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Well-written memoir about Chung's experiences being given up for adoption by her Korean parents,growing up with conservative Catholic parents in rural Oregon and finding her birth family as an adult. An emotionally honest exploration of wrestling with identity, adoption and family. I am picked this up after not being able to get my hands on her newest memoir, A Living Remedy, about dealing with navigating the decline and death of her parents ⬇️

This was well-written and a vulnerable, illuminating perspective on transnational, transracial adoption. Very interesting and insightful book.

Nicole Chung‘s memoir about being a Korean adoptee of white parents. She was raised in an entirely white area and had no connection to her Korean culture. As an adult, pregnant with her first child, she seeks out her birth parents to discover more about her history. An enlightening account of one woman‘s experience as a transracial adoptee.

November 2021

Just found this #20in4 #readathon and I‘m going to challenge myself on this since my backlog is currently overwhelming.

10 pages into the tagged book, I‘m looking forward to finishing it this weekend.

@Andrew

A delicately paced story that is filled with suspense well-placed plot twists. It can be easy to forget you are reading a memoir and not fiction. A loving, clear-eyed, and sobering look at transracial adoption, and how we are shaped by the different forms of family we find throughout our lives.

Fall calls for cinnamon-sprinkled lattes and late Sunday mornings ✨

If you were pretty, if you were normal, if you were white, then the good things everyone saw on the outside would match the goodness you knew existed on the inside. And wouldn‘t it be wonderful to go to sleep one night and wake up an entirely different person, one who would be loved and welcomed everywhere? Wouldn‘t it be wonderful to look at your face in the mirror and know you would always belong? (p. 17)

When you think of someone as your gift from God, maybe you can never see them as anything else. (p. 3)

Well, perfect timing @Soubhiville as we picked up Hilly‘s ashes and pawprint today. We both lost best friends this year 😪. Thank you for your beautiful card and kind words. Hilly was pretty special and she is so very missed. That change purse...looks exactly like our princess. It‘s everything. Thank you, my friend. 😘❤️😽

A memoir told from the perspective of two sisters - one who was placed for adoption by her family and the other who often wondered about why she never got to have her little sister. For me this was a painful story but opened my eyes to why families make the choices they do. Placing a child for adoption must be a difficult decision for many families but in doing so they are often making a selfless choice for the child. Had me in tears.

First #weeklyforecast of the year! I‘ve got two books I started for book clubs early in December and then promptly forgot all about them in the hubbub of holidays - I‘m hopeful I can finish them by the end of the month.
America for Beginners is for book club this month, Red White & Royal Blue needs to be read by the end of the month (it‘s borrowed and I try not to keep borrowed books more than 30 days), and Mooncakes just for funsies. 🤞😄📚

While I found the writing style too dry, I appreciate this memoir of an adoptee deciding about reaching out to and/or meeting her birth family as an adult.

If this weren‘t for my bookclub I probably would have bailed in the first half. The second half got much better, as Chung discusses her pregnancy and all of the emotions that came with being a new mom.

Froedrick forced my book off my lap, but he doesn‘t appreciate being woken for a photo.

Do I have to go to work today? Igor‘s warm and extra purrfect this morning.

Going to try to do better with posting regularly and planning some (not all, lol) reading so I don‘t go all over the place tbr-wise 😂

My first #weeklyforecast includes some short stories, library books, and one that def needs to be finished by Friday for book club (tagged book)

I tend to keep it lighter in December (especially since this year it‘s busier at work) - more short stories and shorter graphic novels.

Thanks for the tag, Soubhi!

This week‘s reading forecast isn‘t much different than last week‘s...
I need to finish the tagged book for Friday‘s bookclub meeting.
I‘m close to the end of Thunderhead, and a few chapters in to A Tree Grows.
My library hold for the Three Women audio downloaded today.
I‘d love to finish all of these, but I‘ve got a busy week ahead so we‘ll see!
#weeklyforecast @Cinfhen
( @Eyelit what‘s your forecast?)

I‘ve been wanting to read this for a while.

I‘m also a Korean who was adopted in into a white family in a mainly white city. I count myself very lucky that I did not experience bullying growing up or ever had the inner conflict that Nicole experienced. Having other adopted friends, I know that I am definitely in the minority.

#weekly forecast
I started the tagged book today.
I‘ll start The Inexplicable Logic on my work commute Tuesday, and Three Women if my library hold comes in.
I‘ll probably choose from Sula or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn next. But maybe not too, I feel non-committal right now.

#bookreport a day late:
City of Girls was great!
Disappearing Earth I struggled with a bit, but ultimately was a pick.
The Circle was another great one! I recommend audio.

I‘m starting this for bookclub.

Yesterday my Mr and I went to the family Thanksgiving gathering. On the way home we were discussing how we each felt about my cousin‘s adoption- specifically that he was brought up knowing he was adopted from an orphanage in China, and how he might feel about growing up knowing that vs being told when he was older instead.

Then I pick up this book, having no idea what it was about. 🤯 sometimes booklife = RL!

Reading Women 2018 Shortlisted ✔
Hearing from the standpoint of a child/than adult who was given up and understanding so many emotions during her journey of knowledge was awe inspiring. Needing to know her health history spurred her on to find her biological family and while it connected her to come amazing family it also opened wounds with other family members. Worth a read if you need to take a walk in someone elses shoes.

So how do people make those cool cover collages? Here are all the books I finished in August, but I already turned the tagged book back in to the library, and this wouldn't work if I'd read more than one ebook in the month, as I normally do. #AugustWrapUp #AugustReads #monthlyWrapUp

Nicole Chung's written a VERY specific personal story about the way adoption has impacted her own life and choices but then infuses it with more arching statements like, "adopted children feel.." No. SOME adopted children feel. Nothing like the experience of me or my sister. I couldn't keep reading it, and if you're not an adopted person who has had a very similar emotional experience to the author you're probably going to feel annoyed

Poignant and compassionate.

Looking at my bewildered child, I was suddenly reminded of the time she had asked me how airplanes stayed up in the air. I told her I would need to look it up to be able to fully understand and explain it to her, and she exclaimed, almost scandalized, “But you're a grown-up! You've had your whole LIFE to learn everything!“

Finished All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung last night: a gently reflective memoir of a transracial adoptee - I thought she explained her emotions surrounding her adoption well and although there was no "high drama" I was compelled to keep reading

This was a particularly interesting read after enjoying Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere last year; it helped give a real world perspective of how the young adoptee might have felt later in life

https://wellreadneck.wordpress.com/2019/07/17/all-you-can-ever-know-nicole-chung...

#MonthofMemoirs

Overall recommend. It left me with questions regarding adopted children, and I know each child's story is personal. Also, was surprised author's adoption was not transcontinental.

This is a thoughtful, reflective memoir of the author‘s experience growing up as a transracial adoptee & connecting with her birth family as an adult. It made me realize how unique each adoption story is—contrary to the prepackaged stories that are so prevalent in our culture. I‘ve rarely encountered adoption stories that focus on adult adoptees, that move beyond the “happy ending” of the adoption—so this was both fascinating & thought-provoking.

Hello! I just joined Litsy and I thought I would introduce myself through these three recent reads. Each of these reads were assigned for my Literary Journalism class which focused on the public health narrative. Although I enjoy reading nonfiction for my major, I‘m now on summer break and want to read other genres! Comment what your current favorite is or simply say hello. #newmember #theimmortallifeofhenriettalacks #thespiritcatchesyou

Took a quick breather to take this pic from the bridge on my #audiorun today, just before it got cloudy and drizzly for the rest of the day. This memoir is good but I‘m really not in the mood for family/parenting subject matter at the moment, so kind of wish I‘d picked it up at a different time.

As predicted: I finished my grading, and now I‘m finished with this marvelous, moving memoir that contains complexity and, more than that, all of the wonderful writing and heart that made many of us fall for Nicole Chung at The Toast (RIP 😭😭😭😭😭). I‘ve had several friends who were adopted from Korea by white parents who didn‘t know what they were doing - and the resultant stress was huge. Chung writes about that beautifully. 4.5⭐️ #memoir

One of June‘s #memoir plans. Just as soon as all of my grading gets finished. (Another book I‘ve had since it was published! #TBR pile magic wand.)

And no one, no matter how smart or experienced, could expect to look at a tiny baby and know exactly who or what she would grow up to be 👶🏻

5🌟 One of the most moving and honest memoirs I have ever read! I dont personally have any experience with adoption so this book really taught me a lot. It is a wonderful introspective look at being a Transracial Adoptee. Her story is sad at times but not tragic. Shedding light on how growing up in a small white community, with white parents was and the challenges that created. And much more!
#memoir #bookreview #bookreviewer

This book was a little disappointing for me... While I liked hearing about her experience as an adoptee in a white family, and about her search for her biological family, I was already aware of the difficulties that can emanate from such adoptions, so I didn't learn anything new. I also had difficulty connecting emotionally with the book: the overthinking and the repetitions made it kind of dry for me.

hope everyone is enjoying their saturday! this book is heartrending and beautiful in the best of ways.

Here‘s how it begins: “The story my mother told me about them was always the same.
Your birth parents had just moved here from Korea. They thought they wouldn‘t be able to give you the life you deserved.
It‘s the first story I can recall, one that would shape a hundred others once I was old enough and brave enough to go looking.”

Have you read this book yet? What are some memoirs you‘ve loved?

I am adopted and was so excited when I first heard about this book. I hadn't ever read a memoir of an adopted person before. I got the book for Christmas and it has sat since then because I became nervous to read it. This is one of the first books I've ever read where I identify strongly with aspects of a person's life experiences. To be frank, I keep having to put it down. The book is really good but it is poking some sore spots.

I bought this one recently and thought I‘d start it this weekend since I have to read it for a group.

This book about transracial adoption is beautifully written, full of Nicole Chung‘s own story and not the accepted wisdoms that each or any of the topics covered might suggest. It's very personal and you get the sense that the book is actually her way of figuring it all out - not that she's capturing what she's already concluded! I think it's that evolution that you've been invited on as a reader that makes this book so compelling.

I checked this out on #Hoopla last month, then dragged my feet on starting it. Memoirs, particularly the ones I listen to on audio, feel so personal, and the depth of thought and emotion they convey can be draining to experience. Nicole Chung‘s adoption and relationship to it do not make an easy story. But I started this book yesterday and I‘m already riveted.

This is what I have in mind for my #FebruaryTBR plus the tagged book, which I have on my Kindle. Three of these are for book clubs (IRL and virtual) #LiteraryLove

Not *just* about transracial adoption. This is for anyone with children. Or siblings. Or parents. Or family of any kind. Or anyone who‘s wrestling with their own identity because of the ways we‘re pulled in myriad directions by our individualistic culture. I thought of Solomon‘s Far from the Tree and Ko‘s The Leavers as I read. Chung is painfully honest and vulnerable in describing her journey. Isn‘t that all that we ask for in a memoir? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lots of interesting thoughts and questions about identity in this thought provoking memoir. Nicole Chung is Korean and was adopted by white parents. They lived in a predominantly white small town while she was growing up. Questions about adoption and belonging feature alongside her feelings about being the only Asian. All which lead her to search for her birth family. What she finds out about them is complicated as life often is.

Finally starting this one thanks to yesterday's Kindle sale and this week's National Book Critics Circle Award nomination.

4 weeks post ankle sprain and I'm back on my bike! At least on my indoor trainer. It counts. Pedaling actually hurts less than walking so go figure. Feels good to be sweating again. Listening to this memoir about adoption for my in person book club--it's pretty intriguing, an inside look at the very complicated emotions of family, self, and belonging. #audiocycle

A very thoughtful memoir about family, adoption, and motherhood.

This is the book I‘m starting now. It took forever to come from the library-I hope it‘s good!