Back in 2018, there was one rom-com that stole the hearts of most K-drama fans: tvN’s What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?, starring Park Seo-joon (as Vice-chairman Lee Young-joon) and Park Min-young (as Secretary Kim Mi-so). In episode 4, our protagonists get locked in a library due to a power outage. There, Mi-so finds a book…
Books
The Rainfall Market: Goblins, Cats & Shots of Inspiration
The quest for a perfect life is the subject of several films, books, and series out there. It’s often the subject of our own lives, especially on the days when everything seems to be going wrong. The quest for a perfect life also lies in the core of You Yeong-gwang’s The Rainfall Market, a fantastical…
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library Review: Books, Serendipity, and Outdated Ideas
I like books about books. We’ve talked about Satoshi Yagisawa’s Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Hwang Bo-reumโs Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, and Nanako Hanada’s The Bookshop Woman here before. So Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For Is in the Library was the next logical step. Butโฆ I must confess that I didn’t enjoy…
Must-Read Korean Books of 2025: Your Semester Reading List!
There are so many excellent Korean books coming out in 2025 that I don’t even know where to start. Hopefully, with more and more releases being scheduled every day, we’ll have lots of K-lit being translated into English soon. We’ll start the year with our favourite new releases for the next six months (from January…
From January to June: Ten 2025 Japanese Books You Can’t Miss!
In the past few years, Japanese literature has slowly been taking over our bookshelves. And that trend shows no sign of slowing down: 2025 promises to be another year full of incredible Japanese literary releases. Next week promises the publication of Uketsu’s much-anticipated Strange Pictures (translated by Jim Rion), a mystery bestseller that allows the…
Your Ultimate Guide to 2024 K-Dramas, Books, and Films That Defined the Year
We blinked and a year went by. It’s now December: 2024 is coming to a close and 2025 is peeking at us from the horizon. So shall we look back at the most interesting 2024 K-dramas, books, and films? As much as possible, I tried to choose one title per month of the year so…
Year In Review: The 2024 Japanese Books, Films, and Dramas We Won’t Forget
A couple more weeks and it’s 2025. Can you believe it? I know that I can’t! But now it’s the perfect time for us to take a look back at 2024 and talk about the very best 2024 Japanese books, dramas and films. Can you recognise all these titles? As much as possible, I tried…
Kim Ryeo-ryeong’s The Trunk: A Novel Isn’t a Thriller But It’s a Thrilling Read
Today is The Trunk Day! Netflix is bringing Gong Yoo and Seo Hyun-jin back to the small screen in a show that we have been looking forward to for over a year. The Trunk, coming out today on Netflix, is inspired by Kim Ryeo-ryeong’s novel of the same name. Kim Ryeo-ryeong is a successful Korean…
The Kamogawa Food Detectives: The Tales of The Restaurant of Lost Recipes
Is food just a means of nourishment? To Kamogawa Nagare, the protagonist of The Kamogawa Food Detectives series, it isn’t. At the Kamogawa Diner, food is about love, care, and nostalgia. It’s about who made it, where you were and who you were with when you savoured it. And so, a dish becomes part of…
Dallergut Dream Department Store Review: Whimsy, Comfort and Hope
One afternoon, I walked into a bookshop in Italy with my mother. I spotted a colourful, vivid book cover from afar and I immediately recognised it. It was Lee Mi-ye’s Dallergut Dream Department Store. I had seen it online and I had been earnestly looking forward to it. In the UK, the book was going…
