Jid Lee's To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea is one of those books that reminds me how lucky I am to be a reviewer. I'd probably never have read To Kill a Tiger if an editor hadn't dropped it in my lap, and that would have been my loss. Lee's a fine writer, and she nestles her personal story in a compelling history of post-WWII Korea. Portions of the book are not for the squeamish. It includes, among other things, a graphic account of the the sexual enslavement of the Korean "comfort women" by the Japanese. But the core of the book is Lee's struggle to create an identity for herself within her patriarchal culture, and that story is absolutely inspiring. Read my review here.
It doesn't officially hit the market until Feb. 2, so I've yet to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, but the chatter about it in the book world is overwhelmingly positive. Michael Ray Taylor's review is no exception--"rich," "complex" and "masterful" are a few of his adjectives. Read more here.
Titus reading, Rembrandt, 1656
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