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Hoo boy. If you survived watching Red Sparrow, I think you can handle reading this book. That being said...
Lee gets full marks in writing quality for managing to
make an eminently readable book despite truly
harrowing subject matter. Recounting events surrounding Korean experience beginning in World War II and the Korean War, the tragic history of a split country is told here primarily by focusing on violence against women 1/?

Today's 'scratched my brain just right' sentence. ☀️

An interesting read about North Korea with a clearly unreliable narrator. The plot wasn't always coherent, but compelling enough to want to finish it.

A woman who works at a home for the elderly, one days decides that she want to talk to the elderly and get their stories. This leads her to a woman who says that she‘s had 3 nationalities in her life; she was born Japanese, lived as North Korean and is dying as a South Korean. Then she says that she will give her 8 words; slave, escape-artist, murderer, terrorist, spy, lover and mother. What the 8 is, you have to read the book to find out.

There are so many books I‘d rather read than this #womensprize longlisted books in which some short stories are rather artificially sold as a novel. Too far fetched, maybe entertaining but man, why this nomination? There are so many books much, much better than this one. It‘s a fast easy read but I just don‘t bother enough to finish it.

5th book read from Women‘s Prize fiction long list. Mixed feelings, again🤷🏽‍♀️Maybe my expectations have been too high because they are books nominated for a prize. A HF based on true events and also based on previous
short stories. Maybe that it‘s why I felt disconnected in some parts.
The narrator in this story is working in a new project at her job, a nursing home in Korea. She will help the residents to write their own obituary⬇️

I found the chapters in this novel all to be separately interesting stories but they didn‘t really hang together as a coherent whole for me and by the end it felt a bit like we were running over similar ground and the pacing was a little uneven. A vision that has potential but for this reader was not fully realised.

I found the chapters in this novel all to be separately interesting stories but they didn‘t really hang together as a coherent whole for me and by the end it felt a bit like we were running over similar ground and the pacing was a little uneven. A vision that has potential but for this reader was not fully realised.

#motivationalmonday @cupcake12

🌼Nope
🌼I live in what they call garden apartment which means I live in a hole😳😂the last apartment in a five story building. I have a small patio but in front of my living room (glass sliding door) I only see the balcony, part of my small patio, wood fence & some trees behind the fence🤷🏽‍♀️but I love this privacy🙌
🌼Caribbean Puerto Rico 🇵🇷Today was a rainy day, less hot than usual, 84 degree 84% humidity 😳

Another finish from the Women‘s Prize longlist. I started in print and switched to audio when it was due back to the library. It was probably not the best choice as the non chronological telling of the Trickster‘s story was harder to follow and I found my mind wandering quite a bit. Another low pick.

#WomensPrizeFiction #Longlist

4⭐
This was interesting. I spent much of the time wondering why the book was organized the way it was. It didn't make a lot of sense to me how the story was told. I am not sure if this story will really stick with me. I wonder if I put too much pressure on WPF long list books to really blow me away. But overall I liked the story and the writing.

Photo taken before this mini egg also disappeared...
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They were good storytellers, after all. They used so many different stories to woo us.

For Soori, it was the promise of her father's release: they said all she needed to do was to work at a Senninbari factory in Japan for two years to free her father.... For Nami, it was education.... For Jayoung, the bait was caramel....
For me, it was an eye.

#EasterReading

I loved this book! I went in completely blind and don‘t want to say too much. We follow a character through different parts of her life in nonsequential order and not always from her perspective in North and South Korea. She is dynamic and full of life. Some of what she deals with is absolutely dreadful. I‘m so glad this one is up for the Women‘s Prize for Fiction, as I would likely not have read it otherwise.

Compelling story in a messy format with a superfluous framing device. In parts horrendously brutal with terrible things done to girls and women in war time, but fortunately the book moves on too quickly to linger on graphic detail. While I'm sure some version of everything in this book happened to people, there's no way they all happened to one person. The MC is one badass survivor though.

#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize

Ultimately a pick, because I didn't want to stop reading. We are presented with the story of an enigmatic, intelligent, resourceful, resilient woman and her life in North and South Korea throughout the 20th century. At turns playful and cruel, beautiful and heart breaking, the narrative jumps through time like the titular Trickster, teasing the reader and questioning truth.

Cont'd in comments

This #womensprize long listed novel apparently started life as a series of short stories and, part-way through the book, this was an issue for me and I even considered bailing.

The ‘8 lives‘ are arranged non-chronologically which makes for a more challenging reading experience and the initial set-up seemed rather tacked-on.

However, towards the end, everything drew together satisfactorily and my opinion changed to a pick.

Solo work travel means long hours doing sales calls & staff training by day and paperwork & responding to emails by night. However, the time saved by not cooking, cleaning up, and hanging out with the dog & my guy means I get to read in bed! I'm starting this one tonight.

I'm excited to read both of this month's selections. I am taking a work trip next week so these may be coming asking for the ride.

8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster is for #foodandlit

Wild Women and the Blues has been patiently waiting for me for about 2 years now and fulfills at least one reading challenge prompt.