School Librarian in Action: BTS Reading List

Showing posts with label BTS Reading List. Show all posts

Monday, January 19, 2026

Book Review: Zero O’Clock by C.J. Farley

Zero O’Clock by C.J. Farley is the story of Geth, a perceptive and thoughtful teenager, living through the early months of the pandemic. It is through her point of view that I witness once more, the unfolding of a world in chaos. It is traumatic to return to 2020, but reading Zero O’Clock is, in a way, a healing experience. It feels as though Geth and I walk through the experience together. She is ARMY, besides.

So, a lot of BTS’s songs are mentioned and the group’s presence in the book is very much a part of the novel’s emotional grammar. They accompany Geth through fear, isolation, and uncertainty, offering steadiness rather than easy consolation.

Zero O’Clock is not a story about resetting. It is a narrative of courage and resilience, of moving forward while carrying loss and grief. Because, in the end, Geth runs bearing the shifts and changes of the times. And she is beautiful!

#bookreview #BTSreadinglist2026 #ARMYofBangtanBookClub #booksBeatsBTS

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Book Review: Crying in H Mart

“Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner is a book that JK of BTS mentioned in one of his lives last year. This is my first book off my BTSxARMY reading list for 2024. Zauner took me to places I have never been to yet like Seoul and states in the US such as Oregon, Philadelphia and New York. In the process, she let me in the spaces of her mind, which is funny and sensitive; and her heart which is vulnerable and strong.

Her narrative voice is tender and honest. Even the most painful events in her life are told in vivid metaphors. Her nostalgia is a well fermented kimchi. This is one of those books where tragedy is elevated as a most beautiful experience. Perhaps because, Zauner’s mother endowed her with the Korean “han” - the ability to be noble, if not, graceful in the face of suffering and grief.

Have lots of tissues nearby and if you are still nursing your own wounds and loss over a loved one, have this book for a later reading time. I share many of Zauner’s experiences as I am looking after my elderly parents who are both in need of medical care. Cathartic.