APAHM 2024 Hodgepodge

This is mostly a conclusion, with two clarifications.

Even though one of the great things about catching up this year has been clearing out columns, I am leaving the books that relate to difficult parental relationships. I don't seem to be done with that yet, or it is not done with me. 

I don't know if I will put it off all the way until next May, but I hope to have it done by Father's Day 2025 for sure.

In addition, I am going to get a few one-off posts out of the way before doing the spotlight on George Takei, which I want to do right before I start blogging about the Pride reading. 

So other than those two exceptions, this is what was left in my Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month reading.

Fiction I didn't like very much:

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

It's probably me, and maybe it's fiction, though I used to read so much of it. 

Of them, The Book of M was the most gripping, I have to admit that Yellowface was entertaining (though also bleak), and whatever weaknesses the movie version of The Descendents had, the book was worse.

I may just not fit into contemporary fiction, and I may be okay with that.

Getting out of North Korea:

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape From North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa
Escape From Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

I resent bleakness more in fiction, because then it's a choice, though there are times when it is important for what needs to be said. In non-fiction, it can be very powerful.

Looking inside North Korea is horrifying, but it's important to know, even if it feels like an area where there is not much that outsiders can do. For both escapees, one of the key indicators that they had crossed into China was the presence of dogs; pets can exist when everyone is not starving.

I toyed with the idea of putting these with immigration, but it feels like a very different focus, and with different results. The source of Harden's books spends a lot of time in China and South Korea before coming to the States. Ishikawa had been in Japan, then his Korean family went back after being recruited, which later turned out to be a bad idea. After getting out, Ishikawa returned to Japan.

Doing things differently:

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 
The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka  

I have referenced Kondo's writing a lot (though more from when I read the manga). I'll link to a couple at the end.

Fukuoka was new to me. I had read related things, but this was the first with an Eastern focus. It was really interesting, especially his path to natural farming. 

I was horrified that he killed an entire orchard his first year, but it is kind of a testament that you can recover, even from massive failure. The land can recover too. (Those specific trees may not.)

Memoir and Biography:

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzhai and Christina Lamb
Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli
Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama by Diane Fujino

There was also a children's book about Fujino, but it is worth reading the full biography. I read this close to when I also read a short bio on Dolores Huerta. As different as their lives were, there were ways in which they reminded me of each other.

History:

The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy by Kenneth Pomeranz
The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War  by George L. Hicks
Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism by Nancy Wang Yuen

The Great Divergence is an attempt to bring together a large body of scholarship on economics. This may sound boring. It kind of is. However, if you are the kind of person that would read such a thing, knowing that there will be significant dry patches, it does a good job.

The other two are interesting because they are both about things that are unpleasant, where people will often be uncomfortable with the subject matter and try to avoid having the conversation. They are two wildly different conversations, but ones where prejudice and dehumanization play a role.

I always want to know, and then I want to fight it.

And now we move on, though it is not impossible that I will reference some of these books as I write about myself on Tuesday posts.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/09/books-come-together.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/09/expanding-gratitude.html