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In 2025, I read about privilege, about surveillance, and about Asia (dedicated guide here). (ongoing year, more coming soon)
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Ratings below include (subjective!): ⭐️ = overall quality from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum). 🪶 = writing from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum). 💎 = something special
Prophet Helen Macdonald & Sin Blaché
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶🪶
An imperfect diner suddenly appears in the middle of nowhere, and Rao, a truth-teller, and Adam, a perfect soldier, are asked to investigate.
This book is two things merged together for no reason whatsoever:
It’s witty, funny and absurd at times. A very strong opening, a strong ending, but a weaker core as the two threads are conflicting a bit.
Julia Sandra Newman
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶
A modern female perspective on George Orwell’s nineteen eighty-four. relive the dystopian tale from the perspective of the Julia character, trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t.
The depiction of the surveillance regime and its impact on people (especially women) is very well done and never ceases to be relevant.
I quite liked the arc about Julia’s sexual liberation in a world where sex is a crime, but also how fantasies she believes to be her own are controlled and manufactured.
Overall, i really enjoyed the book. I found the author to be very good with timing, playing with my feelings easily, and i loved her witty writing.
The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶
You are a mother, and your son has been murdered. You feel a rage so deep it shakes the earth. You have contained your powers and hidden in shame for too long. Today, they will see exactly what you are capable of. Today, they will see what happens when the world truly ends.
The Fifth Season tells three stories, intertwined with each other, painting a world where magic is controlled and harnessed. If you like books with a lot of creativity, intrigue, and that feel like a riddle to solve, you will have a blast.
The only thing i sometimes didn’t like is how some scenes came a bit out of nowhere, like the author tried to fit too many things in, but it’s still a must read kind of book to me.
The narrator writes directly to you, which makes certain parts of the book particularly powerful, and i really enjoyed it.
Dig A. S. King
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶🪶 💎
Marla and Gottfried have 10 millions on their bank account. Because they believe in the wisdom of struggle, they did not pass on any of that money to their children. This is the story of their estranged grandchildren, growing up as white kids in Pennsylvania. And this is the story of the ghost haunting them.
I have rarely enjoyed a book that much. It’s deeply and disturbingly humane. I found the characters nuanced, endearing, and very well written, they made me remember how it feels to be a teenager (for better and for worse). And again, a book that feels like a riddle to solve.
Finally, let’s just say you’ll hope for resurrection on Easter.
The mountains sing Phan Quế Mai Nguyễn
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶
This story is a multi-generational exploration of Vietnam’s history. Diệu Lan comes from a wealthy family in Northern Vietnam, and explains her survival of the great hunger and the land reform’s violent redistribution of wealth. Hương, her grand daughter, tells her waiting for her loved ones fighting in the war, the guilt and the pain of those who come back, and the implications of the reunification between North and South Vietnam.
It’s a very powerful and painful read as it’s the story of a country stained with blood, where 7 million tons of bomb were dropped, and still poisoned by Agent Orange four generations later.
The generational storytelling is very well suited for this story, as you see Diệu Lan fighting for her children’s survival, while you know they will be sent to war a few years later.
It’s also a story about kindness, love, and forgiveness, which honestly is very well needed as this is such a tough read.
Norwegian wood Haruki Murakami
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶🪶
Norwegian wood is a moody book about a boy turning 20, trying to understand love, sex, and death. And ultimately growing up. While i found parts of it well done (e.g. depiction of mental illness), i don’t think i’d recommend it.
On the positive, i found it to be a very true book about what breaks a brain, the sneaky and slow way, or the sharp and deep way, about how hurt people hurt people (in so many ways), about how love feels conditional on healing, and how scary it is to need people when all you can do is be alone.
But it really felt like a story narrated by a secondary character, a character so empty that others crave to fill him with stories. The only notable thing about him might be that he is turning 20.
The borrowed Chan Ho-Kei
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶🪶
Follow the history of Kwan Chun-dok, a fictional super genius detective who can solve the most intricated cases using only half an evidence. The story is told backwards, from 2013 to 1967, imprinted with Hong Kong’s history, especially the transformation of the police.
The Borrowed is a hyper fast-paced thriller, with over-the-top plot twists, dramatic revelations, convoluted ramifications, and straight forward but wholesome characters. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely delicious and you’ll have a lot of fun overall if you don’t take it too seriously.
The stolen bicycle Wu Ming-Yi
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶🪶🪶
The narrator loosely describes the disappearance of his father, and the bicycle he left behind. The story reads like a long chain of thoughts, navigating from one scene to the next without warning, which can be a bit disconcerting if you like well structured books. That being said, you’ll learn about butterfly collages, about war elephants, and way more about bicycles than you’d ever ask for.
I really enjoyed the slow, disconnected, and somewhat meditative storytelling. Also the honest humane relationships. this book is full of characters sharing their stories and vulnerabilities with strangers, and it’s quite pretty.
There’s also a lot about the history of bicycles, as modern objects, status symbols, or war vehicles, which is somewhat interesting although i didn’t manage to get very hooked by that part of the book.
17A Keong Saik Road Charmaine Leung
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🪶🪶
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