Honeybees and Distant Thunder: The million copy award-winning Japanese bestseller | 
Holy Little Free Library score, Batman! Honeybees has been high on my TBR after @squirrelbrain and @BarbaraBB sang its praises earlier this year. And I was able to see Holly Hogan talk earlier this year at a book event, which sparked my interest in her book!
pickA lovely work of Japanese fiction - just what I needed! A beautiful story about music and a piano competition. It was enthralling to read about the rounds of the competition as they unfolded and to be inside the characters‘ minds as they thought about music.
@BarbaraBB
pickAll the stars for this wonderful novel about a piano competition in Japan. We get to know the main participants and can root for the one we‘d like to win. All are experiencing the competition in their own way and are growing in their music. Music that plays the main role in this novel. I learned so much about classical music, its evolution, the composers, their meaning and the various interpretations. I really loved it!
(Photo: Meganisi, Greece)
pickThis is likely to be in my favourites of the year - I adored it!
Following a number of pianists as they compete in a prestigious competition in Japan, it‘s a beautifully written, quiet, contemplative read, but with tense moments of jeopardy too. It almost reads like non-fiction in places, in a good way.
I learnt so much about classical music and kept listening to snippets of the pieces mentioned to understand more.
A wonderful book!
