Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life (Korean Edition)

This was loved and hated by my book club. I found it fascinating.

I usually like memoirs where the author connect their personal life in parallel to an interest of theirs, but this book was just not that. First, Lulu Miller's fascination with David Starr Jordan is quite strange. A staunch eugenicist of the early 21st century, Miller only mainly talked about his scientific categorization of fish, and only briefly mentioned his eugenics beliefs towards the end of her book. Then leading to her personal life as she cheated on a man in her past but tries to reconcile her actions to move past the affair. It was just a chaotic read with no real takeaway.

10 is not a high enough rating for this book, which is an absolutely perfect book.

This book is awesome.

A quick read, I really enjoyed it as a biology nerd who has constant existential anxiety. Be warned there’s some discussion of eugenics and racism (but also fish.)