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Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'
Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey with China's Kazakh Herders by Li Juan
6 reviews
crystalisreading's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
#23for23
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Excrement, Animal cruelty, and Alcoholism
shelby1994's review
slow-paced
2.0
Thank you @AstraHouse for the #gifted copy!
Judging translated works, especially works of non-fiction is so difficult because you can’t rely that the words on the page are the words the author intended to put there. Their personality is refracted through the lens of a translator; in the best cases, a translator works with the author to amplify the tone of the work to be more contextually understood within a language. In many other cases, such as Winter Pasture, the magic of the original words is bogged down by direct translation and lack of imagination.
Li Juan’s months living with one of the last Kazakh nomadic herding families are a travel writer’s wet dream. But the words on the page don’t do justice to the circumstances. The voice is so flat; nothing feels like it holds any weight or emotion. The winter highlands are dry, frigid, and monotonous, but many writers are able to make gold out of harsh conditions like that. The exception here is when Juan writes about food; the chapter on the daily meals, special-occasion festivities, and tea-rituals was by far the most engaging part of an otherwise lackluster account.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty
stellarya's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
daisydoolie's review
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
melissacullens's review
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty
bookmaddie's review
funny
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Li Juan has written a beautiful meditation on wilderness and tradition—specifically documenting a winter she spent with Kazakh herders as they traveled to their winter pasture for the season. This was possibly the last winter that Kazakh herders would be able to travel and herd at their winter pasture due to a change in law, making Li's documentation of this final winter all the more powerful.
I adored Li's writing style. Her tone is at times hopeful, humorous, thoughtful, and inquisitive. Li truly admires the traditions of the Kazakh herders and I loved experiencing her appreciation of their traditions through the page. She has a lot of empathy and admiration for this vanishing lifestyle, and it is quite affecting. Li is also very casual in her telling, and I felt as if I was being told a story by a friend who would laugh and cry along with me (granted, I never cried—Li's joyful spirit is truly embedded in this book!).
The book is structured in three sections around Li's journey, the people and animals that she met, and the environment. Her descriptions of the wide open landscape was really astounding to imagine, and I loved her contemplations on the concept of wilderness and what it is like to truly be alone in a landscape for miles and miles in each direction. She also paints truly loving, yet honest, portraits of each family member with whom she stayed. She doesn't shy away from documenting intense moments that some readers might not enjoy, yet it is all in service of creating a full and honest portrait of each individual.
Of course, learning about the Kazakh herding lifestyle and the traditions imbued within that experience was marvelous. Li's fascination and enjoyment of their lifestyle transferred over to me while I read, and I fell in love with this landscape, family, and experience. While I don't think I could ever go through what Li and all of the herding families went through each winter, I am happy I got to get a glimpse of it through this lovely book.
Below are some quotes I enjoyed. Li is very prophetic at times in her writing, and I found it really fitting.
"The fact that people 'happiness' isn't because life is comfortable, but because life is hopeful."
"The quietest thing in the world isn't nothingness, or the passage of time, but people...people who will be alone in the end but whose hope can never be silenced."
I adored Li's writing style. Her tone is at times hopeful, humorous, thoughtful, and inquisitive. Li truly admires the traditions of the Kazakh herders and I loved experiencing her appreciation of their traditions through the page. She has a lot of empathy and admiration for this vanishing lifestyle, and it is quite affecting. Li is also very casual in her telling, and I felt as if I was being told a story by a friend who would laugh and cry along with me (granted, I never cried—Li's joyful spirit is truly embedded in this book!).
The book is structured in three sections around Li's journey, the people and animals that she met, and the environment. Her descriptions of the wide open landscape was really astounding to imagine, and I loved her contemplations on the concept of wilderness and what it is like to truly be alone in a landscape for miles and miles in each direction. She also paints truly loving, yet honest, portraits of each family member with whom she stayed. She doesn't shy away from documenting intense moments that some readers might not enjoy, yet it is all in service of creating a full and honest portrait of each individual.
Of course, learning about the Kazakh herding lifestyle and the traditions imbued within that experience was marvelous. Li's fascination and enjoyment of their lifestyle transferred over to me while I read, and I fell in love with this landscape, family, and experience. While I don't think I could ever go through what Li and all of the herding families went through each winter, I am happy I got to get a glimpse of it through this lovely book.
Below are some quotes I enjoyed. Li is very prophetic at times in her writing, and I found it really fitting.
"The fact that people 'happiness' isn't because life is comfortable, but because life is hopeful."
"The quietest thing in the world isn't nothingness, or the passage of time, but people...people who will be alone in the end but whose hope can never be silenced."
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty
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