The first quarter was filled with buddy reads. In January and February, Trish and I read a bunch of translated fiction including Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura, Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, My Brilliant Life by Ae-ran Kim, and Human Acts by Han Kang, as well as A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki; Monica, Riley, and I continued Ice Planet Barbarians with the second book in the series, and Cindy joined us for Piranesi by Susanna Clarke; Sadia and I read The Cabinet by Un-su Kim; Nicholas and I read Candide by Voltaire; and Evie and I read The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. I also joined Alina‘s Dante Book Club, and we’re still working our way through Inferno one canto a week (I’m way behind).
Reading slowed down in March as I busied myself with midterms. It was the first time I felt academically overwhelmed since I started my masters, not in terms of workload but in terms of simply knowing what’s going on and questioning whether I’m smart enough to be here. It all worked out though. Getting through March helped me find my ease through the rest of the term. Anyways, during that month I gave another go at audiobooks, and I think it’s finally clicking for me! I’m loving audiobooks for classics to help me process the archaic language, for fun plot-driven YA novels and romance, and for some nonfiction with interesting topics but too tedious to read myself. Audiobooks have also been great companions while crocheting. That said, I’ve also found that I need to take a break from audiobooks every once in awhile. I’m all for making the most of every minute of the day, but it’s not the most peaceful experience having a narrator yapping in your ear in your downtime.
In total, I read 28 books or 7940 pages, of which 79% were by women authors and 75% by authors of colour. That last stat is incredible for me, since I usually average 40% authors of colour. It’ll probably go down as the year progresses, but what a way to start!
Best reads
Almond by Won-pyung Sohn: In the wake of a shocking act of random violence that disrupts his safe and contented life, a boy with a condition that makes it hard for him to feel emotions strikes an unlikely bond with a troubled teen. As someone who struggles with mental health and is constantly assessing my emotions and sometimes the lack thereof, I felt this one deeply. This tender story made me feel hopeful.
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho: Linked stories following the friendship of two Taiwanese American women – not a linear narrative, but not quite a short story collection. It’s not a story about friendship so much as it is vignettes of two friends who grow together, grow apart, and come back together through the different phases of their lives. I love that it shows a friendship besides the kind where two friends see each other or Facetime each other every day from the day they were born til the day they die. The genius of the narrative structure is that it allows the friends to be main characters in their own stories — stories that are independent but that intersect to create something richer.
The Cabinet by Un-su Kim: Bored at work, a man finds a cabinet filled with files on people with strange cases — a man with a tree growing out of his finger, another one begging to be turned into a cat, a woman with a lizard for a tongue, people who hibernate, fabricate their own memories, skip through time… This work of speculative fiction almost reads like a short story collection. Somehow both mundane and fantastical, these little cases speak on modern life, anxiety, loneliness, love, magic, productivity, capitalism with humour and levity. My new existential comfort book.
Honourable mentions
Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura: Seven students hiding from school find refuge in a mysterious castle and in each other. A heartwarming story of friendship and mental health with that classically Japanese quiet storytelling quality that picks up in the last third. This is one I wanted to reread as soon as I finished to pick up the clues I missed.
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung: A horror short story collection. There wasn’t one story I didn’t enjoy, only one I felt neutral about, and the first story — “The Head” — is now one of my all-time faves. That one left me with a lot to think about of motherhood, existence, and gratitude. Loved the social commentary and horror elements in all the stories.
Popular reads
I finally read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen after watching the 2005 adaptation. The book was good, but the film was unmatched! I loved the cinematography, the score, Keira Knightley. Definitely one I’d replay in the background for the vibes.
At 816 pages, The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers required commitment. I love an epic historical multi-generational family saga, and I had heard nothing but glowing reviews about this book, but I did find some parts feeling like historical info dumps and I burnt out toward the end. Overall, it was a good read and an important read against the backdrop of American history. My favourite parts and the parts that made me feel the most emotional were the parts that highlighted Ailey and Lydia’s sisterhood.
The standout from Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado for me was the first story — “The Husband Stitch” — a retelling of “The Green Ribbon” from In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz with a feminist slant about the entitlement men feel toward women’s bodies. I loved how Machado played with form and offered immersive sensory exercises for the reader to do, and I also loved how this horror story had a bunch of little horror stories in it too. The rest of the stories in the collection were fine.
If Piranesi by Susanna Clarke wasn’t a buddy read, I would have DNFed. It was a thoroughly confusing read and I never got ~the point~. There were certainly themes of solitude and man’s scientific quest for knowledge to ponder over, but quite frankly I was bored. It felt like the longest short book (only 272 pages), and the overly descriptive and unnecessarily mysterious writing style wasn’t for me. That said, that’s a subjective opinion and there’s definitely an audience for the book; people either love it or hate it. It’s an atmospheric read about the journey, not the destination. One of my reading buddies compared it to Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea (though she liked Starless Sea better; I haven’t read it).
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan was one I had the highest expectations for but was unfortunately most disappointed by. On paper, this book should have been everything I loved, what with all its Poppy War/The King’s Affection/The Princess Weiyoung vibes, but for some reason it took me forever to read and it didn’t get me feeling any type of way about anyone. I loved the first part of the book (particularly Zhu and Xu Da), but once the perspective switched, I became much less invested. Some things I didn’t care for were how there was no subtlety about the theme of desire, how it seemed as if Zhu was destined for greatness for no other reason than that she desired it (entitled), and how Zhu couldn’t stop obsessing over people or gods discovering that she’s a girl which was a legitimate concern except that no other character wondered or cared (more tension pls). Imo, Zhu could have been more interesting and more powerful had she embraced her duality instead of worrying so much, which felt incongruous with her determined spirit. Ouyang’s character had a lot of potential too. Yeaaah, I had expectations.
Shelf additions
In full transparency, the main reason I joined Alina‘s Dante Book Club, was to have an excuse to buy this beautiful 2013 Penguin Classics edition of Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Plus, I thought it’d be an interesting guided exercise in critical reading with a literary eye, as I mostly read for fun. And thank god for the book club because I don’t think I’d understand a word of Inferno otherwise. Alina makes the text so approachable, and one canto a week is a totally doable pace. As of May 15, we’re on canto 16. Me, personally? I’m way behind at canto 8. But it’s fine! Her Substack newsletters are all posted to peruse at one’s leisure. Canto 5 is my favourite canto so far, and it was the perfect canto to read on Valentine’s weekend — excellent planning by Alina.
I gifted myself Almond by Won-pyung Sohn and Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung to celebrate surviving midterms. I tried to be good and submitted acquisition requests to my local library for both books and they approved the requests but they still don’t have them in and it’s been months — suburban library problems. I’m really happy to own Almond though; it’s one of my all-time faves now. Cursed Bunny was pretty good too; the first story — “The Head” — is one of my all-time faves.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu was kindly gifted to me by the publisher. I love speculative fiction and was so excited to read this new one by a female Asian author; I need more speculative fiction authors to talk about besides Ted Chiang, Ken Liu, and Alexander Weinstein! Plus, the cover is stunning. See my full review here.