Welcome to the April 2022 edition of Review Shorts – opinions, but short ones.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess (Celestial Kingdom Duology #1) by Sue Lynn Tan
Status: DNF at 2%
As much as I like stories rooted in Chinese mythology, I can’t stand protagonists who make stupid decisions for the sole reason that stupid decisions make the plot happen. I can even forgive stupid decisions if there’s a good reason the protagonist would do it that way, but this book was in such a rush to make Plot Stuff happen that it neglected to tell me anything about Xingyin, let alone make me like her or give her a reason for making said decisions. Perhaps I DNF’d too early, but I really just did not care.
Tags: Nonwestern Setting, Protagonist of Color, Author of Color, #ownvoices East Asian
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Status: Completed
Literary and contemporary are two genres I don’t often enjoy, but I very much enjoyed this book. Not so much that it was entertaining, but more like it was a door showing me modern South Korea and the concerns of women there. Each of the four protagonists had her own worries, her own dreams, her own history, and her own way of coping with the challenges of South Korean life, from the brutal economy to the female beauty obsession to the tension between personal desires and traditional values. It’s dark and it’s sad and it doesn’t wrap up neatly – real life never does, either – but it’s engrossing and emotional and ultimately finds hope in the power of female friendships.
Tags: Nonwestern Setting, Protagonist of Color, Author of Color, #ownvoices Korean
Trigger Warnings: Pregnancy, miscarriage, infidelity, sex work, sexual content (mentions), medical content (voluntary surgery and recovery from it), ableism, blood (mentions), injury (mentions), violence (mentions), suicide (mentions), misogyny, sexism, child abuse (mentions)
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
Status: DNF at 21%
I was immediately interested in independent-minded Jane, who was a spectacular accountant and wanted a marriage that was basically a business arrangement so she could keep being independent without the societal consequences of being single. She mentioned she’d never seen the appeal in romance or sex, and I got excited about potential aro-ace representation. And then she actually met Dr. Lawrence and caught a bad case of insta-love, complete with “I can’t focus when he’s around me, I just want him to touch my hands and maybe … kiss me!” I’m sure whatever’s happening at Lindridge Hall is interesting, but I am not here for being queerbaited with aro-ace rep only for her to immediately fall in insta-love with her convenience marriage partner.
Trigger Warnings: Medical content (extreme), blood (extreme), gore (extreme), death
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – And How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
Status: Completed
I’ve appreciated Johann Hari’s writing since I read his Lost Connections in 2018. Stolen Focus was similarly fascinating. I appreciated how the research was tied to Johann’s own journey to try and regain his own focus, and adding that little bit of topical memoir made it more engaging. (It also helps that the human relationship to technology is one that I’m very interested in.) What I also really appreciate about Johann’s work is that he always comes back around to the structural problems. He starts out talking about things you can do as an individual, but this is a societal issue around the systems we’ve created and it will take a change to the systems and structures to completely fix it. He also doesn’t shy away from calling out capitalism as the issue. Solid reporting, a fascinating subject, and the author pulls no punches.
The Hands-On Home: A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping by Erica Strauss
An Unread Shelf 2022 book
Status: Completed
This book took me forever to get through because it’s not really meant to be read straight through. There’s some more narrative content at the beginning and some great exercises for developing morning and evening routines, but most of it is recipes and formulas for cooking, canning, soapmaking, and cleaning. It’s full of great information and I definitely want a copy to keep on hand for reference, but it’s not designed to be read cover-to-cover.
The Sleep Fix: Practical, Proven, and Surprising Solutions for Insomnia, Snoring, Shift Work, and More by Diane Macedo
Status: DNF at 37%
I have found the downside to my love of practical self-help books. This book is relentlessly practical, but since I’m reading out of general interest and not a desire to fix any particular sleep problem (no sleep-fixing program will keep my elderly dog from waking me up to let her out every 2-3 hours), it’s not all that interesting to me. It seems like a fantastic resource if you’re trying to fix your sleep, and it would even make a good reference book for treatments of various sleep issues, but it’s pretty dull if you’re not actively trying to find a solution for your own sleep issues.
Trigger Warnings: Death (mentions), medical content (mentions)
Bluejay Reads 