The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
Published by Picador on February 3, 2009
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Goodreads
He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem--ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.
She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.
And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor’s mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities--like the Housekeeper’s shoe size--and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away.
The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.
How do you form a friendship when your memory only lasts 80 minutes?
The professor was a brilliant mathematician who suffered a brain injury in a car accident. For years, he had only been able to hold onto the present for eighty minutes. He was living a rather solitary existence until his new housekeeper reported for duty and a very unlikely friendship formed.
This was a rather lovely and somewhat sad found family story. I adored the way the professor bonded with the housekeeper's son, and how her own affections for the professor grew. His situation was a difficult one, and it was touching how protective the housekeeper and son were of the professor. They would play along, knowing his memories didn't extend past 1975, and they made the most of those eighty minutes when he lived in the present.
This was a quiet book with a lot of math and baseball. I personally love math. If I hadn't studied engineering, I would have majored in math. Its beauty was woven into the story, and it was such an interesting way to connect with the housekeeper and her son.
I didn't realize how much I cared about these characters until the tears started flowing. It was just such a gift that the housekeeper and her son had the opportunity to befriend the professor. And what was really lovely was how their relationship was mutually beneficial. This was just one of those stories that focused on connection and exposed the better parts of our humanity. Overall, a touching a moving tale.
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
Published by Bloomsbury on February 20, 2024
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Goodreads
Yeongju is burned out. With her high-flying career, demanding marriage, and bustling life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful—but all she feels is drained. Haunted by an abandoned dream, she takes a leap of faith and leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a quiet residential neighborhood outside the city and opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
The transition isn’t easy. For months, all Yeongju can do is cry. But as the long hours in the shop stretch on, she begins to reflect on what makes a good bookseller and a meaningful store. She throws herself into reading voraciously, hosting author events, and crafting her own philosophy on bookselling. Gradually, Yeongju finds her footing in her new surroundings.
Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that bind them, Yeongju begins to write a new chapter in her life. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls—a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over.
For me, this book was an ode to bookshops and what an important function they serve in any community. This bookshop, in particular, was a place to gather, share thoughts, build friendships, and heal. It was also a place where some found their purpose or righted their path.
I won't say this book had much plot, but I don't think that was the point. It was about these people and the connections they made via the bookshop. It was about the choices they made that led them to this point. It was a story filled with lots of discussion. Some bordered on pretentious, but there was a lot of food for thought as well.
Overall, this was a quiet and charming slice-of-life that pushed me to reflect on my own life leaving me rather warm and fuzzy.
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