#funaekreads

Show Us Who You Are by Elle McNicoll is a middle grade novel with neurodiverse characters becoming friends and accepting who they are. It's also about a company that is creating holographic clones of people as a way to live forever and provide comfort to those who are grieving. It's an interesting mix but is a little repetitive. And, unlike some children's books that I love as an adult, this book didn't really transcend age. But recommend for the target audience age range. * #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #pugsandbooks #bookreview #middlegrade #childrensbook #middlegradebook #sciencefiction https://www.instagram.com/p/CS5O-8QrDIq/?utm_medium=tumblr

This Korean science fiction anthology edited by Sunyoung Park & Sang Joon Park was fantastic. Some of the individual stories weren't quite stellar, but the collection as a whole was. Each individual story comes with a brief intro on the author & the story (and a creepy illustration with weird bubbly veiny people/creatures). If you like to go into stories knowing nothing beforehand, I recommend you read the intro after reading the story. The stories for the most part were a bit dark & depressing, with several having some political and/or social commentary. Highlights for me were Readymade Bodhisattva (kinda slow & almost boring at times but it's really stuck with me), Perfect Society, Storm Between My Teeth, Between Zero & One (so weird & I bought a short story collection by this author right away), The Bloody Battle of Broccoli Pain, and Our Banished World. * #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #pugsandbooks #bookreview #sciencefiction #sciencefictionanthology #shortstory #shortstorycollection #translatedfiction #booksintranslation #koreanbook #koreananthology #koreanauthors #koreansciencefiction #readymadebohisattva #kayapress https://www.instagram.com/p/CNnzHVOLFtl/?igshid=1kdbv9si679tb

I read a short story by Kim Bo Young in a Korean science fiction anthology I've slowly been reading for the past year & really enjoyed it so I ordered a copy of her collection of short stories. I'm curious to see if I'll enjoy her other stories as much as the one in the anthology. It's so great seeing more & more Korean authors getting translated into English, especially genre fiction. There were others in the anthology who I'd love to see more of but they didn't have other works in translation. * #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #pugsandbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CNinXzMLvzB/?igshid=13hzdrahruwff

This short story collection was amazing. Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung & translated by Anton Hur is indeed genre-defying as described on its jacket flap. The stories range from those feeling like folk tales to those that are straight up horror. Sometimes I find it hard to get into short stories because there's not much time to develop characters & settings, but Chung's writing immediately grabbed me. I was in dire need of something to distract me the past couple days & each of these stories fully immersed me in their unique worlds. * There is a lot of the grotesque in here. The first story, The Head, reminds me of a popular history teacher in college who only had classes at 8am to weed out those who weren't really serious about the topic. The beginning of that story may seem bizarre & gross since it starts with a head in a toilet calling out for its mother, but stick with it because you're in for a ride. There is also a lot of loneliness & critique of society in here. * My favorites were The Embodiment (disturbing & yet funny story of a woman needing to find a father for her baby), Cursed Bunny (a cursed lamp that devastates more than intended), The Frozen Finger (a haunting brief journey after a car accident), and Home Sweet Home (a woman buying a disastrous building with her equally disastrous husband with strange results). Highly recommend if you're into strange & yet wonderfully written fiction. * #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #pugsandbooks #bookreview #honfordstar #translatedfiction #booksintranslation #koreanbook #koreanfiction #koreanauthor #shortstory #shortstorycollection #koreanshortstories https://www.instagram.com/p/COeI3uRLHCi/?igshid=1nyaqser1iu22

These employees are sleeping on the job! The Employees by Olga Ravn is a short novel comprised of a hundred brief testimonies from both human & humanoid workers on a spaceship. The subject of each testimony is not named and is not identified at first as human or humanoid. You build up that knowledge as you read on & pick up on things. This is less a science fiction novel & more a book about what it means to be a human & what experiences & senses make up a human. There is a lot of sensory descriptions (some bordering on the grotesque - like talk about pores & things in them *shudder*). This read almost like a fever dream & I'd recommend reading it in one sitting if possible. * #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #pugsandbooks #bookreview #sciencefiction #booksintranslation #translatedfiction #translatedbook https://www.instagram.com/p/COL36iWrIty/?igshid=15dtzy2eeli5r

Tower is comprised of interconnected short stories dealing with basic human emotions & drives but set in a strange world. All of the stories take place in a 674-floor building that is its own sovereign nation & often referred to as the Beanstalk. The Beanstalk includes an actor dog that is the most influential person in the building, an elephant that is used to break up protests, & a deep divide between horizontalists & verticalists. But behind these unusual settings, there are stories of jealousy, survival, kindness, & revival of past passions. I enjoyed each of the stories, but thought the appendix was unnecessary (except for maybe the interview with the actor dog). * #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #pugsandbooks #bookreview #sciencefiction #translatedfiction # #koreanbook #koreanfiction #koreanauthors #shortstorycollection #honfordstar https://www.instagram.com/p/CN3WX2Er4wo/?igshid=1tk90q6fpp5lv

Nothing better than reading a good book on the beach & then taking a nap. Starting Cold Moon Over Babylon. * #sunsbuns #sunnypugadventures #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #coldmoonoverbabylon #beachreads https://www.instagram.com/p/CGLiGDqgvPL/?igshid=l2xx0coyi8rg

Sunny's bandage matches my latest read, The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld! I loved this book, but it didn't wow me as much as her previous book, All The Birds, Singing, which was masterfully woven. Here we have 3 different timelines following 3 women - Sarah, an accused witch in the 1700s; Ruth, a new stepmother in the 1950s; and Viv, a 30-something year old chaotic woman in current times. There are various ties & themes among the 3 women, with an underlying thread, emphasized by interspersed vignettes, of the pointless violence inflicted on women by men. I didn't love that Sara's sections were narrated by a man, and her link to the other two women wasn't as tightly woven as it could have been. But, all in all, this was a great book that I devoured in 2 days. I think Wyld might be an autobuy author for me. * #funaekreads #funaekbooks #instabooks #instareads #pugsandbooks #bookreview #thebassrock #eviewyld https://www.instagram.com/p/CHOhvyzAag2/?igshid=1p44q6p3rtmrp