What you are looking for is in the Library

Cooking With Christie: Unexpected Inspiration

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

Inspiration: Within the book What You Are Looking For Is In The Library, there’s a minor subplot woven into the story featuring rice balls. Due to the shaping required to produce onigiri and the possibility of adding filling, I’d always found this dish an intimidating undertaking. Yet, in the story, this staple seemed relatively easy to make.

Then we hit a week plus of mid-to-high eighty-degree days which always scrambling around for foods that require minimal heat to produce. Since rice has become a comfort food and rice balls can be eaten cold, I decided to try my hand at making them*. Looking about the internet, I discovered this excellent website that provides a base onigiri recipe, as well as three variants.

Deciding to stick with the basics on my first rodeo, I purchased the required sushi rice. Following the directions on the package, I cooked up my first batch. Now, after reading the website’s instructions and watching a number of YouTube videos on how to shape the rice into a triangle by hand (which frankly looked like magic to my untrained eye), I pulled out my far less fancy muffin scoop and set to work. 

What I failed to recall was that I had purchased an antique Chinese rice mold at an estate sale a year or so prior. Maybe I’ll use it if I ever make these when company comes over.

In any case, after stirring three tablespoons of ponzu and four tablespoons of yuzu furikaki into the steaming rice, I started scooping and, voila, in less than two minutes I’d two dozen riceballs! And they were just as easy to make as the characters in What You Are Looking For Is In The Library said they were! Even better? They taste great cold!

*(I’m not calling what I made onigiri because mine aren’t in the traditional triangle shape or wrapped in nori. Nor would I call the rice shaped in the aforementioned mold onigiri either, just to be clear.)

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can easily see Colonel Race making and enjoying these during his bachelor days. Rice balls are easy to make, last for a while, and, if they don’t contain a fin based filling, are something that can be stuffed in a jacket pocket and eaten on the go. Which, if you’re caught up in an unplanned stakeout or suddenly break the case — having a bit of nutrition to keep your brain cells functioning at their peak is important!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Book Review: One of the Best Books I’ve Read this Year

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

What you are looking for is in the Library — Michiko Aoyama

Translated by: Alison Watts

Last Christmas, my husband gave me a copy of The Kamogawa Food Detectives (by Hisashi Kashiwai), a Japanese cozy mystery series to which I’m now thoroughly addicted. 

Fast forward a six months.

Whilst perusing my way through the stacks of a bookshop, an idle query crossed my mind — ‘I wondered if Kashiwai’s American publisher had released the third installment yet?’ Wandering over to the fiction section (where many mysteries reside to fool genre snobs into thinking they aren’t reading/loving a mystery), I discovered that, alas, I need to wait a few more months.

Sigh.

Turning away from the shelf in question, I spied a stack of The Kamogawa Food Detectives‘ distinctive dust jackets on a nearby table. Curious if the display contained a theme, hoping against hope, a bookseller grouped together similar titles I hurried over. 

Huzzah! 

Amongst the piles of translated tomes I discovered What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. I love reading books about books and essays on food just as much as I love reading mysteries. So, after practically throwing my money at the cashier in my eagerness, I rushed home and dove straight into its pages….

Librarians, much like booksellers, help unite people with books. And, every now and then, they recommend the perfect title at the exact time their patron needs it most. 

It’s a kind of magic.

Most people don’t realize this skill can’t be taught; it’s acquired over time through practice, observation, and, most importantly, listening. Sayuri Komachi, “Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian.”, owns this skill in spades and uses it to help those living in the ward where her Library resides.

I devoured this book in a day. 

Then I read it again.

And again.

Slower.

Reading how Sayuri releases each patron with a book recommendation that possesses the possibility of nudging them into shifting their perspective is fantastic. Equally fantastic, is the fact we are allowed to watch five of these masterful moments unfold in What You Are Looking For is in the Library. Each one demonstrating the power and importance of libraries, librarians, and physical books all in one fell swoop. (Or, at least, that’s my interpretation.)

Moreover, the interconnectedness of the people, places, and things made What You Are Looking For is in the Library a joy to read. Each library patron makes cameos in subsequent chapters, thus showing the subtle passage of time, whilst also allowing us (the reader) to see if these new perspectives stick or if the library patron slipped back into old habits. 

Whilst I savored every chapter (eventually), my favorite is — Masao, 65, retired. Within these handful of pages, Aoyama transforms Sayuri Komachi from a mountaintop mystic into a human being. And, unlike the great and terrible Oz’s reveal, this peek behind the curtain in no way disappoints. 

I would recommend this book to anyone. Especially those feeling a tad frustrated or lost in their own lives. Or if you need to witness kindness in action. Or someone who enjoys reading about books or felting. Yes, the craft plays a significant role in the stories.

(Ignore the cat on the cover. It does not play a role. In case you’re worried.)

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025