What I Read: January

I'm really enjoying reading at the moment, it helps me unwind and forget about everything else. I have the bad habit of skim reading - I get through books very quickly but don't always remember them! I thought if I tried to document them here I might have a better chance.

'The Ruin', Dervla McTiernan

When Aisling Conroy's boyfriend Jack is found drowned in a river the immediate assumption is suicide. However, his long lost sister, who he hasn't seen since they were rescued from their derelict childhood home after their alcoholic mother died, surfaces and refutes the police verdict. Detective Cormac Reilly, recently transferred to Galway from Dublin investigates the case, revisiting his own past when he rescued two children from deprivation twenty years ago....

I liked the book, it was a super easy read, but it was a bit formulaic - it wasn't exactly a page turner and if I'd been a bit sharper I'd probably have figured out the ending. Not sure if I'll read other books in this series.

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson was a bit of a random pick, I think I found it on my Book Bubs daily digest one day and thought 'I know nothing about North Korea let's give that a go'. I've just learned it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 - really not surprised! It follows the life of Pak Jun Do who is cast into life in North Korea as an orphan, despite the fact that his father is alive. As Master of the orphanage Jun Do's father raises him with orphaned boys and he identifies with them, a motif which shapes much of the story. The first part of the book follows Jun Do's life, from harsh military training to kidnapping Japanese nationals and then learning English to become an intelligence officer at sea. In the second part of the book through a series of events he is seen pretending to be one of the top officials in the coutnry, interrogated by the North Korean secret police about the disappearance of his 'wife' Sun Moon. It's a really beautiful tale in my opinion, but I found it hard to determine fact from fiction and I think I need to do some reading into North Korea to learn some more.

So there was a definite theme to this month's reading. My other book this month was also about North Korea. Star of the North by D. B. John follows Jenna Williams, an American academic specialising in North Korea, as she tries to uncover what happened to her twin sister who disappeared from a South Korean island without a trace when she was 18. We follow her discovery that her sister, Soo min, was kidnapped by the North Koreans using a submarine, and her journey to the country itself as she joins the CIA to learn of Soo min's fate. Intertwined with Jenna's search is the story of an elderly North Korean lady who uses the contents of an illegal balloon to barter her way into being a market trader, and a high-ranking military official who learns he may have traitorous genes. I really enjoyed the novel, it wasn't written as beautifully as the Orphan Master's Son but it was a page turner. And again it made me want to learn more about North Korea...





I don't know what I'll be reading next month to be honest - I have a lot of random books downloaded through Bookbub so will gradually make my way through those I think.

Happy reading!