Are you often wondering what to read next and which books help you immerse yourself while traveling abroad? See here what I read in September 2019.
What I read this month
This month I was preparing for a new trip to South Korea, so I mainly read books set in South Korea. It will be fun seeing some of the places or situations I read about in real life. Most of the times though especially the locations aren’t explicitly named, so it’s hard to figure out where the story takes place.
Even though this blog post is named September 2019, that doesn’t mean I read any books released that month. I’ll try to read some newly released books in the future, but I don’t really mind reading books many years later; they don’t lose their charm.
The Korean books listed below have been added to my Best Korean books blog post. Take a look to see at what spot they entered the favorites list.
Kim Sagwa - Mina
This is one of the first books I read from a Korean author that has a high school student as the main character throughout the book. It’s refreshing, though that doesn’t mean that it is a light book, on the contrary. While the main character, Crystal, is a young girl with troubles fitting her situation, at times she starts contemplating like a far older adult and it seems like you are reading the voice and thoughts of the author more than Crystal’s thoughts. At first, she seems like a regular girl, but the further you get, the more you start to notice about her.
I didn’t like the style of the dialogues very much; too tacky in my opinion. Some parts of the book I found interesting, other parts were less interesting to read. Hence it’s only logical that I both recommend and not recommend this book. I didn’t dislike this book; it’s just that some parts didn’t work for me.
Check it out on Amazon.
Crystal toils day and night to earn top grades at her cram school. She’s also endlessly texting, shopping, drinking, vexing her boyfriends, cranking up her mp3s, and fantasizing about her next slice of cheesecake. Her non- stop frenzy never quite manages the one thing that might calm her down: opening up about the pressures that are driving her to the edge. She certainly hasn’t talked with her best friend, Mina, nor Mina’s brother, whom she’s developing a serious crush on. And Crystal’s starting to lose her grip.
Kim Sagwa creates a piercingly real teen protagonist–at once powerful, vulnerable, and utterly confused. As one bad decision leads to another, this promising life spirals to a devastating climax.
Eun Heekyung - Beauty Looks Down on Me
I chose to read this book because one of the stories takes place in Wando; a city I’m planning to visit on my next visit to South Korea. Besides Wando (only named ‘W’), some other places are named as well, like Gangnam and a certain bookstore at Gangwhamun Square (namely Kyobo). What’s interesting is that all these places are not actually named (except Gangnam), probably to avoid advertising a brand. I notice this often in books from Korean authors. This makes it hard to actually recognize the sites.
The stories in this book didn’t appeal to me at all. I couldn’t connect to the characters, and what’s more, I couldn’t keep them apart as they all had a first letter like ‘S’ instead of a name. So I’m not recommending this book.
Check it out on Amazon.
Beauty Looks Down On Me is a collection of by turns sad and funny stories about the thwarted expectations of the young as they grow older. HeeKyung s characters are misfits who by virtue of their bodies or their lack of social status are left to dream of momentous changes that will never come. Unsatisfied with work, with family, with friends, they lose themselves in diets, books, and blogs. Heekyung s collection humorously but humanely depicts the loneliness and monotony found in many modern lives.
Lisa See - The Island of Sea Women
I enjoyed this book very much, so I definitely recommend it. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See is a must-read if you’re planning to visit Sunrise Peak and see the women divers of Jeju. It helps you understand more about their skills but also about their strength in providing for their families under dire circumstances. Set in Jeju during the Japanese occupation it shows you Jeju from the past, including its traditions and ways in which Jeju is different from the mainland of South Korea. It is also very well written and easy to read.
Check it out on Amazon.
The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective. Over many decades—through the Japanese colonialism of the 1930s and 1940s, World War II, the Korean War, and the era of cellphones and wet suits for the women divers—Mi-ja and Young-sook develop the closest of bonds. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, forever marking her, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers. After hundreds of dives and years of friendship, forces outside their control will push their relationship to the breaking point.
Hwang Sok-yong - The Guest
The biggest part of the story takes place in Hwanghae, North Korea. The moment the main character enters North Korea is also when the story starts to get interesting. In between the author tells a lot about what happened in the past, which sometimes sounds like a history lesson and is not as entertaining to read. Reading this book felt a lot like being on tour myself. When Yosop visited Sinchon museum, the descriptions were very much on point and it made me think about visiting Auschwitz years back. Especially the last part of the book, where you find out what happened before the main character and his brother left for the US is impressive.
Because the old romanization standard is used and perspective changes a lot, this book can be hard to read at times. After At Dusk, this is the second book I read by this author and even though I didn’t end up like it as much as I hoped, I’ll read more books by Hwang Sok-Yong in the future, because I’m curious about the historical events and situations he writes about.
Check it out on Amazon.
Based on actual events, The Guest is a profound portrait of a divided people haunted by a painful past, and a generation’s search for reconciliation.
During the Korean War, Hwanghae Province in North Korea was the setting of a gruesome fifty-two day massacre. In an act of collective amnesia the atrocities were attributed to American military, but in truth they resulted from malicious battling between Christian and Communist Koreans. Forty years later, Ryu Yosop, a minister living in America returns to his home village, where his older brother once played a notorious role in the bloodshed. Besieged by vivid memories and visited by the troubled spirits of the deceased, Yosop must face the survivors of the tragedy and lay his brother’s soul to rest.
Kader Abdolah - De adelaars [Translation: The Eagles]
This book is in Dutch and hasn’t been translated to English, so for most of you, this entry probably won’t be interesting (The House of the Mosque is his best known translated book). But for those of you learning Dutch, this book is a great place to start practicing your Dutch reading skills, because the sentences are short and not too complicated. The writing style is very pleasant and slightly poetic, which just keeps you reading until you finish this short novella of around 90 pages. Kader Abdolah has the power to create real people with only a few words. It is really impressive that the author wrote this in Dutch, which isn’t his native language.
The stories are about someone who is lost in a foreign country and doesn’t know very well what to do. There is a culture clash and he is not treated respectfully by everyone he accounters. As such, the situation is hard for the refugees, but also for those helping them as there is not a perfect solution that fits everyone. Themes like loneliness, surviving, loyalty, dealing with trauma are interwoven in the stories set in the Netherlands, but also in Iran.
At the end of each story, usually the last paragraph, there is a twist, which shakes your whole understanding of the story; I loved those.
Check it out on Bol.com.
What does it mean to be a political refugee in a world with another culture? When Kader Abdolah had to flee his country, he came to the Netherlands. He wrote the stories in this collection in Dutch. Abdolah tells about human suffering in Dutch refugee camps and houses, but also about a reign of terror in Iran. His stories follow in the footsteps of the melancholic poetry of the great Persian poets.
Kim Yideum - Blood Sisters
The story mostly takes place in Busan, South Korea, so if you’re visiting Busan, this book is a good travel companion. Many places are named, like Taejong beach, Youngdo, Jagalchi open market, Gwangbok intersection and temple Beomuh subway station. The main character, Yeoul, also takes a trip to Gyungho river in Sanchung via Jinju and to Hadong. More than any other book I’ve read from Korean authors, you can follow the path the main characters take in the story.
The story is set some years after the student uprising in Gwangju and many students are still involved in the demonstrations, like the friends of Yeoul, with the police watching over them closely.
Yeoul is from a dysfunctional family and basically has to take care of herself throughout the story. She is depressed, lonely and doesn’t know what to do with her life and just settles with the first guy that suggests going through life together just because she can’t think of a better alternative. The author doesn’t shy away from themes like sexual orientation, disability, political viewpoints and dealing with rape, loss and suicide.
I really liked the writing style and the references to art, culture and philosophy. I enjoyed this book very much, but it might not be for everyone because of the subjects and thoughts in it.
Check it out on Amazon.
Blood Sisters tells the story of Jeong Yeoul, a young Korean college student in the 1980’s, when the memory of President Chun Doohwan’s violent suppression of student demonstrations against martial law was still fresh. Yideum captures with raw honesty the sense of dread felt by many Korean women during this time as Jeong struggles in a swirl of misguided desires and hopelessness against a society distorted by competing ideologies, sexual violence, and cultural conservatism. Facing this helplessness, her impulse is to escape into the world of art. Blood Sisters is a vivid, powerful portrayal of a woman’s efforts to live an authentic life in the face of injustice.
If you want to read more about the student uprising in Gwangju in 1980, check out Human Acts by Han Kang.
Further reading
- Best Korean Books list (more Korean books)
- Highlights of South Korea (find out the ideal moment to read the books)
- Best Japanese Books list (for your visit to Japan)
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