I could not put this one down; normally when I read non-fiction I intersperse my evening reading with fluffy memoirs or popcorn fiction but despite the difficult subject matter I read this one in two nights. Barbara Demick spent numerous years in Seoul covering both Koreas for American articles; in that time she formed relationships with North Korean defectors and began piecing together what eventually became Nothing to Envy. Six defectors are interviewed and their stories are woven together to create a multi-dimensional picture of […]
He’s pretty great if you forget about the whole “owning humans” thing.
James Madison and James Monroe are interchangeable in mind. Both were important Founding Fathers, their names are fairly similar, they served consecutive dual terms as president, they both hailed from Virginia, were both proteges of Thomas Jefferson and turned against George Washington and the Federalists. Both served as Secretaries of State. Madison and Monroe were even close friends for 25 years (before temporarily severing ties with one another). There are numerous differences between the two men, but the one that stands out for me is […]
Nothing to Envy. Plenty to Fear.
Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea is a really hard book to read. Not the writing — it’s wonderfully written — but the subject is so dark and depressing that I had to keep putting it down and stepping away. But it’s hard because it’s true — people are living in fear and famine in North Korea, and if we don’t learn about it, how will anything change? “It is axiomatic that one death is a tragedy, a thousand is a statistic. So […]
There are no exploding airships in this book. But it’s still fun, and MUCH better than the cover would suggest
Spoiler warning! This is book 2 in this series, and as such, this review will contain certain spoilers for the plot of book 1, Kiss of Steel. My review for this book also explains quite a lot about the setting and world-building for this series, so you may want to read/re-read that one first, to remind yourself of the world these books take place in . Or just, you know, read the first book. This review will still be here when you’re done. William Carver […]
True Stories are Often MUCH More Interesting than Fiction (take that Melville!)
I was vaguely aware of the sinking of the whaleship Essex, and its role as the inspiration for Moby-Dick when I heard that there was going to be a movie about it staring one of the many Marvel Chrises and that the movie was based on a book* of the same name. In the Heart of the Sea is a book about 19th century history, sailing, oceans and a story of survival for some but not all? I was in. In case you are similarly […]
The Iran We Didn’t Know as Told by a Damn Smart Woman
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel is both an autobiography and an historical/political education. Her simple yet bold black and white drawings beautifully illustrate the story of her childhood in Teheran in the early 1980s, her teen years in Vienna and her return to Iran in 1989. As an observer of and participant in Iran’s revolutionary upheaval, Satrapi gives a personal view of events and their effect on her family’s welfare while neatly outlining the complicated and complex national story that serves as their context. This is […]
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