Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle

Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Maryland: Recorded Books, 2005, c1988.

In this book, Mrs. Pollifax gets back on the horse after her traumatic experiences in Hong Kong and takes a commission from the CIA to go to Thailand. There is supposed to be a quick drop of documents for her to pick up from an informant, pass on to the CIA, and then she and Cyrus can have a holiday together in Thailand. 

But this is a Mrs. Pollifax book, so you know she is going to get involved in the heart of the issues instead of just being a courier! In this one she really gets embedded in field work; on the morning that she is supposed to casually walk down an alley and find the exchange location, she instead finds a dead body. And as she rushes back out of the alley, she sees Cyrus (who'd stayed on the street watching out) being bundled into a truck by two strangers. He's been kidnapped, who knows why. 

Mrs. Pollifax is resourceful, especially when Cyrus is endangered, so she finds someone to drive another truck and follow the kidnappers. This all happens very quickly. But then the "car chase", so to speak, is endless -- they drive into the hills, they are followed by young men on motorcycles (when Mrs. Pollifax's karate skills again come in useful), and they spot the kidnapper's van drawn up on the side of the road, empty. Luckily for Mrs. P, her driver is more than he looks and they head off into the dangerous forest, tracking Cyrus' kidnappers. There is a lot of chance and coincidence in this one, and at times it feels a little dreamy -- especially when Mrs. Pollifax and her companions come across a hidden monastery in the forest, with only a few devotees and a holy man, who isn't from Thailand. 

The conclusion of this one involves drugs, CIA side quests, and the irrepressible Mrs. Pollifax rescuing her husband, her informant, and another CIA agent (unknown to them both). It was good, lots of interesting connections made for Mrs. P in the third of the "Asia" trilogy of this series. Looking forward to the next volume, in which she heads to Morocco. 

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Ashland, OR: Recorded Books, 2011, c1985.

This volume of the Mrs. Pollifax series carries on shortly after the events of her last adventure. In this one she is asked to go to Hong Kong, make contact with a CIA asset to check on his being alive and well, and then come home. Does the trip turn out this simply? Of course not! 

She gets involved with the situation, going to the home of one of the suspicious characters and befriending the housekeep to get as much gossip as she can. She is given a lovely statue of a Buddha in the small shop she enters to try to find this asset -- mainly to get her out of there, but it turns out it's a rather important statue, leading to someone searching her room at night while she is supposedly sleeping (but she's not, really) and eventually to her kidnapping by the baddies. 

At this point the story takes a darker turn. She and a couple of others have been kidnapped and they are being held in a warehouse of sorts by the villains. They are an international group of random men, all part of an anarchist terrorist cell. They've been involved in this by someone in Hong Kong who wants to see the "rightful" ruler of China restored. This all goes back to the upheavals of Chinese history and politics, and the British rule of Hong Kong, and the fears of it reverting to China. This was written in the 80s so this was something yet to happen, although within in a little more than a decade after the story was set. In any case, the bad guys are taking this very seriously. 

During Mrs. Pollifax's lengthy kidnapping, she engages in her usual efforts to talk to the others. This time only one of her fellow captives has any feeling for her. Another tries to sabotage the communications that the terrorists are using, and in a shocking turn is shot for it. This leads to the feeling of darker elements of the story, and a stronger sense of danger. Mrs. Pollifax herself endures torture as they try to get information out of her. And her salvation comes from the ideas of two amateurs at the other end, who've joined the American agents trying to find her. 

I found this one politically astute, relevant, and very thrillerish. I loved the descriptions of Hong Kong, of some of the eccentric characters who Mrs. Pollifax befriends, and the relationships between old and new agents. It was a strong book in the series, with lots of intrigue and mystery. I really liked it, it felt well plotted and engaging.  

The Lantern of Lost Memories

 

The Lantern of Lost Memories / Sanaka Hiiragi
trans. from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood
NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2024, c2019.
208 p.

Another Japanese novel, in the genre of healing fiction, and I really, really liked this one. It's a little different, with a bit more darkness to it but an amazing arc to the storyline. It has that tinge of the extraordinary, but with less whimsy, more melancholy and pathos. 

Mr. Hirasaki owns a photo studio somewhere in limbo, between the living and the dead. When a person dies, they are escorted to his shop (or one of many like it) and given the chance to view their life again, choosing one memory to relieve before they go on to the other side. 

Mr. Hirasaki is swamped with other people's memories, but has no recollection of who he is or why he has this role. He just has one photo to try to help him remember. 

This short novel follows loosely connected characters - first, Hatsue, a 92 yr old woman who was a nursery teacher and wants to relive a day from her career. She's happy and so are her memories. Then we have Waniguchi, a yakuza who is also somehow empathetic and protective; his memories are conflicted. Finally Mr. Hirasaki meets Mitsuru, a young girl who has had a short tragic life. He hates when his clients are children, and in this case he engages more actively with her moment of revisiting a memory than he really should... 

I found this read touching, highlighting the best of people even amidst tragedy or squalor. The instinct to sacrifice, and care for others, comes to the forefront even in those you might not expect to see it from. The concept of the story was a bit unusual, fresh for the genre, and allowed for some philosophical talk on life and memory to be included. The characters were complex, even the mysterious Mr. Hirasaki, despite the blank slate of his past. 

I thought this was a particularly thoughtful and engaging read; some trauma is involved but not gratuitously. There is an edge of darkness and grief that fits the story of a world in limbo between life and death, but also a beautiful sense of transcendence of the banal and everyday. 

One of my favourites so far. Recommended. 

Winter Solstice

 

Winter Solstice / Rosamunde Pilcher 
NY: Thomas Dunne, c2000.
454 p.

I just finished this one, read over the winter holidays. The book features a lot of snow and storms over the solstice week in Scotland -- I read it during a particularly bad winter storm here, just after Christmas week. It felt quite apropos! 

This one was published in 2000 -- I didn't read it then, in fact, I haven't read any of Pilcher's books before. It was a fun thematic read but it is a bit dated now. There are some plot points that stood out to me like a sore thumb -- the way that hetero relationships seem to be the cause and endpoint of every character's story, the way that Elfrida, one of the main characters, is continually cooking and cleaning for her new partner (and no-one even remarks on it), the way that a 14 yr old girl is taken under the wing of an 18 yr old male neighbour and everyone is fine with it - even if it does turn out to be innocent it's a bit odd now. And so much booze! 

Despite these slightly jarring elements of a book that's not really very old, I did like this one. It was warm and expansive and had lots of good bits. It starts out as a bit of a downer; Elfrida, a self-described washed up actress, moves to the country. She makes new friends of her neighbours Gloria and Oscar; things happen and she leaves the south of England with Oscar to go stay in an Estate House he half owns in Scotland. Another storyline: 14 yr old Lucy is a awkward addition to a home where nobody really wants her. Her Aunt Carrie comes home from the continent after a disappointment in love, to find her sister (Lucy's mother) wanting to spend Christmas in Florida, their own mother swanning off to Bournemouth, and nobody to look after Lucy at all. Carrie calls up her distant cousin Elfrida to see if she and Lucy can come to them. This adds much more of a Christmas vibe to Elfrida's season. 

And into that household of odd souls comes Sam, a businessman sent to Scotland to revitalize an old woolen mill. He gets snowed in, following a series of events, landing at the Estate House -- and he has more connections to the household than first realized.  

The story is replete with holiday parties, upstanding locals, the nearby vicar and his family, Christmas cooking and decorating and present giving, small dramas, love and relationships, and lots of house talk. The Estate House, another small cottage on the former estate grounds, descriptions of the rooms, the decor, the coziness or lack of, the proportions etc. Even the local church is described. Just the kind of old-fashioned saga that is good reading for snowed-in cozy days.  

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat / Syou Ishida
trans. from the Japanese by E. Madison Shimoda
NY: Berkley, 2025, c2023.
304 p.

Starting off my New Reading Year with a review for the Japanese Literature Challenge! I have read a few titles by Japanese authors in the past while and will be sharing them over the next few weeks. 

This book is the second volume in a series I started last August during Women in Translation Month.  It carries forward the unique premise that people in Kyoto who find themselves in some kind of life transition or trouble can run across a clinic that can't be found otherwise. This clinic has a distinctive nurse and doctor, who prescribe clients a cat to take home, specifically chosen to help solve their problems. 

It's an amusing series, and in the second volume, plainly called We'll Prescribe You Another Cat, we meet a new set of characters who find the clinic just in time to help their lives progress. 

Each chapter features a new client, but the characters cross over between the stories, becoming side characters in someone else's chapter. Even the cats reappear. This gives a novel feeling to the book rather than just being a series of short stories, and it creates a community of sorts for the reader to follow. This adds depth and complexity to the book, just as in the first one in the series. It's a bit odd and the reader has figured out the doctor and nurse by the end of the first volume, even if the characters haven't. But it's a charming read, with some humour and some warm-hearted observations of family dynamics and personal growth. I really enjoyed it. 

Best of 2025!

 

Already time for the yearly roundup of some of my best reads this year. I always wait until the very last possible moment to post my list; you never know what you'll come across around Christmas! I like to give every book I've read this year a chance to appear on my favourites list, no matter if I read it in the first week of January or the last few days of December. 

I also create a statistical summary each year, for my own geekish pleasure. As I've said before, I don't think of reading as a competition -- I keep track of numbers and various stats for my own interest, not to prove anything or compare myself to anyone. 

Here are my reading stats for 2025: 

Total Reading: 190

Authors

Female: 170
Male: 17
Both/Neither: 3

Genre 

Fiction: 90

Non Fiction: 97

Poetry: 3

In Translation: 38

Ukrainian: 5

Russian (Ukrainian writing in): 3

Japanese: 9

Korean: 4

Spanish: 2

Swedish: 3

Norwegian: 3

German: 2

Quebecois French: 1

French: 1

Greek: 1 

Finnish: 1

Chinese: 1

Hungarian: 1

Bangla: 1

My Own Books: 34
Library Books: 144

Review Copies: 12

Rereads: 5
E-reads: 99

Author who I read the most from: 

9 - Dorothy Gilman (after discovering the Mrs. Pollifax series in March, I've now read up to #9 in the series)

2025's Weird Random Stat: 

Books with felines in the title: 6

I had an unusual year, in that I read more nonfiction than fiction. Probably why I felt like I had a number of reading slumps this year; if I can't read fiction, I turn to a lot of instructional craft books! I did get back to reading some poetry, which I am pleased by.

Like always, I read a big majority of women authors, and quite a few more library books than my own this year. But I am happy with all the great books I am able to find through the library! I am hoping to get a few more books off of my own shelves in the upcoming year, though. Even have a challenge for that! 

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And now for the Best of 2025!

These are titles that were memorable, unusual, or caught me with their great storytelling or rich characters. Just books that hit the right note with me when I picked them up! 

Despite not reading as much fiction this year, I found some great books. Some old, some new, some translated. Here were some that I enjoyed, or found very memorable. 

Starting with my Fiction Top Ten: 

Two powerful reads both set in Ukraine. Cecil the Lion Had to Die by Olena Stiazhkina (trans. by Dominique Hoffman) is probably my best read overall. Engrossing characters, great writing, innovative structure -- and an important story. #1 read this year! 

And then there's Endling by Maria Reva, which should have made it to the Booker shortlist this year. Timely story, quirky plot, another innovative structure reacting to the world's realities. Both rewarding reads. 

I also read a lot of Japanese and Korean books this year! These were two of my very favourites, but there were others that I really enjoyed as well. The Korean 'healing fiction' novel, The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin (trans. by Clare Richards was really satisfying. The Japanese novel Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (trans. by Jordan Taylor) was one I just read, and found it perfect for the holiday season. 

There were a couple of random finds that were unusual, feminist and fun reads for me. The Medusa Situation by Gabiann Marin was a truly random discovery on Hoopla, but this Australian story of the Greek Gods living in the suburbs was a delight. Katharine Stall's Den of Thieves was a paperback I've had on my shelves for a while but finally picked up, and found a rollicking, thoughtful tale of religion, conspiracy and resistance.

Early in the year I read Susin Nielsen's Snap, a story of three people finding unlikely friends in their anger management class. I've reread it once already. And Dorothy Gilman's The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax was the beginning of my Pollifax obsession this year! Such fun, with extra heart, in both books. 

I also read some older books, and found them to still be shockingly timely. Both about marriage and gender roles, really. Dorothy Canfield Fisher's The Home-Maker looked at gender roles from the viewpoint of a woman who didn't like domesticity, and a man who wanted to be at home with his children. Ursula Parrott's Ex-Wife was a darker read, about a young woman struggling with who she is once she is an ex-wife. Both still relevant. 

Then a couple of extras -- one children's book:

Wildcat Behind Glass by Alki Zei (trans. by Karen Emmerich) is a Greek classic, a children's novel about growing up under looming fascism. 

One Poetry Book:

Letters of the Alphabet by Lesyk Panasiuk (trans. by Katie Farris & Ilya Kaminsky) was a collection I read for work, and thought it was terrific. 

And one outstanding nonfic among the many crafty books I read this year:

Pink Eraser Art by Serena Rios McRae was really well written and designed, and got me into carving erasers into little stamps. I've only made a couple so far but it is so fun! (I didn't review this one). 

So these were some of the top reads of the year for me. As usual, some good Ukrainian reads, some older titles and craft work too. I love reading a wide variety of titles and found a bunch across a range of genres this year. Hopefully I'll be as lucky in 2026!

2026 Challenges Ahead

And now, looking ahead into 2026! What reading challenges will I take up in the new year? 

I'll start with the continuous ones that run over the calendar year ends. There is the Canadian Book Challenge, which runs July 1 - July 1 every year, with the aim to read and review 13 Canadian books. I'm halfway through, and have 5 books to read and review by the end of this round. 

Then there's my ongoing Century of Books challenge. I wanted to start this one in 2025 because I really liked the symmetry of reading books between the dates of 1925 and 2025. Although this is supposed to be done in one year, I didn't finish it in 2025, so I'm keeping at it until I'm finished. Hopefully by the end of 2026 but we will see if I can read and review 73 books by then! 

Of course I will also continue with the Women in Translation readalong in August, and have two rounds of the Literary Sewing Circle planned for 2026 (the first one starting around March). 

And the fresh 2026 Challenges are as follows! 

I want to try the TBR 26 in '26 hosted by the Rose City Reader this year - I didn't do too well on the 2025 iteration but am going to try again ;) The goal is to read 26 books from your shelves that have been there prior to Jan 1, 2026. I have LOTS to choose from! 

Rose City Reader is also hosting the European Reading Challenge  - it runs the whole year too, and you can sign up at various levels. I'm signing up for:

• FIVE STAR (DELUXE ENTOURAGE): Read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.
  
  

And I am jumping on the Japanese Literature Challenge once more. This one is hosted by Dolce Belezza, and this is the 19th year it is running. The goal is to read and review at least one Japanese book during January and February. 

And there's one more that will be easy for me, but I still want to sign up and share this one! The Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI), together with the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA) and with support from the HUCUS Foundation, announced a new long-term campaign: the Ukrainian Book Challenge. The campaign makes a simple ask: to buy at least one book in English about Ukraine or by a Ukrainian author – at least once a year. Participants are encouraged to take a selfie or record a short video with their chosen book, post it on their social media, and challenge five friends to do the same using the hashtag #UkrainianBookChallenge. So consider this my challenge to you, as well -- I have tons of suggestions and reviews here on my blog for you to consider -- try the Ukraine tag if you aren't on mobile and can see them at the bottom of my posts! 

Do you enjoy reading challenges? Are you doing any great ones this year that you want to share? Let me know!