Welcome to Litsy!

Day 7 in my sons hospital room but he‘s improving and i finished a book!

I thought this was really powerful. Alternating chapters from four young women who live in the same low cost apartment building in Seoul. Each one is carrying wounds from their past and struggling to get by. Cha paints a misogynistic society with huge barriers to success for impoverished women without family support or social connections. A thought provoking read.

This really sounded like a book I would love but I just couldn‘t seem to connect with any of the characters. Felt pretty meh about it.

I also stopped by a nearby Chungchun for Korean hot dogs, and they did not dissapoint!

I seem to be having better luck with the food portion of #FoodandLit rather than the book part! 😋

Thought provoking read that was as much social commentary as it was story. It features 5 young women in Seoul working and reflecting on life. The societal pressures to be “perfect women” are high. Fascinating and insightful.

For my Korean food, I‘m using it as an excuse to go get some Somi Somi AhBoong down the street. I‘m sure my daughter will be wanting BonChon next week to while on spring break too.🍦

#FoodandLit #SouthKorea @Catsandbooks

Enjoyed this one! A quick read. Will be thinking of these characters for a long time.

I have so many reading accessories so my repetitive motion injuries don‘t get in the way of my books! Loving this book - at about 25% now.

I wish I could remember who recommended this book to me. It kind of reminded me of The Joy Luck Club with how it was organized and in that way, I want to reread it already.

#LuckyInLove @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
Face/BodyOnCover

#IdiomInsight

When someone is said to #FaceTheMusic face it means they need to confront or accept the unpleasant consequences of their actions. It involves the bravery or resignation necessary when dealing with repercussions or harsh realities.

I still think about this book, set in the glittery K-Pop, beauty & cosmetic surgery-obsessed world of South Korea where four young women have to face the consequences of their decisions & actions.

Hard to follow via audio book…… Maybe one day I‘ll pick it up again with a hard copy

I sort of liked it and it addresses several social issues well...it's just...I am a bit bored by books that portray all men as villains. It makes me feel sad for the authors who see the necessity to present things that way.
Other than that, the book is well researched and offers haunting details about how women's lives can be impacted by impossible standards and expectations.
The audiobook is a bit hard to follow, so probably better in print.

Round 46. #tenatatime TBR

really good, kinda brutal

I enjoyed this and found it thought-provoking. I definitely felt the most moved by Wonna but Ara was a close second. I would read anything else Cha publishes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed this enough, but thought its impact was muddied with too many narrators and storylines and it left too many unanswered questions. 🎧

Really enjoyed. Also enjoyed the interview with the author at the end which put more things into context.

wow. a jarring and sad story about women in Seoul. i loved this.

A glimpse into the lives of different women with their own struggles. When I first finished it I was unsatisfied. But the more I sit with it the more I feel like “yeah, I get it.”
If you wanna pick it up, check out this link: https://amzn.to/3paO8NV

I love reading with ambient sounds or music, it just adds to the cozy vibes. So my SO and I decided to start a new YouTube dedicated to these vibes.
Would be cool if you checked it out and may subbed!
Let me know what your favorite background sounds are to read, or relax too!

https://youtube.com/channel/UCJk2Q1w9UnL2r8PzomzlxCQ

#12BooksOf2021

I am sharing my almost-favorites of the year. The ones who didn‘t make my #Top21Of21 but are favorites nevertheless. One for each month.

2021 was the year of #ReadingAsia2021 and that led to reading many gems and broaden my horizons. One of those special reads is this one about the importance of being beautiful in South Korea, that I read in #April.

I think this cover is so cool. I need to read it still!

#FaceOnTheCover #FallTreasures

A fascinating insight into the culture of beauty in South Korea. Following four friends living in the same apartment building, they each struggle in different ways with society‘s expectations of women. A really good companion read to Kim Jiyoung 1982, this reads quickly and lightly but goes much deeper. The exploration of the modern culture and use of plastic surgery left me reeling, as it did after I read Kim Jiyoung‘s portrayal of the workplace.

#kindledailydeal #99ponkindle
Another good offer today.

Loved this. A great insight into the lives of women in Seoul, their struggle for financial security, pressure to marry & the sexism & beauty standards they face. The four women characters are flawed, real & endearing. I enjoyed hanging out with them. Clean writing, satisfying & well-paced. ‘Friends‘ comfort with ‘Parasite‘ characters & its own blend of pragmatic feminism.

Really enjoyed this novel that follows four women in modern day Seoul, and through them contemporary life in South Korea. I enjoyed all of these women‘s stories, told by alternating narrators each chapter. Unlike some other books of this style, I found it easy to keep track of each narrator‘s backstory and found their voices unique. I‘ll be keeping an eye out for this author in the future.

Here‘s my review for another book I finished reading. I‘m counting this book for #bookishbingo for the prompt “Read With Book Club Or Buddy Read”. I read this book for the book club Between Two Books and I‘m also counting this book for a reading challenge that I‘m participating in this year.

☑️A Book About A Social Justice Issue - #popsugarreadingchallenge2021

Young women in Korea chafe at societal expectations and beauty standards.

This book was recommended by a frequent customer and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. It's such a sad story. We follow the lives of four girls and a woman who live in the same building, the hardships they face as women in a society that sees them as objects, and how that has shaped their views of themselves and each other. Definitely recommend! #fiction #foundfamily

https://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm135487

This was an interesting story, about four young women living in Seoul where how they are defined is by their looks. We hear the story of each girl and their friendships with each other. It was well written and easy to read.

Spent the day on the boat reading 🥰🥰

#BookReport 17/21

It‘s been a good week. The upper three were all fab reads. And don‘t they look nice together?!

In #SouthKorea plastic surgery seems almost necessary among young women to build their careers. Under this kind of pressure four women try to succeed in modern day Seoul where misogyny and class tensions still are common. Shocking and grim.

#ReadingAsia2021 🇰🇷 #pop21 #PrettiestCover

@erzascarletbookgasm @squirrelbrain I am not sure who chose this book for me for my birthday but thanks again 🤍, quite the book for me!

https://wellreadneck.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/if-i-had-your-face-frances-cha/

I really enjoyed this one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#2021ReadingGoals #fiction

One of the unexpected consequences of using the library under covid - 3 days for the books to be removed from your account. By that point I've forgotten what I returned and sometimes think I've returned ones I haven't. A couple of times (not complaining here: our librarians doing brilliant job keeping everything moving in the circumstances) books haven't been removed from my account when returned.

Solution? Photo of the library returns trolley!

Shored up by the HEA (HFN) of at least three romance novels, trying to finish this one. Married men spending time in thinly disguised brothels, women forced into drastic plastic surgery to get jobs in brothels that don't pay the enormous debt they got into for the surgery, and other women desperately trying to marry men - who spend time in thinly disguised brothels...
Likely to send me rushing for a grim crime novel.

Such a good little book exploring the lives of 5 women who live in the same apartment block in Seoul. Trying to survive and strive in a city driven by money and men. I could have read more about the futures of these women with the novel leaving unknowns for all the characters, but despite this you get the sense that they will fight through, with their scrappy attitudes and the support of the other women around them ❤

My new read for International Women's Day. Set in contemporary Seoul exploring the popularity of plastic surgeries to make women look a certain way to get by in a extremely competitive economy. Very interested to get started.

...sometimes men try to join us, but they give up when we drink shot after shot while ignoring them. We see enough men at work, Nami and I. They need to leave us alone on the weekends. We wear baggy sweatshirts and baseball caps pulled down low and no lipstick, just eyeliner, but still they come talk to us.
"You're too pretty to drink by yourselves," they say. "Can we join you?" And then when we ignore them, they turn nasty.

Overall a compelling read - I was very attached to the characters by the end & sad to say goodbye. It pulls no punches in its depiction of the lives of four young women scraping by in Seoul, struggling to survive in a world of impossible standards and cruel men. In the end, they have each other & while it doesn't seem like enough, I was still reassured that they would be OK, they would keep on striving, heads held high, knowing their own worth.

Ok I kind of wish I had read this instead of audio. I felt a bit lost going back and forth between characters. I loved being back in Seoul though.

@DebinHawaii I am blown away by your #bestof2020swap package!! 🤩 😍 I‘ve had If I Had Your Face on my TBR for awhile now, and I am so excited to read the others too! I am especially pumped about The Salt Wind! I had to add it to my January TBR! Thank you so much!

I‘ll have to take more pictures because you can‘t even see all of the awesomeness in this photo!

Very interesting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book has really strongly written female characters who live in Seoul, Korea. Each of the women‘s stories are so powerful with problems unique to Korea but also universal for all women. It‘s one of those books that taught me about a different culture but also showed me how people can be alike all over. Really recommend. This was my #bookspinbingo No. 15 pick.

I am obsessed with this novel and couldn‘t believe it was a debut. The interlinked lives of four women in Korea, rich and poor, married and single, disabled and non disabled, beautiful and less beautiful, butting up against restrictions on women, and each other, trying to work and work out how to be happy. The writing and characters were perfect, not a word out of place. This will almost certainly be one of my top books of 2020

#BookMail #FoMo

This is a #remarkable and fascinating debut that gives us a glimpse of how women in modern day South Korea are navigating their lives. It is a story of “gender inequality and lives ruled by the money of men, of impossible beauty standards and their effect on Korean women.” I highly recommend it.
#wordsofoctober

LOVED IT 💖 Full review on my Goodreads. Back to my #MountTBR challenge with some Halloween themed reads!

If K-Pop had a color palette... 💛💖 #currentlyreading

#currentlyreading ✨ can't wait to discuss with you @ChaoticMissAdventures !