May Books

Sorry for the lateness of this monthly book summary. But it’s here never the less, I did try and finish Dune (50 pages remained) for the end of May for the book club I made with my sister but to be honest, it was far too dense to finish in time and I’m thinking that maybe a book club isn’t for me after all. My reasoning is that I like spontaneity where I can get it and deciding that I must read a certain book in order to review it at the end of the month actually makes me less enthused to read it. Maybe I’m weird? Who knows…anyway here are the books I finished in May.

Winter in Sokcho (Hiver à Sokcho) by Elisa Shua Dusapin

This first novel by French-Korean writer Dusapin is a poetic and atmospheric account of an encounter between a young woman who feels trapped in her life, she has her mother who she can’t leave and a boyfriend she no longer loves and a French comic artist. There is a quiet intensity between them and Dusapin cleverly leaves us wondering as this small novel closes ambiguously.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

My final Uni read (cries in Shakespearean) I can’t believe I’ve done it, my degree is finished and I am now a graduate! Ok back to dear old Austen, well I found this one to be quite a bore if I’m perfectly honest. I know its her ‘most mature’ work but I just expected more, not much happened and I found Pride and Prejudice to be far more entertaining even though I have watched the Keira Knightley movie 100 times and know exactly how the story goes. I am hoping that my next Austen read (I’m thinking Emma) will be a much more enjoyable affair.

Find Me by André Aciman

Oh, I don’t really know where to start with this one. Find Me as a sequel to Call Me By Your Name is such a disappointment. I absolutely loved the relationship between Elio and Oliver and for it to not really even feature in this book until right at the end was quite the letdown. To be honest, I couldn’t really care less about Elio’s father and his weird encounter with a random woman, and that’s what most of the book was taken up with!

Quarantine Reading Recommendations

As promised here are the books I recommend you read to pass the time while we are in Quarantine. Fiction is a great distraction so I hope you can delve into these books to escape reality for a short while.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

To quote myself last year in my review of the book is perhaps the best way to recommend it to you now as I don’t think I can improve upon my summary:

‘Invisible Cities is not just a novel by any means. It’s a poetic study of the human experience. Framed by a conversation between the famed Venetian explorer Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, Invisible Cities explores 55 different cities that may or may not be imaginary or in the very least a description of Polo’s hometown Venice.’

READ THIS BOOK! It has become one of my favourites and I am currently reading Cosmicomics by Calvino and I feel like that will also become a favourite.

Anything (by this I mean any of his books) by Haruki Murakami

Murakami is a genius, in my opinion, I love how he writes and I love what he writes about. I’m still relatively new to his works as I started reading him in late 2016, and to be honest, I have only read four of his books (and countless short stories). But, I am nearing the end of my degree - literally in a few weeks so I feel like I can fully delve into his work and slowly work my way through it.

My recommendations based on what I’ve read of him so far is Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart.

The Salmon Who Dared to Leap Higher by Ahn Do-hyung

An uplifting story of a Salmon who was unlike his fellow Salmons thanks to his silver scales, he learns to defy expectations and keep working hard to pursue a dream. This is a poetic fable that will warm your heart and inspire you to look deep within and question what you want out of life.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

To continue the theme of heartwarming reads that cause you to have a profound moment of introspection is one of my favourite recent reads (It was the last book I read in 2019). Before the Coffee Gets Cold takes the concept of time travel and turns it into a lesson on how to cherish each moment and that you should always appreciate what you have while you have it! THis book isn’t in the pile as I lent it to my sister so that she could have something healing to read in this time (I also gave her some of Haemin Sunim’s beautiful little books of wisdom too).

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

A beautiful love story that will take you back to a safer time, one summer in Italy when Elio and Oliver fall in love. I love the movie and I love this book, I feel like I may have to re-read (and re-watch) it this summer. And I also want to read the follow up Find Me as soon as it’s published in Paperback.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

With the BBC adaptation imminent I keep wanting to revisit this book. I love Rooney’s writing and I feel like this whole quarantine situation has made me want to read about love stories. Either I’m compensating for the extreme lack of romance in my life or I am trying to expel the heavy emotions that this time is putting on us all. I can’t decide what it is…maybe it’s both (insert cry emoji)

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

If you're not feeling too fragile this book is a masterpiece I was going to try and write about it for my final essay at Uni but they cancelled it (cries, both tears of sorrow and tears of joy). The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye from the point of view of three different people: Her husband, Her brother-in-law and Her sister. Its complex and beautiful and is one of the best novels I have ever read! I also have a second-hand copy I managed to get on eBay that is in Korean so with all the spare time I’ve got at the moment I am going to work towards reading it in Korean!

I love it when art inspires art, and for Kang, a line of poetry by Lee Sang inspired her story.

나는 인간만은 식물이어야 한다고 생각한다,

I believe Humans should be plants.

What a strange and interesting sentiment. Perhaps we should at the very least look to plants for inspiration. They work within their ecosystems to keep a balance in nature and support other living things around them.