📚 Q1 book reviews

This year my goodreads goal is to read 15 books by the end of the year. For once in my life, I am ahead of the curve! Everything I’ve read so far has been good enough to recommend to you, my lovely audience. So here are my hot takes:

My Body (5✨)

by Emily Ratajkowski

• At times heavy, but a great book to kick off my reading year!

• Don’t let the small size of the book fool you. It’s full of impressive and moving writing about existing in a woman’s body in America. Loved how Ratajkowski captures the moral dilemma of wanting to resist one’s own objectification while also wanting to profit from that inevitable dehumanization.

• This book made me more appreciative of the challenges facing women in the media age, and it made me feel softer towards myself and the women around me <3 <3 <3 Absolute hot girl book

Convenience Store Woman (5✨)

by Sayaka Murata

• Another lucky five star read from January.

• This novella follows the life of a Japanese woman who simply loves her minimum wage job as a convenience store clerk. When society pushes her to find a husband, a higher paying job, and other markers of adult success, the MC must contend with a confusing web of unspoken responsibilities and expectations, all of which are far less straightforward than her beloved convenience store.

• As someone who recently joined the “adult world” and was surprised to discover how deeply unfulfilling it is, this one really resonated with me. I found the main character and her pure hearted love for her occupation so endearing and I would lay down my life to protecc her!!! Also this novella makes a really interesting statement on the types of labor which society deems as dignified

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays (4✨)

by Alexander Chee

• A memoir disguised as a novel-writing guidebook. This work touches on queerness, queer boyhood, the financial life of a writer, family connections, race in America, art, sexual trauma, and entertaining stories of odd jobs and travel from the early life of author Alexander Chee.

• I definitely found myself learning more about the novel as a medium, although this book wasn’t one. This book felt more like poetry at times. Chee’s prose is romantic and heartfelt. Lovers of big feelings will enjoy it.

• This book also gave a peek into life as a queer ASIAN in San Francisco during the height of the AIDS epidemic. I haven’t been exposed to any other Asian perspectives on this era, so I find that very valuable. But Chee is also careful not to make his race or his sexuality the central theme of who he is. Some may appreciate his reproach of being labelled as a Gay writer or an Asian writer, while others may find it alienating.

Earthlings (3✨)

by Sayaka Murata

• Another Murata book!! Unfortunately, this one does not live up to the earlier-published Convenience Store Woman. TW: sexual assault, pedophilia, incest, gore. Yes, the cutesy cover is highly misleading.

• This novel follows Natsuki, alternatingly between her childhood growing up in Tokyo and vising family in the Japanese countryside, and her adult life. Natsuki, much like the mc in Convenience Store Woman, feels alienated from both society’s expectations and her own family. So much so, that Natsuki is convinced that she is actually an alien with magical powers. This belief carries into her adulthood, and Natsuki ultimately shares her alien way of life with others trying to escape “the factory” of normal adulthood.

• This book was DARK. Just really heavy on the heart. Once again, I was really fond of the mc, so I trudged on to the end, but this was genuinely difficult to stomach at points. Unfortunately, the darkest parts were the most vivid and realistic. The ending was extremely mid. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (5 maybe SIX ✨)

By Amitav Ghosh

• Single but glaring drawback of this book: lots of unnecessary highbrow language

• HOWEVER this book addresses the crucial question of why climate change isn’t taken seriously as a subject of contemporary literature, urban planning, and politics. Ghosh argues that we collectively ~pretend we do not see it~ not just because ignoring climate change is convenient, but because our modes of communication were constructed to purposefully evade the topic

• Ghosh also pays particular attention to the role of Asia in movements for climate justice. The denser populations of Asia consume far fewer fossil fuels per-capita, but altogether Asia is a huge emitter of CO2. If policy is to change, should we force Asia to remain pre-modern in its technologies? Or allow them to buy their cars and their washing machines at the expense of offsets in the West? How does the legacy of colonialism affect these decisions?

• My favorite part of this book was that I learned so much about how carbon-reliant industries motivated and shaped colonial empires!! It’s hard for me to condense into this tiny review, but if you’re interested in understanding centuries-old fossil fuel technologies in the context of geopolitical upheaval, you’ll enjoy this book. It’s a lotttt. But it’s also everythinggggg.

Bewilderment (4✨)

By Richard Powers

• Ironically, immediately after reading a book which claimed that contemporary fiction doesn’t seriously contend with climate change, I read this fabulous contemporary novel which beautifully contends with climate change, and uses it as a metaphor for the uncontrollable interpersonal changes of a growing boy’s relationship with his father.

• In this novel, Astrobiologist Theo cares for his 9-year-old son, Robbie, after the death of Theo’s wife, Aly, who was an environmental lobbyist. Robbie has autism, and when his behavior gets him in trouble at school, Theo enrolls Robbie in an experimental psychiatric treatment. Robbie trains his brain using his dead mother’s brain scans, and eerie similarities between Robbie and Aly’s personalities begin to emerge. Soon enough, Robbie is carrying Aly’s torch and becoming a next-generation environmental activist. But Theo is left constantly wondering if he is doing what is right by his unique, precious child during the limited time they have together on this unique, precious earth.

• Beautiful, creative, thought-provoking story. BUT LAZY AND UNSATISFYING ENDING boooo tomato tomato tomato. If not for the last 20 pages, I would give it five stars. BUT I would still recommend this book overall, because Powers’ writing is so pretty and makes you just want to go outside and appreciate the grass.

That’s all for now folks!

If you’ve read/enjoyed/hated any of these books, I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for reading! Wishing you the best books and the coziest nooks.