First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

After breaking down at the office and abruptly quitting her job, thirty-year-old Jungmin holes up in her apartment, speaking to no one for days on end. When she finally emerges, she stumbles upon a pottery studio in her neighborhood and is invited in by the mysterious workshop teacher. The smell of clay, the light filtering through the plant-filled windows, the friendly cat, and the incredible coffee the students drink awaken her senses and make her feel alive and inspired for the first time in months. As the seasons change, Jungmin slowly returns to herself and builds a new community with the other members of the studio, who are all working through their own pasts at the pottery wheel. When the holidays approach and snow piles up on the studio windowsill, Jungmin realizes how much she has changed – with her hands busy and her mind clear, she may be ready to face the memories she’s been running from and open her heart.

For fans of What You Are Looking For Is in the Library and Welcome to Hyunam-dong Bookshop, Yeon’s charming English-language debut is a testament to the joy of slowing down in a fast-paced world, and an homage to the art of ceramics and the power of friendship. Readers won’t want to leave the enchanting world of The Healing Season of Pottery after the final page.

Happy Friday everyone! Well, it is already Saturday, the first of the new year. I have been off from work this past week; Monday to New Year were all holidays here in the Philippines while I took a leave on Thursday and Friday. I relish the short reprieve because I am cognizant that the following weeks will be quite busy and hectic with year-end activities; December was also busy despite the various holidays. It was a brief interlude but I am grateful nonetheless because it allowed me to catch up with friends and family I haven’t seen in a year. To those who had to go to work, I hope you started the first working day of the year on the right note. I hope that everyone ended the work week on a high note. I hope you were able to accomplish all your tasks for the week. It is time to slow down, unwind, and dive into the weekend.

Capping the week is a First Impression Friday update albeit it is a day late. This weekly meme has been consistently carried over year-on-year. It has become part of my book blogging ritual. I am grateful for it because it allows me to take a break from my reading and reflect on the chapters and pages that I have finished. It has, over the years, also evolved into a springboard upon which I built my review of the books featured in this weekly meme. Reading-wise, I resolved to dedicate the first two months of the year to reading works of East Asian literature. This is driven in part by my failure to host a Japanese literature month in 2024, the first time in a while that I failed to do so. Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature recognition is also a driver; an older work of hers is going to be released in English later this month.

This takes me to another Korean writer who I just learned about in 2024. Yeon Somin joins the ranks of Korean writers who have been making waves globally. I guess this is in part due to the success of Han Kang who won the International Booker Prize in 2016, and eventually the Nobel recognition. It has not escaped my attention how Korean writers have been longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Among them are Bora Chung, Sang Young Park, Cheon Myeong-kwan, and more recently Hwang Sok-yong. A spate of heartwarming stories has also been released, among them is Hwang Bo-reum’s Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop. An addition to this growing list is Somin’s The Healing Season of Pottery.

Originally published in 2023, The Healing Season of Pottery is Somin’s sophomore novel. At the heart of the story is a young woman named Jungmin. She is a television writer who one day decided to leave her job without warning. She was tired of how the show she was working with was capitalizing on the misfortune of others. The show, despite the lack of permission from their subject, broadcasts their subject’s flaws and struggles. They believe that divorce, messy marriages, abuses, and similar acts are what the general public is more interested in. This leads Somin to a pseudo-quarter-life crisis. She is thirty, single, and has no iota about what to do with her life. She was in a quandary. This premise reminds me so much of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop and, as the synopsis mentioned, the struggles of the characters in Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For Is in the Library.  

From the bustling Seoul metropolis, Jungmin moved to the relatively quiet Ilsan where she found an apartment in a quiet neighborhood. The change in landscape, however, barely did little to assuage her anxieties about the future. A bout with depression made her hole up in her new apartment. In the hopes of cheering herself, she decided to go out and look for a cozy café. However, instead of a café, she found unsuspectingly entered a pottery studio. While Jungmin had little knowledge about pottery, the warmth of the studio’s interior and the smell of clay reeled her in. It was also a pleasant surprise to be welcomed by two old women on their wheels. Jungmin was served with coffee which she enjoyed. When she inquired about the source of the coffee, the women explained that the flavor came not only from the good quality of the coffee but also because of the mug which was made in the pottery studio.

The women then talked Jungmin into taking pottery lessons. The rest, they say, is history. I mean the rest of the story one can already build or imagine. Not that there is anything wrong with predictability. After all, there is a different kind of serotonin boost with finding a new hobby and establishing genuine connections with a found family. At least these are the main themes of the story. There is also an interesting plotline involving Jungmin’s past. These are concerns that I know the story will resolve. I have my expectations of the book, considering how I enjoyed both Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop and What You Are Looking For Is in the Library. I am looking forward to reading about relatable characters and how they will invite me into the inner sanctum of their lives.

How about you fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!