Hannah Jo’s Forest of Reading 2021

I’m Hannah Jo, and I very much enjoyed sharing reading challenges with you lovely people last year. I read less than usual last year, but planning and daydreaming about my lists was one of the good things about a difficult year.

I am organizing my reads around the theme of famous and notable trees around the world.

1. GenreCAT
2. HistoryCAT
3. RandomCAT
4. BingoDOG
5. Urban Planning
6. Interesting People
7. Interesting Places
8. Canadian Books
9. NYT Notable Books (any year)
10. Nature/Science/Environment
11. Revisit Old Friends (authors/books I have enjoyed in the past)
12. Interesting Places
13. Mysteries

GenreCAT

1. Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile byTaras Grescoe (January/Non-Fiction)
2. Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph (February/Biography)
3. Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi (April/Literary Fiction)
4. How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa (May/Short Stories)
5.

HistoryCAT

1. Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen (January/Middle Ages)
2. Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick (Modern Period)
3. Atlantis: A Journey in Search of Beauty by Carlo and Renzo Piano (Ancient History)
4.
5.

RandomCAT

1. Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell (January/LOL)
2. Dreaming in Mandarin by Deborah Fallows (February/Fruit)
3. Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson (March-It’s a Surprise)
4. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo (April/Library)
5. Planet of Slums by Mike Davis (May/Monopoly)

BingoDog

The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova
5) How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
6) 20 or Fewer LT Members = Atlantis: A Journey In Search of Beauty by Carlo and Renzo Piano
8) A Place I’d Like to Visit = Bruno: Chief of Police
10) About History or Alternate History= Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu) by Laurence Bergreen
13) Read a CAT or KIT= Straphanger:Saving Our Cities And Ourselves from the Automobile by Taras Grescoe
14) Contains magic= The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk
17) Two or More Authors= Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph
18) Made You Laugh= Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
20) You Heartily Recommend= The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
21) Nature or Environment= Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J Lee
22) Time Word in Title= Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
23) By or About a Marginalized Group= Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick
24) Senior Citizen Protagonist= All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
25) Set in the Southern Hemisphere= Planet of Slums by Mike Davis

Urban Planning

1. Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile by Taras Grescoe
2. Atlantis:A Journey in Search of Beauty by Carlo and Renzo Piano
3. Planet of Slums by Mike Davis
4.
5.

Interesting People

1. Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen
2. Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph
3. Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez
4.
5.

.

Canadian Books

1. All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
2. The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk
3. Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson
4. Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
5. Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J Lee
6. How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

NYT Notable Books (any year)

1. The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
2. The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova
3. Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick
4. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
5.

Nature/ Science/ Environment

1. Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J Lee
2.
3.
4.
5.

Revisit Old Friends (authors/books I have enjoyed in the past)

1. Straphanger by Taras Grescoe
2.
3.
4.
5.

Interesting Places

1. Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
2. Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick
3. Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J Lee
4.
5.

Mysteries

1. The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
2. Bruno: Chief of Police by Martin Walker
3. All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
4. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo
5.

Hope you enjoy your 2021 reads!

Welcome back and have a great reading year! Planning your reading is half the fun, I find ;)

Welcome back and let's hope 2021 is a better year for everyone!

Welcome back and Happy New Year! Wishing you a year filled with wonderful reading.

Good luck with your 2021 reading!

Happy New Year and good luck with your reading in 2021.

Happy reading!

Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves From the Automobile by Taras Grescoe.

Urban Planning category
GenreCat (January/Non-Fiction)
BINGOdog (CAT or KIT square)
Revisit Old Friends category (authors I’ve enjoyed before)

A travelogue for transit nerds, Grescoe travels the world to 12 places see how approaches to transit improve a city (Copenhagen with bikes, Bogata with rapid buses), or kill quality of life (Phoenix with car-fueled sprawl stands out). A travelogue for transit nerds, Grescoe travels the world to see how approaches to transit improve a city (Copenhagen with bikes, Bogata with rapid buses), or kill quality of life (Phoenix with car-fueled sprawl stands out).

What I will remember from this book is how there is no single transit solution, ad different cities can use different tools successfully to move people around. Rapid buses for example, can be nimble and relatively inexpensive for places that cannot afford expensive subways.

This book was written in 2012 (it talks about Rob Ford’s defunding of Toronto’s transit system), and it’s striking how much has changed in such a short time. For instance, Grescoe mentions carbon taxes only once in passing- how different the conversation is less than 10 years later. I also would have loved to see Grescoe’s thoughts on what Anne Hidalgo has accomplished with bike lanes and “the 15 minute city” in Paris.

I enjoy Grescoe’s writing style, and many years after reading his Bottomfeeder book about eating sustainable seafood, I remember his evocative passages about the pleasures of sardines. I hope to read his recent book about Mussolini.

Welcome back. Wishing you luck with reading and everything else as well.

>22 HannahJo: I liked this one a lot! An updated and maybe expanded edition would make an interesting read.

>24 rabbitprincess:

Such an enjoyable way to present potentially dull transit information! Uber was also not a thing when this book was written, and I’m sure Grescoe would have some colourful thoughts about that as a solution to traffic woes.

The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda

Mysteries Category
NYT Notable Book 2020
BINGOdog (Heartily Recommend square)

In a seaside village in Japan in the 1970’s, a prominent family throws a party where 17 people are poisoned by their drinks. The only survivors are a housekeeper and the enigmatic blind daughter. The prime suspect commits suicide, and most people think he was not to blame.

I picked this book because I read that it was a Japanese puzzle mystery. I was unfamiliar with the genre, but it appealed to me because I’ve always enjoyed locked room mysteries where the question is not so much what happened or who did it, but more how or why.

The Aosawa Murders is unlike any other mysteries I’ve read. The structure is unusual, with each chapter presenting the viewpoints of different characters 30 years after the crime. There is very much the theme of differing versions of the truth, and it was interesting seeing which people were paying attention to the right things. The author lays out fair-play clues, and as I read along I could spot some details that I knew were off, but their significance only became clear as the book slowly unfolded like origami.

The atmosphere of the book was disquieting and creepy, set in hot, humid summers, populated by people who were forever changed by the murders. All the elements of a murder mystery are there, but they are not arranged in the expected way. There is a detective, for example, but he is not the central conduit of information. Time flashes back and forth, and memory cannot be trusted. The ending is implied, but the author makes the reader work to understand what really went on.

I GREATLY enjoyed this book, and can already tell it will be one of my favourite reads of the year. I’m also looking forward to more Japanese puzzle mysteries- what a serendipitous find!

>26 HannahJo: Ooh, that sounds great!

If you're looking for more Japanese puzzle mysteries, I've recently read Murder in the Crooked House, The Honjin Murders, and The Inugami Curse. My favourite was The Inugami Curse. You may also want to try Keigo Higashino's work :)

>26 HannahJo: Definitely a BB for me!

>26 HannahJo: BB for me. Sounds great.
>27 rabbitprincess: and noting RP's recommendations as well.

>1 HannahJo: Good luck with your challenges here and I hope your reading picks up this year. I experienced a similar lackluster reading year in 2020 but surely it will get better.

>27 rabbitprincess: Thank you rabbitprincess! Have put all of these on my for later shelf.

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

RandomCAT (January/LOL)
BINGOdog (Made You Laugh square)
Interesting Places category

I picked up this book because I have enjoyed listening to Sarah Vowell on podcasts. She is one of those naturally funny storytellers who can make any topic interesting.

Unfamiliar Fishes is tells the history of Hawaii from first contact with American missionaries in 1820 to the overthrowing of the Hawaiian queen and annexation. I did laugh, especially at Vowell’s snarky descriptions of the early missionaries. Vowell also made some unique observations, including seeing centuries of Hawaiian history in spotting an old whaling try-pot, later used to boil sugarcane, now being used as a planter at a luxe tourist resort.

I suspect this is one of those books that is better when listened to. The book had no chapters, which made it unnecessarily frustrating to wade through. I was surprised by being a bit put off by the irreverent tone of the book, wondering if it would have been more respectful to the indigenous community if it was toned down a notch, but maybe that is a matter of taste.

A good beach read that may lead to an interest in more serious study of Hawaiian history and how it affects current events?

>32 HannahJo: This one will go on my wish list, for sure! I visited Hawaii for the first time in 2018. Since then I have been reading about and keeping my eyes open for books on Hawaii. I will look for this one on Audible.

Bruno: Chief of Police by Martin Walker

Mystery Category
BINGOCat (Set somewhere you’d like to visit square)

A friend recommended this series, set in a quiet French countryside town. The town is so sleepy that it is a shock when an Algerian man is found brutally murdered with a swastika carved into his chest,

While I did enjoy how the author connected French/Algerian history with present racial tensions and the rise of right-wing politics, I found most of the book annoyingly formulaic. Of course Bruno was a hobby gourmet chef, as how else could the author shoehorn food descriptions in? Bruno is a little too wise and loved. There is an unnecessary love interest.The characters were flat, and I especially didn’t like the unimaginative portrayals of women.

Maybe my friend who recommended Bruno found the books to be cozy and enjoyed the mental vacation to France? I don’t think I’ll give the rest of the series a try. It’s not really a world In which I want to spend more time.

Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen

HistoryCAT (January/Middle Ages)
BINGOCat (History/Alternative History square)

This was a surprisingly good quarantine read!

I picked this book because Marco Polo was a historical figure of which I only had a passing knowledge, and I was curious to learn more. He had such an amazing life, travelling from Venice to Mongolia, then throughout Asia, being dazzled by Kublai Khan and Xanadu, and communicating his finds in the new worlds to Europeans (Coal! Paper money!). It was fun seeing him sometimes not quite getting things right (the men with tails he describes might have actually been orangutangs). I also appreciated how travelling and being exposed to different people broadened his mind in regards to subjects such as religion and the brutality of Kublai Khan’s reign.

What made this such a good book in this era of Coronavirus was two-fold. The obvious attraction was travelling through his world of marvels vicariously through Marco Polo, who by all accounts was charming, curious, open-minded and a good communicator.

What surprised me was the second attraction. While Marco Polo did live the most adventurous life ever, he also spent many years in suspension, not being able to live his life’s purpose at all. The beginning of his travels as an emissary to Mongolia was delayed for two years waiting for the election of a new pope. He was stalled in Afghanistan for a year suffering with TB. He was trapped for years in service to Kublai Khan with no clear way to return home. Back in Venice he was captured by the Genoese army and lived for years in house arrest.

So much waiting around with a dazzling world around! Marco Polo and I have a lot in common!

>35 HannahJo: I've also been taking comfort from reading travel writing, and not envying the various accidents and misadventures that apparently inevitably ensue. I had no idea Polo experienced so many delays.

"the men with tails he describes might have actually been orangutangs"

Do orangutans have tails though? Aren't they apes like us?

>36 spiralsheep:

You’re quite right about the apes not having tails thing. I’m mixed up just like Marco Polo! Now I’m wondering if the author actually mentioned another Indonesian primate, or if I’m actually just dreaming it all. I returned the book to the library, but now I feel like re-checking...

And I quite agree about the travelling through books without the real-life disruptions. One of my friends spent a year on a round-the-world vacation with her young family, and while it sounds marvellous on one hand, it also sounds completely exhausting!

>37 HannahJo: Don't check! You've added another layer of whispers and rumour to Marco Polo's traveller's tales. Accept your role in history! :D

The only downside to armchair travel is that I'll never have an awesome sheep named after me, unlike Marco Polo.

>38 spiralsheep:

How apt indeed!

Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph

GenreCAT (February/Memoir or Biography)
Interesting People category
BINGOCat (Two or More Authors square)

A developing theme in my reading this year is working through people and events I never properly learned about in school. Dorothy Day was a name I only vaguely knew in connection to worker rights, and I thought it would be interesting to learn about a strong woman.

After reading this book, I think I understand why she doesn’t appear more prominently in school texts and children’s books. She was complex, independently-minded (contrarian?), and hard to categorize. She was jailed as a suffragette but never voted. As a Catholic convert she opposed abortion, even though she herself had had an abortion in her youth and recoiled at demonizing women to advance her cause. She was a pacifist during WW2, an unpopular side to take. She was an advocate for the homeless, but did not like to accept filthy government lucre. I imagine she would have annoyed most of her supporters in the end. Some people are just built to be a thorn in the side.

The book was fine, but perhaps was more detailed than I needed for an entry point to Dorothy Day’s life. It did feel like one of those biographies where every person who ever met Day at a party was listed. For my purposes, I think I would have better enjoyed a book with more of Day’s own words.

The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself and Win by Maria Konnikova

NYT Notable Books Category

The genre of “trying something intensely for a year and write about it” can be a bit hit-or-miss. For example, I enjoyed The 100-Mile Diet, about the challenge of eating only local food for a year, but found that one book about avoiding products made in China to be a bit gimmicky. I expected The Biggest Bluff, about a woman trying to master poker in a year, to be in the latter category. I actually enjoyed it more than I expected.

Konnikova starts off “not knowing how many cards are in a deck”, but has an interesting angle as she has a PhD in psychology. She enlists the help of star coaches, who take her on as a project, and has us follow her on the journey from online tournaments, around the world from Las Vegas to Monte Carlo to Macao, to eventually becoming a champion.

She writes about many aspects of playing, the most obvious being what it is like to play as a woman in a male-dominated field. Her psychology background really shines through as she carefully analyzes the thought process behind the moves at the table. Her pondering on risk and luck are thoughtful, including how she found success in poker to be more based on skill than trying to find a job in academia where one could be subjected to the whims and fancies of office politics.

I don’t often listen to audiobooks as I tend to get lost whenever I am distracted, but I found this one quite fun and light while remaining interesting. The author was the narrator, and I found her voice quite pleasing. I wish I had her narrating in my head analyzing the everyday decisions of my life!

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick

HistoryCAT (February/Modern History)
Interesting Places Category
BINGOCAT (By or About a Marginalized Group)

I went into this book knowing the bare basics of Tibetan history. I knew about the Dalai Lama, disputed territory, and protests by monks. I approached this book with trepidation, as was worried that it might be too weighty for a novice like me. Demick was able to use narrative non-fiction to craft a highly approachable read of a difficult history.

Demick follows different individuals as they navigate Chinese control and oppression in their homeland: a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural,Revolution, young people facing a wave of Chinese culture and money in opposition to their culture and beliefs, a monk who becomes radicalized. The build-up of many years of subjugation leads to the most extreme form of protest- hundreds of cases of self-immolization.

This book helped fill in the many gaps of my understanding of Tibet, including that most Tibetans live outside of the Chinese borders of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I am now more aware that videos showing happy Tibetan peasants dancing and eating are a common form of Chinese propoganda, as China wants to show that everyone in Tibet is Very Happy Indeed. I also learned about the future challenge of finding the successor to the Dalai Lama, with religious leaders and China both wanting to field their own candidates.

Demick is a compelling storyteller with a lot to say, and after reading this I look forward to reading her book about North Korea.

>42 HannahJo: Definitely on my list now! Thanks for the great review.

The Midnight Garden by CL Polk

Canadian Books Category
BINGOcat (Square #14- contains magic)

I read this as one of the five finalists in CBC’s Canada Reads contest. I always enjoy Canada Reads as it has a range of genres and styles that gives me a chance to step out of my comfort zone. The Midnight Bargain is a fantasy novel set in a Regency-style era complete with balls and marriage politics, sprinkled with magic and spirits. The author said in the acknowledgements that the elevator pitch was “Jane Austen but with Pokemon!”

In this world, eligible young women face a high-pressure bargaining season where they are presented to society and must find a marriage match suitable to their families. Men alone are permitted to practise magic, and married women have to wear a physical warding collar around their neck that prevents them from summoning spirits that may harm their unborn children. The protagonist Beatrice fights against this system, secretly learning powerful magic and working with her rival Ysbeth to learn magic in secret and break free from paternalistic rules.

The book read like a YA novel, and I found the whole premise a little..basic? Women being treated as the property of men and being denied the chance to display their talents is not a very original idea. It was fun to read though, and I did enjoy the way women co-operated together. It was also recently nominated for a Nebula Award, so I feel like I’m just not the correct audience.

>44 HannahJo: I lurk on the Canada Reads thread because the book choices are always interesting, even when they're not to my personal taste.

Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson
Canadian category
RandomCat (March- It’s a Surprise)

This was absolutely fascinating.

The UN predicts that the world population will peak around 11 billion at the end of the century before declining. The book argues that there is a lower estimate that is more likely, with a peak of 8.5 billion by 2060 followed by a population collapse. The consequences of fewer people on the planet are far-reaching, possibly better for the environment, but causing great societal upheaval. China’s population could be half of what it currently is by 2100, and with a smaller workforce struggling to support an aging society.

The main argument of the book is that everywhere in the world there is a shift from rural to urban. As people move to cities, large families become a liability. Cities offer better education to girls, who then have smaller families later in life. The drop in fertility rate is permanent, and it is already happening on a global scale. The authors offer examples from around the world, making special note of how Canada’s generous immigration policy places it in a good position in the coming century.

A paradigm-changing book for me, already changing how I watch the news!

>45 spiralsheep:

I looked through the list of past Canada Reads books, and it was an interesting time capsule. Some of the winning books stand the test of time and have become classics, while others were more a momentary flash.

I got a good laugh remembering Justin Trudeau being on the program for many years ago being the first and only defender to vote against his own book. What a legend!

Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi

Canadian category
GenreCat (April-Literary Fiction)

This was a Canada Reads finalist, and I enjoyed it so much more than I expected!

The story revolves around three women. Kambirinachi is a Nigerian woman who believes she is an Ogbanje- an evil spirit hat plagues a family with misfortune. Her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye, are estranged after a childhood trauma, and are flung untethered into the world, heartbroken, lonely and unsatisfied. The three women are reunited in Lagos, where wounds are laid bare.

This book ticks a lot of the boxes of what I normally don’t enjoy in books. I generally find reading about childhood trauma too upsetting, but I found Ekwuyasi did such a beautiful job of gracefully showing the all-encompassing fractures pain causes without making the book unreadable. The alternating voices and switching back and forth in time drew out the emotional journey and connections between the characters.

The food descriptions were amazing, and thoughtfully laid out. Bread yeast rising evokes nurturing, or maybe festering words left unsaid, perhaps nurturing (too late). The book travels the world, to London, Montreal, and little Halifax. Nova Scotia was surprisingly apt, with the descriptions of the MicMac population destroyed by colonization and rape, and Africville, where the black population was forced out of their homes through systematic neglect by the government.

Gorgeous book, highly recommended!

Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J Lee

Canadian category
Nature/Science/Environment category
Interesting Places category

Another Canada Reads book down. This was a frustrating book for me as I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did.

Lee is an environmental historian who has lived in Canada, Britain and Germany. Like many Canadians, her grandparents were immigrants. Lee discovers a letter from her grandfather that sends her to Taiwan to connect with her family history. The book is written in fragments- the personal story of the migration of her grandparents, the modern history of Taiwan, and Lee’s hiking through the forests and mountains of Taiwan.

The theme of finding a human connection in the ecology and geology of two places on opposite sides of the planet would normally be right up my alley. Some of the imagery took my breath away, as when Lee talks about feeling botanically adrift in an forest of unfamiliar trees- a beautiful description of a cultural divide. Or the changing geology of an island on a fault line where the earth shakes and immutable mountains move matching the political upheaval that changes the course of the lives of migrants. It did take a lot of effort to get to the lovely imagery, though, and I found much of the book quite dry and disjointed.

Still, I will keep the one or two lovely images in my head, so I’m glad I read the book.

Atlantis: A Journey in Search of Beauty by Carlo and Renzo Piano

HistoryCat (April-Ancient History)
Urban Planning category
BingoCat (#6- 20 or fewer LT members)

A transporting, wistful pandemic read

The conceit of this book is the architect Renzo Piano and his son Carlo sail around the world searching for the lost city of Atlantis, an ancient symbol of a perfect city, while revisiting the father’s works scattered around the world.

I was not familiar with Renzo Piano before picking up this book, though I soon realized I knew many of his most famous projects, including The Shard in London. Renzo Piano is a perfectionist, and as his ship travels the world, he is never quite satisfied looking at his buildings. The Tjibao Cultural Centre in New Caledonia is too literal, the NYT building the wrong colour, the plaza of the Pompidou Centre not as accessible as he would have liked. There is both pride and tenderness as the father and son take turns describing their voyage through landscape and history. What a unique opportunity to view your legacy with your child.

I found the philosophy of the book to be deeply moving- in our life and work we search for perfection, like a quest for Atlantis, and while we know we will probably never succeed it is still worth the effort.

Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo

Mystery Category
RandomCAT- Borrow from another LT member’s library (rabbitprincess!)

I greatly enjoyed my first Japanese locked room mystery at the beginning of the year (The Aosawa Murders), and rabbitprincess was kind enough to recommend her favourites of the genre. So I’m “borrowing” one of her books for the April RandomCat challenge.

I was surprised to learn that this popular Japanese book was not translated into English until very recently. There is so much in the world I am not aware of yet!

Set in the 1940’s, the book follows a family with a somewhat complicated past (the author helpfully added a family tree and list of characters). There is some mystery about the true identity of some of the characters. When the patriarch of he family passes away, chaos ensues with the reading of a rather cruel will that revolves around the choices of a beautiful young woman who had been raised in he household after being orphaned. A series of murders ensues.

The book was rather more dramatic (gruesome?) than I had expected, with all of the family members being especially savage to each other. I enjoyed the Japanese touches that were involved in the action (I learned a little about life-sized Chrysanthemum dolls and zithers, for example). Fair-play clues were laid out for he reader to play along, though I found it hard to get to the solution by myself.

Quite a fun read, thank you rabbitprincess for starting a rabbit trail for me.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

NYT Notable Book category
BingoCat square #22 (Time word in title)

This slim novel unveils the casual sexism and misogeny in every corner of South Korean society as it follows Kim Jiyoung through childhood, school, work, marriage and family. The style is very matter-of-fact, and even includes footnotes to drive home the accuracy.

Kim Jiyoung eventually suffers a breakdown from the weight of the unfair expectations placed on working women in Seoul, all the more tragic as all of the examples of injustice are so commonplace.

While I am not Korean, I did live in Korea for 10 years, and a wave of familiarity hit me reading the author’s descriptions of family obligations (especially on special holidays), workplace double standards, impossible childcare, sexual harassment and hidden cameras in changing rooms. Very little was exaggerated, but having all the examples together was indeed infuriating and overwhelming.

I am not surprised that this book has struck a chord in Korea, selling over a million copies and sparking a feminist movement. There is also something universal in Jiyoung’s story, as while society has come a long way, there is still a long way to go.

>51 HannahJo: Hurray! I'm really looking forward to The Aosawa Murders. Will have to grab the print copy from the library once I've got through a backlog of borrowed books :)

This Place: 150 Years Retold Various authors

-HistoryCat (May-Dynasties/Civilizations/Empires)
-Canadian books category

“See how Indigenous Peoples have survived a post-apocolyptic world since Contact”

This is a graphic novel anthology telling the history of Canada through an Indigenous lens. It’s a beautiful book with striking illustrations. I am continually struck by how little my formal education taught me about my own country’s history. The stories sweep through time, including the woman who inspired Louis Riel (in school I was taught he was a traitor); the potlatch ban (I had been told it was necessary because potlatches impoverished communities); the unique culture, spirituality, naming customs and resistance of the Inuit (I think we made papier mache igloos?); and current issues with Indigenous kids in foster care (obviously affected by residential school history- not taught when I was growing up).

Of particular note, I learned that a tribe not far from where I live fought to become self-governing and is no longer under the control of the federal Indian Act. Why on earth did I not know that? There was also a haunting story about cannibalism, wendigos and differing views of justice which I took as showing how messed up our world is.

Notable is the fact that each of the stories shows Indigenous individuals or communities acting as heroes. Despite the difficult history, I found this to be a hopeful read.

>54 HannahJo: That's very tempting! I grew up in the UK and I recall also being told that potlatches were banned because they impoverished communities, and I couldn't work out how sharing more made less stuff exist.

>55 spiralsheep:

I also remember Canada being referred to as a young country with not as much history as Europe. That is...not true?

Around the Edge: A Journey Among Pirates, Guerrillas, Former Cannibals, and Turtle Fishermen Along the Miskito Coast by Peter Ford

Interesting Places category

Picked up this 1991 book because I had a friend who had travelled to Nicaragua. Written by a journalist recounting his travels along the coast of Central America, this is a book of its time which hasn’t aged very well. Peter Ford doesn’t really like the area at all as it seems a little too primitive to him. He doesn’t speak Spanish (would have helped!), and spends pages and pages complaining about inconveniences caused by border guards. Seems a bit clueless for a seasoned reporter.

Didn’t like this at all, and I did my version of a DNF which is skimming through the end just in case something good comes up. I did like some of the descriptions of the Garifuna people, including the description of women processing cassava to make bread and the surprising revelation that the language has some French influence due to an old alliance with the French against the British on St Vincent.

>56 HannahJo: Some people only want to count "recorded history" that can still be read today, often the same people who don't want to acknowledge that "recorded history" goes back about 4600 years in Africa and 4600 years in Asia, 3500 years in India, but only about 2800 years in primitive backward Europe.

Arguably Australian aboriginal "recorded history" on churingas (aka books) dates back much earlier. Cylcons have been dated back 20000 years, although aboriginal peoples can no longer read those as far as I know, so similar stone churingas which can still be read could potentially be very old indeed.

But "recorded history" is a deliberately limited perspective.

And, yes, unwarranted Eurocentricity is wilful ignorance at this point.

Last year I kept wishing I could get hold of a copy of Yuuyaraq to read.

/long comment is long (I hope that's ok and my apologies if it's not)

I’ve put Yuuyaraq on my TBR pile, thank you for the suggestion. (And I always love long comments and new ideas!)

I remember being on Vancouver Island and learning that archeologists have found that the First Nations people have lived there for 10,000 years. That changed my thinking that Canada was a new country. Took a while for me to connect the dots :)

This week the remains of 215 children were found buried on the grounds of a former residential school that was still in operation in the 1970’s. Canadians have to have a reckoning with our real history.

>59 HannahJo: I saw that horrifying news about the 215 Tk'emlups te Secwépemc children whose deaths at an enforced residential school apparently previously went unrecorded! It reminds me of the Irish children who disappeared in Catholic "mother and baby homes", especially the 802 found in a disused sewage tank at the Tuam home (closed 1961). Our pasts are still with us and history is being rewritten every day.

Planet of Slums by Mike Davis

Urban Planning category
RandomCat (May/Monopoly)
BingoCat (25-Southern Hemisphere)

I have read a few books which look upon cities as places of opportunity for the poor. Arrival City paints cities as launching pads for new immigrants, temporary spaces where cultural connections provide a chance for upward mobility. Empty Planet talks about cities where education and job opportunities exist, and how moving away from the cultural and familial pressures of a home village can give women especially freedom to choose family size and employment.

Planet of Slums is decidedly more pessimistic, and sadly has data to back up the suffering. For example, forces such as agricultural deregulation and civil wars cause migration to cities, but the cities often have stagnant or negative economic growth and a lack of investment in education, infrastructure or a public safety net. Slums are often environmentally miserable, built on flood plains or overflowing with pollution and disease. The section on deliberate fires in poor neighbourhoods read like a horror script. Where those living in the countryside may have the support of relatives or community, the city offers no hospitality or generosity. Women bear the brunt of the awfulness. It just goes on and on, with no solutions.

This was one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Recommended, but be prepared.

Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez

Interesting People category

Such an interesting story. Noe Alvarez is the son of Mexican migrant workers in Yakima, Washington. Feeling tetherless and a fish out of water in university, he joins the Peace and Dignity Journeys, an organization that connects Indigenous people throughout North America by running from Alaska to Guatemala. The journey takes a relay format, and individual participants run between 10-30 miles a day (Alvarez runs for 4 months). By running through different First Nations communities, the hope is that healing comes from connection with the land and celebrating heritage.

I am not sure how I feel about this book. I very much appreciated the beginning of the book where Alvarez lays out the lives of his parents, and the difficulty in transitioning to university, even with a full-ride scholarship. Alvarez sounds like a unique person (he brought a dictionary with him on the run, arguing it contained all the books in the world). I had never heard of the Peace and Dignity Journey, even though it sounds so challenging and transfomative.

The organization as Alvarez describes, though, sounds a bit of a mess, disfunctional and abusive. The leaders play control games such as depriving runners of water and having them vote out participants, resulting in distrust. Rather than unity, the group faces fragmentation as they face different ideas about respecting various land-based and land-specific ceremonies, and whether it is right to force runners to comply with ceremonial rules that don’t belong to them. Overall, it seemed like a group of damaged people that brought a toxic synergy. Reading it was rather sad, as they had all started the run with so much hope.

Still, it was a thought-provoking read that will stay in my mind for a long time.

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Canadian Books category
GenreCat (May/Short Stories)
BingoCat #5 -Contains a Love Story

I picked this up as it won the 2020 Giller Prize. It is a collection of short stories about immigrants from Laos dealing with limited prospects, strained relationships, language difficulties and navigation of all the unwritten rules newcomers learn. Characters try hard to keep their dignity.

I especially liked the stories involving children and all the micro-feelings and memories they have as they try to assimilate into a culture. They are embarrassed by heir parents, walk the tightrope of food, act as a need-to-know broker of English information to their parents. One charming story, “Chick a Chee”, is about the bewilderment of experiencing a first Hallowe’en. Even in this cute story, there is a darkness as the little girl cries as she believes her father is sending her to find a new family after losing his job.

I can’t say that I was blown away by this read, the stories are a little understated, but it did feel as though I experienced a bit of the emotional life of a Laotian immigrant.