Monthly Archives: October 2024

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

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I don’t usually read nonfiction. I’m more of a fantasy, love-story, novel, kind of person. But starting this year, my first assignment was to read a memoir. Any memoir of our choosing, so long it was about overcoming adversity. At first, I struggled to find a memoir that really interested me, but somewhere in the back of my mind, this one came to mind. I must have seen or heard about this memoir somewhere because once I found it, I immediately purchased it. 

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner is a memoir in which Zauner must deal with the grief of losing her mother from cancer and learn to come to terms with her own identity. Zauner recalls her memories of when she was younger, how she had once looked up to and thought so highly of her mother to when she grew and began to resent her instead. Zauner lists disagreements she had with her mother and her own personal battles she faced throughout high school. However, it is only when she is through college and away from her family does she get the call that her mother has cancer. As she watches her mother fade, Zauner worries that losing her could also cause her to lose much more. 

This memoir really made me think about my own life. I had never really once thought about what would happen when my parents are gone. It’s not a fun topic to think about and definitely harder to talk about. But hearing Zauner’s personal story, it seemed to connect to my life in a way. I am a musician myself and of Asian descent. However, what I really connected to were the family dynamics. Specifically the connection Zauner had with her mom. I’ve had my fair share of disagreements with my mom, many talks and exchanged opinions. But I’m always–still am–looking for her approval, her advice, and her support. My mom is the one I go to and have true heart-to-heart conversations and without her, I might lose myself–just as Zauner nearly did. In losing her mother, Zauner had a hard time finding her identity–in both her culture and path. Without the advice and ties to her mother, Zauner felt lost in what to do until she could find her again through other means. I’m scared to lose my mom; whenever I need to go to someone, the first person that comes to mind is usually my mom. So without her, I may feel just as lost, but perhaps with this perspective, I can find ways to accept the loss and carry on when it inevitably arrives.

I also connected to the familial ties. I usually see my dad’s side of the family since they live here in the United States. My mom’s side lives in the Philippines–like Zauner’s mom’s side lives in Korea. I don’t see them much and when I do, it’s way harder for me to warm up to them. But in reading Zauner’s experience, it is important to connect to those you can to help cope and grieve. And that while I may not see my mom’s side of the family much, they will come to my aid just as I would for them. 

Crying in H-Mart opened up my perspective, showed what my future could look like, and helped me raise my appreciation for my family, friends and the ones I care about. While we take each other for granted at times, this memoir has helped me remember that nothing is forever and they will leave someday. The only thing we can do is spend time with them, love them, and keep them in our hearts and memories. Crying in H-Mart is a fantastic true story on Michelle Zauner’s struggles and overcoming them. It is one that I found myself relating to and one I will highly recommend to everyone.

-Nicole R.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Resistance By: Jennifer A. Nielsen

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Resistance portrays Chaya Lindner, a Jewish teenager who lives in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War 2. When her younger sister is taken to a death camp and her brother mysteriously disappears Chaya is left all alone with her parents. To survive Chaya’s parents send her into the countryside all alone with no resources. Chaya goes to the house of old friends who live outside the ghetto system, they then recruit her to be a courier who smuggles food in and people out of the ghettos.

Chaya, inspired to do more, joins a resistance cell that raids Nazi supplies. After a few missions, something goes horribly wrong and many of her friends and colleagues are arrested or killed. Unsure where to go, Chaya enlists Esther, a cell member. They begin their journey to the Warsaw Ghetto for an even larger uprising than ever before.

I really like this book and have periodically reread it many times. I find the characters inspiring and thought the storyline kept me hooked and intrigued the entire read. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, more specifically World War 2. Also, anyone who enjoys books with deep friendships and very emotional and heartfelt moments.

Resistance by Jennifer Nielsen is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

Fall Media Recommendations:

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With students coming into schedules full of history, math, and science, we’re coming into the fall months with so much to do. Making plans once you’re an upperclassman can be hard, with college applications right around the corner, and some of us just want some good shows, books, movies, or podcasts to relax to. This is a list of my personal favorites, with a quick overview of what each of them are about!

The Good Place:

The Good Place is a comedic coming of age show on Netflix that follows the stories of four people who have just died and gone to the afterlife. The main character, Eleanor Shellstrop, is put into “The Good Place”, signifiying that she lived a good life as a good person, but she panics. Eleanor doesn’t belong in the Good Place, and she needs to find out why she’s there. With the friends she makes there, they go through trial after trial in an attempt to figure out the secret to the placement of humans in the afterlife.

The Magnus Archives:

The Magnus Archives is an fictional horror podcast/audio drama following the main character, Jonathan Sims, as he navigates being thrown into a new supernatural, terrifying reality. Appointed Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, he begins to digitize years worth of statements concerning the esoteric and weird, falling down a rabbit hole of the ones that seems to be too real, the ones that won’t record on his laptop. I would recommend this podcast to anyone who does not have the time to sit down and watch a show, as it can be consumed during a workout, while cleaning, etc. and still manages to immerse you in the universe.

Suits:

Suits is a drama on Netflix following main characters Mike Ross and Harvey Specter, the former of whom is a talented speaker with a photographic memory and the latter a bigshot lawyer in one of the most successful firms in the world. After Mike convinces Harvey to hire him despite his lack of formal training as a lawyer, the show follows their journey as they attempt to hide Mike’s secret from the rest of the firm, introducting funny, heartfelt characters and relationships along the way. I love this show, and it’s easy to binge a season or two at a time, as it serves as good background noise to any activity.

Inside Job:

Inside Job is an animated adult comedy show on Netflix, taking place in a world where almost every conspiracy theory we’ve ever thought of is true and is fabricated by something called the shadow government. We follow main characters Reagan Ridley, an antisocial scientist, and Brett Hand, an anxious, popular people pleaser, as they deal with the issues that arise when the safety and fate of the shadow government is at risk, forming a friendship along the way and getting us, the audience to feel for these 2D characters on our screen. I would recommend this show to anyone who wants a bit of a laugh while also not looking for pure comedy, as there are serious aspects of the show that balance the comedic timing of statements and jokes perfectly.

Even though we’ve started school, everyone deserves a few days of lounging, engaging in some new interests, and taking a break. Hopefully this list had some recommendations that you liked and will help you relax in the new semester of school amidst all of the chaos!

Tanvi G.

The Good Place and Suits are available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. 

Book Recommendation: 1984

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1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell. Published in the year 1949, the book was intended to be a cautionary tale of the consequences of life during totalitarian or oppressive governments.  The world Orwell describes in the story (Oceania), is based on Stalinism in the Soviet Union. 

The main character, Winston, is a worker at the Ministry of Truth. His job is to ensure the newspapers, films, and education systems in Oceania fit the political agenda of Big Brother (the dictator) and end free thought. Winston secretly resents the way of life and is in constant worry of being caught by the Thought Police, whose job is to ensure the indoctrination of all the citizens. Winston starts an illegal relationship with his co-worker Julia, who also wishes for a rebellion. 

Throughout the novel, Winston narrates and makes the reader question does he loves Julia or does he just loves getting back at the system that took so much from him? Orwell made a phenomenal allegory and I would personally be worried for my future if I saw this in 1949. Even though we know now that nothing like this happened in 1984, the themes of trusting in a corrupt government and totalitarianism will forever be prevalent. I recommend this book for 7th grade to high schoolers for anyone who likes science fiction or thrillers. This is a personal favorite of mine because I have not experienced or read anything like this. Overall I would give the book a 9/10.

1984 by George Orwell is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Taking A Step Back

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The soft scrape of a page being turned in my newest book is what brings me happiness.

Too often are we, as humans in the 21st century, focused on attaining a goal or possession that we have glorified in our minds. Admittedly, I used to (and probably still am, to some degree) like this, but I realized during my junior year of high school that this was an insatiable pursuit.

During my junior year of high school, I was obsessed with keeping my grades up. I would stay up until 3 am studying for a math test that I had the next day or spend hours perfecting a paper for a class in which I already had a 97%. I would spend 20 minutes on a drawing and rush to finish it if I couldn’t get it done because I would start to grow tired of it. I would start a new video game in an attempt to get a “perfect playthrough” and then drop it as soon as I did. In doing these things, I realized that I wasn’t pursuing a genuine feeling of enjoyment out of them- rather, I was chasing the immediate gratification I would feel from their completion.

As I reached the end of my junior year, I realized that I was happy, in part from these things, but for the most part, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what made life so great. Was it that I had gotten an A in my math class? That I had gotten that internship or won that award? Something told me no. It was the day-to-day victories that should have been insignificant, most of which I had already forgotten which made life so great. It was the inside jokes my friends and I would cry from laughing at during lunch. It was the random FaceTime I would get from a friend I hadn’t seen in forever or an old photo that would hit me with a wave of nostalgia.

It was going to the bookstore with my Omi to check out a new book, hearing stories from her during the whole car ride there. As we entered the store I soaked in the soothing scent of books and felt perfectly content. I weaved through the aisles trying to find the book I wanted, and clutching it like a prize, would bring it up to the checkout counter. I opened it as soon as I got home, eager to see what adventures I had missed out on during the time between this installment and the last. And so I turn the next page and breathe a sigh of contentment knowing that this is what brings me happiness.

Movie Review: I Saw the TV Glow

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NO SPOILERS

If you’re queer, misunderstood, struggling with self identity and expression, or feeling lost in general, then you have to watch I Saw the TV Glow. This movie focuses on identity and the horror of never truly accepting yourself. To live a life that does not belong to you is the worst fear of all and this movie depicts that fear perfectly. The soundtrack has the best lineup including Phoebe Bridgers, Alex G, and Yeule.

I Saw the TV Glow might be one of the best movies about queer identity I have ever watched. Similar with movies like Inception, Holes, and XXX, Jane Schoenbrun keeps their fans engaged with extremely meticulous detailing in each scene. I love how they do not revise their work to make it digestible for a better IMDb or Letterboxd score and stay true to the story that they want to tell. You will not like this movie if you are not prepared to face yourself and question who you are.

Owen meets Maddy, a teenager completely obsessed with the tv show The Pink Opaque. The adolescents bond between their obsession with the show despite Owen’s strict father disallowing him from staying up to watch the show on cable. The Pink Opaque features two girls who are deeply connected telepathically. Owen sleeps over at Maddy’s house to watch The Pink Opaque, when Maddy tells him about disillusioned her world seems to her and how she knows that he can feel it too. Maddy wants Owen to join her and escape the trapped reality they both feel confined in.

I Saw the TV Glow was the most euphoric movie experience I have ever had.

Phantom Limbs by Paula Garner (A Review)

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Otis is a swimmer that has little to no hope with his swimming skills. He’s good but his mind always strays to another thing during practices: Meg. Meg is his childhood love, someone he has always thought about day in and day out. They had just begin a budding relationship from best friends to lovers when a tragedy struck. Otis’s younger brother Mason died in Meg’s house as a result of negligence. At least that’s what Otis’s family believes. So when Meg was forced to move away to deal with her own grief, Otis just received another burden he had to carry. For almost three years, there had been silence on Meg’s end as Otis constantly pours his heart out onto pages and pages of letters that seems to never have been opened. So instead, he works on himself and gradually throws himself into swimming to forget.

In his journey to become a good swimmer on his team, he meets Dara, an amputee that has made it her life mission to get him to the Olympics. Her confidence in him is astounding as she also trains him with harsh words and a limited diet. Dara’s past is troubled as she was once a great swimmer, but after a shark accident, she’s been missing her right arm and can’t swim as well. She also constantly struggles with phantom limb pains and the only thing that resolves that is a mirror box. She now spends her days driving Otis around and asserting that practice is something that needs to be a first priority. They had just gotten into the flow of things and as quickly as she left, Meg reappeared in his life. A startling text message and a cryptic poem was the start to a new journey of dealing with the aftermath of such a loss.

I was actually fairly disappointed with this book as I really loved Otis as a character and by the way he was talking about Meg as the only person who really understood him, I expected her to be someone who was kind and caring as well as much more lovable. But when we actually got the first glimpse of her, I realized that she left for all these years without a single word to Otis and struts back in with a new boyfriend and a life just to “reconnect” with him. He does still love her so much, however, I felt like the way she acted rubbed me the wrong way as she talked like she deserved to have him love her and take her back just because they have so much history together. I felt like the progression of the plot was a bit slow, but it was entertaining. This is a book about healing from grief and making us aware of what effects grief has on people and I did think that the author showed that amazingly. She was able to include Dara’s grief about her loss of her dreams and how Mason’s death tore apart two families that were inseparable.

All in all, I would give this book an 8/10 as there were some inconsistencies in the plot and I wasn’t a big fan of one of the main characters, but that’s just personal preference. I really did love how the author used the title and included it in the book. I would recommend this for anyone who wants to read a second love story with a lot of grief.

Phantom Limbs by Paula Garner is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

Hannah Swensen Series Review (Overall)

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I love this series. Written by Joanna Fluke, the Hannah Swensen Mystery series is a mystery series about (OMG YOU GUESSED IT) Hannah. Hannah is a young woman who owns a delightful little cafe called The Cookie Jar. Seriously, I would love to go there. The decor and overall environment that I get from the place is so cozy. Based on the name of the cafe, I am sure you can figure out what their specialty is… cookies! Throughout all of the books, the author includes some of her recipes, which is cool, however the cookies WILL turn out crunchy. Maybe you love crunchy cookies, maybe you don’t, but it’s a good warning that her recipes will come out crunchy. 

Our beloved baker and store owner, Hannah, is not a detective. She got involved in her first murder by accident and then she gradually started getting involved more and more because she is really good at solving murders. Hannah gets help from her little sister, Andrea. Andrea is married to one of the murder detectives, Bill, at their local police, so she gets some of their clues from him. Andrea is everything you expect a little sister to be: attractive, resourceful and somewhat annoying (to Hannah of course, I think Andrea is hilarious). Together, the two of them solve the murders.

There is also a side plot about Hannah’s love life. Much to her mothers dismay, Hannah is not married. Although she is dating two guys at once (so far, I am only on the fifth book in a series with over thirty books), both of them are surprisingly ok with it? On one hand, she has the reliable, stable, good guy Norman. He’s a dentist that her mother is continually trying to set her up with. On the other hand, she has Bill’s hot detective boss, Mike. At my current point in the series, the two of them (the love interests) are both making out with her and sharing romantic moments with her, but neither of them have told her that they want to be strictly monogamous. So, yeah, there’s that.

This series is good, but extremely predictable. For starters, all of the books are titled –Insert baked item Murder-. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute, but very repetitive. The book contents are also very similar. To put it simply, every book starts with someone new coming to town, Hannah finding a body, Hannah solving the mystery with Andrea, Hannah figuring out who did it, the murder confronting her at least a minute after, someone saving her, and then the murderer getting caught.

I do love this series, albeit its predictability. It’s a really cute and comfy read that doesn’t make you TOO hungry. I love all of the characters and truly recommend this series to any foodies or mystery lovers who don’t want something too hardcore.

The Hannah Swenson Mystery series by Joanne Fluke is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

How To Manage Your Time Better With Apps

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It’s about 10 p.m. the night, and Emily realizes she has a five-page essay due before 12 and starts panicking. She begins fighting with the clock trying to get this assignment done before it causes a dent in her grades, and she regrets not doing her work earlier and thinks about how she could have done this better. This scenario is one of the likely things that a person with bad time management experiences. Most of the time, students with bad time management get low grades at school, so here are some apps that can help you improve your grades with better time management. 

The most important thing to manage your time is reducing your screen time or having a limit on it. Most teenagers spend most of their time doing nothing but scrolling on social media for hours, such as TikTok and Instagram, and they aren’t even aware of it or can’t seem to break away from it. As a teenager who has personally experienced this, sometimes an app limit or screentime limit is useless, especially since most of the time, I just hit the “Ignore Time Limit” on the feature and I get back to scrolling mindlessly on social media. I was aware of this and began testing out a few apps that supposedly claim to help reduce your screen time. After doing lots of testing, I found an app that works for me. This might work for me, but it does not mean it might not work for others. This app is called “One Sec,” and it is on the App Store and Play Store, so anyone can download the app. The app is not fully free, but it allows you to still block apps and reduce your screen time. When you download this app and follow the tutorial, it will help you run a shortcut on a specific app so that when you open that app, it tells you to take a deep breath. I used this on TikTok because I find myself scrolling on it when I should be doing my homework. It has helped me get a better sense of self-control because when I open my phone and see the “It’s time to take a deep breath,” it allows me to step back and think about my work and how I should get it done. It does get annoying, especially if I don’t need the restriction and I have to wait seconds before opening TikTok, but it is useful when it comes to my schoolwork.

Adding on, another way you can manage their time better is by setting up routines. If you set up a routine and do this continuously, it will turn into a great habit, and it’ll come easy to you. Set up a routine for after school that fits your needs and try to stay consistent with it. Once you stay consistent with it, you will be getting your work done productively, and you might finish your work early and have free time to do whatever you want. The app “Routinery” can help you set up routines and stay consistent with them. I use Routinery for my morning routines and after-school routines, and my life has been easier because of it. For the first few days, it was a struggle trying to stay consistent, but once you do it every day with the timer on Routinery, it will come easy, and sooner or later, you won’t even need the app to remind you to do your homework at 4:00 or drink water after waking up. I think this app is great at helping you manage your time better and probably make your life easier too.

A Quiet Place–Movie Summary & Review:

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SPOILERS AHEAD!!

A Quiet Place is a movie which is set in the future where the population of the world has dwindled to an unknown number. Strange creatures have inhabited the earth and hunt people (and animals) by sound. Any sound from dropping a blender to stepping on a leaf will be heard by the aliens and will result in death. The name A Quiet Place is drawn from the need to be quiet and not utter a single noise. This movie is about the Abbott family’s silent life in the countryside of New York. The family consists of Lee (father), Evelyn (mother), Reagan (deaf daughter), Marcus (son), Beau (son), and a newborn baby (son). Since one of the children is deaf, the family communicates with sign language.

The opening scene of this movie is of the Abbott family traveling to a nearby pharmacy to get medicine for Marcus. During this scene, the youngest child Beau finds a toy rocket with batteries. Lee takes away the toy but soon after when the parents walk out of the store, Reagan hands the toy to Beau (who secretly grabs the batteries too). Later, as the family is traveling back home, Beau turns on the toy which makes a loud noise. Seconds later, the strange creature kills the young boy in front of everyone’s eyes.

Fast forwarding to months later, the mother is weeks from giving birth to a new baby. After the movie shows the Abbott’s typical life on the farm, Evelyn is days from childbirth. A series of events (stepping on a nail and dropping a picture) leads Evelyn to accidentally attract an alien to their farm. This happens all the while her water breaks. Unfortunately, Lee (the father) is gone with his son fishing while this happens. When he and his son get back, they quickly discover that Evelyn is having trouble giving birth. So, they create a distraction so that the mother can give birth. A couple of scenes later, the kids are being hunted down by a creature and the father sacrifices his life to save them. The movie ends with the rest of the family finding a way to kill the aliens.

Usually, I hate watching horror movies with jumpscares and scary moments. However, this movie was not scary at all. I found that it was entertaining to watch since the characters are very likable. The concept of having to live in silence was also provoking to think about. Overall, I would recommend this movie to those who want to watch something both interesting and suspenseful. 

A Quiet Place is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.