Josephine Baker (1906–1975)

There is a ramen shop famous across Japan with people lining up for hours to taste the delights. This is not a story about the ramen shop. This is the story about a pawn shop which magically appears at the ramen shop when you need a place to sell a regret.
Hana Ishikawa has watched and learnt from her father how to run the pawn shop, how to talk to the customers, how to coax them to leave behind their regrets for a fair price. She has always known that her father would retire, and she would show more take over. On her first day as the new owner of the shop, Hana wakes ready to begin, however things are amiss. The normal morning routine of noises from her father are missing. When Hana gets into the shop she finds a chaotic mess, someone has broken in, stolen items and it appears her father is missing. Hana is determined to find out where her father is, for she is sure this one of the puzzles he would leave for her as a child. As Hana is about to set out on her journey a customer enters the pawnshop and Hana realises, she might need this handsome stranger’s assistance.
This was a really interesting read, lots of different magic concepts and ideas. I found the structure of the novel at times a bit jarring, the back and forth between character narratives threw me at times. Once I was in the swing, the story had great pace and kept you engaged.
The two main characters, Hana and Keishin work well together, even though they are from different worlds. Hana’s world bends all the rules and Keishin’s is based on hard science, a rational outcome. As they try to discover where Hana’s father has gone, they both develop and learn about each other. Neither character takes the limelight, they really do work well unison.
I did find the ending drawn out and frustrating, as Hana seemed to be undertaking activities to bring about further resolution and this only alluded to. If you have read the book that will make sense.
It is a great piece of escapism and the magic realism is well crafted. show less

nonfiction/memoir (orig. published in French 1949, written by Baker as told to Sauvage; 2025 edition is translated into English and includes new foreword by Ijeoma Oluo)

Baker didn't really want to write her memoirs, so this is a series of half-stories written down by her friend M. Sauvage and now translated from the original French into English. The result is not a very cohesive narrative (the effect is similar to overhearing snippets from half of a telephone conversation but not knowing any show more pertinent details), but may be of historical interest to scholars because of Baker's remarkable life. Would benefit from a lot of annotations to aid casual readers, or even better, a film documentary. show less

I really loved this story as a child- the little hen Kot-Kot who goes in search for her missing eye. The pictures are lovely, and though the story may feel a bit ham-handed with it's message for me today, it's still a pretty nice story.

Tracklist
Disc 1

1-1 Who? 2:50
1-2 That Certain Feeling 3:00
1-3 Dinah 2:59
1-4 Sleepy Time Gal 2:56
1-5 I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight? 2:53
1-6 Bam Bam Bamy Shore 3:16
1-7 I Want To Yodel 2:24
1-8 You're The Only One For Me 2:21
1-9 Feeling Kind Of Blue 2:42
1-10 I Love My Baby 2:16
1-11 I Found A New Baby 2:25
1-12 Skeedle Um 2:32
1-13 Always 2:29
1-14 Pretty Little Baby 3:01
1-15 Where'd You Get Those Eyes 2:47
1-16 After I Say I'm Sorry 2:49
1-17 Then I'll Be Happy 2:49
1-18 Bye Bye Blackbird 2:52
1-19 show more Lonesome Lovesick Blues 2:51
1-20 I Love Dancing 2:14
1-21 Breezing Alone With The Breeze 2:53
1-22 Hello Bluebird 2:58
1-23 Blue Skies 2:54
1-24 He's The Last Word 2:50
1-25 I'm Leaving For Alabamy 2:50

Disc 2:

2-26 La Petite Tonkinoise 2:37
2-27 Suppose! 3:18
2-28 Pretty Little Baby 3:02
2-29 J'ai Deux Amours 3:09
2-30 Voulez-Vous De La Canne À Sucre? 2:55
2-31 Dis-moi Josephine? 3:06
2-32 Pardon, Si Je T'Importune 2:43
2-33 Aux Iles Hawaii 2:47
2-34 Love Is A Dreamer 2:43
2-35 King For A Day 3:04
2-36 My Fate Is In Your Hands 2:12
2-37 Confessin' 2:45
2-38 You're Driving Me Crazy 2:22
2-39 You're The One I Care For 2:23
2-40 Madiana 2:58
2-41 Mon Rêve C'Était Vous 2:30
2-42 Si J'Étais Blanche 2:39
2-43 Sans Amour 3:14
2-44 Les Mots D'Amour 2:50
2-45 Ram Pam Pam 2:38
2-46 C'est Lui 2:55
2-47 Haiti 3:15
2-48 Rêves 3:23
2-49 Sous Le Ciel D'Afrique 4:17
2-50 La Conga Blicoti 2:57 show less