Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (2022)

Others: Positive

Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster-and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju-they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

ISBN:: 9781526662286
Length:: 326 pages

Genres: literary fiction

Lists: …

Similar books

1 of 6

Open book
Mongrel
Hanako Footman
2024 · 352 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive
Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing both her heritage and her growing love for her best friend Fran. Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Lonely and far from home, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher. Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo’s nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in seedy bars. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light . . . Shifting between three intertwining narratives, Mongrel reveals a tangled web of isolation, desire, love, and ultimately, hope.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction
56%
On the same reading list
41%
Similar descriptions
3%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
The travelling cat chronicles
Hiro Arikawa
2018 · 277 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
"Sometimes you have to leave behind everything you know to find the place you truly belong ... Nana the cat is on a road trip. He is not sure where he's going or why, but it means that he gets to sit in the front seat of a silver van with his beloved owner, Satoru. Side by side, they cruise around Japan through the changing seasons, visiting Satoru's old friends. He meets Yoshimine, the brusque and unsentimental farmer for whom cats are just ratters; Sugi and Chikako, the warm-hearted couple who run a pet-friendly B and Kosuke, the mournful husband whose cat-loving wife has just left him. There's even a very special dog who forces Nana to reassess his disdain for the canine species. But what is the purpose of this road trip? And why is everyone so interested in Nana? Nana does not know and Satoru won't say. But when Nana finally works it out, his small heart will break ..."--
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction
61%
On 5+ of the same lists
29%
BooksandLala loved both
10%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
Perfection
Vincenzo Latronico
2024 · 136 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
Millennial expat couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin, in a bright, plant-filled apartment in Neukölln. They are young digital creatives, freelancers without too many constraints. They have a passion for food, progressive politics, sexual experimentation and Berlin's twenty-four-hour party scene. Their ideal existence is also that of an entire generation, lived out on Instagram, but outside the images they create for themselves, dissatisfaction and ennui burgeon. Their work as graphic designers becomes repetitive. Friends move back home, have children, grow up. An attempt at political activism during the refugee crisis proves fruitless. And in that picture-perfect life Anna and Tom feel increasingly trapped, yearning for an authenticity and a sense of purpose that seem perennially just out of their grasp. With the stylistic mastery of Georges Perec and nihilism of Michel Houellebecq, Perfection, translated by Sophie Hughes, is a sociological novel about the emptiness of contemporary existence, beautifully written, brilliantly scathing.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction
58%
On 2 of the same lists
40%
Similar descriptions
2%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Rufi Thorpe
2024 · 304 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
Warning - VERY OFFENSIVE to those of the CHRISTIAN FAITH Margo had an affair with her married professor, got pregnant. Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price? Strongly suggest reading 1☆ and 2☆ GR reviews before reading this book DNF, DNR, and Do Not Recommend There was no humor, nor laugh out loud moments. To quote Ten Cats Reading, a GR reviewer: "This book contains very little descriptive writing. It's mostly dialogue and summary of action." This is why I didn't like the book But hey, you can watch the series, somebody would have to rewrite it, yes? Those of the Christian faith you'd not want to read nor promote this book, just saying, read reviews, not the book
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction
66%
On 4 of the same lists
23%
BooksandLala loved both
11%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
Glory
NoViolet Bulawayo
2022 · 416 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive
From the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names, a blockbuster of a novel that chronicles the fall of an oppressive regime, and the chaotic, kinetic potential for real liberation that rises in its wake. Glory centers around the unexpected fall of Old Horse, a long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation. Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup, in November 2017, of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of nearly four decades, Bulawayo's bold, vividly imagined novel shows a country imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices who unveil the ruthlessness and cold strategy required to uphold the illusion of absolute power, and the imagination and bullet-proof optimism to overthrow it completely. As with her debut novel We Need New Names, Bulawayo's fierce voice and lucid imagery immerses us in the daily life of a traumatized nation, revealing the dazzling life force and irrepressible wit that lies barely concealed beneath the surface of seemingly bleak circumstances. At the center of this tumult is Destiny, who has returned to Jidada from exile to bear witness to revolution--and focus on the unofficial history and the potential legacy of the women who have quietly pulled the strings in this country. The animal kingdom--its connection to our primal responses and resonance in the mythology, folktales, and fairytales that define cultures the world over--unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly, even as Bulwayo plucks us right out of it. Glory is a blockbuster, an exhilarating ride, and crystalizes a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest of fiction can.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction
68%
On 2 of the same lists
21%
BooksandLala loved both
11%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
Emily Austin
2021 · 256 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
Gilda, a twenty-something lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also literary fiction
70%
On 3 of the same lists
19%
BooksandLala loved both
11%
Personalize your recommendations