Bookworm in the City

Holy Boy / Lee Heejoo
What it is: stalker central
Did I like it: it was okay

This category was suggested by JJReads: thank you JJReads! And because I love music I had no doubt I would be able to figure something out for this item.
One music genre I know very little about or voluntarily listen to is the K-pop genre, but when I spun the wheel of the virtual radio it landed on Jump by Blackpink. It’s a catchy song and I figured I should make my next book something Korean. The amount of translated Korean books on the market is reaching new heights every week it seems, which meant I was spoiled for choice. So a book about four fans kidnapping a K-pop star? Perfect!*

The book starts with a newspaper article and an interview, which give away some clues about the story that will develop (but which I didn’t remember well until they came into play). Then the first chapter is told from the perspective of a young man lying bandaged in a bed. The women caring for him assure him he’ll get better but he has lost his memory, broken his legs and some ribs and injured his feet. This leaves him confused and only able to stare out of the window and observe the women whenever they come into his room.
From that point on the story focuses on these women and lets you in on how they met and what their personal background stories are. This set-up is solid and really takes you in right away.
Ahnna, Mihee, Nami, and Heeae are four women from different backgrounds and have different ages, but they have one common denominator: their love for singer Yosep. He is their idol and they are his fans. Although they would describe it as devotion, any normal person would label it stalking as they know everything there is to know about their idol and they are convinced that nobody cares as much about him as they do. And so, they decide to kidnap him and take proper care of him.
It is Ahnna who finds the other women and becomes the group leader: the kidnapping is her idea and she provides their hideout location. This hideout is a mansion in the hills in the north of South Korea surrounded by forest. It’s a classic setting because not only is it secluded, but it allows for the house to be filled with scary taxidermy as well. Also, it’s raining non-stop, making it feel more desolate.

While this book must be an absolute nightmare for anyone having a career in the spotlight, there were some things that didn’t really work for me and one of these things was the lack of timing mentioned in the chapters. It was sometimes difficult to tell if I was reading in the now or in the past, especially when storylines started to overlap and more people were introduced. All in all this book was a good-enough for me, with an interesting idea and great setting, but some clunky bits in it.

*Disclaimer: it is never okay to kidnap any kind of popstar

Paper heart / Cecilia Ahern
What is it: a discovery of selfworth
Did I like it: wholeheartedly

Former colleague E2 sent in this category which had me going through the library, shelf by shelf, pulling out books to check the color of the cover. One librarian was slightly alarmed at my quick dismissal of books, judging them on the covers and not even taking the time to check the titles, but once I explained my search she thought about it and agreed that purple was not a color that happens a lot outside of the romance section at the moment. She called in a colleague to brainstorm with us and this lady said “the new Cecilia Ahern has a purple cover but it’s already on loan”. Ahern is an auto-buy for me so I happily skipped to the nearest bookshop and bought myself a copy. Three librarians were involved in getting me to this book, so thank you all, especially E2 for prompting the search in the first place!

Paper heart is the story of Pip. At sixteen she made a misstep that her family still hasn’t forgiven her for; the lasting effect being that her parents still hold this over her head at thirty-two. According to her parents, Pip cannot be trusted, cannot make any decisions, cannot be left alone. This has resulted in Pip being a people-pleaser and not having much of self-worth and confidence, or any independence. Because Pip doesn’t have a license and they live in the middle of nowhere, she depends on her parents to drive her wherever she needs to go. She has no friends, or co-workers she likes, and when she’s home she spends most of her time in her bedroom writing poems that she folds into origami figures. These actually sound amazing and showcase Pip’s artistic side, but it’s just about the only positive thing she has going for her.
There is a quiet defiance to Pip though, and spurred on by new and rekindled friendships alike, this defiance becomes outspoken. The new friendship arrives in the form of Io, a scientist at the observatory, and one of the rekindled friendships is with her ex-boyfriend Jamie. Jamie left town years ago, but comes back because of family issues. Then there is local hotshot Sammy, who becomes interested in Pip. Suddenly, she has three men involved in her personal life and things quickly become complicated.

It’s easy to find yourself stuck in a role or position, especially within a family setting, and it can be difficult to step away from that so I cheered Pip on when she finally began to push back and reclaim her ground. I liked that she got her self-esteem back after so many years of making herself near-invisible, but the change is a full u-turn which seemed a bit much, given the timeframe.
The story has a hint of Romeo and Juliet going, with a touch of Cinderella. There is an otherworldliness nicely woven in too.
I didn’t like Pip enough to really get invested in her as a main character, but the story itself was still so nice that it had me breezing through the pages.

Oona Out of Order / Margarita Montimore
What it is: a perfect vacation read
Did I like it: yes – not really – then yes again

I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I get to enjoy at least one vacation per year, which is a great privilege that I never take for granted. No matter the destination, the duration or the company I travel with, one thing is a solid: I pack a book for my vacation, sometimes multiple ones. And a lot of the time, I hardly read more than a couple of pages because I tend to get distracted by the new environment and/or people I travel with, meaning this category wasn’t the easy fix it might have seemed.
However, I recently went on a vacation that required a four-hour flight and while my travel companion took that time for a decent nap, I got my book out. That’s how I got to a decent start right away and it allowed me to actually finish a book while on vacation and the reason this book is going into the number 24 category, and not number 19 (the author has an alliteration name: must be easier to find another one of those than the miracle of me finishing two books on vacation).
Thank you to GR for providing the item and making me want to read while on vacation!

Oona Out of Order is about Oona. Her story starts on New Year’s Eve 1982, and at midnight she is about to turn 19. It never gets that far because instead, she travels through time and lands herself in the year 2015 and at age 51.
Her confusion at this jump through time mirrored mine, but because this was the first jump the story takes its time to settle on Oona’s feelings at the experience and her new situation. At the same time it leaves a lot of questions, the biggest one being how this happened to her. Oona didn’t seem to be wondering about this, but I was and much to my annoyance the situation was never explained. Oona simply accepted the time travel, but I wasn’t as easily persuaded. Every birthday Oona travels through time, in her own life. She hops from 2015 to 1995 to 2004. The people she meets are sometimes new and sometimes other-aged versions of ones she already met. She travels all directions without any reason or rhythm. The fact that after the second time jump Oona was still not wondering what the heck was going on, had me quite annoyed and the annoyance started to take over the entertainment of the first chapters. And just when I started to get a bit bored with the concept, bam! there was a plot twist that had me I back into the story, and along with Oona I accepted the situation for what it was and decided to just enjoy myself.

I would really like to chat more about the story but I don’t want to give away any spoilers so this’ll have to do.
All in all, this book was a perfect holiday read: it didn’t require me to pay too much attention, and it was entertaining enough. I’m guessing I would have asked more questions at the book under “normal” circumstances but the sound of the waves of the Atlantic Ocean had a calming effect on me and took the edge off my criticism.

Bad feminist : essays / Roxane Gay
What it is: Everything
Did I like it: Yes

This category was suggested by Mtckc9df6533c2 and involved some homework for me in order to find a filler. But, success! Because I found that Roxane Gay gave a TEDtalk based on her book Bad Feminist. That title was enough for me to run to the store to get my hands on a copy.

I have been talking about this book everywhere: in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, during lunch, over drinks, and on my way to the airport.
This book is Everything and I cannot believe it had escaped my attention until now. It was first published in 2014 and although you can tell that from the pop cultural references (sadly there would be space for more recent examples), it is still fresh, and unfortunately very relevant.
The book is about privilege more than it is about feminism, and it covers racism and sexuality as well. So yes, if you are a woman, a person of color, or queer, there will be some or a lot in this book that you can relate to, but the often funny, sometimes painful, anecdotes and examples are there to create privilege awareness more than anything.
And although it’s very American, it still translates well to other western cultures.
The book covers just about every topic, from education, pop culture, rape, to scrabble tournaments. Some essays have anger coming off the pages and others are heartbreaking. The book did what it was made out to do, and made me think and consider my own thoughts and behavior at some points. At others I just laughed because it was so funny or recognizable.

I watched the TED talk first, then read the book. And then re-watched the talk.
If you’re not into the book, at least watch the talk. It’s only 11 minutes-and-a-bit and is a perfect summary of the book.
Thank you to Mtckc9df6533c2 (is it okay if I refer to you as friend M from now on?) for providing me with this category for the reading challenge; I’ve enjoyed it very much!