I love this review. Reading has been a life saver for me. I have anxiety & depression and chronic insomnia. Add to that the stress of being my disabled sons carer. For years here in London I couldn't read. Then I discovered audiobooks and my life changed.
I love it when you say you don’t have words to describe a book and then give us fifteen minutes of passionate and articulate discussion of it! It’s so interesting that you said you read this book at the right time, Charlotte was reading Yiyun Li’s The Vagrants and had to take a break because of its subject, I started Where Reasons End last week and didn’t feel ready for it, clearly her books have that aura of being ready for them. I’m not giving up though, she’s always been an author I thought I’d appreciate and I have her short story collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl which I intend to read a story from before the end of the month, perhaps a small dose is the way to start.
A stunning discussion that reminds me of why I keep reading: The unmatched experience of finding a book that is transformative, not immediately fathomable, that opens new worlds and ways of thinking and being, and reforms one's very approach to reading itself. I need such a reminder every few years. Thank you.
Mitchell, your comments touched me deeply - thank you so much! Please come back and visit my channel anytime! Have you ever considered starting a BookTube channel yourself?
This video was so amazing and I'm so glad I had a chance to be a part of this moment. Not many times during our reading lives do we feel a significant change happening when we know we want to take a different direction with it. Hearing you talk about how this book's lead to that kind of moment for you was joyful. I think every reader can relate to having their reading life turned upside down by certain event/book. I still have not crossed the writing in books river. I wonder if it'll one day become a way I'll engage with books. Getting my hands on Yiyun Li's work will be a priority as soon as I have some money to spent. Thank you for this video, Shawn, and it surely was way more cohesive and informative than you give it credit. Glad to be witnessing a change in your reading life that you feel this excited about;)
I literally ordered this book while watching your video. What a wonderful reading experience you had. I think your experience with this book is what we are all hoping for when we pick up a new book or author.
Thank you so much! There’s a comment below, Maria is wondering where to start with William Trevor. Would you mind giving her some suggestions? Thanks. Also, I have ordered Trevor’s Two Lives because Li wrote about it in this book. If you haven’t read that one, how about buddy reading it with me someday?
@@shawnbreathesbooks That would be great. I have read one of the novellas in _Two Lives_ already but would be happy to read it again along with the other one. Just let me know when.
I found this collection to hold a mystery I could sense but not fully grasp. I still think about how she rejected her native language, as you talk about. I thought it was because of the unhappiness she felt in China. I’ll be curious to see if you connect with her fiction. I want to read more, and reread this book sometime, too.
Hey Shawn. This book has been waiting for me to read. I spent the whole month of January in the hospital and this was one of two books I had with me. I never opened it. I will find it and read it. What a moving and profound respect I heard you describe with this book. I hope I have an important experience with it as well. Thank you Shawn. Her name is pronounced ’eeyoon’ .
Shawn, I really enjoyed how you expressed your feelings about reading this book. I feel there are two kinds of readers. There are readers who internalize the experience of reading a book and then there are those who socialize the experience. It seems from what you said in this video that you internalized what Li said in her book. Li mentioned the author, W.G. Sebald. I've read two of his books, The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz. What makes me admire Sebald as a writer so much is how he makes connections in his books not only of people and things from different places in the world but he also makes connections between people and things from different time periods. I learned back in the nineties that there are books that contain deep truths about the human condition. These truths are not political truths. The truths have nothing to do with nationality, sex, sexuality or skin color. To read books because of the skin color, sex, sexuality or nationality of the writer or the subject matter is to define people because of these aspects of their lives. In books that relate truths of the human condition, nationality, sex, sexuality and skin color serve no purpose. Why? Because the fact of the matter is, we are all human. Our experiences may be different because of outer conditions but the reality is, as humans, we are all the same and what constitutes a life well lived is the same for each of us. In the books I have read where authors explore the deep truths of the human condition, they strive to teach us from an internal point of reference rather than an external, conditioned one. Unfortunately, a lot of people prefer the social bonding process more than the internal quest for inner understanding.
Great to see your overflowing passion for this book! And I'm so glad you pushed yourself to try it! I love to see near-instant reader reactions like yours where you're so excited about what you've just read and don't even know how to articulate your feelings yet (though you've summarized and analyzed the book very well), but your intense feeling for the book comes across and that's what's important. I had the same sense of knowing it's a book I'll want to go back to again and again. I think you'll equally appreciate Where Reasons End.
Will always associate the impact of this book with it being a favorite of yours! Can’t wait to read more of her stuff and the writers she writes about!
What a wonderful gush. I love her work and have read all of her books *except * this one, to be remedied soon! The new book is also extraordinary. Fwiw, on the audio book of Where Reasons End her name is pronounced more like the way you guessed.
I'm currently listening to Where Reasons End and it is really moving. But unfortunately it was for a sad reason that made me pick it up. Not always is reading capable to save someone, often people are not even able to do so. So professional help is necessary and very important.
Glad to hear you’re finding Reasons moving, and you’re absolutely right, reading is never a substitute for mental health care and I hope I didn’t imply that. It certainly seems to have augmented Li’s treatment.
Great review! I've had this on my shelf for some time & this review makes me want to get to it right away...but also I feel like maybe I should save it for a time when I "need" to read a book like you're describing. There are definitely times when I am searching for books to act as a type of emotional salve.
Hi Maria. Shawn asked if I could suggest a starting place for reading Trevor. I would definitely start with short story collections. Trevor wrote several novels, but I think he is best as a short story writer. So maybe start with _The News From Ireland_ or _After Rain_ . His last collection _Last Stories_ also has some very good stories as well.
