shanna

Happy publication to @__bo_reum ’s EVERY DAY I READ, translated by me, published by @bloomsburypublishing . It’s a huge joy to be reunited with Bo-reum’s beautiful writing, and in this collection of 53 short essays (and 53 ways to read), she shows us what it means to love books and live a life filled with stories, knowledge and words. A beautiful gift for book lovers, and a gentle inspiration to everyone who are keen to start reading 💕 It’s been exactly two years since Bo-reum’s WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP was released. That was my first book-length publication, and it’s extra meaningful to be translating Bo-reum’s work for my 8th book 💕 —— This was simultaneously a joy and a challenge to work on, because there’re about a hundred book quotes in there. 😍 Because she quotes from Korean translations of books, for source texts in English, I’d have to look for the book and find the exact sentence(s) that she quoted from. As they usually aren’t the “oft-quoted bits”, it was a huge challenge to be creative and strategic about how to find the sentence 😆. This was a book I spent even more time reverse-engineering and researching than translating. But this is precisely what I love about the book. You might have already read some of the books mentioned, but I’m sure you’ll gain something fresh from Bo-reum’s perspectives and perhaps be inspired to re-read books 💕 —— Please show us lots of love! P.S. it’d be the perfect Christmas and year-end holidays book gift!!

✨ Jeju island ✨ haenyeos ✨ photography ✨ slice-of-life ✨ found family An atmospheric slice-of-life novel set in Jeju island about how not everything in life needs to be planned. Sometimes it’s about going with the flow and finding a slower / different pace of living :) @hertaeyeon_novelist ‘s HAKUDA PHOTO STUDIO truly has a special place in my heart. It paints such a rich and vivid picture of life on the island. I want to share an excerpt from the author’s note. ‘Hakuda Photo Studio is my love letter to the island, the home I love and miss very much. (. . .) I hope that this book will offer some comfort from the daily grind, and encourage people to reflect on their lives and create new memories. Welcoming readers to the village feels as though I’m inviting guests over to a house I’ve built. I imagine people stepping into Hakuda Photo Studio to look at the framed photos in the gallery, taking a walk around the village, and snapping photos of the beautiful sand dunes by the coast.’ 🩷 A love letter indeed. I’m so honoured to translate this novel :) And a bit more on the translation process, it’s an interesting challenge because it’s a linguistically and culturally rich novel. There’s quite a bit of Jeju dialect used (and other dialects as well!) and I wanted readers to also understand and appreciate the linguistic nuances, so I did put quite a lot of effort in that aspect. Also, we meet a myriad cast of characters and clients, and we readers get to follow Seokyeong and Jebi as they learn to photograph different subjects including a pack of ajumma riders, a wedding, freedivers and even rocks. And this means as the translator, I am also weaving through many different genres and themes in a single book. :) It was both really fun and a challenge! I hope that I’ll get to do a talk with @hertaeyeon_novelist one day. Super looking forward! Please help to manifest hahaha. @johnmurrays is publishing HAKUDA PHOTO STUDIO on 31 July 2025! 🗓️ Pre-order at your favourite bookshop! 💕

Incredibly happy to be holding the proofs for @cloudswalk_books ’s SOYANGRI BOOK KITCHEN, coming soon via @harvillbooks on 2 Oct 2025 🩷 i can only say: i wish the book kitchen exists in real life :) Pre-order at your favourite bookshop 🩷

Not me introducing this book at a ROMANCE panel at @aklwritersfest and telling everyone about the plant lady who turns men (pests) into fertiliser 🥲 And I somehow got a bunch of romance readers excited about PLANT LADY I need some good feminine rage now but nope this isn’t full on gore and horror, but the more restrained, and dare I say … cosy type? A quiet thriller. I am at a point of life where I’m truly sick of men and I have nothing good to say about dating. So yeah, I am rooting for Yoohee and her plants :) Coming soon @doubledayukbooks - 30 July! —— Will you dare to disrespect her plants? Moving on from traumatic events, Yoohee has opened up her own Plant Shop to start afresh. Rows of pots thrive under her green fingers; sunlight filters through the windows at just the right angle making every leaf shimmer with health. It is a plant-lovers’ sanctuary, where peperomias and marigolds bloom, while the air itself is like an elixir of peace. Yoohee welcomes her customers, eager to share her tips, while scolding anyone attempting to caress an unfurling bloom, let alone snap off a stem. But as night falls, the soothing atmosphere transforms as Yoohee takes her shovel and hoe, and vanishes into her moonlit garden. In the shadows, she scatters the remains of the day - the bloody remnants of an unfortunate encounter. Just as Yoohee thinks the past is buried, a young and determined police inspector comes knocking ...

🤣🤣🤣🤣 #ภาษาไทย #learnthai #selfstudythai #polyglot #speakthai

happiest bookmail!!! + thai literature + coming-of-age story + a @lucysrisuphapreeda translation!! 🩷 Can’t wait to dive in. Thank you, Lucy! Thank you for bringing Thai literature to English readers 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷

i translated this collection of poetry and prose on love and parting while going through a heartbreak and two years later, i’m revisiting some of these again, wondering if I have grown to know what it means to love.❤️‍🩹 Thinking about how friendships and relationships can only exist when there’s space carved out for them, and when people show up with effort and time. The best kind of love is to be chosen and visible. What is the kind of love you want? :)

📚: Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint 01 by singNsong, translated by Hye Young Im and J. Torres ✨: Unputdownably great! I dived into ORV completely unaware of its popularity (i don’t follow webtoons) and at first, I was a little hesitant knowing that it’s an apocalyptic survival game sort of thing, which isn’t my genre But woah I was really invested I read it in one sitting HAHA. The worldbuilding is dynamic and rich, and easy to understand even for a non-gamer like me. I love the idea of how the protagonist Kim Dokja is the sole reader of a webnovel and when the novel’s survival game turns real, he’s the only one who knows how to navigate the new world hahaha What a lovely lesson among other things: READ MORE. I LIKE. Highly recommended for a fun engaging read. Thank you @definitelybooks for a review copy!

📚: The Midnight Train by Matt Haig ✨: if life is a collection of moments, what are the important ones in our lives? I absolutely adored it for the first two-thirds and then one day, i found myself unable to read a story about love for the time being 🥲, and so i decided not to force myself to keep going. So this is a partial review of sorts, since i’m prob not going back to it anytime soon (not the fault of the book!) I love the idea that individual moments make up our lives. And i found myself thinking what are some of the episodes that have shaped me to be the person i am now. But perhaps in the end, what’s important is the version i am now. Lots to think about, beautifully written. I’m a little sad that i’m not in the headspace to enjoy it till the end, but it was good :) Would love to hear what you think! Thank you @definitelybooks for the copy!

#ภาษาไทย #languagelearning #selfstudythai #learnthai #thailanguage

📚: Run with the Wind by Shion Miura, translated by Yui Kajita ✨: A deeper appreciation for running, runners + loving the underdog story + friendship I haven’t run since school days, back when the annual 2.4km test was the bane of my life. I sucked at it, and I don’t think I’ll see myself running as a hobby, a sport or what not. Recently, I’ve grown to appreciate runners who truly love to run, the kind of strength, determination and discipline they have while training for their goals. I learnt more about half-marathons and running, and I am fascinated. This novel, based on the real-life Hakone Ekiden, a two-day university relay race made me understand what it means to run long-distance. There’re quite a lot of running terms in it, deftly translated by Yui, which can be slightly overwhelming at first, but I absolutely love learning about a sport I know I won’t / can’t do myself, at the same time I feel like I’m understanding my runner friends more :) The 10-man team that Kiyose assembles seems to be the most unlikely marathon relay runners, but over months, as they put aside their differences and work towards the same goal, we see how the race changes them, their friendships and more. Highly recommended for people who love running 🩷

📚: if we cannot go at the speed of light by kim choyeop, translated by @antonhur ✨: what does it mean to be human? A breathtaking collection of seven speculative short stories. Take your time with this collection. I read one story every day (and that’s me slowing down deliberately) yet I feel as if I haven’t given them the space to settle in, and for me to mull over what each of them means to me. The stories made me cry, pause and think, and cry more. At some point I have no idea if the aching pain is from the stories or something more personal. I’m in awe of the seemingly limitless creativity and imagination Kim has, yet despite the imaginative world-building, the stories remain deeply human. My favourite one got to be The Materiality of Emotions - a company manufactures and sells physical manifestations of emotions and surprisingly, negative emotions sell really well. Imagine being able to look at your grief in your hands … maybe that’d appeal to me too i dunno! Thank you @antonhur for doing so much to bring Kim’s stories to English readers. 🥹🥹🥹 We need more short-story collections! This one publishes on 7 May 2026. Thank you @definitelybooks for a copy!