BookOwl

  4.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Korean author Cho Nam-Joo is a gem that I hope gets its due. It’s a primal scream not only of South Korean women, but women around the world, against persistent misogyny. This slim novel reads as a dispassionate clinical study, which makes it hit all the harder. Kim Jiyoung is in her early thirties when her husband notices that she has started acting erratically in front of family and friends, often doing eerie imitations of women she knows and doesn’t know. So, she is sent to see a male therapist, who interviews her about her life, from her childhood to the present (2016).  Interspersed throughout the novel are footnotes about the status of South Korean women, for example, that women make 63 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts. “Jiyoung grew up being told to be cautious, to dress conservatively, to be ‘ladylike.’ That it’s your job to avoid dangerous places, times of day and people. It’s your fau...

  4/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* The Three Body Problem  by Chinese science fiction writer Cixin Liu, first in a trilogy named “Remembrance of Earth’s Past,” was a book recommended to me by a relative. Overall, it was a great read, even if I did not understand fully all the scientific concepts discussed, such as the “three body problem.” Let’s just say I had to Google a few things during reading!  This book primarily takes place in China, starting during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when intellectuals were persecuted in a wider attack against capitalism by communists. It gave me a harrowing glimpse into an era of Chinese history I did not know much about. Ye Wenjie, daughter of a physics professor at one Chinese university, and an astrophysicist herself, witnesses her father’s death at the hands of the Red Guard during this chaotic time. Understandably, she’s traumatized for the rest of her life and goes on to make a decision that will affect the whole of humanity...

  4.5/5 stars *Spoiler alert!* “A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun” I thoroughly enjoyed Black Sun , the first in fantasy series “Between Earth and Sky” by Rebecca Roanhorse. The book blends a mix of pre-Colombian American (think Aztec, Mayan, etc.) and Polynesian culture and myth and has exquisite world-building, characters, political dynamics, and LGBTQ representation. Perhaps this is controversial in some corners, but I think this book should have won in the Goodreads Choice Awards under the fantasy category for its original setting, characters, and mythology-based epic. The “Black Sun” of the title references a convergence of the Sun, Moon, and Earth (a solar eclipse), which happens to be taking place during the normally joyful celebration of winter solstice. Where the Sun is reborn after a long, dark winter. The religious elites of the Celestial Tower, studiers of the stars, headed by Sun Priest, Naranpa, are keen for this winter sols...

  *Spoilers ahead!* 4/5 stars I’m going to start this off by saying how much the third entry in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time” series, Children of Memory , reminded me of Star Trek. Why will become more apparent soon. Once again, Tchaikovsky’s trademark superb worldbuilding is at work here, bringing readers through the start and collapse of whole civilizations before zooming in to the more personal perspectives of our main characters exploring said wreckage of previous civilizations. The multispecies coalition we last see form in the previous book, Children of Ruin , is exploring the vastness of space together in an interesting fusion of inorganic and organic technology.  There’s “Humans,” the capitalization indicating that these humans have been infected with an empathy-inducing virus so as to get along with their super-intelligent spider (Portiids) and octopus (Octopus) partners. (The Corvids, an extremely smart species of bird, join this expedition later in the...

  *Spoilers alert!* 4/5 stars “I need to tell you this—there is no knowing Cape Breton without knowing how deeply ingrained two diametrically opposed experiences are: A deep love for home, and the knowledge of how frequently we have to leave it to find work somewhere else.” Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands  chronicles cartoonist Kate Beaton’s two years of working in Canada’s Albertan oil sands (from 2006-2008) to help pay off her student loans. Like many from the eastern coast of Canada, (in Beaton’s case, Cape Breton) Beaton migrated west to seek the most lucrative work possible: working in the oil sands. It is a familiar tale in which people are forced to move away from small, economically impoverished communities in order to make a living. The various shades of gray and black help make the point that this tale is very bleak. It does not shy away from the ugliness of the experience, where women are outnumbered 50 to 1 and sexual assault is rampant. Isolated as all the ...