ambershelf's Reviews (1.3k)

This is going to put me in a reading slump

Read in Mandarin
4.5/5

Vignettes/autofiction. The author doesn’t pull punches describing ableism in Japan. There’s a paragraph about how painful for her spine reading a physics book and it felt like a gut punch

Finished copy gifted by the publisher
4.25/5

A new nanotechnology emerges in the near future that replaces human cells with android cells, rending the recipient immortal. How will these new "humans" change the trajectory of humanity? How will we carry our history into the future when technology increasingly replaces our "natural" bodies?

I really loved the intersection of poetry and consciousness, in which Hur asks if reading literature is so powerful that one's existence can be redefined and whether "reading into being" is the ultimate answer to how consciousness arises. As a huge nerd who's thought about how consciousness evolves—especially in relation to AI—Hur brilliantly blends science and literature without being overly academic on either end of the spectrum (even though I'm always down for hardcore sci-fi

ARC gifted by the publisher

I really loved the idea of commodifying relationships and why it might or might not work. But the execution ft surface level

4.5/5 ARC gifted the the publisher

I didn’t read the previous book(s?) but could follow the story. There were times in the beginning that felt a bit recap-y but it didn’t bother me. Overall just a moving family saga about forgiveness and kindness following a family from y2k through the pandemic. Lots of references to current events - I really appreciate the examination of how large events can seem unimportant until it affects us