Your review is great. I love your clear, detailed explanations. Thank you for this. Keep it up. You just got a new subscriber. 👍

Great review! I finished it about a month ago and was completely blown away. You earned a follow from me.

There is a side plot that I wish the first book completed but it doesn’t complete until the half way point of the third book. The power and communication of music. On the ship music is censored and people forget the music of the past and make music for the present. The song Kashmir by Led Zeppelin is put on the chopping block on the ship meanwhile it becomes a battle cry for a tribe of Spiders. Rock N Roll music becomes a primary piece of their culture even though it is not played in the air. 5 different classic rock songs become universal in all species civilizations in the books. I find it funny how birds, octopus, Spiders, and some energy based life forms all play and listen to “All Around The Clock Tower,” by Jimi Hendrix.

It's too good.

I've heard Jane Harper say she spent months researching before even beginning to write The Dry. I don't think it was as easy to create a bestseller as you hint - she took herself seriously as a novelist and did the work.

The writer writes beautifully, but it’s a boring story. Sorry.

I 100% agree. the dialogue, the prose, the James Bondesque Invincibility and womanizing are lacking in this first book. but they get better and better. Im about 6 in and im enjoying myself

Great thoughtful review.

Her family might have gone to church every Sunday, but they were not Mormon. They were literally crazy.

thank you so much for this!! i finished the book in 3 days, and every time i read a review that described the plot as boring, critiquing miller's approach to the greek myths, and/or "an attempt at feminism", it just boggles me because the story is simply about a lesser acknowledged figure, definitely coming of age as you have mentioned, and her finding her way in the world living is not pretty and it doesn't require gigantic acts of heroism which is ironically, what circe was making a point of, and her building the courage, the trials and errors, and making peace with herself and her existence at the end, is what readers should really take from this book

USA is a collection of worst of humanity and together the bring each other to new lows

I.loved listening to your parent's stories live from Nigeria

❤

This is so great, getting Korean books in my country is not so easy

Will read it bro. You are a great reviewer I subbed. Sounds like a really interesting concept for a book

Excellent review. I love this book.

1:21 i'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you've never actually read anything about anything Naiomi Wolf has referenced in her books. Good job, brainiac. "i don't know anything about clouds" and you don't ever intend to, apparently...... See this is what's wrong with the "left" they criticize books they've NEVER EVEN READ.

Good luck with the author panel!

So interesting you mention your parents being tight lipped about their pasts. My dad was a medic in Korea. He also was very tight lipped about that time … just a few moments ever mentioned.

Just finished this book. Definitely reminded me of dark matter and also Recursion, both by Blake Crouch

Great review! My next door neighbor is Korean so I am constantly asking her for food advice: how long does gochuchang keep in the fridge? Does the IndoMi ramen in H Mart taste like Indo-Korean fusion? When my Korean neighbors retire and move to Atlanta, I will have a small grieving process to go through as well. You unpacked a lot of layers I missed and now will hunt down the Atlantic and Harper's Bizarre articles you mentioned. Thank you!

Why are we not hearing from James as the threat of Trump raises its head again?

It's really difficult to understand if you are mocking DiAngelo or not? I hope it's mocking. DiAngelo makes it clear she's racist and then goes on to project her racism onto all white people. I certainly hope nobody takes her seriously.

The intro is legit.

The more I hear about this book the more curious I get but also think it should come with an introduction of Korean history roundup for dummys, to better understand and enjoy the book.

What an incredible review. I thoroughly enjoyed it and started the book straight after your review.

❤❤

😮 what an interessting family history. Thanks for sharing🙏

I went to StokerCon last year and I went to this panel of 5 Asian women horror writers and the moderator was also Asian. They were from all over. I have been to bad panels where you wonder if the moderator knew they were moderating this before they got there. But the woman in this panel-every time she asked a question she led off with a quote from the book or an interview they had done of the panelist she was asking the question to. She had done her work. The panelists were surprised and delighted. I was impressed. All the questions were relevant to the quote she read from. She was a star in my eyes. There was another panel about cryptids where even if the guests were no energy (honestly it was just one out of the five panelists who was low energy) he brought the juice. He weaved seamlessly between topics and segued between guests like a pro. I felt like I was listening to a well seasoned, make sure the air is full at all times, radio DJ. You’ll do great!

I am so excited to get to this one. Thanks for this fantastic video!

I loved this video, thank you for sharing. History (and its mutability) is one of my main preoccupations in both writing and in life, so hearing your own stories was so fascinating to me. Weirdly enough your Buffalo TV nostalgia stirred up similar Buffalo TV nostalgia in me even though I'm a bit younger than you. I look forward to your FOLD panel and good luck with moderating! I did it once and it was quite nerve-wracking but the authors I talked with were wonderful and open, which helped a lot. I find that talking about process/inspiration always leads to great discussion and is interesting for the audience as well. Jael Richardson was one of my moderating inspirations, and there are a couple of videos on the FOLD's KZbin channel of panels she's moderated. Oh, also - prepare more questions than you think you'll need!

Man oh man! This video deserves an award. The connections, amazing. Thanks.

I haven’t read much Korean-American fiction. I guess Richard E. Kim qualifies and I’ve enjoyed all three of his English books, especially his second novel, which something you said made me think of. But I wonder if you’ve read _Meeting My Brother_ by Yi Mun-yol. It’s a novella and I liked it a lot. Good luck on your moderating. I’ve heard that if you wear a big chicken suit it makes everything go smoothly but I couldn’t vouch for the veracity of that. 🤔

I put the book on hold at my library :). Thanks for sharing some of your family history... very interesting indeed!

You threw me into the way-back machine talking about Buffalo Saturday morning kids programming. I too watched Commander Tom along with Rocketship 7.

Okay, you need to write that book about your family's saga, whether you fictionalize it or not.

Your description of Same Bed Different Dreams has prompted me to add it to my TBR. Even better was hearing more about your parents’ history. What happened to the orphan your mom travelled with to Sweden? I read a memoir by a Korean Swedish adoptee that questions the assumption that transnational adoptions are humanitarian acts: Palimpsest by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjoblom. Your uncle’s brief reunion with your mother reminds me of another book: The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, which is about sisters separated by the Korean border. So many ways to look at history.

Thank you for sharing your family history, I love hearing about where people come from. This book is going on the tbr for sure.

This was my favorite book of 2023! I was so excited to realize that Daniel Mason also wrote another favorite of mine - The Piano Tuner.

Sold!

Having a great reading year so far … Tom Lake, Fanny Herself, Comfort of Crows, Our Migrant Souls, Master Slave Husband Wife, Heaven and Earth Grocery Store … #winning

(1) The guy pretty much revealed his own background when he talked about his daughter's going to South Korea and to Germany/Netherlands to explore the German/Dutch side of the family, implying that the daughter was a mix of a European-descendant mother and an East Asian-descendant father. (2) I finished the whole novel in a week, more or less, with highlights and annotations; and I am not impressed at all with the work. In short, Ingrid Yang has been transformed from a cardboard cut-out of a white-worshipping self-hating Asian woman to a cardboard cut-out of an American liberal ideologue. Plus, the other characters were so shallow and poorly developed with badly written dialogue that the whole novel became a real-life example of John Smith's play in the book, and that Elaine Hsieh Chou became the real-life version of John Smith in the novel, catering to the American people's expectations of China and of East Asia.

I love the way you talk about books; it’s been on my TBR since the NYT review but I wasn’t enthusiastic about. Now I am excited to read it. I love when you find a book you enjoy so much that you want everyone to read it. Sounds like this is one of them for you, so I am definitely moving it up the TBR list.

A combination of The Overstory and Cloud Atlas? Yes please! This sounds like a book for me.

I know I'm late to the party, but as a reading addict and multi-racial Korean American, THANK YOU. Many of these never popped up on my radar, and I appreciate you finding quality sounding work and giving visibility to these authors. I'm so excited for 2024 now <3. Love your channel.

If I’m the Jacqueline you meant , I’m blushing 😊 More recommendations from me. Best books read so far in February Greta & Valdin ( audio recommended for New Zealand/Russian/Spanish accents) Hello Beautiful The Bandit Queens ( audio again) 🍀👋☘️🇮🇪📖📚📕☕️

With a recommendation like that, its gonna be a must read for me!

On my TBR List. Can't wait.

You sold me!

Sounds like a great read. Another one for the TBR pile!