What I Read in November 2024

Happy December, friends! Almost a week into the month, and I’m finally getting around to sharing my November reads on here. I’ll blame it on Thanksgiving being so late this year which did throw me off.

LAST BOAT OUT OF SHANGHAI by Helen Zia

Since reading Shanghai Girls years ago, I’ve wanted to learn more about Shanghai and Chinese history in general. I’m pretty sure I learned about Last Boat Out of Shanghai on TikTok, perhaps from an author interview? As the name suggests, Last Boat Out of Shanghai is about those who left China before Mao and the Communists took control of the country. They come from different worlds within Shanghai and leave for different reasons, some of them barely by a day or two before it is no longer possible to leave.

There is Benny who grew up affluently as a child of a collaborator but whose life is now precarious in a newly Communist China. There is Annuo, the daughter of a Nationalist official, who ends up in Taiwan, though they don’t realize how permanent that move will be. There is Bing who was given away as a young girl and is unsure of what her survival will look like. And there is Ho who just wants to continue his studies in America and be able to support his family one day. Helen Zia captures the lives of these men and women during this period in time is poignant and heartfelt.

LOCAL WOMAN MISSING by Mary Kubica

I was looking for a thriller to keep me occupied while needlepointing as none of my audiobook holds had come in. Local Woman Missing seemed promising based on the Goodreads rating. The suspense is immediate as we meet the missing girl Delilah who is trying to escape from her current situation. The timelines alternate between the present and the past when Delilah and her mom Shelby go missing. Local Woman Missing has just enough characters and messiness to keep you guessing until the very end (or I did at least) which makes it a solid thriller.

SHE SAID by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey

If you’re into reading about investigate journalism (think Catch and Kill), She Said will be right up your alley. Written by the reporters behind the Harvey Weinstein story themselves, She Said is about the women behind the #MeToo movement, both those who spoke up about their experiences and those who worked to amplify those voices.

THE DRAGON REPUBLIC by R. F. Kuang

The sequel to The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic continues to follow Rin in the days of unrest for the Nikara Empire. I will spare you the spoilers but I must confess it didn’t enchant me as much as The Poppy War did or not as quickly anyways. Still a great read, and I can’t wait to read the last book in the trilogy soon!

소년이 온다 (Human Acts) by 한강 (Han Kang)

After Han Kang was awarded a Nobel Prize recently, my brother gifted me a few of her books for my birthday. Human Acts had been on my TBR since 2018 so I started with it first. I knew that it was about the Gwangju Uprising so I thought I was emotionally prepared for it to be a challenging read but I still cried every chapter.

Human Acts starts with a middle school boy who is helping the young students and citizens of Gawngju during the days of the Uprising while also looking for his friend that went missing during the chaos. Each subsequent chapter is told by a different person involved in or affected by the Uprising, but all are interconnected.

The narrator’s point-of-view changes depending on the chapter/person, which I’ve seen so reviews criticize, saying that it made them feel detached to the story. However, I found that the way Han Kang uses multiple perspectives in Human Acts is effective and powerful. She illustrates the lasting and paralyzing impact Gwangju Uprising had on the community years later, even now.

P.S. I’m currently reading King Leopold’s Ghost and listening to The Eyes Are the Best Part.