October 2021 Reading Round-Up
The best and worst of my reading month
Welcome to the October 2021 Reading Round-Up. Each month, I write about the books I read and rank them from worst to best.
Between law school applications and some travel, I had a slower reading month than normal. I found myself drawn to fast-paced and light books in the time that I did have, with the exception of some heavier reading on North Korea and a multi-generational story of Vietnamese refugees living in New Orleans. And, for fans of Katherine Heiny, her debut short story collection does not disappoint, topping the list at #1.
7. Becoming Kim Jong Un - Jung H. Pak
Non-Fiction, North Korean History, U.S. Foreign Relations and Intelligence, 336 pages
Jung H. Pak is a former CIA officer, former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and current deputy assistant secretary of state for east Asian and Pacific affairs. Her book, published in April 2020, is marketed as an “authoritative” book on North Korea, covering subjects from North Korean history, to the personality and leadership style of Kim Jong Un, to global security and nuclear policy. I have read a fair amount on North Korea, including the definitive Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader by Bradley Martin and Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy, and was therefore excited to read this book because I thought the author’s experience working at the CIA would provide new insight into the subject. Instead, I felt like Becoming Kim Jong Un could have been written by anyone. Nearly all of the anecdotes, including the details on Kim Jong Un’s childhood and personality traits, came from open source information that had previously been reported on, which made the book seem like it lacked original research or perspective. The book was also too wide-ranging in its scope, lending it the feel of a college thesis rather than a book written by an experienced author on a specialized topic. It is easy to read, however, so if you are looking for a broad overview of the history, politics, and foreign policy strategy of North Korea, this a fine place to start.
Rating: 6/10
6. The Turnout - Megan Abbott
Fiction/Thriller, 352 pages
Dara and Marie Durant are sisters and co-owners of a dance studio that was passed down to them after their parents’ tragic death in a car accident. On top of working as business partners, Marie lives with Dara and her husband Charlie in relative contentment until a fire wrecks part of their studio right before Nutcracker season, the busiest time of the year. Their lives are thrown into further disarray when the contractor they hire begins an affair with Marie and starts to ask questions about family secrets, including the sisters’ relationships with Charlie and their odd family dynamics.
This is a weird book. The line between creepy and unnecessarily weird was crossed very early on. For example, nearly all of Abbott’s descriptions of the dancer’s bodies, which were included in every chapter, were both sexual and unnerving. By the end of the book I was so ready to be done that the revelations, which I see as the reader’s reward in any thriller, neither surprised me nor made the preceding 300 pages worthwhile.
Rating: 6.5/10
5. Anna K - Jenny Lee
Fiction, 440 pages
Anna K is a young adult retelling of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Similar to Anna Karenina, there are many characters to keep track of, except this time they are wealthy teenagers in New York rather than Russian adults. This makes for an engaging and glamorous read reminiscent of Crazy Rich Asians or Gossip Girl. However, while the book was entertaining and fairly faithful to the original story (except for a major modern twist), nearly all of the language, from the dialogue to the narrative setting, was clinical and absolutely did not match the voices of teenagers, creating a distraction in an otherwise unique book.
Rating: 7.5/10
4. The Road Trip - Beth O’Leary
Fiction/Romance, 400 pages
Four years ago, Dylan and Addie met at their friend Cherry’s villa in Provence, France. They quickly fell in love despite the radically different life paths of Addie (new teacher) and Dylan (rudderless but wealthy recent graduate of Oxford). Two years later, a large misunderstanding cause Dylan and Addie to break up and stop speaking, until a chance encounter two years later changes everything. Dylan and Addie are traveling separately to Cherry’s wedding in rural Scotland when a minor car accident forces Addie to give Dylan and his best friend a ride. The road trip is a comedy of errors, from maintenance issues, to traffic, to the realization that the stranger they were giving a ride to was not actually a wedding guest. Told in alternating chapters between the past and present and Dylan and Addie’s dueling perspectives, Beth O’Leary has yet again written a quirky and enjoyable romance.
Rating: 7.5/10
3. The Husbands - Chandler Baker
Fiction/Thriller/Mystery, 352 pages
In The Husbands, Chandler Baker asks the question: what if women could have it all? Nora is a successful attorney living in Austin, Texas. She is married with one child and another one on the way. But Nora is frustrated. Although she and her husband both work long hours, it feels like she alone is responsible for all of the domestic and child rearing tasks. One day, while looking for a new home that will accommodate their growing family, Nora and her husband tour a neighborhood that just feels different. All of the women who live there have accomplished careers. All of their husbands do the majority of domestic tasks and are accommodating of their wives’ busy schedules. What makes these couples different? When Nora agrees to take on a wrongful death suit for a woman in the neighborhood, she quickly becomes friends with this impressive group. Along the way, however, she begins to notice cracks in the facade, some of which may have deadly consequences.
My biggest critique of this book was that it was extremely heteronormative. Every couple in the book involved a married man and woman because the premise of the story depended on this structure of marriage. On top of that, every couple was presumed to be wealthy, which did not necessarily take away from the core issues, but did make their plights somewhat less sympathetic when considering how vastly removed their situations were from the majority of families across the country. Nonetheless, the book was gripping, fast-paced, and made me think, which are good qualities in any thriller or mystery.
Rating: 8/10
2. Things We Lost to the Water - Eric Nguyen
Historical Fiction, 304 pages
Things We Lost to the Water is a multi-generational saga about one family’s experience moving from Vietnam to New Orleans. The book begins by following Huong, the family matriarch. Huong is a young mother when she arrives in America, having fled South Vietnam on a life raft with her young son. She is pregnant when she arrives in the United States and does not know what happened to her husband back home. Without knowing English or possessing any money, she must rely on the Vietnamese community and the charity of Christian missionaries, despite being a Buddhist herself, to establish herself in New Orleans and make a life for her sons, Tuan and Binh. As the chapters progress, readers watch as Tuan and Binh grow up and take different paths in life. Tuan was born in Vietnam and feels a connection to his birthplace and his father. However, he struggles to remain connected to his heritage while also finding opportunities in New Orleans. Binh, on the other hand, was born in the United States and is desperate not to be seen as different or out of place. He wants to leave his family at the first chance he gets, until Hurricane Katrina hits the city and the whole family must determine how to survive.
This book was on Obama’s summer 2021 reading list for good reason. I thought the story was moving and well-written and really enjoyed learning about the Vietnamese community in a city I previously had not associated with a large refugee population. Nguyen adeptly writes about the hard issues of assimilation, poverty, and opportunity that is sure to move any reader.
Rating: 8.5/10
1. Single, Carefree, Mellow - Katherine Heiny
Fiction/Short-Stories, 240 pages
Single, Carefree, Mellow is made up of eleven short stories written by Katherine Heiny, one of my favorite authors. The protagonist of each story is a young woman living out a normal life, full of relatable routines, humorous anecdotes, and daily challenges. What I love about Katherine Heiny is her ability to write about mundane and quotidian details in an engaging and wonderful way. Heiny does not rely on dramatic tropes, needless drama, or fast-moving plots, and never features protagonists who are anything but regular people, yet I am invested in every story and character that she creates.
Rating: 9/10
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Want to see last month’s round up? You can find that here.