I learned a LOT from this. After reading [b:The Orphan Master's Son|11529868|The Orphan Master's Son|Adam Johnson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327878601s/11529868.jpg|16467838] I realized I know like, nothing about North Korea. And now I know... some things about North Korea. This is a fairly dense read (... also I'm used to reading YA fiction so my bar for "dense" may have been lowered over the years) but it's certainly readable, and it is an intelligent & insightful look at the history of North Korea, particularly focused on the last 50 years or so.

Cumings has a very sympathetic, non-alarmist, non-patronizing perspective on Korean culture which is very refreshing for a USAian to read, since obviously most of our media... does not do that.

I'm still interested in checking out [b:Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea|6178648|Nothing to Envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea|Barbara Demick|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320449375s/6178648.jpg|6358552] and/or [b:The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia|16248578|The Real North Korea Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia|Andrei Lankov|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355426296s/16248578.jpg|22279286] for more about day to day life in North Korea, but this was really good, useful background reading for me.

I LOVE Sugar. I'd already read most of these online at The Rumpus, but I still enjoyed the experience of re-reading them.

Sugar is so, so wise.

(If you're not familiar with Sugar, why not do yourself a favor and read her advice to her younger self? Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you’ll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you’ll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room.)

And then read the whole book.

I pretty much read this whole book like this O_O Like, WHOA.

This is one of the most fascinating and bonkers stories I've ever read. I LOVED it. I would only recommend it to those who have already seen and enjoyed The Room. If you have not seen The Room, I would recommend that you go watch The Room. Watch The Room five times. Then read this.

I actually already knew a lot about the making of The Room but this book has sooo much crazy behind the scenes information. It truly answers the question "How did this get made?" (Answer: "Barely, and because of Tommy Wiseau's possibly illegally obtained fortune.) What an intensely beautiful trainwreck. I also admire Sestero for writing about Tommy Wiseau with a real sense of compassion and humanity, while still conveying how difficult it is to work with him. (And LIVE with him, oh my god.)

I was also pretty compelled by Greg Sestero's story of trying to make it as a young model/actor in LA, although his story is less compelling than Tommy's... because Tommy is a whirlwind of mystery.

OK, like [b:Midwinterblood|10836471|Midwinterblood|Marcus Sedgwick|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1319727124s/10836471.jpg|15750616], this is a book I had a lot of misconceptions about? From the cover and title and intended audience, I assumed this was some kind of like fun Judy Moody-style adventure or something? But this book is REAL AS HELL. Like within the first few chapters, the girls' birth mom essentially tells all her kids she should have aborted them. ICE COLD.

I loved all three sisters, and I loved how this book makes the Black Power movement really accessible and relevant for tweens?? I think... this might be best read either with help from a parent, or in a classroom setting, because I'm not sure how much historical context a lot of kids would have for this book? White kids especially. But I think it would be a great one for white kids to read, because of the nuanced portrayal of racism and black history and how even if you're well-meaning, you don't necessarily understand someone else's story. (Obviously also a great one for kids of color.)

Oh gosh, I loved this. I'm so, so impressed with all the complicated issues tangled up in this plot--race, class, radical politics, the Vietnam war, intercultural exchange, new stepparents, drug addiction--all organically woven into the narrative, with funny, likeable characters. I feel like a story like this could so easily veer into "afterschool special" territory but it's the exact OPPOSITE of that. Just great!

I'll start this off by saying that I'm probably one of the least punk rock people in existence, and I wouldn't have picked this up if 1) it hadn't been a Kindle Daily Deal and 2) my friend Caroline hadn't been so enthusiastic about it. But I'm super glad I did! I learned a LOT.

I had honestly never heard of most of these bands? And even the ones I had... I mean, literally the first time I ever heard of Henry Rollins was when he was a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race. And now I'm like, wow, it is pretty crazy that that guy was on RuPaul's Drag Race. Anyway, so, it's not really the kind of music I tend to listen to, and pretty much every time Azerrad described some important concert I was just like, "Gross, that sounds terrible." Like not just from the spitting and other bodily fluids, but just pretty much every time he talked about a particular band trying to figure out how to be louder or more distorted or whatever, I was just like, nope, turn up the Taylor Swift please. (Like, seriously, I get mad when somebody spills beer on me at a show. If the lead singer of a band threw a bottle of piss on the audience of a show I was at, I would NEVER LEAVE MY HOUSE AGAIN.)

I've also been trying to listen to some of these bands on YouTube and Spotify, because even though the way Azerrad describes the music sounds terrible to me, he's also clearly passionate about it and so were a lot of people? But mostly I'm just like... nope, still turn up the Taylor Swift.

ANYWAY so all that said... it's a really impressive feat of narrative nonfiction to make me read hundreds of pages about this stuff, and to make me enjoy it. Well played, Michael Azerrad. I also am really on board with his general thesis about what an important time this was, and a lot of the themes he talks about I definitely see resonate in things I care about more, like riot grrl (which gets like, 3 pages toward the end). Like I'm super interested in the process/movements described here, if not the music itself, so much??

Oh and I liked his epilogue about how the internet is the new Seattle. I'd read a whole book about that. Has Michael Azerrad written a book about the internet?? Let me just check... ah, no. Well, I'd read it, if he did. (I would also read if it he wrote a book about Taylor Swift, for the record.)

This is a great collection of reviews/essays celebrating genre fiction, either specific works (His Dark Materials) or broad genres (superhero comics), with a bit of memoirish flavor. That Chabon's a great writer should really go without saying, but it's delightful to see him so eloquently celebrating stuff that, for the most part, I also enjoy! Huzzah!

I know I'm the last one on the planet to read this (and I'm still on the hold list for [b:Boxers|17210470|Boxers (Boxers & Saints, #1)|Gene Luen Yang|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1359199413s/17210470.jpg|23691809]!) but um, yeah, loved it. Gene Yang knows what's up. Very innovative, well-researched historical fiction. As you probably know.

Let me get this out of the way first: was I primarily interested in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because Beyonce sampled her in "Flawless"? Yes, of course. (I also later realized that we listened to her TED Talk The danger of a single story in my grad school storytelling class, and I HIGHLY recommend it. It definitely informed my reading of this. And of like, everything.)

Anyway, I just thought this was such a smart, funny, important book. It's roughly the story of Ifemelu and Obinze, two smart, middle class-ish Nigerian teenagers who fall in love in high school, and then are separated as they try to pursue college/jobs abroad, in the US and the UK, respectively. Ugh, it's SUCH a cutting and insightful examination of race in America. But also, a beautifully developed love story. I love, love, LOVED Ifemelu. What a complicated, well-developed character.

I guess I read these out of order, since GoodReads is calling [b:Saints|17210471|Saints (Boxers & Saints, #2)|Gene Luen Yang|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1359199657s/17210471.jpg|23691810] "Boxers #2"? But I don't think the books themselves say that, and they seem to be set concurrently, so... whatever. I do feel like I liked Saints more than I liked Boxers--maybe I would have liked whichever one I read first best? Hmm, I don't know. I did love seeing the snippets of Vibiana, so I'm sure if I'd read Boxers first I would have had the opposite for Little Bao. I think maybe I am just more inherently interested in the kind of personal searching story of Saints than I am in the wartime story of Boxers??

ANYWAY WHATEVER, both are great and cool. Great graphic works about an exciting/terrible time in history, and Yang's working through a lot a lot of stuff here.

ETA Just read my pal Emilia's review of this and she says, But...I think there's a problem here, which is that it's super clear that Yang is on the side of the Saints and not the Boxers -- though he loves and respects Chinese traditional religion, the values he writes with are drawn from Christianity, and this really shows in this book -- the most poignant moments are those that connect to the other book, and Little Bao's moments of hesitation to follow the Opera Gods commands.

Hmm good point Emilia, maybe that's also why I liked Saints more.