Book Review | The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

Posted July 11, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #5: Plot includes a heist)

The Reason

It was a buddy read and I was really intrigued!

The Quotes

“It isn’t action, he suspects, that usually lands a thief in prison. It’s hesitation.”

“Art is the result of facing almost no survival pressure at all. It’s the product of leisure time. Our big brains, the most complex instruments known in the universe, have been released from the vigilance of evading predators and seeking sustenance, permitting our imagination to gambol and explore, to dream while awake, to share visions of God. Art signals our freedom. It exists because we’ve won the evolutionary war.”

“In the eyes of the law, how a thief steals is more significant than what’s taken: robbing a candy bar with a gun is worse than carrying off a Cranach painting unarmed.”

“Knowing when not to take an item, however deflating, is mandatory for a thief expecting career longevity.”

My Thoughts

I’m not an art afficionado, but I do appreciate art very much and hold them very much sacred. Not just the famous works, but also the ones regular unskilled people like me do at home, and while regular people art isn’t very valuable, I still feel the pain when I hear of any art getting lost, stolen, or destroyed, because it’s not about the monetary value, but the emotional value of the art.

I have no inkling of the monetary value of most famous artworks but I’m sure their emotional value is priceless because of what they mean to so many people. Reading this book really helps me to appreciate the kind of passion that people can feel about art.

Breitwieser’s story was interesting to read about. He was such an intriguing person to read about; his upbringing, his obsession with artworks, his thought processes, his approach system to acquiring art… Seeing his relationship dynamics with his girlfriend and his mother was really interesting too. My emotions through the progression of this book was all over the place because the story was told so well!

The ending left me so angry at Breitwieser and so sad about the art, but I cannot deny that this was a great book, told so well by the author, and well worth reading.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Posted July 11, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #23: A sprayed edge)

The Reason

It was on my Winter and Spring TBRs!!

The Quotes

“It wasn’t that she didn’t like people. It was that she liked books more. They didn’t fuss or judge or mock or reject.They invited you in, fluffed up the pillows on the couch, offered you tea and toast, and shared their hearts with no expectation that you’d do anything more than absorb what they had to give.”

“Books should be shared with everyone who wants to open their minds and hearts to them.”

“Of course knowledge is dangerous. But ignorance is even more dangerous”

“If there was a book involved, that automatically made any course of action much more sensible.”

The Narrator(s)

Caitlin Davies. I enjoyed it very much!

My Thoughts

This was such a fun book and I loved it! I love found families, I love magic, and I love books!! This story hit all the right notes for me. It just felt so cozy and inviting, and I love how imaginative it is. Caz is wonderful and I love him. There were parts that made me a little anxious but it’s mostly low stakes. There were also parts that were cute and convenient, but you know, it’s not a very serious book so I won’t take it too seriously either. I love the connections Kiela makes, I love the magical elements, and the very interesting ways they find solutions in this book. It’s just a nice, comfort read.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Posted July 11, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love’s absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #34: Direction in the title)
The Classics Club

The Reason

This was the BOTM for my in-person bookclub.

The Quotes

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

“I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.”

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.”

The Narrator(s)

Richard Poe. It was good, no complaints.

My Thoughts

I think I would’ve liked it more if I didn’t have such high expectations from the get-go. A friend from years ago once told me this was her favorite book and talked it up so much that I had the impression I was going to be blown away. Add to that, the fact that it’s been 20 years since and the legend of the book has only grown in my mind, so perhaps it was unsurprising that I would be disappointed.

In the interest of fairness though, I’m being as objective as I can about my thoughts on this book. I love Lee, he was the best character in the book, but I didn’t like most of the other characters. The women especially weren’t developed well enough; it didn’t feel like they were real people but rather just plot devices and caricatures.

I get that this story is a retelling of the Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel stories, but it felt a little on the nose and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. I love retellings, but I need them to serve the story a little more than this!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Posted July 10, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #39: Has an epigraph)

The Reason

I’ve heard good things about this book and it was a buddy read.

The Quotes

“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”

“Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.”

“There is a moment, a cusp, when the sum of gathered experience is worn down by the details of living. We are never so wise as when we live in this moment.”

“I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”

My Thoughts

I thought I could finish this book quickly because it’s not very long, but it felt so heavy that I had a hard time continuing after finishing Part 1. Especially with the way the parts were labeled, knowing that Part 2 we’d be going into his illness. I’ve read several end-of-life memoirs, and honestly this one somehow felt the saddest.

Maybe because it happened so quickly for him, maybe because he was so young… With a lot of the other books, there was more reflection on the good times, good memories, things they learned and achieved, lessons/last words they want to share with others… With this one, Paul seemed to focus more on what he didn’t do, what he wouldn’t ever get to do. I’m not criticizing his thought processes; I think it’s real, it makes sense, and in a way, I like that he’s not romanticizing dying young like he’s some kind of noble, brave, person. It’s unfair, and he never got to do a lot of things that he wanted to do, and there’s nothing romantic about that. Still, it was difficult to read and hit very close to home for me.

I like the book, I like what he had to say, but I also hated reading it because it forced me to look at death and dying in the face, and I would much rather pretend it’s some far away concept that only happens when people live to 100 years old and/or some made-up thing that only happens in books and movies.

I’m also somewhat getting an existential crisis from reading this; what’s important to me? have I achieved what I want to achieve in life? am I living life the way I want to? if I only had a few years to live, what should I be doing? what do I want to be doing? I have so much compassion for Paul and his family, and I love that even in the midst of his own illness, he’s thinking of his wife and child, what she’s going through dealing with his illness, wanting her to remarry. I am feeling so many feelings right now…

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Oz: The Complete Collection by L. Frank Baum

Posted July 10, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Oz: The Complete Collection by L. Frank Baum

Although most children today are introduced to the world of Oz through the classic 1939 movie, L. Frank Baum has been captivating the hearts of the young, and not so young, for over a hundred years.

This delightful compilation includes all fifteen books written by L. Frank Baum:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Marvelous Land of Oz
Ozma of Oz
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
The Road to Oz
The Emerald City of Oz
The Patchwork Girl Of Oz
Little Wizard Stories of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz
The Scarecrow Of Oz
Rinkitink In Oz
The Lost Princess Of Oz
The Tin Woodman Of Oz
The Magic of Oz
Glinda Of Oz

Perhaps there is no better, or fitting, introduction one could give to this compilation than the author’s note that Baum himself writes in his very first book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Here he reveals the true intention of his work. Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations. Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #27: Features a magician)
The Classics Club

The Reason

I was reading it for a thick book challenge; multiple books in one binding count!

The Quotes

“The reason most people are bad is because they do not try to be good.”

“Do not, I beg of you, dampen today’s sun with the showers of tomorrow.”

“Finally, were you all like me, I would consider you so common that I would not care to associate with you. To be individual, my friends, to be different from others, is the only way to become distinguished from the common herd. Let us be glad, therefore, that we differ from one another in form and in disposition. Variety is the spice of life, and we are various enough to enjoy one another’s society; so let us be content.”

“There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.”

The Narrator(s)

Charles Hubbell. The narration was fine, but the audio engineering was a pain! I had to adjust the volume constantly because they weren’t consistent across the chapters, and we’re talking about a 64-hour audiobook, so that’s a lot of adjusting.

My Thoughts

Believe it or not, it’s my first time reading the Oz stories, including the first book! I’m so pleasantly surprised with how fun they are, and how completely imaginative and wholesome. There are a few old-fashioned ideas, but considering these books were written so long ago, and have mostly wholesome messages, I’ll forgive the few transgressions. I love that even though there are so many different characters, they are all very distinct and individual. The adventures were fun and low-stakes, and all’s well that ends well. I loved it!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

Posted July 10, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

The timeless tale continues… The most popular and beloved American historical novel ever written, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind is unparalleled in its portrayal of men and women at once larger than life but as real as ourselves. Now bestselling writer Alexandra Ripley brings us back to Tara and reintroduces us to the characters we remember so well: Rhett, Ashley, Mammy, Suellen, Aunt Pittypat, and, of course, Scarlett. As the classic story, first told over half a century ago, moves forward, the greatest love affair in all fiction is reignited; amidst heartbreak and joy, the endless, consuming passion between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler reaches its startling culmination. Rich with surprises at every turn and new emotional, breathtaking adventures, Scarlett satisfies our longing to reenter the world of Gone With the Wind, and like its predecessor, Scarlett will find an eternal place in our hearts.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #21: Character’s name in the title)
The Classics Club

The Reason

It’s the unofficial sequel to Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and I usually read them both together.

The Quotes

“Should-haves solve nothing. It’s the next thing to happen that needs thinking about.”

“’If only’ repeated again and again in her head like a battering ram…’if only’ could break your heart.”

“I’m going to make a world for myself by my rules, not anybody else’s. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to learn to be happy.”

“She’d done harder things in her life, she could do this. She had to.”

The Narrator(s)

Linda Stephens. I enjoyed the narration very much, I was completely immersed in the world.

My Thoughts

I realize that a lot of GWTW purists hate this book for various reasons, but I personally love it and in fact, I love this more than GWTW itself. Some of the complaints include the fact that Scarlett’s personality in this book isn’t consistent with her personality in GWTW, but in my opinion that’s one of the weakest arguments against this book, because Scarlett starts off at what? 17 years old? in GWTW, and she’s in her 30s in this book.

Honestly, if you haven’t changed from the time you were 17 to when you were in your 30s, I’d be more concerned. Plus, we know Scarlett had gone through so much, and that final scene at the end of GWTW was another catalyst for her and I’d like to think that she grew from that. Not overnight, but that’s the reason why I love this book so much.

I’m a character-driven reader, and I loved seeing Scarlett grow and change throughout the book. It was such a great study of her character by a writer that wasn’t even the original author, and I respect Ripley for it. It was very realistic for me that Scarlett would make the choices she made, do the things she did, act the way she acted, in this book. I’ve always loved Scarlett as a character but I didn’t necessarily like her as a person in GWTW. I grew to love her as both in this book.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Posted July 10, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Since its original publication in 1936, Gone with the Wind—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time—has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Widely considered The Great American Novel, and often remembered for its epic film version, Gone with the Wind explores the depth of human passions with an intensity as bold as its setting in the red hills of Georgia. A superb piece of storytelling, it vividly depicts the drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

This is the tale of Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled, manipulative daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, who arrives at young womanhood just in time to see the Civil War forever change her way of life. A sweeping story of tangled passion and courage, in the pages of Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell brings to life the unforgettable characters that have captured readers for over seventy years.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #2: A character with red hair)
The Classics Club

The Reason

It’s one of my favorite books as a child and I was feeling a little nostalgic.

The Quotes

“I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it’s no worse than it is.”

“No, my dear, I’m not in love with you, no more than you are with me, and if I were, you would be the last person I’d ever tell. God help the man who ever really loves you. You’d break his heart, my darling, cruel, destructive little cat who is so careless and confident she doesn’t even trouble to sheathe her claws.”

“I wish I could care what you do or where you go but I can’t… My dear, I don’t give a damn.”

The Narrator(s)

Linda Stephens. I enjoyed the narration very much, I was completely immersed in the world.

My Thoughts

This is one of my favorite books that I read and reread over and over again as a child. I thought it was one of the most romantic stories I’ve ever read, but unfortunately, there are many parts of the book that hasn’t aged well at all. The last time I read this was maybe four years ago and I remember feeling sad and disillusioned about all the problematic issues with the toxic romance, abusive relationships, slavery and the KKK.

I was hesitant to reread it again this time, but I went into it with the understanding that it was written a long time ago and it was true to the times, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that times like these existed, things like these happened. I no longer romanticize the story, but I now enjoy it for the historical masterpiece that it is. It is an interesting story with amazing characters, written extremely well, and I think I’m happy to leave it at that.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | 1984 by George Orwell

Posted July 10, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

1984 by George Orwell

A masterpiece of rebellion and imprisonment where war is peace freedom is slavery and Big Brother is watching. Thought Police, Big Brother, Orwellian – these words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984. The story of one man’s Nightmare Odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory 1984 is a prophetic haunting tale More relevant than ever before 1984 exposes the worst crimes imaginable the destruction of truth freedom and individuality. With a foreword by Thomas Pynchon.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #36: Final sentence is less than 6 words long)
The Classics Club

The Reason

It was the Book of the Month for my online bookclub.

The Quotes

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”

The Narrator(s)

Simon Prebble. It was great, no notes.

My Thoughts

I’ve been curious about this book for a while. I’ve seen so many real world references to this book and the ideas in the book, of course, but interestingly, not many references about the characters themselves and what they do. It’s crazy that this was written so many years ago and still relevant now. It’s a scary world to live in and an extreme one. I would’ve never believed it could become a reality but a lot have happened that I never believed would.

I think it makes sense that the ideas and not the characters are the big players in this story. I don’t like the characters much, but I also don’t think we’re necessarily meant to like them. They are oppressed, brainwashed, indoctrinated, in some form or other.

The scariest part of the story for me is realizing how beliefs can totally change your reality, and it doesn’t matter if two plus two equals four. If you live in a world where everyone around you believes that two plus two equals five, then that’s your reality. It’s so easy to get gaslit and believe that you’re the one who’s got a perception problem. I’m scared just thinking about it.

I don’t think it’s necessary to read the book in order to get the ideas/references if you’re already exposed to discourse about these ideas, but I do believe that it’s helpful as recommended reading for school, for starting conversations and discussions about how these ideas take form in our world and how to prevent them.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Posted July 9, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged Inspector Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #40: Stream of consciousness narrative)
The Classics Club

The Reason

My online book club had a reading challenge and we get points for thicker books, and this book also happened to be a buddy read, plus it’s been on my TBR for years!

The Quotes

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”

“It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.”

“A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is invisible labor.”

“The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.”

The Narrator(s)

Frederick Davidson. He was a great narrator; he was very easy to listen to and helped me sail really smoothly through a huge book with no issues.

My Thoughts

This is a tale of miserable wretches, alright, the title does not lie. I ended up enjoying it so much more than I thought I would, and I got really invested in the story and the characters. Having said that, I don’t necessarily like any of the characters. I thought Valjean and Javert were both quite annoying and overly dogmatic in their individual approaches to life. It was a whole lot of unnecessary drama, but I was very much pulled into the story, and I couldn’t look away!

Although I didn’t like the characters very much, I absolutely loved the experience of reading the book. There were a lot of digression by the author towards other historical events that happened, and he writes about them in detail. It took me away from the main story but it was also interesting and made me want to learn more about those events. The story also reminded me a little of The Count of Monte Cristo – which is one of my all-time favorite books – they had similar elements in both stories. However, it cannot compare to The Count of Monte Cristo for the place it holds in my heart.

I do believe that this is one of those stories I’d enjoy rereading again. It’s a huge book with a ton of details I’ve probably skimmed over on a first reading, so I’m sure I’ll get more out of it each time I reread. It’s not one I’ll want to reread anytime soon though, but I’ll have fond memories of reading it the first time.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Posted July 9, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

The New York Times bestseller from the Grammy-nominated indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast, an unflinching, deeply moving memoir about growing up mixed-race, Korean food, losing her Korean mother, and forging her own identity in the wake of her loss.

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band – and meeting the man who would become her husband – her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

This book was highly recommended by one of my friends who’s also a fan of the author’s music.

The Quotes

“It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to.”

“There was no one in the world that was ever as critical or could make me feel as hideous as my mother, but there was no one, not even Peter, who ever made me feel as beautiful.”

“Some of the earliest memories I can recall are of my mother instructing me to always “save ten percent of yourself.” What she meant was that, no matter how much you thought you loved someone, or thought they loved you, you never gave all of yourself. Save 10 percent, always, so there was something to fall back on. “Even from Daddy, I save,” she would add.”

“Now that she was gone, I began to study her like a stranger, rooting around her belongings in an attempt to rediscover her, trying to bring her back to life in any way that I could. In my grief I was desperate to construe the slightest thing as a sign.”

The Narrator(s)

The author herself. It was great!

My Thoughts

This book was easy to read in terms of writing, but very hard to read emotionally for me. I have a lot of negative feelings and memories coming up while reading this book, and I’m struggling between having both compassionate feelings and mean feelings towards Michelle.

I relate so much to a lot of her feelings and experiences with her parents but I feel like I have a completely opposite realization about those experiences than she does; she seems to make excuses for them, and blames herself for not being a better daughter, thinking herself the problem, and for me, I know now that my parents are the problem. I do have compassion for my parents and realize they might have been doing what they believed was best because of the whole cycle of normalized abusive Asian parenting, but that doesn’t make it right regardless.

My mean feelings towards Michelle is because her thought processes with excusing her parents and blaming herself, reminds me of me when I was younger and doing the same thing, and I’m so angry at myself for not wising up sooner because it messed me up so much, and yet I feel compassion too because it was hard to go through that too. Obviously, I need therapy!

All the family trauma aside, I did really enjoy reading the book. I love the talk about food and culture, and learning to make comfort cultural food. I’ve also recently been looking into making kimchi myself and I’m excited to try it out. I love that maangchi was featured, I’ve definitely watched her videos before but I’m going to pay more attention now. I love that Peter was so loving and supportive towards Michelle and I thought their “proposal” was both hilarious and romantic, even while the circumstances were sad. I haven’t actually listened to a lot of her music except for Be Sweet, but I’m curious and I’ll check out more of her music.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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