
Position Doubtful: Mapping Landscapes and Memories
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Imagine the document you have before you is not a book but a map. It is well-used, creased, and...

Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision
Book
Virginia Woolfs many novels, notably Night and Day (1919), Jacobs Room (1922), Mrs Dalloway (1925),...

Accidental Ironman: How Triathlon Ruined My Life
Book
Having spent 10 years scaling the lower echelons of the sport, the time has come for one of...
Making an Elephant
Book
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LAST ORDERS AND MOTHERING SUNDAY, and reissued for the first time in...

Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Book
WINNER OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE 2016 LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017...

The Vineyard at the End of the World: Maverick Winemakers and the Rebirth of Malbec
Book
As wine connoisseurs know, Argentine wine was once famously bad. The grapes were overwatered,...

My Age of Anxiety
Book
This is The New York Times Bestseller and Shortlisted For The Wellcome Book Prize 2015. As recently...

ClareR (5950 KP) rated Build Your Home Around My Body in Books
Jul 28, 2021
Winnie is a lost soul - she has gone to Vietnam to stay with family while she teaches English to Vietnamese students, hoping to find herself, but she seems to become more and more lost as the story progresses. She struggles with her dual identity as her mother is American, and her father is Vietnamese. The fact that she seems to deliberately sabotage her own life is the most tragic thing about her.
The time does jump around a bit, but this didn’t confuse me at all - the chapter headings made sure of that - in fact they gave some interesting history lessons (e.g. French colonialism, Japanese occupation).
It’s a weird and wonderful one (my favourite kind!), sometimes bordering on the grotesque (ditto). Bodily functions and food that I wasn’t sure about, galore! (I’d still try the food though, although I draw the line at dog…).
The supernatural elements showed that these things are still very much a part of Vietnamese culture (spirits and demons both feature).
Some parts are achingly sad, some made me feel a bit ill, and others were actually quite amusing. I couldn’t put this book down. The joy of it was that I didn’t know, couldn’t predict, what was going to happen next!
I’m really interested to see what Kupersmith writes next if this is her debut - what an imagination!
Many thanks to Jellybooks for giving me the chance to read this wonderful book.

Touched by Death
Book
What if Death was more tempting than you had ever imagined? With Grams's recent passing and a...
New_Adult Paranormal Romance

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit
Book
A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful...
History social issues