This is technically a Favourite Things post. So I guess, have the proper pic?
Here ya go:
The problem is, I have about three new favourite things I want to share with you.
The first, as you might have guessed from the name of the post, is Kate Stradling’s new book, NAMESAKE.
Somehow I managed to miss both the tweet announcing its publication AND the blog post (I blame the flu. I am sick, and tired, and incredibly stupid) so I was hugely excited when a random Amazon search showed up Namesake.
I’ve now finished reading Namesake, and have joined in a discussion of its linguistic and thematic excellencies over on Kate’s blog in the comments section, where she announced the release.
I would normally do a proper review here, but the fact is that I was reading and reviewing Kate’s books before I actually knew her, and then I discovered that she had in fact read and reviewed mine, which makes things awkward. (I don’t review under my author name, and it was a mistake far too easy to make.)
So now I don’t so much review her books as scream “BUY THIS BOOK IT’S FLAMIN’ FANTASTIC AND YOU’LL NEVER WANT TO STOP READING IT”.
(For the record, I’ll have it be known that I was her fan first.)
(Also, read Namesake. It’ll be the best book you read this year.)
Misaeng. Ah, Misaeng!
Ah, those iconic Misaeng terrace scenes…so many…so good!
You guys probably know by now how much I love puppy dog heroes. I love being able to cheer wholeheartedly for characters, and I can thoroughly cheer for Jang GuRae. I was a little unsure at first, because the actor is the slender, pretty type that I don’t necessarily care for–but that character! Guys, the character! He’s a Baduk player (think a Korean sort of Chess) who at the age of 26 has been unable to continue playing Baduk from a necessity to earn money. He joins a company instead, sponsored by a mysterious benefactor–something that earns him the immediate ire and disdain of his coworkers.
This is basically Sales Team 3 in a nutshell. Mr Oh is wild-haired and mad, Mr Kim is slightly concerned, and GuRae has no idea what’s going on but lots of enthusiasm…
I love seeing the world through GuRae’s wide, idealistic eyes; and more, I love seeing how this drama shows the way the world sees GuRae. I love the changes he brings about because people come to see the world through his eyes–or themselves through his eyes. And it’s not just puppy GuRae; the rest of the characters are wonderful to watch. Because although I love Jang GuRae the best, I relate best to flawed, twisted, wrong-minded characters who stand on the knife’s edge of ruin. I know how hard it is to see yourself as you are, and how much harder it is to change when the change needs to come from within yourself. I know how easy it is to give up and blame anyone but yourself.
And this is pretty typical of all the interns. I love them all.
This drama does everything right character-wise, and it has one of the most beautiful ways with metaphor that I’ve seen since watching Beautiful Office. The episodes have flown by, though I’ve been trying to eke them out, and now I only have 7 left to go…
This one is going to be one I buy after I watch it on Netflix.
Okay, so the last thing that I discovered this week and immediately loved is the Korean group Day6.
Guys, I try really hard not to discover new Korean groups. I’m very happy with Jung Yonghwa, CNBLUE, B.A.P., and a smattering of BTS and GOT7 with assorted, much older faves. I don’t have the time or the energy (or the money) to be buying more Korean music. But somehow I ended up on the Twitter of Day6’s Jae–I don’t remember how, maybe it came up in my reccs–and there was Dwight’s face (yup, the Office’s Dwight) staring at me and a feed that I found pretty amusing. Which of course meant that when I went to Youtube and found a clip of Day6 mixed with other stuff, I thought, well, why not give it a listen.
I’m so glad I did. That first clip was Congratulations, which I loved the first time I heard it. Loving a song straight up is really unusual for me, because when I find a new group it usually takes a few songs for me to warm to them, and a few repeats for me to thoroughly love the music. I dunno. Maybe something’s broken in my music centre. Then I went on to 좋은걸 뭐 어떡해 (which translates roughly to ‘What can I do?’) and which I loved even more than Congratulations. So now I have a new band to listen to. I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS, GUYS. I DON’T HAVE THE TIME. On the other hand, Day6’s music is a great addition to my writing playlist, so there’s that…
Last but not least–and nothing to do with Favourite Things but more in the way of a general update–the cover for Memento Mori will be done in another week or two, after which there will be excerpts, cover reveals, special blog posts, giveaways, and other awesome stuff in preparation for Memento Mori‘s publication month!
I’ll have preorder links to share, too, so keep an eye out. And let me know about your Favourite Things discoveries this week!