I don't know why I picked this book up, but it was the best thing I've read in quite a while. Grass is a graphic memoir of Okseon Lee. We find her as a young girl, born into poverty. Her parents deny her an education and sell her into servitude.
Ultimately, she is forced into sexual slavery during the Japanese army's occupation. Each step of the way, her abusers justify horrific treatment in terms of Okseon's mandate to pay her own debt.
These details make her story all too relatable and familiar. Keum Suk Gendry Kim's masterful, compassionate portrayal is littered with courage, friendship, and hopefulness. Just enough so you can't turn away from a punch in the face.
Grass is a powerful anti-war graphic novel, offering up firsthand the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the second World War a disputed chapter in 20th century Asian history. Beginning in Lee s childhood, Grass shows the leadup to World War II from a child s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Korean folk. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee s strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted…
My wife disagrees, but I find that reading about a topic helps to ease the trauma of dealing with it. I appreciate Pathogenesisbecause it puts recent events in context.
This book argues that mass outbreaks of disease have made our world, past and present. Yet, they seem to recede into memory just as suddenly as they appeared. I feel it now. It's a mistake to ignore the scars they leave on humanity. Needless to say, recent events should give us all much to consider. A strong central thesis and some memorable anecdotes make this a worthwhile, timely read.
A “gripping” (The Washington Post) account of how the major transformations in history—from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism—have been shaped not by humans but by germs
“Superbly written . . . Kennedy seamlessly weaves together scientific and historical research, and his confident authorial voice is sure to please readers of Yuval Noah Harari or Rutger Bregman.”—The Times (U.K.)
According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism…
I listen to a lot of audiobooks these days. Mostly in the background while I'm doing something else. The investment, in terms of time and attention, is low enough that I abandon many halfway through. After a while, they begin to sound the same, but not The Book of Jose.
Undoubtedly, Fat Joe is an icon, largely due to his character and outsized personality. By his own account, he was more like a drug dealer/entrepreneur who found his way into music. He was not afraid to put himself in the right place at the right time. I'm not sure if there's much of an overlap between Fat Joe fans and Audiobook listeners, but there ought to be. He shines as a narrator.
I take much of what Fat Joe says with a grain of salt, but he's undoubtedly the craziest, funniest, most intense character on the stoop. We all know that guy. I enjoyed the hell out of this.
Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum–selling artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Fat Joe pulls back the curtain on his larger-than-life persona in this gritty, intimate memoir about growing up in the South Bronx and finding his voice through music.
“An adrenaline rush . . . buckle up and lean back.”—Spin
Fat Joe is a hip-hop legend, but this is not a tale of celebrity; it is the story of Joseph Cartagena, a kid who came of age in the South Bronx during its darkest years of drugs, violence, and abandonment, and how he navigated that traumatizing landscape until he found—through art, friendship, luck, and will—a…
I set out to make the easiest, most
clearly diagrammed origami book possible. It contains 40 original origami designs. The animals are
fun to fold and play with. It only comes with one copy of each design, but you
can refold them from any square sheet of paper and draw in the details as you
see fit.
