pickThis is a brilliant, Pulitzer prize winning novel about North Korea based on Johnson's research of defectors' accounts and his own visit to the country. It's difficult to read, but well worth it to have a better understanding of how people survive under a ruthless, totalitarian, evil regime that echoes Orwell's 1984. It explores the psychology of a man who does every awful deed he is told to but somehow clings to his humanity.
pick4⭐️ I quite enjoyed this #bookclub read. For me, it went by quickly, as the chapters were fairly short and straightforward. What I enjoyed the most was the description of life inside of North Korea, due to closed off nature of the country. It was a very intriguing read. #2024 #nonfiction #northkorea #memoir
pickThe five stars are not so much for the writing, as for the author‘s courage to speak out, and expose the grim realities of a world that, for many of us, it‘s too far away.
FULL REVIEW: http://abookandateacup.blogspot.com/2024/09/review-in-order-to-live.html
This definition of the blues is not entirely wrong. 🤣
pickShe has seen hell, and yet, it didn‘t kill her kindness, her compassion, and her loving spirit. And for that, she deserves respect.
FULL REVIEW: http://abookandateacup.blogspot.com/2024/09/review-girl-with-seven-names-hyeonse...
I put off starting this book because I knew that a Pulitzer prize winning book about North Korea would be awful. And it is deeply disturbing, but the psychology of how people survive in that nightmare society is fascinating. So well written. Here is one of my favorite passages so far--an American is asking a North Korean if he feels free. The Americans have been asking questions that illustrate their utter lack of understanding, like👇
pickI was reading about Nort-Korea again. The situation is not knew to me, but how they can escapa from that terror is awful as well.
pickThis was excellent on audio. What the author does so well is shine the humanity on North Koreans, specifically its defectors. I want to say it‘s hard to imagine such poverty, propaganda and such lack of freedom happening today, but sadly it‘s not. Five stars from me. #nonfiction2024 (1984)
pickDark tourism is the exact opposite of normal tourism. The author here prefers this kind of travel, though most people shun it. He grew up in Beirut so is familiar with life in the middle of chaos. In this book he tells us about his trips to such places as Iran (for the skiing), Chernobyl, North Korea, Cambodia and Beirut. He even discovered that Osama bin Laden was a student at his old school. Entertaining and affecting. Four stars
