Book Review: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo (From & About Asia Reading Project)

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about joining the From and About Asia reading project, which requires me to read two books about Asia every month (actually the rules are a bit more complicated than that, but we'll get into more detail in a second). Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of finishing my first assigned book for the project: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo.

For those of you who need a refresher of the project's book criteria, let me give you a quick reminder. Each month focuses on a different country in Asia, May's being North Korea, and then requires you to read one book for each of the following categories:

Category I: a book by an author from that country

Category II: a book about the culture of the subregion where the country is from

Funnily enough, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 actually fits into the second category here, even though I finished it before my Category I choice. The reason for this is that I'm  reading my other North Korea book (The Accusation by Bandi) as part of a buddy read that continues until the end of this month. So, I have somewhat counterintuitively finished my Category II book before it. 

I will admit I was a little confused at first as to what book I should choose for this category. I ended up choosing Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 because I already owned a digital copy, I'd heard other feminist readers rave about it, and I liked the idea of reading one book from North Korea and another about South Korea. It seemed to fit the criteria for a book that looks at an East Asian subculture because it follows the life of the eponymous main character as she navigates life as a woman in South Korea. The story takes us from before her birth to her becoming a mother herself. Along the way, it tackles a variety of issues relating to sexism and patriarchy, all seen through the lens of Jiyoung's experiences.

One of the blurbs inside the book claimed that "Kim Jiyoung's life is made to seem at once totally common-place and nightmarishly over-the-top", which I admit I found quite strange. While I would agree that Jiyoung's life is both commonplace and nightmarish, there is nothing over-the-top about it. Everything she goes through is totally normal, even if the anti-feminist instinct to deny these experiences is so strong that Cho Nam-joo had to include actual citations within the text. Given that the book is written from a South Korean perspective and set in that country, Jiyoung's life is specifically that of a Korean woman, and her experiences with sexism and misogyny reflect that. For example, I think that perhaps the issues of sex-selective abortion and ideas about honour and tradition in families (and how this affects gender relations within them) are perhaps more particularly significant in Korea. 

On the other hand, as the great Mona Eltahawy said, "Patriarchy is universal." So much of what Jiyoung experiences is relatable even to me as a woman who has never so much as visited Korea. Being sexualised from a young age, encountering predatory men as a child, being told that as a girl you can't do things that boys your age are doing, having your choice of clothing constantly analysed and controlled, being harassed by men on the street, being told that this harassment is your own fault, living in constant fear of the violence you know other women like you have experienced, feeling a dull sense of inevitability when you finally experience that violence yourself - all of these are things that Jiyoung, myself, and countless other women worldwide have gone through. 

I know that some people reading this, specifically men, will probably hear my description of the book and think, "I'm not sure this is for me." Maybe you don't like reading so-called "feminist" literature or maybe you just feel like this book would be a bit too intense for your liking. Unfortunately, the women in your life don't have the opportunity to opt-out of sexism and misogyny like you can opt-out of reading a book which focuses on them. If I could, I'd get all the men I know to read this book, if only so they can see (however briefly) the relentless patriarchal onslaught that comes with going through life as a woman.

That's not to say that only men would benefit from reading this book, of course. Reading it as a woman made me feel very validated and vindicated in my anger at systemic sexism. I think this book deserves a place as a new feminist classic for how well and concisely it depicts the reality of being a woman in the modern world. It doesn't depict every single aspect, as I'm sure no book really could, but it depicts the life and experiences of one woman and it does so incredibly well. 

For those who have also read and enjoyed this book, like me, I would like to recommend two other stories you may enjoy. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 reminded me a lot of The Vegetarian by Han Kang, since both depict Korean women whose conflict with the patriarchal society that surrounds them has manifested itself internally as a mental illness. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story that shares a similar plotline, albeit from an American perspective. I was also reminded of Min Jin Lee's short story The Best Girls, which I mentioned in a previous post. Like Kim Jiyoung, The Best Girls gave insight into the lives of Korean women and how young women can be expected to make sacrifices for the sake of their brothers, simply by virtue of their gender.

I would like to write more about this book, going through every aspect of patriarchy which is addressed in the novel and talking about how relatable it all was, but to be honest I could not say any of this better than the book does itself. That said, if you'd like to read more of my thoughts, I made a short post about the book on Instagram and also shared a few quotes from it there. Otherwise, I would suggest reading Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 if you want to know more. It's only a short book so it doesn't take long to read, but its impact will stay with you well after the last sentence.

Review: The Disorder Collection (Part 1)

Recently I decided to make use of Amazon's 30-day free trial on Kindle Unlimited, a service which lets you borrow as many books as you want from Amazon's selection for a flat monthly fee. I have no intention of paying this monthly fee or otherwise using this service outside of my free trial, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to read some (temporarily) free books. So, I am trying to read as many books from the Kindle Unlimited library as I can before my trial runs out.

Some of the books I have been reading during this period are those in Amazon's Disorder collection, a series of short stories and novellas by six different authors. While the individual plots vary, the stories are united thematically in that they each deal with semi-realistic but disturbing and unsettling events. I definitely preferred some stories over others, but so far they have all delivered on their promise to "get inside your head" and provoke feelings of mild to severe horror. In this post, I am going to take you through three of these stories and give you my thoughts on them, with the other three reviews coming in a later post.

Now, before I get into the individual stories, I feel the need to address the unethical elephant in the room: Amazon. Unfortunately, this short story collection is an Amazon original project, meaning that the stories are published by and primarily sold through Amazon. This is a problem, given that I consider Amazon to be a harmful and morally reprehensible company. They monopolise the online shopping market, dodge taxes, and mistreat their workers. I am normally so reluctant to promote their website on my blog that I will even censor the company's name, so you can imagine that I was unsure whether or not to review these books here. 

In the end, I decided to review these books anyway in the interests of supporting the authors, not Amazon. That is not to say that my thought process negates any harm I might be doing by supporting such a horrible company, and I can absolutely respect that some people may not want to purchase these stories due to their proximity to Amazon. It's a sad fact that Amazon's growth has become something of a vicious circle, making it harder and harder for people to avoid interacting with the company, as their market dominance grows and "ethical consumerism" becomes more and more of a challenge (especially for those of us without much money to spare). All of that said, I am very happy to hear others' perspectives on this, especially if you hate Amazon as much as I do and have suggestions for how we can avoid supporting them. 

Also, just to reiterate: the Kindle Unlimited free trial lasts a month and will run for the full 30 days even if you "cancel" it immediately after subscribing, so you won't have to pay any money. Just saying.

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With that out of the way, let's get into specifics. As I mentioned before, the series is comprised of six stories by six different authors. Although the evil A-site lists them in a specific order, as far as I can tell this is arbitrary and the stories can be read in any order you want. I am listing them in the order I read them, so you can see how my perception of each story was impacted by the ones I read before it.  

The Best Girls by Min Jin Lee

This was the book that first piqued my interest in the collection, with an intriguing plot summary and an author who I'd heard great praise for (Min Jin Lee being the author of Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires, both popular novels). Having now read half of the books in the set, The Best Girls remains my favourite so far. It's a haunting story of gender roles and family sacrifice, specifically how they manifest in Korean culture. I thought this story was powerful and felt very real - perhaps especially because it turned out to be based on a true story. Min Jin Lee's writing is emotionally-affecting without being overly sentimental, and the twist at the end truly shocked me. 

Anonymous by Uzodinma Iweala

This story was a disorientating read, in a way I believe was intentional on the part of the author. It focuses on a Black American man who is stopped by border security upon his arrival back in US. What follows is horrific in its reality, but more so in its apparent meaninglessness and absurdity. Iweala gives a great sense of the helplessness and isolation of the protagonist, made all the more painful by the knowledge that things like this are far from just fiction for people of colour around the world. More than anything else, it is the existential horror of Anonymous's brutality that sticks in my mind.

Ungirls by Lauren Beukes

The plot summary of Ungirls sounded perhaps the most ambitious and definitely the most fascinating of the six stories, which is maybe why the result felt a little disappointing. Dealing with plot points ranging from sex dolls to prostitution to doxxing to mass shootings to Jordan Peterson-esque public speakers (I mean come on, we all know that was meant to be a Peterson clone right?), the story pulled together a lot of threads but fell just short of tying them together. I think Beukes has a lot of fascinating ideas, like the connection of the Barbie Liberation Organisation to sex doll production, but this book didn't quite do them justice. Ungirls would probably have worked better as a full-length novel or a slimmed-down short story. As it is, it sort of awkwardly straddles the two. That said, it was still thought-provoking and I don't regret reading it.

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With that, we have reached the end of Part 1 of this review. Please stay tuned (subscribed?) for the next instalment. In the mean time, please feel free to share your thoughts on these books in the comments. I would also very much like to hear your feelings about Amazon and whether we can use it to purchase books while still remaining ethical. 

My Favourite Bookish YouTubers

Good morning/afternoon/evening, gentle readers! I hope that this post finds you all well. 

While some of you might be expecting, based on my last post, for this blog instalment to focus on the From and About Asia reading project, you might have guessed from the title that this is not actually the case. If so, you would be correct. Today's post is on a different topic, since I haven't actually finished any of my books for the reading project yet. Instead, we're going to be looking at a different side of internet-related bookishness: booktube. 

For those who haven't heard the term before, "booktube" refers to the side of YouTube where people talk about books. I am interpreting this word quite broadly here and not limiting it just to those who describe themselves as "booktubers". Rather, I am including YouTubers who frequently talk about books, even if that is not necessarily the primary or sole focus of their channel. 

Booktube is something I only got into in the last few years or so. Considering that popular booktubers such as Rosianna Halse Rojas and booksandquills's Sanne have been uploading book-related content for over a decade, I am a relative newcomer to the scene. I think for some years I was put off because booktube seemed dominated by videos about YA books, a genre which I don't read much of. However, this is not really the case, as booktubers make videos about a wide variety of books, from fiction to non-fiction, from YA to literary novels. After becoming aware of this, I was introduced to dozens of booktubers who were not only fun and informative to watch, but who also focused on books which were actually of interest to me.

In this post, I'd like to share some of my favourite booktubers (or, more broadly, bookish YouTubers). They range from lesbian fiction reviewers to rapper-historians who also recommend books, but what they all have in common is that I have watched and enjoyed all of them - and found out about some good books along the way.

(Also a quick note on pronouns and gender: for all of the people mentioned on this list, I have attempted to find out their pronouns. I will obviously use the correct pronouns for those who have specified them in any of the sources I can find, but for the others I will be using they/them. If anyone notices that I have been using the incorrect pronouns, please do let me know and I will change them ASAP!)

The Bookish Land

The first YouTuber I wanted to talk about is one I have mentioned before, as both my favourite booktuber and the creator of the From and About Asia Project: The Bookish Land. I believe that this is the name of their channel and the creator actually goes by Meonicorn online, although I am happy to be corrected on this if anyone knows for sure! Anyway, their channel is a full "booktube" one, as it focuses almost entirely on books. They review books, recommend books, make videos about their TBRs, and even do vlogs where they visit bookshops all around the world. There are two things that I especially like about their videos: they always have international, diverse reading choices, and they always give well thought-out, insightful opinions. They seem to approach their reading and reviewing with a sensitivity and compassion that I greatly admire.

 

Jess Owens

The second YouTuber I'm excited to mention is someone who I only discovered recently, in comparison to the others on this list, but I have been enjoying their videos so much that I had to include them: Jess Owens. While Jess Owens does make a variety of bookish videos, including reviews and reading wrap-ups, what I would most like to draw attention to is their Book CommuniTEA series, where they break down all the latest drama in the bookish community. I think this series is brilliant because it perfectly fills a niche and I haven't seen anyone else of YouTube make videos about book drama quite as well as Jess Owens does. They do a great job of digging through complex social media drama (where most of these things take place, naturally) and presenting it in a digestible way. Their Book CommuniTEA series is clearly well-researched and provides a mostly-neutral perspective on recent events, although I also appreciate when Jess Owens offers their own opinions as well. Jess Owens's videos are smart, thought-provoking, and present controversial topics in a way that is balanced and compassionate. On top of all this, they also have an absolutely adorable dog named Nigel, who features in their videos! 

Akala

While Akala is perhaps not a booktuber in the strictest sense of the term - being a writer and hip hop artist primarily - he is still someone whose thoughts on books I value very highly. His series Akala's Great Reads shows him going into detail about the books he considers to be important or influential, ranging from non-fiction works like A Dying Colonialism to sci-fi novels like Dune. Each video is short, only a couple of minutes long, and focuses on a single book. For every book, he introduces it, gives a short explanation of its topic, and then explains why he believes it's worth reading. While I don't necessarily agree with Akala on every book he recommends (the same being true for every booktuber, I suppose), his reasoning behind each suggestion is always profound and grounded in how the books affected him personally. Even for books I absolutely do not enjoy, like Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, hearing Akala praise them has made me reconsider the books and whether they might have value which I didn't initially see. It probably helps that, in my opinion, Akala is one of the greatest public intellectuals around at the moment, and he is a talented author in his own right (I highly recommend his non-fiction book Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, and his new novel The Dark Lady is coming out soon). He also posts spoken excerpts of Natives on his YouTube channel, alongside his music, behind the scenes conversations, and short lectures expressing his thoughts on a variety of topics. 

Danika Leigh Ellis

Danika Leigh Ellis, Book Riot contributor and creator of the wonderful Lesbrary website, has been posting about queer women's literature online for longer than I have been out. She is, in my mind, one of the biggest icons of WLW book reviews on the internet. While the Lesbrary focuses exclusively on LGBT+ books (primarily of the bisexual and lesbian variety), Danika Leigh Ellis's YouTube channel is somewhat broader. Her videos are often on queer books, but sometimes they are on non-LGBT books too. I have so much respect for Danika Leigh Ellis for bringing queer women's books to wider recognition and for carving out a section of the internet by and for people like us. Back when I was a baby gay and first beginning to look for queer books, I remember coming across the Lesbrary and Danika Leigh Ellis and feeling like I'd found the holy grail of queer women's literature. They continue to review and promote bi and lesbian books now on both their own YouTube channel and Book Riot's, and I really appreciate how they show the true breadth of gay women's literature - it's not all tragic, Well of Loneliness-type novels! If you are interested in books by and about queer women, you need to check out Danika Leigh Ellis's work. 

A Sunny Book Nook

Speaking of people who talk a lot about sapphic books, I think it's time to introduce you to the fifth booktuber of the post: A Sunny Book Nook. First of all, how cute is that channel name? It's so catchy and makes me happy just saying it. The brains behind this channel is in fact a creator called Sunny, who makes book videos including (but not limited to) those about queer women and non-binary people! I love that she recommends a diverse range of books, from graphic novels to political polemics. Politics-wise, Sunny is quite openly a leftist and often analyses books through a socialist and anti-capitalist lens. On top of all this, they are also amazing at makeup and sometimes create looks based on book covers. Just look at her makeup in this Instagram post! If you want a YouTube channel that is intellectually, aesthetically, and bookishly stimulating, look no further than A Sunny Book Nook.

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With that, dear readers, we have reached the end of this list. I hope that you enjoyed reading about my favourite booktubers (or bookish YouTubers) and perhaps found a new channel to explore - or perhaps you already knew of these amazing creators, in which case I must say you have excellent taste. 

Please feel free to let me know if there are any particular bookish YouTube people that you would recommend, as I'd love to watch some more. Also, please tell me if you enjoyed this post and/or would like to hear about more YouTube creators I like, because I definitely have more that I haven't mentioned here! I'd be happy to do a part two to this post if that's something people would be interested in. 

In the meantime, happy reading and happy watching!

From and About Asia Reading Project

This week, I'm very excited to announce that I have decided to take part in a new reading challenge: the From and About Asia project. The project was started by my favourite booktuber, The Bookish Land. You can hear more about the project and their inspiration for it in the video announcement below and the relevant website page, but I will also try to explain it here.

Essentially, the project chooses a different country from Asia each month, starting in May (Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States). For each country, those participating need to read two books, one for each of the categories below:

Category I: a book by an author from that country

Category II: a book about the culture of the subregion where the country is from

For example, the country chosen for May is North Korea, so the book for category one needs to be written by an author from North Korea. The book for the second category just needs to connected to the culture of North Korea's subregion, Eastern Asia, so it could potentially be a book from or about countries like China, South Korea, or Japan.

I absolutely love this idea and the way it is presented, because it has a clear focus but also allows enough flexibility that everyone can read books appealing to their specific interests. It's always important to read diverse books and books from different countries too. I am also happy to have the opportunity to support and celebrate Asian authors, especially given the recent rise in hate crimes against Asian people worldwide. In short, it's a great project and I'm really excited to be participating.

So, which books will I be reading for the first month? I was a little torn for the first category, since there are several North Korean books I have been wanting to read for a while now, but I think I have finally settled on The Accusation by Bandi. This is a collection of short stories written pseudonymously by a North Korean author still living in the country. I am particularly interested in this book because it was written by someone who continues to live in North Korea, rather than a defector, as the authors of the most popular books about the country (such as Park Yeon-mi and Lee Hyeon-seo) often are. Although both have some appeal, I slightly prefer the idea of reading fiction to a memoir as well. 

I will admit I'm struggling a little bit more with the second category, probably because it's significantly broader. Since I'm anxious to choose a book which doesn't violate the rules of the category, I am considering reading one of the books mentioned specifically in The Bookish Land's video about their North Korea and East Asia book choices: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. On one hand, I already have a digital copy of this book (unread of course) and have previously enjoyed Ng's work. On the other hand, I feel this is a slight cop-out. Would it be better to read a book by a new author I haven't previously explored? I am still thinking about this. I will most likely read the book about North Korea first and then come back to this one, but I will be sure to mention my final decision in a later post!

At this point, you might be thinking, "Wow, this sounds so cool! How can I join in?". Well, you can explore The Bookish Land's videos that I embedded above, as well as the page on their website which includes all the details about the challenge. I believe they have also set up a Discord for participants, linked in the descriptions of their videos, but I think that joining that is optional. 

Even if you won't personally be participating, I hope you have enjoyed reading about the project so far and will continue to read my upcoming posts about my progress with it. Once again, I'm so excited to take part in this and learn about new Asian authors. 

Finally, for any Americans reading this: Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!