Reviews and Comments

This was a quick read that illustrates the maddening systemic and cultural misogyny that persists in South Korea. From the workplace, where women earn 63% of their male counterparts' salaries, to the home, where boys are given preferential treatment to their sisters, this book exposes many problems with modern South Korean culture by studying one (fictional) woman's life experience--which has resulted in a psychological breakdown. It is clear why this book helped to spark a feminist revolution in South Korea, and Jiyoung's story is sure to strike a nerve with women anywhere.

Covering the issue of our addiction to technology and social media, and the implications of sharing all of our most personal details with corporations who don't hold our privacy in their best interests, [a:Megan Angelo|18044292|Megan Angelo|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1565558563p2/18044292.jpg] imagines a catastrophic privacy breach that results in the collapse of the internet as we know it today. The resulting dystopia brings a government-controlled internet and a Truman Show-style media outlet that encourages Americans to resume their habit of following social influencers and oversharing their own details--all for their own protection, of course. It's an enjoyably ambitious story that makes some very good points, but it was flawed enough on execution to break my suspension of disbelief and keep me from loving this book. P.S. That's just not how the 404 error works.

A lovely story about grief, love, and finding your true self amidst the forces in life that seek to define you.

I have read few novels that so thoroughly explore the the dark depths of adolescence. Spiraling from a comment Giovanna's father makes about her looks into an obsessive re-examination of the blissful childhood world she thought she understood, Giovanna pings between disillusionment with the human failings of her intellectual parents and curious discomfort with the world she discovers in Naples' seedy districts as she forges a relationship with an estranged aunt. Even without fully understanding the references to and commentary on Neapolitan social dynamics, this story was intensely relatable to me as someone who was born around the same year as Giovanna and experienced the 90s at a similar age. Even a week after finishing it, I am still thinking about this book.

This was such a fun story that had me hooked from the first chapter. When Afi is given the opportunity to repay a family debt by marrying the son of a powerful local woman in her rural Ghanaian town, she is shocked to find out that her new husband--who didn't even bother showing up to the wedding--is in love with someone else, and that his family expects her to "rescue" her new husband from the clutches of his lover. While navigating the tense waters of this awkward arrangement, Afi manages to fall in love with her husband, even if his commitment to her seems to wax and wane. Eventually, she comes into her own in Accra, building herself a successful career as a fashion designer, and I loved following her successes and heartbreaks along the way. Would definitely recommend.

I'm not sure whether the dread this book caused me was due to the story or the prospect of having to read another page. The promising premise was sabotaged by various failings: a cringe-y, 'splainy narrator; a lack of plausible cause for the strange happenings in the book; and finally, the author's disdain for all of the characters left no possibility of redemption or sympathy. Would not recommend.

[a:Bryan Stevenson|4396806|Bryan Stevenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1416790038p2/4396806.jpg]'s memoir is a beautiful account of his work aiding condemned inmates on Alabama's death row, and a chilling illustration of all the work that is left to do to repair a corrupt and broken system of (in)justice and mass incarceration.  Would highly recommend.

There was a lot to love in this story, which covered lots of ground between racial issues in America (both modern and historical), a surprise romance, and action-packed thriller. Though flawed by pacing issues and a hasty final act with some loose ends left unresolved, overall it was very enjoyable. 3.5

This memoir is meandering, repetitive, and pretentious. What happened to the author is awful, and there were moments in the book where I sympathized with her, but filled with so much insufferable fluff of boarding school life, I had a hard time feeling invested in this book, which was much longer than it needed to be. Would not recommend.

This book was about what you'd expect, and all of the bombshells have already been discussed in the media, so there's nothing new here. Mary L. Trump, a clinical psychologist and daughter of Donald's brother, has a clear axe to grind with the family's treatment of her father and his family, and while her stated motivation to educate the populace before a pivotal election may be partially true, she clearly has personal motivations as well. The book is well-written, but the Trump family is an utter bore and I grew tired of reading about them, even in this relatively short book.

Set in the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic, Julia is a Dublin midwife assigned to a makeshift ward for pregnant women who have contracted the disease. Shunted away into a storage closet, the pregnant women are given little attention by doctors and medical supplies are scant. The bulk of the story is written in real-time, and we experience the stress and pain of Julia and her wards as each suffers the horrors of this aggressive flu and childbirth, each with her own level of success. Towards the end of the book, however, the story radically changes course--there were so many interesting themes in the story that were left at loose ends in exchange for a hasty, nonsensical ending. It really felt that [a:Emma Donoghue|23613|Emma Donoghue|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1591714728p2/23613.jpg] rushed this story to market, causing the resolution of the book to suffer. Well-written, but ultimately disappointing.