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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post #321

On The Blog Recently

• Winter Reading Ideas
• Gifts For Book Lovers
• Holiday Book Haul
• Best Books Of 2022
• 2022 Reading Statistics

In My Reading Life

Last week, I finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I loved this book. Five stars for Rocky the alien.

Project Hail Mary is a fast-paced science fiction novel about a man who wakes up from a coma and discovers that he's alone on a spaceship. His crewmates are dead. He has no idea why he's on the ship or what he's expected to do. As he frantically searches for answers, he slowly remembers that Earth's sun is infested with alien algae, and he's been sent to a distant star in the hopes of finding something that kills space algae. Fortunately (and unfortunately), he learns a lot more than he expected on his journey.

Read this book if you like plot twists because there are a lot of them. It's actually an impossible book to review because there are so many twists. Everything I want to say is a spoiler. The characters handle each twist with humor and optimism. It's kind of inspirational. These people are very, very determined to live. Every time they start to feel hopeless, they refocus and try a different way of solving their problems. Nothing is easy in space!

My only complaint is that the author isn't great at coming up with unique characters. The characters in this book are pretty much identical to the characters in his previous books. That's a small complaint, though. Don't let it stop you from reading this one. It's really good!

Let's go from one extreme to the other. Project Hail Mary was an easy 5 stars. In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey To Freedom by Yeonmi Park is a lot more complicated. I didn't like it, which is a terrible thing to say because it's a memoir. I feel like I'm judging somebody's life. Maybe this is why I don't read more nonfiction.

The author was born in North Korea and didn't have an easy childhood. When she was 13, her and her mother escaped into China and became victims of human trafficking. They jumped from one bad situation into an equally bad situation. It's a brutal story to read.

Aside from the difficult subject matter, most of the book is fine. The writing isn't great, but I can forgive it because the author doesn't have the same education level as other writers.

I think the pacing is too fast. I kept wishing the author would slow down and give more details. I wondered how she learned Mandarin faster than the other kidnapped refugees, and why she was so valuable to human traffickers that they were willing to "go to war" for her, and why her mother allowed a 13-year-old to make so many important decisions for the family. I wanted more information!

Then, a paragraph at the end of the book slightly ruined everything for me. The author admits that her story has changed multiple times. She gave different accounts to different journalists. Instead of telling the truth, she told reporters what she thought they wanted to hear. She says, "I was reacting, improvising like a jazz musician playing the same melody a little differently each time, unaware that there might be people out there keeping score."

My brain went in two directions with this. First, I said, "She obviously lived through something traumatizing. Of course she's not going to spill her secrets to every reporter who asks a question." The second part of me went, "Nooo! North Korea is a vault wrapped in propaganda. Changing your story will muddy the waters and cast doubt on the stories of other refugees." The North Korean government is going to grab these inconsistencies and use them to discredit survivors and keep people trapped.

I don't know what to think about this book. I'm not mad that I read it, but I can't recommend it to other people. I lost trust in the author. How do I know I'm reading the real story right now? Does it even matter if I'm reading the real story?

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. Setting up my 2023 planner. I'm hoping that being more organized will make life easier. When work gets busy, I quit reading and blogging. Then I'm sad. I need to be better about time management.
2. New pens! My dad bought me new colorful pens because I was whining about my black and blue ones. I prefer writing in pink and purple, like a child.
3. I did shockingly well with eating healthy last week. I didn't eat any chocolate at all. I'm usually a chocolate-every-day person.
4. I tried something new. I went to a weightlifting class, even though I'd never lifted weights before. The trainer was very patient with me. The next day, my body hurt so much I could barely get out of bed. (That part didn't make me happy.)
5. Thank you to everybody who read my Best Books Of 2022 post or my 2022 Reading Stats post. They're my favorite posts of the year to write.

Occasionally I Have Thoughts

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!