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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Raw, intense, painful. I almost abandoned in the beginning and middle, but I’m glad I didn’t. I learned a lot about Okinawa and thought about love (familial, romantic) and obligation.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
I wouldn't have discovered this book if it wasn't for the book club, I am glad it was voted as the book to read for May.
This is a well written memoir which felt very authentic to me while I was reading it. I was impressed with the author's openness about her thoughts and her mindset. I learnt so much reading this book.
I had never heard of Okinawa before and now feel that I want to learn more about this Island's history as they have experienced so much exploitation and hardship. I found the situation with US Military Bases on this Island very concerning, some of the statistics shared about crime and sexual violence is very disheartening and still continues. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and hold those accountable for what is happening.
The book also provided me insight into the complexity of growing up as a child of an immigrant where part of your ancestry is a visible minority and how complicated that is particularly growing up in an area where diversity is not the norm. We are brought up with the desire to be the same as everyone. It's the differences that give us strength, beauty, and wisdom.
This is a well written memoir which felt very authentic to me while I was reading it. I was impressed with the author's openness about her thoughts and her mindset. I learnt so much reading this book.
I had never heard of Okinawa before and now feel that I want to learn more about this Island's history as they have experienced so much exploitation and hardship. I found the situation with US Military Bases on this Island very concerning, some of the statistics shared about crime and sexual violence is very disheartening and still continues. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and hold those accountable for what is happening.
The book also provided me insight into the complexity of growing up as a child of an immigrant where part of your ancestry is a visible minority and how complicated that is particularly growing up in an area where diversity is not the norm. We are brought up with the desire to be the same as everyone. It's the differences that give us strength, beauty, and wisdom.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
jarring and brutally honest re experiencing of her life and her perceptions and feelings. what it’s like to know and not know where you come from and who you are. the history of okinawa and the struggle and injustice still prevalent is unruly. i felt joy, despair, rage. i feel for kyoko, elizabeth’s mother, kinuko, my grandmother and all of the uchinaanchu and shimanchu women who left their loving albeit desolate homes in search of a better life. found or unfounded
More than a memoir, this book shared a combination of family history and historical background about the islands of the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa) and their eventual occupation and/or domination by China, Japan, and the United States.
I liked that the book wasn’t formatted in a strictly chronological way, and the way it was laid out made sense to me. There was a lot of personal tension from the author as she delved into her lineage and struggled to accept and identify with both sides of her family history and the generational trauma that came with that.
There were a few things that niggled at me that probably wouldn’t even be noticed by someone who doesn’t live on the island she’s describing, such as navigational mistakes between various places on the island. I wish those little things had been double checked prior to publishing. They were small in the overall scope of the purpose of the book, but they took me out of the reading zone when they happened.
I’m definitely glad I read it, and it expanded my knowledge about some of the tensions that exist on the island that I didn’t have a lot of information about prior.
I liked that the book wasn’t formatted in a strictly chronological way, and the way it was laid out made sense to me. There was a lot of personal tension from the author as she delved into her lineage and struggled to accept and identify with both sides of her family history and the generational trauma that came with that.
There were a few things that niggled at me that probably wouldn’t even be noticed by someone who doesn’t live on the island she’s describing, such as navigational mistakes between various places on the island. I wish those little things had been double checked prior to publishing. They were small in the overall scope of the purpose of the book, but they took me out of the reading zone when they happened.
I’m definitely glad I read it, and it expanded my knowledge about some of the tensions that exist on the island that I didn’t have a lot of information about prior.
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced