Top Ten Tuesday; Comforting & Heartwarming Rainy Day Reads

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for another Top Ten Tuesday post courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl and as today's theme was "April Showers", I decided writing a top ten list of comforting and heartwarming rainy day reads.

Here's my ten picks.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

Description from Goodreads

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS DESTINY? AND HOW CAN YOU FIND YOURS?

Under a glittering full moon, a Kyoto coffee shop with no fixed location or opening hours appears only where and when it's needed. Serving fragrant teas, the finest coffees and delicious desserts, it is entirely run by talking cats.

The coffee shop attracts customers who have lost their way in their life, from a down-on-her- luck screenwriter and a lovesick TV director to a misunderstood stylist and a failed video game developer. In the middle of the night, the coffee shop's feline guides take them on an astrological journey which forces the characters to face up to the past, in order to discover their destiny. And as each of them uncovers their purpose, their paths all become somehow intertwined...

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa

Description from Goodreads

He is a brilliant maths professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a traumatic head injury seventeen years ago, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.

She is a sensitive but astute young housekeeper who is entrusted to take care of him.

Each morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are reintroduced to one another, a strange, beautiful relationship blossoms between them. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. He devises clever maths riddles - based on her shoe size or her birthday - and the numbers reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her ten-year-old son. With each new equation, the three lost souls forge an affection more mysterious than imaginary numbers, and a bond that runs deeper than memory.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

Description from Goodreads

When a young Chinese woman, newly arrived in London, moves in with her English boyfriend, she decides it’s time to write a Chinese-English dictionary for lovers. Xiaolu’s first novel in English is an utterly original journey of self-discovery.

Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson

Description from Goodreads

The Moomins set sail for a wild new adventure.

The Moomins, in case you didn’t know, are kind, philosophical creatures with velvety fur and smooth round snouts, who live in a tall blue house in a beautiful woodland valley beside the sea.

Moominpappa yearns to make a fresh start, to find a rocky island and lighthouse where he’ll feel alert and important again. And so the Moomins set sail for a new home. In Moominpappa at Sea they arrive at an island that proves as mysterious and wild as even Moominpappa had hoped. It even has a deserted lighthouse. But how is Moominmamma to grow her flowers and what strange fate befell the last keeper of the lighthouse?

Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs by Linda Olsson

Description from Goodreads

Olsson leads us through the flowering but unusual and tender friendship of Veronica and Astrid, as they slowly and carefully reveal their life histories and sometimes heart-rending pasts. A stunning first novel by a new writer with genuine talent.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Description from Goodreads

When the exotic stranger Vianne Rocher arrives in the old French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique called “La Celeste Praline” directly across the square from the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock. It is the beginning of Lent: the traditional season of self-denial. The priest says she’ll be out of business by Easter.

To make matters worse, Vianne does not go to church and has a penchant for superstition. Like her mother, she can read Tarot cards. But she begins to win over customers with her smiles, her intuition for everyone’s favourites, and her delightful confections. Her shop provides a place, too, for secrets to be whispered, grievances aired. She begins to shake up the rigid morality of the community. Vianne’s plans for an Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate éclair?

For the first time, here is a novel in which chocolate enjoys its true importance, emerging as an agent of transformation. Rich, clever, and mischievous, reminiscent of a folk tale or fable, this is a triumphant read with a memorable character at its heart.

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

Description from Goodreads

Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams's search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mir­rors her own and that Zahara—like Shams—has come to set her free.

In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together incarnate the poet's timeless message of love.

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

Description from Goodreads

There was only one thing on her mind.

'I must start a bookshop.'

Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop.

In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster, and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju - they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

A heart-warming story about finding comfort and acceptance in your life – and the healing power of books.

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

Description from Goodreads

Grandpa used to say it all the time: books have tremendous power. But what is that power really?

Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.

After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone...

The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others - and the tremendous power of books. Sosuke Natsukawa's international best seller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

Description from Goodreads

The Japanese bestseller: a tale of love, new beginnings, and the comfort that can be found between the pages of a good book.

When twenty-five-year-old Takako’s boyfriend reveals he’s marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle Satoru’s offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above his shop.

Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, the Morisaki Bookshop is a booklover’s paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building, the shop is filled with hundreds of second-hand books. It is Satoru’s pride and joy, and he has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife left him five years earlier.

Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the shop.

And as summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books.

Quirky, beautifully written, and movingly profound, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop will appeal to readers of Before The Coffee Gets Cold, The Cat Who Saved Books, and anyone who has had to recover from a broken heart.