3 Book reviews from someone with no credentials other than the ability to read
I have been reading a lot again lately and this year I finished 3 books so far! So I wanna do a little review of the books because I think it’s fun and I really missed reading! Let me know if you’ve read these, what your thoughts were or if you have a recommendation for me!
Might contain spoilers
You’ve Reached Sam - Dustin Thao
It had been a minute since I had read a book with romance adjacent plot, I had recently watched a lot of tragic love stories in films and wanted to read something with a bit of a tragic air to it. Sam and Julie’s story is definitely tragic however I should have maybe skipped this one. The book is a Young Adult story about healing and moving on and that’s how it’s written. Young Adult is an amazing genre and considering I hadn’t been reading for a while, I thought diving in with YA book would be good for me and I thought wrong. It’s not that the story isn’t written well, it’s more that I found myself feeling slightly too old for it. I also found myself getting incredibly frustrated with the main character and some of her choices, while still understanding her loss.
This being said, the ending was a great sense of closure for the book and main character Julie. It also had me bawling my eyes out as I’m an emotional wreck in general.
2.5/5 Good read, just simply not for me!
My Grandmother asked me to tell you she’s sorry - Fredrik Backman
The connection between grandmother and granddaughter is something beautiful, as someone who has grown up with my grandparents surrounding me this book definitely hit me where it hurts. Elsa and her grandmother’s relationship was absolutely beautiful, even after the passing of her grandmother. I liked that Elsa didn’t regard her grandmother as a saint, learning about her wrong doings in the past and holding her accountable. There’s a beautiful sense of forgiving in this book, the residents of the apartment building all being connected to the grandmother in one way or another. Elsa’s grandmother created an entire world to make Elsa happy and it’s simply stunning. There’s a hint of found family trope in this book as well and that is simply my favorite trope ever. However, the wurse’s death had me sobbing because in my head it looked like my dog.
4.8/5 as no book is perfect but this one nearly is
Pachinko - Minjin Lee
Now this book is another one that hits me in an emotional way. I have a Korean grandmother and know that she lived through many things in her life, she doesn’t like to talk about it and I don’t pry. This book gave me some insight however. I loved that you travel through this family nearly generation by generation, starting with Yangjin moving to Sunja, then to her sons Noa and Mozasu and then to her grandson Solomon. It’s a tragic story, Sunja’s life having never been quite easy. The first 2 parts of this books touched me the most, Isak and Hansu’s characters being so different yet both oddly appealing. I love that Sunja grew to love Isak as he was truly her savior. While sometimes not much happened within the chapters, I found I couldn’t put the book down as I needed to know what would happen.
It made me feel sad to see the shame people had simply being Korean yet also not being able to detest the Japanese as a lot of them grew up among them despite the things the country had done. It was interesting to see and shed a personal light onto the entire situation through the eyes of one family experiencing life this way. At many times through out this book I wanted to extend my arms and give Sunja a hug. Especially at the end, as she visits Isak’s grave to speak with him and burrying Noa’s picture next to him so that she has a sense of closure knowing her son is with him.
4.5/5 The last part of the book didn’t keep my attention as well as the other parts. But the last chapter made my chest hurt, feeling sad that I wouldn’t get to see anything else from this family that I had been following for 500+ pages. I simply wept at the last page.
If you have read any of these, let me know if you shared some thoughts! I know this is a kpop writing blog but reading has been bringing me peace and I wanted to share it with you all! Might do this more often after I finished another 3 books.
