Micro Review 5 (2025)

 

What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts (Transworld)

Before Christmas I took part in an online bookish Secret Santa run by the brilliant Big Green Bookshop . To take part you paid for an unknown book and then sent Simon an email saying what type of book you liked (and didn't like) and he found a surprise book for you and a wrapped parcel containing a fancy tea, a bar of chocolate and a book arrived before Christmas. If that wasn't enough work he also spent time to match you up with another person with similar tastes to create new bookish friends.

My parcel came with a lovely bar of Green and Blacks chocolate and inside was this book - and it ticked soooooo many of my boxes - translated fiction, set in Japan, about libraries and about books.

It was another perfect read for while I was poorly.

Like lots of the books in this genre it is more a collection of short stories that are connected by either a location or by chance encounters with other characters. In this case the main point of connection is a library that runs from a community centre that also offers lots of other activities. The characters are all visiting the centre for other things but end up in the library where they are helped to find the books they need and then also recommended a 'wild card' book which at first seems to make no sense to them...

As is to be expected in books like this the books all help to change the characters' lives and the book is a love letter to both the library and the book.

I've now read a lot of this type of Japanese fiction and every time I think that I've reached saturation point another good read comes along although I'm not totally sure how I missed this one when it was first published a few years back. 

Micro Review 58

 

Librarian Tales: Funny, strange, and inspiring dispacthes from the stacks by William Ottens (Skyhorse)

I've always enjoyed books that take you behind the scenes of professions, and that are full of anecdotes from the front line, and as I've now worked for the library service for well over a decade books about library life (fiction or non) are definitely ones I gravitate towards.

On the whole I find books about real libraries slightly more appealing as they try to dispel so many persistent images people have of libraries and library staff.  Reading Allowed by Chris Paling did this for the English library system a few years ago and I loved it so much that I've read it repeatedly.

I've been looking forward to reading Library Tales for a while to get a behind the scenes feel for how American libraries work, from trips we've made to libraries in the States I had the feeling that US libraries were incredibly similar to ours but also very different and I wanted to know more about this.

Otten's book charts his career as a librarian and working in libraries in Kansas and Iowa, and it gave me a great feel for what these similarities and differences are. It seems that library users are the same the world over - it is the behind the scenes work that differs. He does explain the different roles that people working in libraries do, and clarifies who can actually be called a librarian although I'm not sure that this makes any difference to customers in branches!

This was an easy read that made me nod along in recognition and wince at some of the stories whilst gaining an insight as to how different the running of buildings can be. If I'm honest I'd have preferred more anecdotes but that's just me - and if you'd like more of the humorous insights into working for a library then do give Ottens a follow on Twitter @librarianprblms or on Instagram as @librarian_problems.

Micro Review 53

 

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray (Penguin Random House)

This was a book I got for Christmas after seeing it mentioned in lots of different places - I mean a book about a librarian specialising in rare, antiquarian books was always going to pique my curiosity!

The book is the story of J. P. Morgan's private librarian and how between them they created one of the most interesting private collections of books (and art) and then made them accessible to the public.

While this story is fascinating in itself there is another strand to the story in that Belle, the librarian, is in fact passing as white due to her family's light skin tone. Her father was the first Black graduate from Harvard and was very prominent in the integration movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In having a main character that crossed into both communities allowed a lot of history to be told without ever descending into bald exposition. I found it profoundly sad that society has not progressed as much in the past 100 years as we'd like to think as many of the events could (and probably do) still happening today.

While I really enjoyed the novel and how all of the story wove together I did find myself wishing that it was a little more of a biography with slightly less of the imaginings of Belle's romantic entanglements. I will now be looking out for other books about her and her achievements.

One thing I did like about the book was the openness of Marie Benedict as she realised that by being a white author she couldn't authentically tell Belle's story and so worked with Victoria Christopher Murray to create a more rounded book. This co-authorship worked wonderfully and at no point could I pick out one voice from the other - it was just a good book.

In that way that sometimes happens the theme of 'passing' has cropped up in a few other things I've come across recently, most noticeably in the film Passing which is nominated for several BAFTAs next month and I do recommend both the film and The Personal Librarian for an insight into pre-WW2 New York society.