Book Review -The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

So this is another book I read for #DiverseAThon – I picked it up from Waterstones as the cover was just enchanting and as a big cat lover, I couldn’t resist a book about a cat.

This novella follows a couple who have moved into a small guesthouse in Tokyo and both work from home. Their neighbours adopt a cat who slowly starts to come visit them. The story follows the visits of the cat as they get more frequent and as the cat gets more bold until they even start feeding the cat and create a little bed for it.

As a fan of cats, I adored the cat, nicknamed Chibi, in this book and the interactions between the couple and the cat was charming. The book was a delight to read and went into such depth and detail that it was wonderful. The translation was very well done as it still felt very Japanese but that didn’t affect the readability of it. The writing is magical and I absolutely adored everything about this novella and really enjoyed the small snippets of the characters lives that we got to see.

I would highly recommend this novella, especially since it’s quite short so doesn’t take long to read and the cover is gorgeous.

#DiverseAThon 2017

So, I’m taking part in the #DiverseAThon over on twitter that’s running for the rest of the week and I’m very excited about it. The most exciting thing is definitely going to be seeing all the wonderfully diverse books people are reading and I expect my tbr list is going to be significantly larger at the end of the week.

I’m very much a “mood reader” and dislike planning out what I’m going to read too much. If I have a huge list, that’s fine because something is bound to appeal but for this, I’ve decided to just pick three books that I’m really excited about reading and then the rest will be picked as I go.

So, the three books I’m definitely planning on reading are:

 

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family’s only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

 

 

Award-winning translator and author Ken Liu presents a collection of short speculative fiction from China. Some stories have won awards; some have been included in various ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken’s personal favorites. Many of the authors collected here (with the obvious exception of Liu Cixin) belong to the younger generation of ‘rising stars’.

 

 

 

 

“A seamless blend of fantasy and Latinx culture, Labyrinth Lost feels both strikingly authentic and badly needed: in the overwhelming white world of YA literature, a cast of characters comprised almost entirely of people of color—combined with a fantasy world both inspired by a non-white culture and written by a member of that culture—is sure to change the lives of many teens who rarely see themselves reflected in the books they read. But there is another layer of importance to the novel, and that is Alex’s bisexuality. Presented matter-of-factly, without any cheesy plot twist attached, her bisexuality becomes visible but not defining, and the mere fact of its healthy portrayal makes it essential to a group of queer people long erased in mainstream media.” —Lambda Literary

 

A couple other books on my tbr list that I might get around to are Huntress by Malinda Lo, Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed and Beauty and Cruelty by Meredith Katz.