2023 Book List & Reviews
Lessons in chemistry
This book was good enough to get a show on Apple TV, I guess, but not particularly motivational or anything. It read a bit like fan fiction with a main protagonist you were made to root for.
Song of the cell
Difficult to get through due to the sheer amount of information provided within each chapter. I do like this author’s writing style though, and I am always left feeling inspired after reading his summaries of scientific discoveries and progress.
Our missing hearts
I read this book in a few days during a beach trip. A bit hyperbolic but strangely believable. Sometimes it feels like this country is headed toward this direction on a smaller scale. I would recommend this book.
Foundation
I re-read this during that same beach trip. It’s not always the easiest book to read because parts of it are slow and vague but the central idea is fascinating. Good for fans of statistics, theory, and the potential of a greater future.
Beauty queen of Jerusalem
I read this book after watching seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix. It’s much shorter than the show would have you think. It’s an interesting story of a Ladino family living in Jerusalem during the 1930s and beyond. There were so many similarities between this family and mine, though we are not Jewish and not from Spain. One of the few cases where I would recommend the show over the book.
AUDIOBOOK -- The woman in me by Britney Spears
Amazing. I was swamped in life and work when this book came out and I remembered thinking I wished I had time to sit and read this. And then I tested positive for Covid. God works in mysterious ways. And she wanted me to read this book.
Evil eye
Interesting I guess. I want to like it because the characters come from my cultural background, but at the same time, they seem so repressed and one dimensional. Not all Arab women are trapped and admired only for their cooking. Not all Arab men are liars and independent or absent husbands… I would love to chat more about this with someone but my thoughts represent bigger issues when writing POC books or characters.
The Island of Missing Trees
Another book similar to my cultural background (though the main characters are Greek and Turkish Cypriots). Some of the book is told from the perspective of a fig tree, which I loved. The overall story is…fine. I enjoyed it, but I feel it could have been more.
AUDIOBOOK -- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Pretty interesting book to listen to over the course of a few weeks. While I appreciated the content, it really did often feel like a book of anecdotes and statistics. I realize this is a non-fiction book, but I wish it read more like Freakonomics and kept the reader more engaged.
Yellowface
I’ve been expanding past my comfort zone and branching into more Asian American works over the last few years. I read Minor Feelings in early 2022 which was non-fiction, and now this. It brought up some interesting ideas. The main character was, while relatable, not super likable. The story could have been about any POC rather than Chinese.
Rebecca, not Becky
This was weird. It was written by two authors and it felt that way. The book tackles racial dynamics between a black woman and her white neighbors in a predominantly white affluent neighborhood. The book was meant to show how ridiculous and pervasive racism can be in our society but was also simultaneously being kind of racist? I guess it’s not my place to judge since I am not a black woman, but this book was not it for me.
