Jan-March Wrap Up

Favorite & Least Favorite Books of the first quarter

I am loving all this time that I get to read now and I am so happy that my reading year has already been going a lot better than last year. If you want to see all the books I’ve read so far, you can head over to my Goodreads and see all of them. In this post, I wanted to focus on the best and the worst so far and one probably unneeded rant.

Sequels and Finales

4/5

The Burning God by RF Kuang – This series is depressing and bleak. In fact, after reading this series I could not bring myself to read another fantasy series for 2 months. I started this series back when the Poppy war was released so it’s been a journey and I can finally say I have finished the series. I would argue Rin is the best female antihero that has been written in an epic fantasy. Rin is so interesting because she has the best of intentions but often struggles to reconcile the horrors of her world with what she feels is the absolute righteousness of her solutions. At every turn, Rin is faced with the worst obstacles and what is worse is that there is the haunting of the past (Rape of Nanking, Mao Zedong, Opium Wars) in each page. I knew from the beginning, although there is magic and there are characters that can do amazing things with these powers, that there is no happy ending for Rin but still I could not look away. I don’t think the last book is as good as the first time because it was too cyclical, it borrowed too much of a mashup of history and just stuck them together instead of the other two books that felt more like history with a cohesive and progressive storyline. I’m probably going to do an indepth discussion/ranking on all of RF Kuang’s books at some point.

Romance

I’ve been having quite a bit of luck with romance this year thus far. Now I will say that again I am very critical when it comes to romance because there’s a lot of not so great romance out there but these passed the test as the best so far.

3.75/5

You, Again by Kate Goldbeck– Maybe I was missing New York a lot when I was reading it but I loved all the New York location Easter eggs. I love the time jumps because you can see how each character develops on their own; it made me love the pages when they were interacting together. Also, I really think that we get a lot of archetypes of female and male main characters in heterosexual contemporary romance books, the females are usually quite bland and not too much of anything.  The men are usually either alpha males or super simps. I love that these characters are in between..I had never realized how rarely I see female characters in romance smoke or be honestly kind of pathetic LOL..and I liked it.  There was a realism stamped to these pages but it didn’t lose the sense of fun because the setting was fun and the side characters were funny so it was great. As for its comparison to the When Harry met Sally, it’s not that great of a comparison and I’m fairly sure the comparison was meant to catch the nostalgia of millennial readers (to great effect probably) but it should be assessed as its own.

4/5

The Art of Scandal by Regina Black – Despite its pretty sexual cover, this romance has more of a serious, almost literary quality to it. It’s one of those books that is deeply sensual in its writing and characters but not overtly sexual. Does that make sense? I loved that these characters had lovely reasons to be together. The author also wrote chemistry in such a natural but still explosive manner. It was just very different from how a lot of romance was written and that is to its credit. The dialogue was interesting and insightful. This is the epitome of how a good romance should be written in my opinion. I wish there were 1 or 2 more sexy times but that’s because I just loved these two. People have compared this to the show Scandal and from what little I’ve watched of it, it definitely gives the same emotional atmosphere.

Nonfiction

Scattered Minds by Gabor Mate – This opened my mind to not only more into the mind of someone who has ADHD but my own as well. Agree with his theory of attachment or not, you cannot deny that it is could still applicable to your own life. He argues that the relationship between the parent and the child are very important and notes that medication is not the quick fix or even fix at all for ADHD, but rather their environment and the relationships they have with their parents. Also all the reviews saying he blames parents or mothers specifically for the way their ADHD kid turns out is just not true. He even notes how he did not show up as a good parent for his own kids and repeatedly states that he is not blaming anyone.

2/5

Enchantment: Awakening wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May – this is what a book if it felt like a series of twitter threads that thought they were insightful but then you realize there are millions more like it. It tried so hard to be insightful but was anything but and lost so much steam from the 1st 25% of the book onwards. I’ve already forgotten everything about it.

Romantasy

I’m still on the hunt for that perfect romantasy read and I found a sort of winner? emphasis on the sort of

3/5

Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole – This book reminded me of a lot of YA books I’ve read in the past, which is not the worst comparison. I was just looking for a fun time with a world and characters I could get immediately immersed in. Was it the worst romantasy I’ve ever read? No. But did I lower my expectations a lot in order to enjoy it? Yeah. I will say I did really liked the beginning. I thought that the stage was set for so many cool things to happen later but the payoff was so lackluster. SPOILERS For example, at the beginning of the book, our main character is seeing one of the guys in her hometown (who we know is not going to be endgame) but things escalate and she decides to join his rebel group and is thinking about accepting his marriage proposal only to back out as soon as things are getting exciting. It would have made such an interesting struggle had the relationship between the main male love interest not been 3x amped up in the last 10%, that interesting conflict could have been kept. END SPOILERS That’s the problem I have with a lot of romantasy, the dialogue is very juvenile making false chemistry, false closeness. I also hate that romantasy books don’t go far enough. Enemies to lovers? 95% of the time, it’s not actually enemies to lovers, he never actually killed those people, it was a just a misunderstanding. We can’t be together because you are a fairy and I’m a human, guess what I’m actually a fairy too! We were arguing for naught. Things like that. This book was no different.  Join a rebel group and have potentially devastating conflict with the main male love interest once he finds out? Nope just kidding, I don’t want to be in the rebel group anymore. There are no true stakes or true tension. Also the worldbuilding is never developed enough. I could go on. If I keep expectations low, maybe I would have a better time but I’ve already set them pretty damn low. It’s very unfortunate because I read so many of these romantasy summaries and they all sound so interesting and I see all these raving reviews and it makes me want to read it but I know that it is not true. These books are just not well written plain and simple which is really sad.

Paranormal?

4/5

A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson – I’m surprised but this book was a lot better than I expected. Like the Art of Scandal, the writing is deeply sensual. I like how self contained it was but at the same time I liked it so much I wanted it to be a longer book or a series. It delves into more of the personal relationships of the vampires instead of any worldbuilding or lore of vampires. I like that it delved into toxic relationships too. It was great, a good fall read.

Historical Fiction

Go as a River by Shelley Read – I read this for a book club I’m in and it was completely boring and basic, mirroring surface level, beginner’s guide to racism that became popular in 2015. This is what white people think when they pat themselves on the back and say everything is better now. Heck, even when the book itself is racist. No other diverse characters. The only ones that were present were put on a pedestal, not given any sort of life. You could argue that this was because this was written from the main character’s point of view, that means she didn’t have access to his thoughts etc but why not include more diverse characters if that was what your whole book is about? It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Yellowface by RF Kuang (Spoiler Review) – This book does not deserve 5 stars..nor does it deserve all the 1 stars..

Yellowface is a highly controversial book that took the literary world by storm in 2023. I will start by saying that I have been a fan of RF Kuang’s writing since The Poppy War series and certainly think she, as an author, has the authorial capabiltiies of writing complex, gritty, dark stories while still having this addictive, high-octane, and entertaining energy to them. However in 2022, I became a little disenchanted after reading Babel, while I adored the creative setting focusing on linguistics and language, it became very clear to me (albeit late) that Kuang wrote a baby’s first manifesto on colonialism. Emily May, a reviewer on Goodreads said this about it which was my main critique of the book.

The protagonist, Robin, is a very passive unmemorable character, surrounded by characters who are either equally benign and forgettable, often serving as mouthpieces for what feel like jarringly modern views, or else one-dimensional EVIL imperialist racists.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4187354850

What I loved about the Poppy War trilogy, the questioning of morality, or right and wrong were seemingly absent from Babel. I was afraid the same thing was going to be the case for Yellowface as well from early reviews. But alas, Kuang’s writing is just extremely addictive and entertaining and I thought I’d at least have a good time. In the end, as with Babel, Yellowface is…alright. However, I think RF Kuang achieved a little more nuance than I think some reviews might give her credit for. And on the flip side, I don’t think it ever quite reaches its potential. And I will explain as I continue this review.

Readers who loved this book say it is a scathing exploration of publishing industry and its continuing racism whether in the form of microaggressions or in more sinister ways such as boxing authors into only writing a certain story such as Chinese people only being able to write Chinese stories. In some ways this book is that, but in other ways, I felt as if as soon as one topic was mentioned, another topic took its place. I think the question of who gets to write on what a fascinating topic but none of that gets to be truly dissected. This book felt a lot of one-liners of Twitter pasted into a book without any commentary. For example, fittingly, there’s this quote about Twitter

But Twitter is real life; it’s realer than real life, because that is the realm that the social economy of publishing exists on, because the industry has no alternative.”

It’s a great quote but then that would be followed by another great quote and before you know it, it’s a bunch of great one-liners with no depth. I wish there was more exploration maybe a theory on why the industry boxes people in certain writing boxes. What does the industry gain? What happens after?

The second biggest critique I have is that a lot of reviews mention how racist June Hayward and what a despicable character she is. People say June is unredeemable and she deserves everything she got coming. While she is definitely an unhinged character, blaming everything on this one person is a little simplistic I would say. In this way, June serves as a satisfying scapegoat, the racist white woman who stole an Asian woman’s story. But..Kuang fortunately goes deeper than that, she explains how Athena was the one who stole a lot of personal stories from June and her ex-boyfriend and unbeknownst to the subjects, puts their very personal stories in the book (such as the story where June was raped). And on the sinister side of tokenism, Kuang, in an interview, states that throughout the book, that Athena loves being the only Asian author in the room, and she hates mentoring other Asian authors because she does not want them to achieve the status that she does. To blatantly ignore the things that Athena does to perpetuate a vicious cycle. June is also, a victim of the viciousness of online criticism, people who jump off the praise train to go immediately to the criticizing train. June reads these reviews on the book she stole:

“Uninspired colonizer trash, one reads. Another iteration of the white woman exploitation sob story formula: copy, paste, change the names, and voila, bestseller, reads another. And a third, which seems way too personal to be objective: What a stuck-up, obnoxious bitch. Brags too much about being a Yalie. I got this during a Kindle sale, and you can bet I made sure to get every one of the two hundred and ninety-nine cents I spent back.”

Yellowface, 2022

In this way, you can see how June is a representation of a lot of writers, putting your work out there for the masses and the vulnerability it comes with. I think June also represents a person who is just lost and desperate. In this modern world, what can she write? You can see her dreams about loving writing and she constantly wants to prove to her family that she can make it as a writer. I love that June has these thoughts because it shows thoughts that we’ve all had (the difference is June is oblivious to how those thoughts affect her actions). In other words, she is human. RF Kuang herself has stated that she didn’t want to write all white people as bad and that’s why she gave June the ending that she did (not quite good, but not quite bad either) I think this is where Kuang really shines, while June is being berated for writing this book, where is the line drawn for cultural appropriation? Who is allowed to write what? Is a Chinese person only allowed to write Chinese stories? Is a white person only allowed to write about Caucasian stories?

Having said that, RF Kuang, I think, could have expounded more on June’s depth as a character. Maybe she could have expanded more on June and Athena’s relationship and maybe written June in a not so one-dimensional way. If that were the case, there would be complexity to the issues of race being presented. Even if Kuang meant to write June in a more complex way, June really is not. She spouts out racist remarks and leaves it at that. Maybe if June hadn’t been so narrow-minded, she could have served as a stepping stone for talking about how the industry doesn’t work for either June or Athena etc etc. There was a lot of missed opportunities here.

I could argue this point too from the other side. A critique of this book is definitely June. From a negative standpoint, it could be seen that June serves as a stand in for all the criticisms that RF Kuang has faced in the past and to say that whoever criticizes Kuang is a flaming racist. It’s debatable. For one, because it’s a satire it makes sense, why all these remarks are so in your face, that’s just the absurdist, satirical nature of the book. It could be argued the other way around, June herself serves as more than just a racist white woman; June, too, also suffers in this industry. These remarks are laid out there and although some you can see, RF Kuang thinks it’s unfair, some other remarks, it seems RF Kuang is pondering and raises more questions about. For example, I like this quote that speaks to the “game” of social media that is so on point for everyone on social media today. I can see how RF Kuang is trying to write more than about just about her experiences but about the experiences of just being on the internet and the industry in general.

I retweet hot takes about bubble tea, MSG, BTS, and some drama series called The Untamed. I learn it’s important to be anti-PRC (that’s the People’s Republic of China) but pro-China (I’m not terribly sure how that’s different). I learn what “little pinks” and “tankies” are and make sure I don’t inadvertently retweet support for either. I decry what’s happening in Xinjiang. I Stand with Hong Kong. I start gaining dozens more followers a day once I’ve started vocalizing on these matters, and when I notice that many of my followers are people of color or have things like #BLM and #FreePalestine in their bios, I know I’m on the right track.

Yellowface, 2022

In other instances, the racism of June is a little too heavy-handed and too repetitive which makes the book more “ranty” than self-reflective.

I could also argue from the other side. Looking at these negative reviews, the biggest concern has seemed that this book seemed self-inserty. that because RF Kuang has worked so intimately in this industry, why not have the discourse surrounding her be the subject of this book? I found a lot of value looking at what it likes to be a writer in this modern age, the struggles and the wins. If I were to read this book and see that it was not written by someone who has known the publishing industry, would I be more likely to believe the writing? Probably not. It’s difficult NOT for the authorial voice to bleed through because these are her experiences. I will say that her writing for this book was very different from her other works. While her other works read very academically with educational pieces throughout Babel and The Poppy War trilogy, this one reads more tangentially and “nitty gritty”, there’s no verbosity or flowery language to coat this book. It definitely reads more functional and punchy which I actually really liked for this book.

I need to create. It is a physical urge, a raving, like breathing, like eating; when it’s going well, it’s better than sex, and when it’s not, I can’t take pleasure in anything else.

Yellowface, 2022

The question now though: Is RF Kuang using this book to absolve herself of the criticisms (fair or unfair) that were self-inserted in this book? And does this question matter?

The answer is I don’t know but I think this question matters as I come to my closing thoughts because I think with a little work, RF Kuang could write something great, something even better than The Poppy War trilogy but if this book and Babel are anything to go by, it’ll be difficult for her to see that she desperately needs more than twitter one-liners and sometimes black-and-white modern liberal social values to make a nuanced book of the caliber that I think she can write. I applaud her for daring to write such a book especially when she works so intimately in it and she could have burned a lot of bridges. The switch from writing fantasy to contemporary thriller is, I imagine, a difficult one as well and while it has its faults, I cannot deny that Yellowface is addictive and entertaining. I personally hope she does not let the pride of her success and writing stop her from really looking at these criticisms from the other side. I have also attached the interview with RF Kuang below, I highly recommend to watch after reading the book because it definitely explains a lot of the hesitations I had about the book and made me see it in a better light.

What did you think of Yellowface? A yay or nay? Let me know in the comments below 🙂

Best Books of 2023

For the past few years, I’ve become jaded. Here’s the thing. Back in high school and college, I read a lot more than I do now but my comfort food was always fantasy, and I love a romantic plotline in fantasy too specifically. So, of course, I sought these out throughout my reading years. You would think that I would like romance contemporary or fantasy romance which seems to be the fad these days. I thought I would too, but sadly, I find a lot of the books of this genre published these days to be very mediocre in almost every way possible. In addition, fantasy, especially epic fantasy has also been disappointing to me over the years. Since this year, I don’t think I’ve liked anything so obsessively as I did in my fantasy renaissance, when I read things like Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and The Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. Recently though, there’s just been a lack of significant female characters and the same old stories rehashed over and over again. I’m grateful for my reading in 2023 for reigniting my love for fantasy again and I feel so motivated to read in 2024. It’s all very exciting so without further ado, here are my favorite books of 2024. I have 5 favorites out of 47 books I read this year. They are in no particular order as well but the top three are the definite top three. The top three though have no particular order.

1. Manacled by Senlinyu

Yes, I’m starting off this list with a fanfiction that took over the internet. I, of course, feeling FOMO had to read it. This is a Draco/Hermione fanfic that follows the events of Harry Potter had the dark side won and combine that concept with The Handmaid’s Tale. Hermione has an Order secret and the dark side needs this secret so she is given to Malfoy and he has to extract it from her. Fanfic has never been a part of my reading, mostly because I find that fanfics cannot capture the voices of the original characters and add that to mediocre writing and it just wasn’t something I was interested in. But, then comes Manacled. Manacled turned all of my assumptions about fanfiction on its head. The story in it was also better than a lot of tiktok hyped fantasy romance I’ve read. This story also proves that you can create a well-crafted dark romance without being gratuitous, depraved, sexist and disrespectful to the concepts of PTSD etc that deserve more time and attention. You can tell the author spent a lot of time crafting this plot together for it to be cohesive throughout. It’s a fanfic so it’s definitely self-indulgent but I did not mind at all. To be honest, the reason I loved it most was because it was unputdownable and was equivalent to the sweeping, immersive, obsessive feeling I got when I used to read YA fantasy.

2. Remain Nameless by HeyJude19

Yes, 2/5 of my favorite books of the year are fanfics. This one is more of a romance contemporary with the regular magical concepts present in Harry Potter and is also a lot more lighthearted than Manacled. This follows Malfoy and Hermione after the war has ended except this time the good side has won. Because of that, this leaves Malfoy kind of ostracized from the wizarding world but he finds solace in going to this Muggle coffee shop until one day Hermione starts frequenting the same coffee shop and they strike up a tentative acquaintance, friendship and eventual romance. This one is long but I love that it takes its time unlike so many romances these days. It takes its time to build that tension, build that interesting banter and dialogue, and build reasons why they should be together. Slow burn gets tossed around a lot these days but this is a true slow burn. Just look at the page count lol. This one, again, had me on the edge of my seat because each interaction means something, each interaction brings purpose to the overall story. I also really liked seeing everyone in the HP world react to Hermione dating Malfoy. It was great.

I will say despite my love for the page length, I do understand people saying it was a bit long because near the end of the book, it gets repetitive and I know a lot of people don’t like their romance to be long. I just happen to come from a epic fantasy loving background so if it’s done with purpose, the longer the better.

3. The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (Dandelion Dynasty #2)

I know a lot of people put series together in their favorites ranking but I do rank the books in the series so I put my clear favorites of this series on this list. This series is honestly a masterpiece. And I know this because as I was reading, I was constantly wondering how does Ken Liu write this, how?? I think Ken Liu really takes the themes prevalent in a lot of epic fantasy and really does something original with them. I also liked this book because it follows the children of the main characters of the first book and you can really see how this world has changed through their lens. Because you can see the changes, you see history being written and how it progresses then regresses. This book also brings the plot to a focus and introduces a conflict that will be basically the central focus on the next books. This really shows Ken Liu’s equally masterful ability to write both politics and combat. The long span of this book really helps you know the characters and over the course of seeing their lives over a long period of time, you can also see how they shift priorities and see how childhood priorities may way for the realism of adulthood.

4. The Veiled Throne by Ken Liu (Dandelion Dynasty #3)

This is the 3rd book in the Dandelion Dynasty saga and Ken Liu, again, is a master of writing. In this one, Ken Liu demonstrates his writing prowess in terms of writing slow building tension. There’s also a bit of a tangential part in this book where we follow a cooking competition and despite how seemingly irrelevant it was, I ate it up. This book was also heartbreaking because we are seeing this ongoing fight, and not just a physical fight but a slow moving cold war. It’s heartbreaking to see characters leave the story without seeing the fruits of their labor and you can see how much time and work it takes to build a society to where it is now. The only thing I can say is I’m in awe.

The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan (Empire of the Wolf trilogy #2)

I have a whole review of this one on my blog. This one was better than the first one so I put this one on my favorites. This one, unlike the Dandelion Dynasty, is more fast-paced and I love that excitement of being on the edge of my seat wondering what’s going to happen next. It does not sacrifice the character dynamics and the themes of law and morality but rather expands on them and the worldbuilding. I cannot wait for the third book coming out next month!

Those were my favorites of 2023! Here’s to more amazing books in 2024. What were your favorite books of 2023?

I’m back!

It’s been a long time! I haven’t posted on this blog for 3 years now..so a lot has changed. There were two big reasons for this: 1) I was just too busy. I went to PA school and I’ve just recently graduated. Yay! But I didn’t have much time to blog. I did have time to read and watch TV and movies but not blog about them. But now that I’m working, I’m hoping my schedule is more routine and I will have more time to devote to writing. 2) I fell out of love with blogging because I created this blog for a reading/TV/movie-loving community and I got that but it wasn’t big enough for my liking and I wanted more discussion (not to say I don’t appreciate all the comments I’ve gotten because that’s actually what kept me going). I flirted with the idea of starting a YT channel but I think my true love resides in writing and I think it might always be that way? I think I just need to hone my purpose on this blog. My purpose now is to improve my writing and slowly maybe build a community but I’ve realized that that can’t be my sole goal because that just leads to disappointment especially if I keep at my followers looking only at my numbers.

So, anyways, I am back but I am gonna play it slow this time, only 1-2 blog posts a month but I hope they will be well-crafted and thought out. I used to be so creative on this blog and I miss that. So, join me if you’re new, or rejoin me if you’re still in the book community here on WordPress. You can expect to find most of the same as you did before. I will be posting book, movie, and TV reviews but I also wanna blog about my personal musings and maybe do some creative prompts. Just as a refresh, I’ve still been active on Goodreads. I’ve also made a substack. I honestly thought I was gonna start my blog fresh with a new platform but honestly, why not just continue where I left off on WordPress. But I’ll probably post the same posts on both platforms! I’ve actually already posted about 4 posts on there so far but I will be reposting my favorite books of 2023 on here as well.

How was your 2023? What were your favorite books of 2023 and your favorite media?

2020 Reading Statistics, an interesting year

2020 was definitely an interesting year. I set up my Goodreads challenge to 20 so I could focus more on reading more meaningfully instead of focusing on the number of books I read. Well, due to the pandemic, I ended up reading 59 books (including short stories, graphic novels) which is a pleasant surprise. What was not a pleasant surprise was what a difficult time I had reading? I was in the mood to read but a lot of times I just couldn’t fully immerse myself in what I was reading. This is mainly due to the fact that 2020 was an extremely stressful year for me (still is) due to a number of things: moving, applying to school, finishing my program etc…. so I sought out a lot of comfort reading which meant a shit ton of fantasy. So these statistics definitely reflect what kind of reading year 2020 was.

Genre

Note: I picked the genre I thought best describes the book. Of course, books can have many different genres they fit into.

On a normal year, fantasy would be my most read genre anyways. This year, however, I purposefully sought out fantasy to read because that was just what I was in the mood to read all year. Do I wish I had read more nonfiction? Yes. Do I wish I had read more literary fiction? Yes. But this year, my brain was fried and all I wanted at the end of the day was to cozy up to a comfort read, which is probably why you see an increase in romance as well (although I got tired of that quickly). Hopefully next year I will be in a better mindset to consume nonfiction and literary fiction, both of which requre more mental processing for me to fully appreciate.

Gender

When it comes to gender, it’s clear I’ve read the majority female authors. I have a couple of theories for this. First, I’ll admit I am more wary of sexism in my media now and on the average, female authors tend to give their female characters page time and a well roundedness I sometimes see lacking in male authors’ works especially fantasy. This probably just means I’m a reverse sexist. Another theory I have is that since I read majority fantasy this year, it makes sense that there is a female majority in my reading. This is simply because I prefer female written fantasy. I’ve read a lot of fantasy in my lifetime and it’s no secret that fantasy has been a historically conservative genre, dominated by white male authors and books filled with half written female characters that are at best mildly irritating, at worst blatantly offensive. It’s clear too, that my reading of LGBTQ authors is lacking.

Age Category

I think every year, my consumption of adult literature increases more while my YA reading dwindles. If I do read YA now, I am extremely picky. I also find YA contemporary to be more diverse both in terms of writing and character backgrounds. I do love YA fantasy and science fiction; it’s just that I find the market now to be oversaturated and I’m having more and more of a difficult time finding something I truly enjoy, try as I might. I also really wanted to read more middle grade this year because there were so many titles that sounded amazing but my brain would not let me. I quickly DNFed any middle grade I tried to read, unfortunately. But overall, I like my adult to YA ratio and I suspect it won’t change much next year.

Type of Format

I read a lot more graphic novels this year which I am happy about. I’ve discovered more within the graphic format including graphic short stories and webcomics which I want to continue reading more next year. I wish I had read more short stories. And of course, the novel format remains my favorite literature format.

Rating

Average rating: 85

I have always thought the star system on Goodreads was insufficient so this year I decided to rate all the books I read on a scale of 100. I take a couple of factors into consideration. Plot, writing, rereadability, enjoyability, and character writing. I found that it’s worked a lot better especially for those books I found average. Instead of a broad 3.5 of 3.75, a number rating is more useful for the nuances of your rating. So my average rating was an 85. I honestly think it’s quite easy to get an 85 but it’s hard to reach 90 or above for me.

So there you have it, my 2020 reading statistics. I am definitely proud that I got more reading in this year. I hope in 2021 my mind clears more and I will able to enjoy even more diverse reading. How was your reading overall this year? I cannot wait for the upcoming end-of-the-year posts I will be publishing where I will be discussing my favorite books, movies, and TV shows :). So get ready y’all.

TV Review: Bojack Horseman

Title: Bojack Horseman

Episodes: 6 seasons, Seasons 1-5 (12 episodes), Season 6 (16 episodes); ~25 minutes each

Where: Netflix

Rating: A- (with S3 and S4 the best of the seasons)

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Before this year, I had tried and failed at least 3 times to watch more than one episode of Bojack Horseman. I’m not a fan of adult animation comedy as a subgenre. I think it’s because the genre is focused a lot on irrelevant humor and the storylines all feel self contained but I’m someone who enjoys going in depth with characters and witnessing character arcs and the off brand humor is too left field for me. I also don’t really enjoy mean, crude humor which is what I think a lot of adult animation focuses on. And I don’t mean crude as in there’s too much sex or whatever, I mean the humor really wants to be bluntly edgy and honest but I think that type of humor always misses the mark for me. That’s what I thought Bojack Horseman was.

One day, I decided that this would be the last time I attempted to watch Bojack and if I wasn’t into it, I would just stop attempting altogether. I am so happy I stuck beyond the first few episodes because this show is a beautful gem and will end up in my favorite TV shows of the year period.

Bojack Horseman is a mediation on a variety of different issues, sexism, racism, depression, addiction, abusive relationships, and mortality. It does so through a variety of characters, the main ones of which are Bojack who was the star of a popular 90’s sitcom but is now struggling with his alcohol addiction; Diane Nguyen, who he hires to be his ghostwriter for his memoir, Princess Carolyn, a cat who is his agent, Mr. Peanutbutter, an endlessly optimistic and cheerful dog, and Todd, a human who couch surfs in Bojack’s house.

It’s actually quite a tender show at heart but deeply, deeply sad and depressing. Bojack is one of the best antiheroes I have come across. He does a lot of bad stuff throughout the show. He’s extremely insulting, demeaning, often disregards the people who care about him, and is obsessed with the past when he was more famous. Yet I cared, and even found myself rooting for him as he tries and fails to become better than who he is, slowly trying to move beyond a self that has been shaped by a past filled with abuse and neglect. Trauma is actually a big part of the show and the show gets so creative with certain episode formats to illustrate these themes which I think elevate it above other adult comedies. For example, one episode was entirely a Bojack monologue, another a completely dialogue free episode underwater. There’s a very creative flashback episode etc. The writers creativity with each episode amplifies its storytelling and makes the themes hit more deeply.

What I also liked however, was that Bojack was always held accountable for his actions. He was not an antihero who is explained away by a tragic backstory and everything is ok after that. Although he does have a tragic backstory, that doesn’t excuse him from the bad choices he’s made. It might sound a little cheesy but I found myself becoming more understanding of..shitty people for a lack of a better word after watching the show. Many times, Bojack did things that I would have found absolutely unacceptable but I found myself understanding that he did shitty things but in the end, he is a person who was tyring to do better and often found himself oblivious to his own flaws, again a self shaped by a past filled with abuse and neglect. At the same time, the show never minimizes the pain that trauma dealt him in this childhood. We see in some episodes, the story of his mother’s life and a little of his father’s life and how that has shaped the abuse that reigned over Bojack’s childhood. Those were definitely some of my favorite episodes. It’s why the show is able to straddle Bojack as an anithero so well.

The show’s humor is actually very endearing although it’s specific. First, it likes to reference a lot of actors, movies and Hollywood culture in general. There will be a lot of longstanding actor characters who play themselves like Jessica Biel and Margo Martindale. I always got a kick out of them because as someone who loves movies and TV shows and has had a weird knack for recognizing celebrities and little details about their lives, I always enjoyed the references. The show also uses a lot of puns which I liked as well, especially animal ones. Since in this world, anthromorphic animals and humans live alongside each other, there’s a lot of animal easter eggs, like the cow waitress squeezing milk out of her breasts into a glass and giving it to a customer. There were a lot of meta references to the characters’ actions themselves. For example, in one episode, Bojack’s grandfather is trying to comfort his wife, he literally says, “I am an American man, I don’t know how to deal with women’s emotions. I was never taught and I will never learn” and then proceeds to run out the door. That type of meta easter eggs were a treat to see. But of course, there’s the traditional adult comedy humor with its sardonic and dry humor that adds bite to the show.

It becomes clear that this is not just Bojack’s story; a lot of time is dedicated to giving the other characters full stories which I loved. As a person, I have never felt more seen than in this show, especially in the character of Diane. She desires to do important work but constantly finds herself at odds with its reality. She also often discusses feminism in a way that can sound pretentious. There was just a lot of her that I saw in me and it made very uncomfortable because I would often think, “wow is that really what I sound like” but that’s ok, it was nice seeing someone like that on the silver screen. If you don’t like any of the characters, you will grow to sympathize with them because the writers ask you to look within yourself and see their common humanity no matter how messed up they are.

I will say that season 3 & 4 are the best and Season 1 the weakest. Season 1 definitely felt like the Season 1 of Parks and Recreation where the quality of the show was getting there but season 2 onwards was explosively better. That’s the same for this show. There was just a lot more emotional building and story purpose after season 1 so please stick it out if you watched season 1 but didn’t feel the need to go on. This show is such a gem and again, will be on my favorite shows of 2020.

Kdrama review: It’s Okay not to be Okay

Title: It’s Okay not to be Okay

Episodes: 16, about 1 hour each

Where: Netflix

Rating: B+

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I have been blessed finally with a kdrama worthy of a review! I’m so excited to be talking about It’s Okay not to be Okay in this post. A dark, whimsical but heartwarming drama, it follows a trio of characters. Ko Muen Young is a children’s book author with antisocial personality disorder. She meets Moon Gang Tae who is a nurse working with psychiatric patients. Moon Gang Tae has an autistic brother, Sang Gang Tae who is a massive fan of Ko’s books. The drama follows them as they become entangled in each others’ lives and grapple with the demons of their past.

Some dramas hook you immediately. Others, you tentatively tread the murky waters until it sucks you underneath. This one intrigued me right away with its opening scene. It opens up with animated illustrations very reminiscient of the whimisically dark tones of Tim Burton that sets the frame for the rest of the show’s themes surrounding mental health. The show continues to use this fairy tale framing to tell the characters’ stories and figure out their inner feelings. The characters will often tell fables and stories to each other. I think this was particularly effective because often the characters themselves do not know how they’re feeling and it’s hard for them to convey them even if they know so they often use these stories to express their veiled emotions. For example, Moon can never keep a job for longer than 10 months and seems to be apathetic about everything except caring for his brother. We see him reading some of Ko’s stories to get a glimpse of his inner world. I also really liked this touch because it lent an air of whimsicality and fantasy sentimentality to the drama. It felt as if the characters themselves were in a modern fairytale.

The stunning cinematography also lends itself to the surreal, whimsical tone of the show. As a drama focused on maintaining the mystery around its characters, the cinematography only accentuates that, framing each character within his/her world and focusing on the intensity of each character’s inner life. The camera shots were less focused on medium shots and more on the characters themselves and transitions super well between each place. The creative lighting, in particular, reflects the darkness surrounding the characters while maintaining its surreal and whimsy tone. The production set is absolutely stunning as well. I assume they wanted the set to reflect an old fairy tale esque vibe; I particularly like the old mansion in the forest that Ko’s dad built for her and the drama certainly succeeded in integrating the old architecture with the modern settings of Korea with the OK psychiatric hospital.

Now most of what I mentioned is an added bonus but the meat of most kdramas is the main couple. The success of a kdrama rests on the success of the main couple and their believability. Now historically, I have mainly only liked couples from coming of age dramas because of there’s less of a tendency for sexist tropes that are cast in a romantic light. There’s also less of a power imbalance as well. I believe the last traditional romantic kdrama couple I have liked was Yoo Si Jin and Kang Mo Yeon from Descendants of the Sun. As far as kdramas go, it ticked all my boxes, they were both equals in their own separate story, problematic issues that usually plague kdrama couples such as dubious consent were non existent, each had a big role to play in the story arc and the chemistry was A+. This couple is up there and supercedes the other couple in some ways. I’d like to say that what makes this couple so interesting was that with each shot and scene of anticipated tension you had no idea what they were thinking or were going to say. Moon and Ko both have a lot of inner demons to face. This unpredictability made their chemistry so much more palatable and each word they said more meaningful. I was also initially worried that they both would be the end all fix all for the mental health issues. Although this was a big part, I was relieved to see that they both had their own scenes of introspection and reflection away from the other person. Not to mention everyone, the eye fucking is off the charts! And their kiss scenes – finally steamy ones from a kdrama. Chef’s kiss!! Each smile felt earned and you couldn’t help but feel for them both despite their sometimes questionable actions. Both of their acting was phenomenol, packing so much nuance to their characters. They shined both as individuals and as a couple.

I’m always looking for kdramas that defy tropes especially when those tropes are are sexist. Truly what I also enjoyed was how the drama reversed many kdrama tropes. Here are just some that I noticed and appreciated.

1. Rich heroine vs poor hero

Rich hero/poor heroine korean dramas are extremely prevalent but the reverse? Pretty rare, I’d say. And it was nice seeing an extremely rich heroine for once so we see scenes where the heroine supports the hero financially but it’s never mentioned in relation to gender which I appreciate as well.

2. Wrist grabbing by the heroine

Now I have never liked this trope, because usually when it’s present in kdramas, it denotes a certain possessiveness and control that I’m uncomfortable with. Also, usually in scenes where wrist grabbing is done, a lot of the times, the heroine is forced to step into an embrace she did not want or forced to stop whatever she is doing or was about to do. A lot of the times too, the wrist grab is used to drag the heroine to another place to angrily talk…instead of just telling her he wants to talk. In addition, I have rarely, if ever, seen wrist grabbing done by a the main female character and in this one, it happens several times! I have contradictory feelings, on the one hand I do not condone wrist grabbing at all, on the other hand, having a female do it is honestly kind of refreshing. It was not overdone on both sides and when it was, it felt more urgent like the person had something to say and less controlling and possessive. Or maybe I’m trying to justify it, let me know.

3. Hero doing traditionally feminine job and taking care of others

Wow, the hero having traits that are traditionally reserved for the female characters in korean dramas like being a caretaker for his brother and being a nurse? Unheard of.

4. Heroine being sexually assertive

The heroine blatantly flirts with the hero and makes no secret that she likes him which is so refreshing.

5. Romantic lighting and music equally shown on the heroine

Many times in kdramas, the male hero is the one really romanticized with the lighting and music. There’s often a scene with him walking in slo mo as the light shines on him and people fawn over him. People within the kdrama universe always comment on how “handsome” and good looking he is. With this kdrama, quite the opposite, the people always comment on how beautiful our heroine is and the camera is often shown on her walking in a romanticized light

6. Mental health and how it is portrayed (themes)

Rarely do I see mental health portrayed in kdramas so although the storylines aside from our main characters were simplistic, I did appreciate that the creators wanted to create a space to say that it’s okay to have these issues and that you shouldn’t be ostracized for it. I did also like that a significant portion of time was dedicated to their healing process. Moon has a lot of conflicting emotions towards his mother because he resents her for always looking out for his autistic brother and not considering him as a person worth putting attention to. At the same time, he loves his brother but resents the huge amount of sacrifice including his identity and wellbeing to care for him. Ko is grappling with the scars that her abusive parents left her and learns how to be considerate of others. I like that there is an emphasis on the theme of belonging to yourself as well.

7. The soundtrack

Love it! It’s nothing groundbreaking using the same melancholic and sentimental songs as other kdramas but this batch was solid. I’m listening to it as I’m writing this blog post.

As much as I value that the drama does defy tropes, I also think there are quite a few flaws. First of all, I do not condone some of Ko’s actions. If the genders were reversed in this drama, I know for a fact that I would not be ok with many of the actions that Ko does and would have found them problematic including stalking, not respecting boundaries of the hero a lot of the time, violence, really being insensitive towards other people, and being very dismissive of other peoples’ feelings. A lot of her actions can be placed on her antisocial personality disorder however I’m afraid at the end, a lot of the character development on her part was missing and not explored enough. It’s cute that she never does mean things to Sang Tae though no matter how bad she is. She has a lot of redeemable qualities which make up for it but it still doesn’t excuse her previous actions. It’s odd that as I’m listing out the things I do not condone, in the end, I find her redeemable which is interesting.

Some of the autism on Sang Tae’s part may not be really portrayed accurately? I’m no expert in autism and while I do appreciate that Sang Tae had his own storyline. I wonder whether his autism was portrayed accurately in the kdrama? Of course there’s a spectrum and his character is not the mascot for all autistic people but still I wonder.

The last con I have is the boring secondary storylines. Perhaps the main couples’ storyline was too compelling but it overshadowed the rest of the storylines! As the drama went on, I progressively became more invested in the main couple but wanted to skim more of the secondary storylines because they just were not that interesting. Anything that happened at the hospital like Areum’s storyline was just meh to me.

Despite these flaws and some skipping, I bingewatched this drama in under a week and I rarely do that now with kdramas. I fell in love with the main characters. The stories made me cry a few times. I really liked the focus on mental health and creating a space where people with mental health issues can feel safe and heard. The unique cinematography and framing elevate this above other kdramas as well as the excellent acting and chemistry between our main couple.

Have you seen this drama? Let me your thoughts on it or gush about Ko Muen Young and Moon Gang Tae with me. Was there ever a prettier couple??

Romance Roundup 2020: 8 Lightning Reviews

2020 has been a tough year for me, especially for my reading. That’s why I could only consume what I call candy books: romance books–light books that I know aren’t the best but I read them anyway because they are easy to fall into and put a quick smile on my face (if done right). I have a love-hate relationship with romance; there’s so much potential to be had but I find many fall into stereotypes, regressive gender roles, predictable plotting, conventional romance norms, and archetypes of characters that never seem fully fleshed out. I have to say I do have hope for romance’s future though as recent ones seem to be more socially progressive and different. In this post, I try out different types of romance from fantasy romance to YA comtemporary and everything in between. I did include books with very heavy romance elements too. Before getting into the post, I do want to say I did actually find a maybe favorite of the year in this bunch. Can you guess which book it is?

Key

Overall review: Highest rating is 5 “stars”How did I like the book in general? How did I like the plot, the story? My general thoughts?

Steam Factor: Highest rating is 5 “fires”; Kind of selfexplanatory, how were the steamy scenes ;); problematic;

Romance: Highest rating is 5 “hearts”; Did I even like the main pairing together as a couple? Problematic? Did I anticipate the couples’ every scene together? Did they work well together? Where’s that oomph factor? Were they developed as characters?

1. The Kiss Thief by LJ Shen

Overall Review: You know at first, I was like sure, this is totally believable: a senator essentially selling his daughter out to another guy because he didn’t want to lose votes or something. Romance novels are oftentimes unbelievable but the plot was too weird even for me. Granted I did DNF this at the first really steamy scene because it was problematic on all levels and I was not having it so I gave up. It left such a bad taste in my mouth. There was a ton of unnecessary drama leading up to it and the type of drama that didn’t even add to the anticipation of the steam scenes. It’s gonna take a lot for me to try another LJ Shen book.

⭐

Rating: 0.5 out of 5.

Steam: 0

Romance: 0

2. Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Overall Review: This book was equal parts romance and equal parts coming of age; it’s almost hard to tell which one it is first, probably coming of age but I’m including it here anyways lol. I think what I’m starting to realize about myself and my taste in YA contemporary is that I love the fluffy but only when done exceptionally well like in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, otherwise, it just kind of falls flat. In this one, the whole time I was just waiting for Jack to tell Pepper about his true online identity and everyone knows Pepper was going to be fine with it so why bother waiting 90% of the book to tell it? I think the problem I have with withholding secrets in YA contemporary romance is that there are no stakes, you know the other person is going to be ok with it eventually. I also thought the family dynamic resolution was too clean at the end for Pepper at least. That’s what this was, clean. Nothing stood out, none of the characters. The heroine is the same archetype in all YA contemporaries, a stickler for the rules, has a plan laid out for her entire future, is a straight A student. The plot just has no stakes, no tension! That’s really it. But I did enjoy the Twitter rivalry. Any book that centers on food I am here for. And New York. I actually visited New York this year before COVID 19 hit and I love picturing all the references in the book I’ve actually seen (like the Met)!

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Steam: 0

Romance: (It was pretty cute but that’s about it)

3. Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas

Overall Review: I get why Penelope Douglas is so well loved. She adds little details to the characters that elevate it over other contemporary romance writers. Also she writes taboo really well because you understand why these characters would like each other despite the age gap. But it ends up relying on romance cliches in the end.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Steam: (wow can Penelope Douglas write steam; the smut scenes were great and nonproblematic)

Romance: (Even though Penelope Douglas did try some different things in the romance, she fell trap to so many romance tropes that it ended up feeling cliche. Jordan is clearly a very distinct “not like other girls” woman. The author clearly wanted me to like her because unlike other girls, she gets down and dirty and likes doing working outside? Aren’t you a special snowflake? Of course Pike just can’t stand it when she wears really revealing clothing; it starts a fight and somehow the girl is always the one acquiesing. Isn’t there any other way for romance authors to build tension between characters???)

4. The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

Overall review: When it comes to historical romance, Tessa Dare is always a safe bet. Her books are a warm hug, nothing groundbreaking but endlessly cozy. I haven’t read any of her older books, but this trilogy applies modern norms of love to a historical setting so it’s candy but it’s candy where half the money goes to something like a woman’s shelter. It’s super cute. There’s endearing characters (the two daughters!) and very little drama and angst. As far as romance goes, you could do way worse. Each main character has his/her own dreams and goals and just come together all the more stronger.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Steam:

Romance: (love the witty banter; also loving the slow progression of their relationship)

5. The King’s Man by Elizabeth Kingston

Overall: One of the things I dislike about the romance genre is how traditional it is, taking a while for progressive themes to take hold whether it’s race, gender, or gender roles so I’m always on the lookout for romance books that break this mold. This one sounded promising because it’s about a woman is a soldier and is trained in combat which I rarely, if ever see in romance, only second to probably a sexually promiscuous main character. But that’s another story. The synopsis had such promise!! But I was so disappointed at the writing and the offputting pacing. The characters were also stilted sometimes veering into being way too mean or way too nice. The hero in the story was also such a jerk so there’s that too.

⭐

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Steam:

Romance: (I will give some points for good progression? but other than that, I’ll pass)

6. Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

Overall: If I could be so bold, I think this is the best historical romance I have read this year and ever.. This had everything I wanted in a romance and more. I think a lot of times romance dialogue and scenarios can be really cliche and predictable which is fine but the details to build up these cliches can make a world of difference to the unique flavor of the story. I also appreciate that there wasn’t an overemphasis on how masculine or feminine the hero and heroine are respectively when describing them. I also appreciate that the conflict between the hero’s wealth and standing in society clashing with the possibility of having a relationship with his poorer heroine counterpart wasn’t just used as a one time climactic conflict that’s then solved instantaneously before the happy ending but rather a series of smaller conflicts to allow for character growth. There’s also some elements more typical of regency romance like the thinly veiled wit and ball scenes. The banter is also top notch. Also, I cannot forget the backdrop of the suffragette movement that actually took quite a bit of background which I appreciate. This is like top notch candy, candy you get at a bougie candy store like Sugarfina, with gummy bears made up of like gluten free ingredients but still taste great. I cannot wait for the second book in the series following one of the secondary characters (who btw are amazing).

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Steam: (wish there was more but honestly what’s there is top notch)

Romance: (Love the two together; so much banter)

7. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

Overall Review: When I started this book, I was, by no means, expecting the worldbuilding to be good at all. One of my favorite romance tropes is “woman being sent away to be married to other guy from another kingdom” (idk why). Fantasy romances tend to have very soft worldbuilding but this one surprised me. Though by no means any close to the dynamic worldbuilding I love in epic fantasies, I appreciate the slight attention to detail and the mystery surrounding the world; it gave a great visual as I was reading. In these types of books, I expect the world to enhance the relationship of the characters instead of the other way around and this one did a solid job. I also appreciated the heroine was always looking for a way out and didn’t fall in love with the hero in her mental processes right away but really allowing the trust between both of them to grow naturally. She was always doubting which is great because it fits with how she grew up. It’s also really fast paced, perfect immersive beach read.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Steam: Could use just one more scene

Romance: (love)

8. If I never met you by Mhairi Mcfarlane

Overall: Overall, it was ok. It was lukewarm, nothing wrong persay I especially enjoy the character growth in the beginning after our heroine goes through a breakup after a 13 year relationship. But there was barely any sense of chemistry. The hints and dialogue at workplace feminism were a plus but not enough to make up for the plot and lackluster romance. (I just realized I forgot to include this poll but I guess knowing my review, it doesn’t matter)

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Steam: 0

Romance:

9. Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

Overall: Not technically a romance, but has very heavy romance elements. You know what I really liked Chain of Gold at first but as I moved along, it was very clear that the sort of contrived tension and conflict building in Clare’s books continues to rear its ugly head. I thought Grace was going to be a true source of angst, like James would actually be in love with her for reals without any sort of manipulation (that would have been angsty) but no..And then I just lost interest. I do like the humor though. The four main heros’ personalities started to blur together for me. I do like Cordelia though; I think she’s definitely different than all of Clare’s other heroines. I did really like the Tessa, Will, and Jem cameos too. I ship Lucy and Matthew too; I hope that’s a thing in the next book.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Steam:

Romance:

10. A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

Overall: A retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which as we all know is all about the romance. I liked elements of this book in the moment but truthfully the characters were super bland. The heroine is a stubborn do gooder of course. I did like how she talked about how her cerebral palsy affects her daily life though. The hero an angsty king with a dark past. They both spent way too much time angsting about their problems and each time their problems were mentioned, there was no added depth to them so they felt very repetitive. There was nothing special about either and so nothing special about the romance either. I thought the plot took some interesting turns that I liked but overall an average book. I would read it if in the mood. It’s a quick read.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Steam: 0

Romance:

So we come to the end of the romance roundup! Did you guess right? If you guessed Bringing Down the Duke, you guessed right!! Pat yourself on the back, get some ice cream 🙂 I hope you enjoyed this post! Seeing this post and getting a taste of what I read and like in romance, is there any books you would recommend me?

The Bookish Heavenly Virtue Tag

Thank you so much to @hardcoverhaven for tagging me! It’s been so long since I’ve done one and I forgot how fun they were. This is a great opportunity to showcase some books I’ve been reading in this strange year 2020.

Chastity

Which books do you wish you had never read?

The Kiss Thief by LJ Shen

Look, when I started this book, I didn’t think it was going to the best thing ever to hit the romance genre. I was just looking for a good time and I was sort of willing to forgive the alpha jealousy personality of the male hero but then THAT scene came on and I kept asking myself, what is happening?? There were so problematic things happening, and then all of a sudden all the little prior things in the story I ignored for the sake of an entertaining story became glaringly problematic and I DNFed the book right then and there.

TEMPERANCE

Which book/series did you find so good that you didn’t want to read it all at once and you read it in doses just to make the pleasure last longer?

Third Shift Society by Meredith Moriarty

This is actually a webcomic that’s been nominated by the Eisner award for best webtoon. It’s about a woman who teams up with a pumpkin man to fight supernatural mysteries in their town together. I tried to pace myself but ended up reading the whole thing in a few hours. I kind of fell in love with its cheesiness and just reveled in the sheer fun. It just reminded me of the days when I would ship couples endlessly on Tumblr and reblog every single interaction gif. Yeah, I’m shipping the two main characters so hard. The art style is easy to follow with its reminiscence to manga. It’s kind of like the Avatar the Last Airbender in art style, with a blend of Western and Japanese manga art style. I also like the supernatural mysteries and side characters. Can’t wait for more! You can read it free here.

CHARITY

Which book/series/author do you tirelessly push on others, telling them about it or even giving away spare copies bought for that reason?

The To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series and The Happiness Trap

A lot of my friends don’t read as much as I do so I always recommend To All the Boys because it’s easy to read quickly (plus it’s cute). I also usually recommend self help books because some of them have actually helped me. My favorite one by far would have to be The Happiness Trap. It helped me through some dark times and helped me form the values I have in my life while offering tips and tricks for how to be mindful.

DILIGENCE

Which series/author would you follow no matter what happens and how long you have to wait?

Scott Lynch – The Lies of Locke Lamora series

I feel like I’ve been waiting for the next book in the series for years now (at least 4 years now). And no sign of when he will publish it…The last book ended on such a cliffhanger too.

PATIENCE

Is there an author/book/series you’ve read that improved with time, starting out unpromising, but ultimately proving rewarding?

The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

When I first read the first book in the series, I almost coudn’t finish it because to be frank it was kind of boring. The second book, however, was a masterpiece. Reading the second book was like seeing the real Mona Lisa for the first time after seeing a toddler’s depiction of it. This analogy sucks but you get the point. The rest of the series continued to be like that too, only getting richer and more complex with every book. I cannot wait for the last book and will be rereading the series before then.

KINDNESS

Which fictional character would you consider your role-model in the hassle of everyday life?

Kestrel from The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski

Honestly, Kestrel is a queen. I just admire her cunning and intellect and the ways that she sticks to her principles. If you’ve read the story, (without spoilers for nonreaders), you’ll know that she was born to believe in war and conquering other lands. It was a way of life but she grew to develop her own sense of self and the journey was beautiful to read about. This trilogy in general is one of the most underrated YA fantasy series.

HUMILITY

Which author/book/series do you find most underrated?

The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski March series by John Lewis

I wanted to say The Winner’s Trilogy but I mention that series a lot so I’ll say the March graphic novel series. It follows the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. I think why I like this series so much is that it shows the nuances of the Civil Rights Movement rather than showing it was a (literally) black and white issue but more of a gray progression to success. You get an appreciation for how difficult it is to have a movement like the Civil Rights movement, feminist movement etc. despite social stigma and uncertainty of whether it was going to be even successful.

I tag:

Alicia @AKernelofNonsense (when she is back from hiatus)

Rachel @LifeofaFemaleBibliophile

And anyone else who wants to do it!

The Korean novel that inspired a new feminist movement: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 Review

Title: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

Author: Cho Nam-Joo

Series? No

Pages: 176 pages

Translated from the Korean by Jamie Chang

Rating: 4/5

 

 

 

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As a US citizen, I may be familiar with the workings of feminism here but it’s definitely an experience learning about it from a citizen in a country foreign to me. What I know, I know only from Korean dramas, other Korean novels, and the news. This book and its surrounding controversy really shed a light on the complications the word feminism holds in Korea.

This story definitely made its mark in Korea, becoming the first Korean novel to sell a million copies in Korea since 2009 and already has a movie adaptation out. I sped through this riveting book in a few hours. I definitely did not expect the book to be written like this. It has a detached, dark tone to it like The Vegetarian but definitely grounds itself in its contemporary setting, not surrealism. It follows Kim Jiyoung who is living with her husband and daughter in present day. One day, she suddenly possesses the ability to act uncannily like the different women she has met in her life. Her concerned husband recommends seeing a psychiatrist. This synopsis, I thought, was what was going to make up the entire book. I was wrong; it only takes up the first maybe 20 pages. The rest of the novel tells of Kim Jiyoung’s life (sped up almost) from her childhood all the way up to where she is now. This little novel is reminiscient of a documentary because even though Kim Jiyoung is fictional, the author infuses the story with real facts about Korea and women, footnotes where appropriate. These include stats on abortion, maternity leave and working women in Korea. It was definitely a learning experience; one of the most fascinating facts I learned was that Korea was one of the worst OECD coutnries to live in for a working woman; women earn 63% of what men earn vs 84% as the average. The story also represents a documentary in that there’s no real style, it is blunt and factually precise as any documentary with no style and euphemism to hide the horrific realities behind. You can only stare at the cold, hard facts. Kim Jiyoung’s life just gives reader a person to connect onto, but it’s almost unnecessary as Kim Jiyoung could represent any everyday woman and the societal oppression she faces.

I definitely appreciated seeing feminism explored from an Asian perspective because Nam Joo talked about the unfair precedence that a son needed to be born. In order for a mother to gain any respect, she must give birth to a son so important that boys are in this culture. I definitely was not removed from that talk and it’s still prevalent in the Asian world. Mothers would continue trying until a son was born. Similarly, this is why China has a 2:1 ration of boys to girls which is leading to a shortage of girls due to the one child policy that is still having consequences to this day. When the son is born, they get the best food, do no work, and sit near the head of the table. Sons were expected to carry on the family name. Isn’t it interesting that a patriarchial cultural norm like taking on a man’s last name when you’re married only perpetuates more patriarchial norms like revering sons because they are the ones who can carry on this name to their children? I also appreciated the commebtary on Asian familial dynamics especially regarding the mother-in-law. It’s still a very real thing about the mean mother in law, a character still portrayed in korean dramas but rooted in truth. I found it so ironic that a woman would willfully wish her daughter in law to have a son and scoff at the daughter, a true testament to the hold this dangerous cultral sentiment holds, that a boy is more important than a girl that she would willfully disrespect a daughter, a member of her own sex!

Those discriminations are more prevalent in Asian speaking households in my experience, however, the rest of the book is not surprisingly very similar to other sexisms women around the world face in the workplace and in school. There are many scenes when Kim Jiyoung is going through interviews and men promoting other men but not women regardless of merit because the women would “eventually leave anyways” when they had a child.

I also appreciated that the author explained why men and other women would be unaware, even complicit in this discrimination. I like that she doesn’t attribute the sexism to a few bad apples but to a system where most everyone is culpable. Because everyone is to blame, passing on these toxic ideals to children perpetuates a vicious cycle of sexism. One of the book’s many strengths is the insidious little ways that women are forced into a certain box and the context surrounding that. Taken out of context, the things that women complain about would seem ridiculous. For example, Kim Jiyoung’s  sister in the story wants to become a journalist. The mother herself advised against it, recommending the job of a teacher instead because of the shorter hours so she could take care of her family. The mother insinuates that the sister’s first job is to take care of her future family even though the sister had not even expressed any interest in children. Some people may say why didn’t the sister just go with her dreams? No one was technically stopping her. Well, as you move along in the story, you see the amount of familial pressure and societal pressure, whether direct or indirect, that the sister faced to fit into that mold and her anger makes sense.

It’s insidious because it is masked.  The story took into account the history of women making sacrifices for their family and the unfair expectations placed on them. I felt more and more hopeless and more of a sense of injustice as Kim Jiyoung felt more and more disenchanted with the discrimination. What women are doing is not selfish, neither is it necessarily brave or admirable, they are just the best with what they have. I find that Kim Jiyoung has been praised as brave simply because she is fighting against a system that should not have to be fought. A system that should not be as oppressive as it is now.

movie poster

I hope with books like these that just the discourse will spur a cultural change or one another’s point of view at least. It seems the world, every group digs its heels into the ground before considering anotehr viewpoint but it seems hopefully that this book is makign the wave it needs to in Korea.

Additional Links about the author and the book’s controversy that I found interesting:

1. The Heroine of This Korean Bestseller is Extremely Ordinary by Alexandra Alter from NY Times
2. In this Korean bestseller, a Young Mother is Driven to Psychosis by Eun Hong from NY Times