What I read in 2019:
Hello! It’s a new year again so it’s time for my yearly
monologue about books!
This year I only managed to read 17 books, which is a far
cry from my successful 35-book challenge last year. I guess I did too well last
year, so of course I had to make up for it by undercutting myself and failing
tremendously this time around.
I was actually on a roll at the beginning of the year and
reading a lot consistently. However, towards the second half of the year, I
just lost interest and even now I just don’t feel much like reading. However,
this year I had a lot of fun choosing and reading the same books as a friend of
mine! It is just more fun being able to discuss books in depth with someone
else who has read them!!
- Salvation of a Saint – Keigo Higashino
- Little Monsters – Kara Thomas
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs
- How to Be a Boy – Tony Bradman
- The Memory Book – Lara Avery
- The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko – Scott Stambach
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Newt Scamandar (J. K. Rowling)
- Exposure – Mal Peet
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J. K. Rowling
- More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera
- Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
- The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro
- Kitchen – Banana Yoshimoto
- The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender
- We Were Liars – E. Lockhart
- Her Body and Other Parties – Carmen Maria Machado
- The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein –Kiersten White
Salvation of a Saint
– Having read a few Higashino books by now, this one was a bit disappointing to
me overall. I tend to like Japanese crime and thriller novels, because they are
less about whodunnit, but more about how it was done and how it was hidden.
However, the final reveal and conclusion in Salvation
was weak and underwhelming, and it was disappointing for a Higashino novel.
I suppose it’s hard to replicate the same impact when you peak with a
masterpiece like Suspect X, but still…
this book was entirely underwhelming for what I expected from this storyteller.
Miss Peregrine’s Home
for Peculiar Children – I appreciated the creativity in this children’s/young
adult book, it was definitely a unique world that I had not seen before. I
think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I was a child in its intended target
audience. As a wizened critical reader though, I found that while the world
building was great, the characters were unfortunately lacking in depth.
More Happy Than Not
– I was actually very impressed by this book. While it had a bit of a slow and
confused start, it picks up later on. The characters were suitably
three-dimensional and complex, and I liked that none of them fall
stereotypically into their presumed roles such as the unattainable love
interest or the spurned girlfriend. The twist and its unveiling is done really
well. There are some strong and moving scenes in this book, and I think the
distress and trauma of the narrating protagonist is conveyed nicely. It’s
especially good when the speed starts picking up and it forces you to binge-read
the entire final climax all the way through to the end at once. I love it when
a story has that sort of power to pull you along with its flow; I believe that’s
what makes this a strong book- being able to suspend you into its reality.
Overall, More Happy Than Not juxtaposes
some unique futuristic ideas with some brutally realistic truths and leaves you
with a hard punch in the gut. I liked it a lot.
Pachinko – my absolute
favourite book of year, and probably will remain one of my favourite books of
all time. This is a fantastic long epic following four generations of a Korean
family living in Japan. I was able to learn a lot of Korean-Japanese history
from this book, and it raises lot of hard issues about first-generation identity
and inbuilt racism. The third-person narration is quite simple and detached,
but I think it’s suitable for portraying such a colourful story and cast of
characters. The writing is distant enough to allow you to simply view and come
to your own conclusions about the characters from simply the words and the
actions they show. The characters are fantastic and really endearing. I
especially loved Noa and Mozasu the most, I literally felt hurt when they were
hurt. :( All the characters were interesting and multi-faceted, and I
especially found Yoseb a very flawed and realistic character, I could truly imagine
the kind of character that he would have been in real life. Basically, I absolutely loved Pachinko and I cannot recommend it enough. It is a book that I will
be talking about and thinking about for years to come.
The Particular Sadness
of Lemon Cake – This was my second favourite book of the year. I am not
exaggerating when I say that I have never read anything like it. This is one of
my first forays into magical realism and honestly that’s the best way to
explain it - it is so magical yet so heartbreakingly real. Somehow it manages
to create the most absurd magical and fantastical elements but portrays them in
such harsh realism that it ends up being one of the saddest books I read this
year. The first-person narrative voice was lovely and the protagonist was so
endearing. All the characters were so flawed and carefully created and
portrayed. It is hard to explain just how much I loved the strange and delicate
relationship between Rose and her brother Joseph. I loved how the father, a
supposedly unimportant minor character, is actually one of the most fascinating
and tragic characters. I loved how there was a certain atmosphere created by
what was written as well as by what wasn’t explicitly said. And even though it
is a heartbreakingly sad story, there is a strangely optimistic voice that
somehow peeks through. Lemon Cake is
honestly such a strange and mystical read and leaves you pondering about the
conclusion and its meaning for days afterwards, I loved it.
Well. That’s all the commentary I have for 2019.
Let’s see how much I read
in 2020. See you all then haha.
Happy new year!
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