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Collect all the genres!

#ImmigrantMC One that‘s been lingering on my TBR for ages. #BookBinge @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This is of course the absolute least of their worries but it‘s still so sad. It‘s 1975 and Saigon is now under Communist control and her family is trying to figure out how to survive…

Had a distance learning snow day today. I've been working for 12 hours straight and I feel a bit loopy. 🥸

Time to fall into a book.

4 ⭐ This graphic novel is both heartbreaking and contemplative. Its the story of a modern family both past and present, and the difference in life between two mothers. The author gives us the true accounts of her, her mom, her dad, brother sisters, and how it correlates to the life that she lives now. This graphic memoir has been chosen as an NEA big read book for this year, and after reading it, I understand why.

Powerful and moving with beautiful illustrations.

Book 1/3 for #JoysofJune (my #ReadMyOwnDamnBook book)

This was the perfect medium to tell this story. I really like nonfiction graphic novels, they can express so much, and the use of color (or lack of) throughout this story is highly impactful.

"I read Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, all the authors of the era"
I always find it fun when you are reading 2 books and one of them (or the author) is mentioned in the other ?

A gorgeous artwork reflecting on lives torn apart by war. Thi Bui examines how war and political upheaval impacted her parents throughout their whole lives, shows her family‘s harrowing escape from communist forces in Vietnam, and recounts the struggles they faced as refugees in America. Content warnings for war, death, child and infant death, difficult pregnancy, PTSD, racism, and other difficult content. #GraphicMemoir #Nonfiction #Vietnam

June #bookspinbingo board!

Love a clean board! Excited to see what this month brings.
@thearomaofbooks

This is a beautifully crafted graphic memoir that tells the story of a family coming to the US during the Vietnam War. It also tells the story of parents who are doing the best they can, and how their daughter learns how to understand and emphasize when them as an adult.

#12Booksof2021 Continuing with books that I did not choose for #Top21of21 Not because I didn't love them as much as the ones that I posted but bc I read a lot of books this yr that I loved. I have posted several times about my love for graphic memoirs & The Best We Could Do remains one of the best 8 months after reading it in #April. Honorable mention for other April books: Shaun Tan's The Arrival, Richard Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground👇

I really like graphic memoirs. Something about having the illustrations makes the story stick with me better. In this book the author shares the story of her parents before and after the war in Vietnam, their immigration to the U.S., and how their experiences affected her life. I thought it was great. Counting for a prompt for #Nonfiction2021 something about immigrants/newcomers

#midyearfaves Day 7 Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do was not the first exceptional graphic memoir I read this year. That honor goes to Mira Jacob's dialogic work about immigration & the immigrant experience in America: Good Talk. Thi Bui's work treads similar ground, but from the perspective of Vietnamese refugees. The story, coupled with the subdued watercolor artwork, was brilliant. I also learned about the First Indochina War, a subject👇

Story about migrant kid who is now a mother who reflect back on her family history back in Vietnam 🇻🇳 And the bittersweet memories of relationship between parents and children, war, survival and growing up

A word about the often subdued, yet incredibly effective, art in Bui's stunning graphic memoir. To quote “Hue & Motif in The Best We Could Do“ from americanwomenincomics.wordpress “The many illustrations in The Best We Could Do are colored using a single red-orange hue in the form of watercolors, along with black and white structural drawings to show definition. The entire graphic novel uses varying degrees of this singular color, which begs the👇

3.5/5 ⭐️ I found this memoir to be illuminating, but very sad.

#FoodandLit #vietnam

This illustrated memoir follows three generations of a family escaping Vietnam to make a better life for themselves, beyond the struggles of war and Communism. As Thi Bui becomes a mother herself, she begins to wrestle with the emotions and sacrifices of a mother while taking her past role as daughter. The artwork isn't my favorite with simple drawings and a limited color palette, but it is effective in setting the scene.
It's a bit like Maus.

My immersion into Vietnam for #FoodandLit.
I‘ve been SUPER unmotivated to lately, but the tagged book has been on my TBR for years and, as a graphic memoir, I‘m finding it easier to get into. I also read a travel guide, tagged in the comments.

Food is Chao Ga (Rice Soup with Chicken) from Milk Street. I think it needed a little more saltiness for me. 🤔

This is what a great graphic memoir can be. It shows, through the lens of her own, her parents, and her grandparents lives, the deep schism and trauma the #Vietnam War created in everyday citizens. Bui was very young when she left Saigon for a refugee camp, but the trauma her parents experienced had a deep effect on her childhood. The book tries to answer the above questions in light of the birth of her first child. #foodandlit #readingasia2021

Read this for Bham Book Club - good discussion on memoirs! Beautiful book.

#FoodAndLit #Vietnam @Texreader

Thank you @Butterfinger for recommending this one to me. It was such a beautiful story with such history in it. Much more history than I had known about.

#BookSpinBingo
@TheAromaOfBooks

#FabulousFebruary @Andrew65

I don‘t think my noodle bowl turned out quite as impressive looking as a few I‘ve seen and I prefer the pork in banh mi form, but it was fun to try.

The graphic memoir was a wonderful read, and I felt the art portrayed the emotion of the story very well.

#Memoir #Hoopla
#ReadTheWorld #ReadingTheWorld #ReadingAsia2021 #FoodAndLit #Vietnam

When Thi‘s son is born she starts thinking about what it means to be a parent. She thinks back to her family‘s life in Vietnam, their escape when she was a child and their new life in America.

This was my first graphic novel and I enjoyed it.
The fruit drink was the only thing I could find specifically from Vietnam in the grocery store. All 4 of us tried it and all thought it was okay. #foodandlit @Butterfinger @Texreader

My first completed read for #Vietnam is this graphic novel.

While adjusting to being a new mother, Thi Bui considers what it takes to be a parent and how impossible it seems to be a parent while still being someone‘s child. She documents the story of her family in Vietnam, and their escape to America where they built a new life for themselves.

A beautiful and raw memoir (but disclaimer, I wasn‘t a huge fan of the art style!)

#FoodAndLit

I love Pho its so so comforting. I wish I was able to get some chicken or veggie pho today :( I see how that would bring you “home“

#FoodandLit @Butterfinger @Texreader @jb72

Was able to download this one from Hoopla today. Its pretty gripping so far!

#FoodandLit @Butterfinger @Texreader @jb72

Hoping to work through most of these in February ❤️

#FoodandLit #LMPBC #BOTMBacklog

Similar to Persepolis, this memoir told through the medium of art is visually impactful. Blending the history of the once French Indochina region, from the 1930‘s until present day, the author/illustrator shares her family‘s personal struggle both in their native home and then once in America. The sepia color drawings really add to the narrative. The author highlights how the pain of trauma is often handed down to the next generations.

Taking a break from Billy Idol to read this #GraphicMemoir #Vietnam #ReadingAsia2021 #NonfictionChallenge21 #Immigrant #pop21 #DiffrentFormYouNormallyRead

First memoir that I have read in graphic novel format. Very educational and also touching.

#20best2020, The Best We Could Do seems thematic given the year that has been 2020. Well the least depressing given the choices.

Hard to read titles include: Fever Dream, The Memory Police, and Timefulness

Thanks for the tag @Graywacke

Following the birth of her child, a woman begins writing about her parents life in Vietnam and their subsequent immigration to the United States. Told in graphic novel form, the story is compelling. I knew just the barest facts about the recent history of Vietnam. This book really opened my eyes. Her parents lives were fascinating.

Hey there #LMPBC friends! What do you all think of these three choices? @REPollock @cwarnier @LibrarianRyan

A memoir of a woman who fled Vietnam as a child, looking into her family‘s past and pondering how it affected them. Beautiful 😭 #hoopla

This is a #ownvoices personal story but it‘s so much more than just a family‘s journey from war-torn Vietnam to the US in the 70s. Every immigrant story is about real people & this memoir captures how the trauma & shadows of the past never really leave any immigrants, in many cases, are pass on to the next generation. It also provides a glimpse into a historical background from the French colonial rule over IndoChina 🔽

It‘s important for me to read a book like this every so often to remind myself how lucky I am. Life during war, having to flee your home and settle in a whole new country- we need to honor these people and their experiences.

Just realized I never posted this!!
Millennial Author: Get a Life, Chloe Brown
Hat/Head Covering: My Sister the Serial Killer
Subject New to Me: One of Us
Set in Hollywood: Shopaholic to the the Stars
#covercrush: Prognosis
Finish in a Day: The Best We Could Do

#booked2020 #winter
@BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen

Thi Bui's gorgeous graphic memoir The Best We Could Do is an exploration of her family history and of her own identity. Born in Vietnam, Thi immigrates to the United States with her parents and her three siblings. Upon the birth of her first child, Thi is moved to understand her own life as the child of her parents so that she can better understand her new identity as a parent herself.⠀⬇️

As with other graphic memoirs I‘ve read recently, I think this was the perfect medium to tell her story. The combination of the words and artwork and colors made it so immediate and gripping. I learned a lot from this too, way more than you learn in American schools about this war. Did struggle a bit with how the timeline moved around and wish there was more from their life in the states. But overall very poignant and important. 4/5 ⭐️

Decided to pick up another graphic memoir, and definitely wanted to read this on a weekend because it‘s oddly heavy! It‘s 329 pages but I guess because of the type of paper used in a graphic work versus a regular book, it adds a lot more heft. 💪🏻 #nowreading

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A moving story of a family's immigration to America from Vietnam during the Vietnam war era. I heard the author speak about this graphic novel several years ago at Comic-Con International and have been wanting to read it ever since. This was a library read.

ʙᴏᴏᴋ #𝟣𝟧 ᴏғ 𝟤0𝟤0 ✨. ᴏɴᴇ ᴏғ ᴍʏ ᴄᴜsᴛᴏᴍᴇʀ ᴛᴏʟᴅ ᴍᴇ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜɪs ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ɢᴏᴛ ɪᴛ ʟᴏɴɢ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴀɢᴏ ʙᴜᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇɴ‘ᴛ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪᴛ ʏᴇᴛ ᴜɴᴛɪʟ ɴᴏᴡ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘʀᴇᴛᴛʏ ᴇxᴄɪᴛᴇᴅ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ɪᴛ. 📚✔️ ɪᴛ‘s ᴀʟsᴏ ᴍʏ ғɪʀsᴛ ɢʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.

#thebestwecoulddo #thibui #graphicnovel #excited #2020 #15

This was a quick read, but impactful. I didn't know graphic novels could be like this. I want to read more! I loved the illustrations and how at times they told the story with no words. Highly recommend!
#booked2020 Finish in a Day
#readharder Graphic Memoir
#litsyatoz B
@barbarathebibliophage @4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen

This is both beautifully written and beautifully illustrated, narrating the story of the author's family's time in Vietnam and flight to the US as refugees. It's also a moving exploration of the relationship between parents and children, and how we view and define each other.

5⭐ Highly recommended

I absolutely LOVED this graphic memoir!!! Family saga starting in Vietnam, then on to boat to Malaysian refugee camp and finally, to America. All the trials and tribulations of living in a war torn country and the emotional scars from that. Great debut!

Coffee with condensed milk and opium? Uhmmm, never saw that at Starbucks. Lol. I LOVE graphic memoirs. This specific graphic is in Saigon.

I learned a lot about the Vietnamese to immigrant experience as the author investigates her family history,warts and all.Beautifully drawn.Her family does the best it can under difficult circumstances,hence the appropriate title.Highly recommended.

Bui chronicles the story of how her parents left Vietnam in 1978 for the US. It is stark because of the colors used in the panels- shades of black, white, and dull red. Despite being a memoir, it also shows Vietnam‘s history: how her parents grew, her grandparents‘ stories, the political situation, and the trauma associate with war, displacement, being a refugee, and how the past lives on. #NFNov #graphicnovel