Koffee & Kpop

I forgot to post my book round-up for 2022, so I’ll post that while I work on reading the remaining book for my reading challenge in 2023. (Here’s 2021’s version.)

(Featured Image by the amazing Henn Kim.)

I no longer taught kindergarten from March 2022 on. I visited my family for the first time since Christmas 2019 and was able to read a few books in the two weeks I spent there.

I did, however, begin teaching a beginner English class that consisted of three students on average. They were all very bright but very antsy, so when we would finish our work, I would read a book to them. We’d all go sit together at a back table in the classroom and it became a routine–sometimes they would reach their seats before I had even started walking to the back of the classroom. As their English reading and phonics abilities improved, sometimes they wanted to read to me, and I started letting them choose books from the library to read. Clearly, though, I have a soft spot for Mo Willems. I find his books are entertaining not only for children, but also for adults.

The stand-out book of the year was Bae Myung-hoon’s “Tower,” which is now one of my all-time favorite books. I also really enjoyed Kikuko Tsumara’s “There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job.” I was disappointed by Saunders’ “Liberation Day” collection and pined for his older works (which need a re-read) and I was also underwhelmed by Se-hee Baek’s “I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki,” although I recognize how ground-breaking that book was in the world of Korean writing and culture/society.

The last book I read this year was a dud. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself: reading books that purport to be about Korean culture/food/etiquette/life… They are all so surface-level, boring, and I’m not the right audience for these kind of books. I suspect that for some individuals, writing such books are seen as an easy cash grab because there is limited research to be done and writing quality doesn’t really matter.

All in all, I was happy with the amount I read this year! Last year. Two years ago. 2022… Where does time go…

1. Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town, Barbara Demick
2. The Handsome Monk and Other Stories, Tsering Dondrup
3. The Best American Short Stories 2021, Jesmyn Ward
4. Happy Birthday, Danny and the Dinosaur!, Syd Hoff
5. Biscuit Finds a Friend, Alyssa Satin Capucilli
6. We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, Tsering Yangzom Lama
7. Love in the Big City, Sang Young Park
8. Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems, Rita Dove
9. There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job, Kikuko Tsumara
10. Nowhere to Be Found, Bae Suah
11. Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hiromi Kawakami
12. A Dream of a Woman, Casey Plett
13. Shoko’s Smile: Stories, Choi Eunyoung
14. Liberation Day: Stories, George Saunders
15. Tower, Bae Myung-hoon
16. Cursed Bunny: Stories, Bora Chung
17. Concerning My Daughter, Kim Hye-Jin
18. Monstress: Stories, Lysley Tenorio
19. To The Warm Horizon, Jin-Young Choi
20. The Cabinet, Un-su Kim
21. A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea, Masaji Ishikawa
22. Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners, Alan Emmins
23. Turn Up the Ocean: Poems, Tony Hoagland
24. Don’t Go Out Little Pig!, Christian Merveille
25. Pumpkin Trouble, Jan Thomas
26. Today I Will Fly!, Mo Willems
27. I Am Going!, Mo Willems
28. Waiting is Not Easy!, Mo Willems
29. Elephants Cannot Dance!, Mo Willems
30. Pigs Make Me Sneeze!, Mo Willems
31. Cat the Cat, Who is That?, Mo Willems
32. Time to Sleep, Sheep the Sheep!, Mo Willems
33. Kite Flying, Grace Lin
34. Little Owl Lost, Chris Haughton
35. I Will Surprise My Friend!, Mo Willems
36. Meet Trouble, Susan Hood
37. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Baek Se-hee
38. At the End of the Matinee, Keiichiro Hirano
39. South Korea 101: The Culture, Etiquette, Rules and Customs, Mancho Soto