Enjoyed your reviews as always! I will have to look up the sweet bean paste book. (Have you read anything by Shion Miura? I know some of her stuff has been translated into English [forget if you read Japanese or not] and it sounds like something you might enjoy.)
...I have known songs from South Pacific for ever (that's the Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair one, right?) and I literally never had any idea what the plot was about. Who knew. Interesting!