Drama-Lovers Book Club

Book Update for September:

September was a semi-vacation month for me, so I managed to read more than the summer months.

I finished Kazuo Ishiguro's "Klara and the Sun", that tells the story of a quirky “artificial friend” to a sick young girl in a dystopian future. Not one of his best works, but an interesting read nonetheless.

I read two books from two Korean authors:
* a wonderful, touching little book full of love and inspiration: "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly" by Hwang Sun Mi and
* a coming of age/shamanistic story of a North Korean girl who escapes to China during the famine and then illegally moves to London: "Princess Bari" by Hwang Sok Yong
and I'm currently reading a mystery novel novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s  "Everything I never Told You" by Celeste Ng.

Not sure I will have time to read much this month due to my heavy work-schedule.
I'm not even sure I can keep up with my currently watching dramas list...

4,5/5 stars	5/5 stars	4/5 stars	currently reading

Have a great reading month and enjoy autumn, dear Book Club family!
Looking forward to your reading updates and recommendations :)

Hello, everyone! Can't believe we're three months away from new year. I've finished three books as of today (only one in September, plus two more in early October).

Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity is about Japanese actress-director Tanaka Kinuyo, mostly known outside of Japan for her works with director Mizoguchi Kenji. I think this is the first book about her written in English, and what's particularly great about it, to me anyway, is its attention to Tanaka's career as a director, something that is often ignored even in cinema scholarship written in Japanese.

Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu Lien Tan is a novel written entirely in Singlish--vernacular form of English used in Singapore that has elements of Hokkien, Teochew, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil, among others--about a twenty-six year old woman called Jazzy who aspires to marry a white man. Jazzy is not a character that is easy to like--she's casually racist and classist; she's judgmental of other women because of her internalized misogyny; she often ignores her first, better instincts and makes stupid decision instead. But I did find myself liking her despite myself, to the great credit of the author. At the end of the book, she doesn't quite change but rather is taking a new step toward change, for the better.

The third book is a collection of articles by anthropologist Huub de Jonge about Hadhrami Arabs in Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Super fascinating if you're interested in Southeast Asia social history.

 Paloma_Josse:

Hello! I would like to join this club! I love reading, but somehow I totally didn't notice that we have such an amazing reading club in MDL!

I've read 22 books this year, thought I'd be able to read more, but dramas had my almost undivided attention throughout the year.

Welcome to our Book Club family! Having read 22 books so far, with all the current drama temptations is a great achievement!
I'm currently reading another book from Celeste Ng  -"Everything I never Told You"- and I can already recognise her writing style in your description :)

 Paloma_Josse:

I loved "Everything I never told you"! It was my first book by this author and I was so impressed at how good she's at describing complicated family relationships while also offering some mystery part right there. I also highly recommend her second book Little fires everywhere!

I've read only 1/3 of the book so far, but it's well-written and intriguing so far. I will definitely check her other books!

Read Yakuza Moon: Memoir of a gangster's daughter by Shoko Tendo. Crazy story that's really entertaining and reaffirming that you can overcome youthful trauma. I can recommend this book. It well written and gave a lot of insight into her life and the life of street gangs. 

Also read The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada - very surreal but rather depressing. I might read it again. It's one of those that is interesting. 

Ms. Ice Sandwich is a cute tale by Mieko Kawakami. Short but entertaining story and finally, Breast and Eggs also by Mieko Kawakami - I loved this. Such a great look at women's lives and how we navigate our expectations and society's expectations. 

Hey guys! So i read quite a few novels this month so I'm here to share 'em with you all today. Since it's a lot i want to say so i divided my posts into 2 parts haha

(part1/2)

Moumou ( A certain someone ) by Mu Su Li

It follows Sheng Wang who just transferred into another school in another city AGAIN becuase his dad is planning to remarry a single mother with a son of his age here. And guess what ? He meets his to-be step-brother in class today and become KINDA rivals ?

So yes it's basically a school love story between step-brothers with a pinch of rivals to lovers ( not much only 1% trust me ) and i know  all of this sounds clichè.

IT IS A CLICHE PREMISE but after you read further you realize how its so much more than it's cliche start. I think describes chinese school life very well. Now i don't have the right to say that since I'm not a chinese student myself but I've heard it's similar to Indian education system ( due to both countries being densely populated ) and i could relate to some extent. It's a great slice of life and the romance is just brilliant. If you ignore the fact that they are to-be step-brothers haha.

But really, it's just so good. Trust me, I'm never into incest romance even if it's step-brothers or step-sisters but this romance is not at all incest, i don't want to spoil but it's not so pls don't run away from it becuase of it. Don't read if it's a major trigger tho lol

The romance is slow burn, another warning there but I LOVE slow-burn romances so it's plus for me and its such a well written romance. I loved all characters, all the side characters and ofcourse the two male leads are my favourite and i feel a slice-of-life/romance novel succeeds when i love all it's characters haha.

But beware it's not just a fluffy story, it's a bit tear-jerker type too. I didn't cry bit i got a headache due to some chapters being extremely sad and a lot of other people did admitted sobbing so there's that.

Another thing is that it explores homophobia very well. Both internal and external and also acceptance of homosexual. Basocially it treats homosexuality very realistically which a lot of BL danmei novels fail to do so yeah that's definitely a plus.

My rating : ⭐⭐⭐1/2

It ends with us by Collen Hoover

It is about domestic violence in a modern relationship. There i said it. I don't know why a lot of people make the novel seem like a love story but it's not. It's about an ENDING of an abusive one. How one gets into to it and get out of it despite it being very obvious from the start but still the little signs are often missed by a lot of people. From the get go though i was like , girlie, this ryle is like a major red flag from the first meeting like you DO NOT get into a relationship with a man who told u on the first meeting that he's TOO SELFISH for relationship but sigh, i know a lot of girls like Lily (our protagonist ) , heck my mom is so similar to her and unfortunately she never got out of that relationship oh well why am I getting personal.

Anyways, i feel like this is a much needed book and beautifully written. So it's a must read if you don't get triggered by domestic violence.

Although Ryle is not a guy who I'd ever get into a relationship with from the get go but i kinda liked the guy? as a friend? I'd love to have him as a friend ? idk maybe somethings wrong with my brain lol

Also i did agreed with a lot of things Ryle said and related with him and Lili both so like i I like the fact that the made them both so humane. Despite one being an abuser and victim, i can feel both for them as HUMANS. That depicts one of my favourite qoutes from book

"There are no bad people, people just do bad things"

One more thing is that



...

I really didn't wanted Lily to end up with Atlas, idk why I just didn't like their chemistry, i liked them individually ofc, i liked most of the moments together too, they had a beautiful relationship going but I just didn't wanted it to turn out to be romantic idk why ...

My rating : ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Just one book this month, but what a great find. I think @wanderer recommend it here some time ago IIRC. It's Amanda Lee Koe's "Ministry of Moral Panic". She's originates from Singapur. I read it in German so the title here is "Ministerium für öffentliche Erregung."

It's a collection of short stories about love, life, sex and much more. A short read, driving emotions up and down in my mind like hell. No wonder the book won many prices. Easily a 5 out of 5 for me.