The Lantern of Lost Memories

 Book 39 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from April 20 - 24

The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi

published 2019

Summary (via the book jacket)

This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaka, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio: photos can also be taken in the courtyard.

Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death where those who have departed have a chance - one last time - to see their entire life flash before their eyes via Mr. Hirasaka's "spinning lantern of memories".

We meet Hatsue, a ninety-two-year-old woman who worked as a nursery teacher, the rowdy Waniguchi, a yakuza overseer in his life who is also capable of great compassion, and finally Mitsuru, a young girl who has died tragically at the hands of abusive parents.

Sorting through the many photos of their lives, Mr. Hirasaka offers guests a second gift: a chance to travel back in time to take a photo of one particular moment in their lives that they wish to cherish in a special way.

Full of charm and whimsy, The Lantern of Lost Memories will sweep you away to a world of nostalgia, laughter, and love.

My Opinion

5 stars

Holy. Shit. What a read.

This small, delicate read was just exquisite. I'm typing this review with a lump in my throat as I'm recommending it to everyone in my family.  Although it looks like it took 4 days to read, I started it on the 20th, realized I would need a blank slate of time to read it all at once, and then had that time today.

I never reread books but not only do I want to read this again, I want to do so immediately.  I probably won't be able to recapture the feelings of the reveals along the way but I think there are things that would mean more now that I know what's happening.

Sex Object

 Book 38 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from April 15 - 19

Sex Object by Jessica Valenti

published 2016

Summary (via Goodreads)

Author and Guardian US columnist Jessica Valenti has been leading the national conversation on gender and politics for over a decade. Now, in a darkly funny and bracing memoir, Valenti explores the toll that sexism takes from the every day to the existential. 

Sex Object explores the painful, funny, embarrassing, and sometimes illegal moments that shaped Valenti’s adolescence and young adulthood in New York City, revealing a much shakier inner life than the confident persona she has cultivated as one of the most recognizable feminists of her generation. 

My Opinion

2 stars

What would I be if I lived in a world that didn't hate women?

This question starts the memoir of Jessica Valenti and as the title suggests, it skews heavily to comments, entitlement, and sometimes the actual physically taking of her body by men.  I chose it from a display at the library and when I checked it out the librarian said she was happy I was taking it because apparently the display was to draw attention to books that need circulation or they'll be weeded.

At first I wanted to rate it a neutral 3 stars because I feel like a bad feminist if I don't but then I realized that inflating a rating just because she's writing about important content isn't the move.

You know how sometimes you read a memoir and relate to it so hard?  Or (more often for me) sometimes you read a memoir and don't relate at all but can understand their life based on their writing?  Unfortunately, this was neither for me.  The author and I have had completely different experiences but I struggled to understand her viewpoint because the book felt like it was skimming the surface with occasional bombs of deep reveals.

I did appreciate her unflinching honesty and hope she's found peace in her life.

Faye, Faraway

 Book 37 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from April 2 - 12

Faye, Faraway by Helen Fisher

published 2021

Summary (via the book jacket)

Every night, as Faye puts her daughters to bed, she thinks of her own mother, Jeanie, who died when Faye was eight. The pain of that loss has never left her, and that's why she wants her own girls to know how very much they are loved by her - and always will be, whatever happens.

Then one day, Faye gets her heart's desire when she travels back in time and is reunited not just with her mother but with her own younger self, the little girl she can scarcely remember.

Jeanie doesn't recognize grown-up Faye as her daughter, even though there is something eerily familiar about her. But the two women become close friends and share all kinds of secrets - except for the biggest secret of all, the secret of who Faye really is. Faye worries that telling the truth may prevent her from being able to return to the present day, to her dear husband and beloved daughters. Eventually she'll have to choose between those she loved in the past and those she loves in the here and now, and that knowledge presents her with an impossible choice.

If only she didn't have to make it...

My Opinion

3 stars

I checked this out from the library after seeing it in Bookpage.  Although 10 days passed from when I started to when I finished, that isn't a true representation of the reading.  I probably read it in 2-3 sittings; I read a lot the first day, lost my mind and wasn't reading anything for about a week, and then finished it in a day or two.

I love the concept of time travel and actually think about it a lot.  This book had a really interesting concept.  It stayed in reality more than I usually see for this type of book but trying to have explanations for everything also made it a bit clunky.

I like that it started right away and I was absorbed while reading.  However, it never quite made the jump from "good" to "great" for me and I didn't understand the looping of the ending and how a very big thing that happened in her childhood seemed to cause the time travel yet apparently she time travelled beforehand to make the big thing happen.

So this book felt a bit ambitious but I would read the author again and would love to see her take another pass at this idea.

Manboobs

 Book 36 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from April 2 - 7

Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope and Cake 

by Komail Aijazuddin

published 2024

Summary (via the book jacket)

What do you do when you're too gay for Pakistan, too Pakistani to be gay in America, and ashamed of your body everywhere? How can you find happiness despite years of humiliation, physical danger, and a legion of Brooklyn hipsters who know you only as a queer from Whereveristan? How do you summon the courage to be yourself no matter where you are?

Even as a young child in Lahore, Komail Aijazuddin knew he was different - no one else at his all-boys prep school was pirouetting off their desks, or being bullied for their "manboobs", or spontaneously bursting into songs from The Little Mermaid, Aijazuddin began to believe his only chance at a happy, meaningful life would be found elsewhere: America, the land of the free, the home of the gays. But the hostility of a post-9/11 world and society's rejection of his art, his desires, and his body would soon teach him that finding happiness takes a lot more than a plane ticket. Searching for his place between two worlds while navigating a minefield of expectations, prejudice, and self-doubt, Aijazuddin discovered - sometimes painfully, sometimes hilariously - that there are people and places he'd need to let go of to move forward.

Manboobs is a riotously funny memoir of searching for love, seamlessly blending humor, politics, pop culture, and the bravery required to be yourself. Aijazuddin confidently announces himself as an exciting new voice in humor with his moving and charming reexamination of the American dream and our search for home.

My Opinion

3 stars

Being an effeminate boy is like carrying a bomb only other people can detonate, and I spent most of my childhood hiding the trigger switch from casual arsonists.

The memoir started with a note that it's more "true than real" as he recounts memories and I like that framing.  Although the author moves quickly through his life which could feel a little surface-level, stopping to think about what he's not saying adds an extra layer.  I don't think there's a single demographic he and I share but I appreciated reading his perspective.

Circumstance had deluded me into thinking we were on the 

same side, but the truth was we were only running from the same enemy.

That statement, recounting the lack of intersectionality some of the liberals around him share, stopped me in my tracks.  If this wasn't a library book and I was a highlighting type, that definitely would've been earmarked.

If anyone reading this is interested in the marketing, I checked this book out from the library after reading about it in Bookpage.

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

 Book 35 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from March 22 - 31

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

by Brandon Sanderson

published 2023

Summary (via the book jacket)

A man awakens in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the "real world" should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?

My Opinion

3 stars

It's tough to sum up how I feel about this book.  I liked it and it kept my interest but I would also have to put it down often, like I was preventing myself from getting too invested, because I was worried about disappointment.  But the last day of travel was so peaceful and gave me a chance to breathe and enjoy the character development. 

There were so many good elements but also a touch too much of 'oh wow what a coincidence this worked out'.  But I was also really happy about how it worked out so I'm glad those coincidences were there.

Basically I enjoyed it while I was reading it and don't want to overanalyze it now that I'm done because I think it will dampen the experience.  I'm worried the religious themes were preaching because I don't know much about the author and I'd like to remain in the dark about it.

Hard Cases

 Book 34 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from March 17 - 26

Hard Cases: True Stories of Irish Crime by Gene Kerrigan

published 1996

Summary (excerpt from the book jacket)

Hard Cases is a collection of startling stories about the reality of crime and court cases in Ireland. In these stories, there are no crime bosses with quaint nicknames; the police don't collect convenient clues that tell them who dunnit.

Instead, we get cases both famous and obscure in which the outcome in sometimes just, sometimes unsettling.

My Opinion

3 stars

The writing was compelling with strong opening sentences for each story.  For example, "Shercock" started with the sentence, "Peter Matthews went into Shercock leaning on a crutch and came out of the village in an ambulance".

I ended up with a 3 star rating because when the crimes were interesting I was very invested but there were a few crimes that didn't grab me.  The word I seemed to use most often when jotting notes while reading was "frustrating"...sometimes it was frustration that the authorities were bumbling and the criminals were getting away, sometimes it was frustration that the authorities were corrupt and detaining the wrong people, and sometimes it was overall frustration with the system in general.

All in all, a wide variety of cases that didn't feel dated, even reading decades after being published.

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb

 Book 33 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from March 17 - 22

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian

published 2021

Summary (via the book jacket)

Kit Webb has left his stand-and-deliver adventures behind him. But dreary days at his coffeehouse have begun to make him pine for the heady rush of thievery. When a handsome yet arrogant aristocrat storms into his shop, Kit quickly realizes he may be unable to deny whatever this highborn man desires.

In order to save himself and a beloved friend, Percy, Lord Holland, must go against every gentlemanly behavior he holds dear to gain what he needs most: a book that once belonged to his mother, a book his father never lets out of his sight and that could be Percy's salvation. More comfortable in silk-filled ballrooms than coffeehouses frequented by criminals, Percy finds that his attempts to hire the roughly hewn highwayman formerly know as Gladhand Jack prove equal parts frustrating and electrifying.

Kit refuses to participate in the robbery but agrees to teach Percy how to do the deed. Percy knows he has little choice but to submit, and as the lessons in thievery begin, he discovers theft isn't the only crime he's desperate to commit with Kit.

But when their careful plan goes dangerously wrong and shocking revelations threaten to tear them apart, can these stolen hearts overcome the impediments in their path?

My Opinion

3 stars

I checked this book out immediately after reading The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes.  This is technically the first book and I had hoped reading them out of order wouldn't affect this read.  Unfortunately it did.  Reading Marian first made this book feel very slow because I knew certain characters would appear and what the plot would become.  I thought this book would cover the same timeframe but from difference perspectives but that wasn't the case.

So it may have been mostly user error but even if I had read this first, I wouldn't have loved it.  I thought the plot got stagnant and the will they/won't they lasted too long.  Once they did start, it was hot.  I appreciated the detail of them making sure they had lubrication and going slow instead of pretending everything can just be jammed in without preparation.