sas_lk's reviews
275 reviews

I definitely enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Careful though, it's a very very very horny romance. I thought that would lessen my enjoyment of the characters and plot, but I still enjoyed it surprisingly. 

Read it. Pick it up.

This explained so much of my own relationship with food. Chris Van Tulleken wrote this is a very understanding and easy to digest -way. He is honest about the contradictions and about the difficulties of this topic. I really appreciated this, it was easy to read (I recommend it as an audiobook). 

Van Tulleken touches on obesity and our misconceptions about weight and health maintenance. Most of what we think we know about these things are unfounded studies sponsored by the exact companies that feed us these horrible non-foods. For example, in terms of weight loss: exercise actually has a very minimal effect. 

Just read it. It's scary, but it's so important.

Something kept bothering me about this book. I really liked Kim Young-Ha's "A Diary of a Murderer and Other Stories", so i decided to pick this one up. 
What I liked so much about that short story collection, is that one could feel what deep understanding Kim has for humanity. His short stories were so well written and depicted humanity so well.

However, with this book, it's like he did not understand humans, especially women. I only understood what bothered me when I read someone else's 1 star review: 
"I guessed that the author is male [...] I’m just so tired of reading about disturbed young women who for some reason are always nyphomans. [...]"
And that pretty much sums up what I felt. These women are just really deeply traumatised and suicidal, and for some reason male authors think this concept is fascinating. It's just a book about men projecting their simple understanding of life onto women who have lived horrible pasts and lives, and then being confused when the women stand up for themselves or call them assholes. 
I'm tired of these tropes now. 

Wow. I did not expect that. I am still in a state of shock... This was so good. But I will miss these characters so much :/

Not good for your bloodpressure lol

Elif Shafak's writing is gorgeous, I underlined a lot of beautiful quotes. However, I just think this book was not necessarily for me, Ada frustrated me so much. She frustrated me so much that I ended up having barely any interest in the rest of the story and characters. 
I think I will try atleast one more book from Shafak because I do think she is talented. This one simply wasn't for me I think.

Read this as an audiobook and it was good, though I would like to get the physical book to make sure I understand the details better.

Jemisin is basically saying, let's let all these idiots go to Mars or wherever, and leave us alone on our lovely little planet, to lead better lives than they could ever imagine that people who were left behind, would. 
Jemisin is very simply a genius.

I made sure to reign in my expectations before starting this one because I know all too well how popular books tend to disappoint when the expectations are too high. And honestly, this was a lot of fun. At the beginning, Emily irritated me a little bit, but she grew on me after. I loved the villagers, they were so precious. 
This book definitely sucked me in, and I found myself wanting to pick it up whenever I was not reading. It was all in all just a solid read, and I will definitely be continuing with the series.

Probably the first short story collection I've truly liked.

Story 1: Diary of a Murderer [5 stars]
By far my favourite, this was so good. I felt like I was losing my mind with the character. I was so engrossed in this story and I myself started questioning reality; started questioning what I had read, my understanding, and everything around me. Diary of a Murderer tells a story of a serial killer that is diagnosed with dementia. 

Story 2: The Origin of Life [5 stars]
In The Origin of Life, Kim perfectly portrays the selfishness of humans. We, as humans, always like to think of ourselves as selfless, and that we would do anything to help others. 
However, this is not really true. Once we meet someone with a sad story, we convince ourselves that we want to help them; to save them. What we actually want is to feel like we are good people, that we are selfless. However, in the end, once we escape the sad story, we're usually just happy that we survived in the end, and that it was only the other person who has to live with their sad life. 
That's why the people we try to save are usually so tired, because they have seen this obsession with their own sad story before. 

Story 3: Missing Child [3.5 stars]
This one was just sad to be honest, I felt a sense of dread throughout the whole story. It's about a couple who's son gets kidnapped when he is 3 years old. 11 years later, they get a call saying that their son has been found. However, the son had no idea he was kidnapped, and therefore his parents are strangers to him, and he a stranger to his biological parents. 

Story 4: The Writer [2 stars]
The Writer was my least favourite story of all of them. I think I need to do more research because I think that I probably missed the point the author was trying to make somewhere. This story is about a writer that has to write a book for his new publisher, however, he is convinced that the publisher is sleeping with his ex-wife. He decides to write a nonsensical novel to spite the publisher.