pickThis was high on my TBR because it checks all those book-lover boxes: a woman leaves her unfulfilling life & job to start a bookshop, which grows into a place for others to also find purpose & healing. I‘m fascinated by how deeply I connected with the book, when the writing felt so…plain. The topics were so relevant to where I‘ve been in my life over the past few years: feeling a disconnect and discontent in my job, then leaving it to pursue ⤵️
BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) vocational dreams that feel far from “successful” or socially normative. But I really didn‘t connect with the writing itself. It‘s slow-paced, yes—but I don‘t mind that. It also took its time getting to any depth with its characters. I felt like the characters were kept at arms‘ length from the reader for most, if not all of the narrative—there could have been so much more depth to explore that was never touched on. ⤵️ 1d
BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) I‘ve had the same feeling about the writing in other books translated from Korean or Japanese, and while in the past I‘ve chalked it up to the translation, I‘m wondering if it‘s more a feature of the original languages themselves (and/or cultural writing norms) that makes the translations feel so plain and even distant. All of that said, I did really enjoy this book—I just got hung up on the writing. 1d
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