month of anticipation. We look forward to holidays, perhaps some vacation time, and wrapping up an old year to start again, anew. December is also the darkest month in the Pacific Northwest, and so we hunker down and snuggle into our home lives. This time of year, I tend to look out at the darkness, sure that it’s time for bed - only to check the clock and see that it’s only 6:45 pm.
Earlier this year, I read a translation of a Japanese author for the first time. It was the title of the book that drew me in, but the book itself was small, with a beautiful, simple cover, and once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. The book was What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (2023), a bestseller in Japan and internationally. It was my favorite type of cozy read, filled with observations of human behavior, philosophical truths, and happy endings.
There doesn’t appear to be a single term for this type of cozy, Japanese fiction, but several sources described them as “slice-of-life” novels: novels that show everyday events in a person’s ordinary life. Here are some other examples of this style of Japanese fiction:
- The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami (2016) - accepting others includes accepting their secrets and idiosyncrasies in this playful novel.
- The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (2017) - a story about courage, gratitude, and a man and his cat on a road trip across Japan in a silver van.
- We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Ishida Syou (2024) - people struggling with their lives can find this unique clinic that prescribes cats as medication. And:
- We’ll Prescribe You Another Cat (coming 2025)
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2019) - a magical realism story about a cafe that allows certain visitors to travel back in time, but only for as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. There are four other books in this series:
- Tales from the Cafe (2020)
- Before Your Memory Fades (2022)
- Before We Say Goodbye (2023)
- Before We Forget Kindness (2024)
- The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (2024) - what’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?: a father-daughter duo use their sleuthing skills to recreate that dish for you. There are two other books in this series:
- The Restaurant of Lost Recipes (2024)
- The Menu of Happiness (coming 2025)
- Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (2023) - family, new beginnings, and the power of books are central themes in this series about a secondhand bookstore. Two sequels:
- More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (2024)
- With Love from the Morisaki Bookshop (coming 2025)
And, to bring it back full circle, Michiko Aoyama has a second book coming out in 2025: The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park. Snuggle in, and read something that makes you feel warm and toasty inside!
New at the Library
Fiction
- The Unwedding by Allyson Condie
- Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
- The Parlor Game by Ashtyn Newbold
Nonfiction
- The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering by Daniel Light
- Good Energy: The Surprising Connection between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means
- Mini Amigurumi: 62 Crochet Mini Amigurumi Toys by Vivika Vaina
DVDs
