Books

After enjoying a couple of picture books with my daughters by Sook Nyul Choi, I decided to check out what else she had written and found these two short novels:

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi--I'm sad to say how ignorant I am of history around the world. I had no idea what the people of Korea went through during the years covered in this novel about a young girl and her family in North Korea. I would recommend it, but would read it with a my girls when they are old enough. There is so much to talk about as you go through it.

Echoes of the White Giraffe by Sook Nyul Choi--I thought this sequel to Year of Impossible Goodbyes was just a tad lighter, not in the author's ability to share the story or engage the reader, but just in content. During YoIG I had this feeling of oppression and heaviness. This book has parts that are a little fun and even hopeful, even though Sookan and her family are refugees waiting to go home. The focus of this story is the innocent, but forbidden, relationship that 16-year-old Sookan and Junho, her friend, have while she is a refugee. I can't say the ending is happy, but it is real has some hope for the future.

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis--This is the most disconnected of all Lewis's books I've read. There is little flow or organization to it, which makes sense, since it's like reading someone's journal. I am glad I read it, though. Lewis always gives me a new way to look at things, just a different view of the same thing, I guess.