Emma Goto

Loosely based on a true story, about Black women and girls in 1970s America who were given birth control without being properly informed of the risks and side effects, and/or being sterilised without actually realising it.

The story follows Civil, a nurse who helps two of these girls, and ends up becoming almost like a member of their family - which is quite emotionally conflicting for both her and the family as she see-saws between her role as nurse and pseudo-mother figure.

Overall it’s quite an unsettling book.

A story that follows a three different people and eras. First we have Lily, a girl born in America to Chinese immigrant parents. As someone who can’t even speak Mandarin, she struggles with feeling like an American yet not being perceived as one by the people around her.

The story then jumps forward to Lily’s son, Noah, who looks identical to his white Dad. He identifies as half-Chinese, but everyone only sees him as an American, and he struggles with this gap in his identity.

The third character is Lily’s mother, May, who takes us on a time-skip back to 1950s China. May’s struggles are more real and immediate as she lives through the harsh poverty caused by the Cultural Revolution.

There’s a secondary plot around genetic engineering, and developing the ability for certain genes to be more dominant when giving birth, as well as this weird magical ability the characters have to (occasionally) slow down time - although they don't really use it much at all. I think that magical side-plot should either have been expanded upon more, or cut out altogether, because I didn’t feel like it added much to the story.

As a fellow half-Asian I related the most to Noah’s story. We have Lily who so desperately wants to fit in and feel included as an American by her peers, and yet Noah, who has the comfort of already being accepted, instead wants to be recognized for his differences. Is your identify something that you decide for yourself, or is partially influenced or constructed by the people around you?

A very thoroughly-researched fiction book about the haenyeo women on Korea's Jeju island. I only really knew of Jeju as a popular vacation spot for Koreans (and foreign tourists too), but there's a lot of history there to unpack. From Japan's colonisation, the US taking over after WW2, to the horrific massacres that decimated the population - there's some heartwarming bits but it's not a fun book.

Also just learning about the haenyeo in general, who dived up to 20m to harvest abalone, octopus etc. and uniquely it was the women who brought home the money and the men that stayed home with the kids. (Although somehow it still seemed like the men had some of the power. Funny how that happens).

The main character, Elena, who is now in her 60s, recounts a childhood spent growing up with her best friend Lina in Italy. The pair are both from poor(er) families, but do well in school. They end up leading diverging lives as their individual circumstances change. The story and characters are vividly written and I read the entire book in one sitting.

There's a 1 chapter setup for the book in present time, before a 50 year jump back in time for the rest of the book. The story ends on an abrupt cliffhanger. At first I thought this was some sort of literary technique to make you go and reread the first chapter to piece together what happens, but no this is actually just the setup for the next book (lol).

I mean I miiiight go read the second, and I am sort of curious about the HBO series although unfortunately I'm not sure where to view it in my country!

A very gripping memoir. I found the audiobook reader's voice grating at first, but her impressions of other people's voices were really good and I came to enjoy it.

Even though it should seem unbelievable that Tara would keep returning to visit her family to experience yet more abuse, her way of thinking is clearly laid out, and you can see why she does.

Wells had his own affair and this book was apparently partially based off that - I'm not sure if we're supposed to feel sympathetic as the main character and his mistress have a whole Romeo/Juliet “I can't bear to be parted from you and I might kill myself” moment because the guy is cheating on his wife! No sympathy for you sir!

The book really trudged on too. I don't have any interest in politics and we had to read the character's whole life story of how he got into politics. It only got interesting right at the end where the guy decided to abandon his wife and run away with his lover.

On first thoughts I gave this book a 3/5 but I've revised it to a 4/5 - Mr Rochester is a mostly unappealing romantic lead with his age gap and his clinginess (especially in comparison to Jane Austen's Mr Darcy), but it's kind of amazing that Charlotte Brontë wrote something like this as a woman in the 19th century.

This book outlines “attachment theory” - how people express themselves in relationships falls into roughly three buckets:

* Secure: doesn't have any issues expressing love
* Anxious: is more of the “clingy” type
* Avoidant: is cold, tends to withdraw or easily break things off

Basically if you're a secure type, you're all good but if you're an insecure type (anxious or avoidant), and your partner is also an insecure type, you're probably going to experience some relationship issues. Actually the book goes one step further and basically says “if you're both insecure types you're probably never going to be as happy as you would be if you dated a secure person, but whatever”. A bit of a spicy take but could be true though.

Some of the criticism I saw previously when reading reviews for this book is that it's pro-anxious and anti-avoidant. While I did feel that vibe a bit (the author definitely seemed a tad more sympathetic to anxious types) as a self-diagnosed avoidant I didn't really feel personally attacked or anything. If anything I could agree with a lot of the things the author pointed out (although reading about it is one thing, actually putting it into practice is a hell of a lot harder...).

I'm an Alistair Reynolds fan but I had some issues with this one. Without any spoilers, it's a bit of a mashup between sci-fi space travel and an alternate history 1950s Paris. The overall concept was excellent, the Paris bit was good, but the space part not so much. Also there was an attempted romance which didn't feel very convincing.