Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Fun and cozy. I hope there are more cozy sci-fi novels like this. In this novella, robots opened a noodle restaurant. It had found family, community, food, and wholesome robots. I really enjoyed it.

Dec 5-6 on Kobo Clara BW.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

This was for a reading challenge to read the oldest book on my TBR. I picked this one because I remembered the English teacher in my summer high school class mentioned it. We did not study it but the teacher mentioned it was one of her favourite books. I enjoyed this book. It was very well written and the characters were developed so well. No wonder this was a classic. I wish I had read it earlier. This is why I like reading challenges for forcing me to reflect and choose what I missed years ago.

Dec 10-12 on Kobo Clara BW.

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes (The Kamogawa Food Detectives #2) by Hisashi Kashiwai

This was actually the first of the Japanese novels I read in Japan. I needed something that I knew would be light and easy to read towards the end of my jet lag. I also wanted to read this before going to Kyoto. I was underwhelmed by the first book in this series but upon reflection, it worked as a book about Japanese food. This was a series of light hearted novels describing various food dishes. Not much else to say since the characters are lightly drawn and nothing really happens so definitely read for the Japanese food vibes. I was able to sample some amazing Kyoto food too.

Dec 13-15, 2025 on Kobo Clara BW

The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 1 (Lightnovel) by Natsu Hyuuga

After finishing the main Ascendance of a Bookworm light novel series, I decided to take a break from that universe and light novels (LN) in general. I was curious about Apothecary Diaries since the anime is very popular. I decided to try the LN even though it is far from being completed. LNs are great for travel and actually written for busy young people especially on commutes. It was easy to read but I found some aspects wanting. Mao is a great female protagonist with charisma, coolness, and depth. I liked her character. Jin, like Ferdinand in AoaB, has too much control and power over the situation and in their relationship. I did not care about their flirtation so it will take a lot for me to become invested their romance. Lastly, the mystery aspect of the novel was written without much detail. A lot of things happened off screen and was quickly explained later. There was something odd about the pacing of the mysteries. I am left feeling a bit whelmed by the light novel so I will proceed with the manga and anime for now and perhaps return to the LN later.

Read Dec 24-25, 2025 on Kobo Clara BW.