Bookstore browsing

This is the second book in the series and every bit as fun to read as the first. Lila has been asked to be a judge for the local beauty pageant. But there‘s been a murder and she‘s sucked into it. It‘s that kind of cozy mystery which doesn‘t stress the reader too much and you know it will all turn out ok in the end. Just be prepared to be hungry as Lila experiments with delicious desserts for their upcoming cafe.

The 9yo on learning that I‘m reading a series set in space and has aliens: “maybe they look like shrimpy”.

Beautiful but brutal. Tells the tale of a young girl kidnapped in China and smuggled to the US in the late 1800s. A Bildungsroman but also a story of the anti-Chinese violence of the time. Thoroughly researched and beautifully written. I struggled a bit with her (alter ego? Guiding spirit?) Lin Daiyu, Dream of the Red Chamber heroine, that she‘s named after. Lin Daiyu helps her through traumas, of which there are many.

Excited to read this!

First day of summer break (yes last day of school was weirdly a Monday). And it‘s a nice day for a swim and a read by the pool!

Negronis chasing me around, book after book. (See previous post)

Before the first chapter begins, he‘s already making me want a Negroni

When there‘s a new Jasmine Guillory book out, it‘s time to drop everything and read!

Yesterday, making chocolate chip cookies and listening to this audiobook.

What a book! A girl and her mom head home to Last Chance, Minnesota, where her grandparents live and run a Chinese restaurant. She learns how to play poker from her sick grandpa, writes new fortunes for the fortune cookies, and hears the story about her g-g-grandfather‘s journey to the US (effectively lessons on Chinese emigrants‘ history, told as story within story!). Heartfelt and charming, this book needs to be read by more people.

Made chocolate swirl milk bread - an adaptation of the recipes of Mother Of All Milk Bread plus chocolate milk bread plus marble loaf in this fantastic book. Love all the details and recipes (so many to try out - red bean swirl buns, brown sugar shao bing, mo) as well as the stories that she shares about her journey to baking and the features of some Asian bakeries in the US.

A topic about Asian diaspora for Asian heritage month had me thinking about how Singaporeans are Asian diaspora too, although Singapore is located in Asia. For instance, my great-grandparents migrated from China to Singapore and while I may still have distant relatives in China, I haven‘t been there and have no plans to. Anyway, just highlighting some Singapore lit from shelves today.

A topic about Asian diaspora for Asian heritage month had me thinking about how Singaporeans are Asian diaspora too, although Singapore is located in Asia. For instance, my great-grandparents migrated from China to Singapore and while I may still have distant relatives in China, I haven‘t been there and have no plans to. Anyway, just highlighting some Singapore lit from shelves today.

Some books by Asian diaspora as we head towards AAPI Heritage Month. I realize that I don‘t own any books by Pacific Islanders so I hope to remedy that!

While I didn‘t like her previous book, this pandemic time travel novel held onto me and didn‘t let me go. I loved this: “Pandemics don‘t approach like wars, with the distant thud of artillery growing louder every day and flashes of bombs on the horizon. They arrive in retrospect, essentially. It‘s disorientating. The pandemic is far away and then it‘s all around you, with seemingly no intermediate step.”

On a walk this morning while listening to this audiobook, a bee buzzed past and I stopped to watch

It‘s said that when you read a spicy book like A Lot Like Adios, the steaminess of it burns off enough calories so that you can indeed have Black Forest cake for breakfast.

Why read a story like this one? To never forget. Not just the horrors faced by those who fought during the war but also those who were not soldiers yet fought their own wars. How terrifying it must have been to be taken at such a young age, to be abused in this way. These are stories that need to be told and read and remembered. Your heart will break over and over when you read this powerful and necessary graphic memoir.

Why read a story like this one? To never forget. Not just the horrors faced by those who fought during the war but also those who were not soldiers yet fought their own wars. How terrifying it must have been to be taken at such a young age, to be abused in this way. These are stories that need to be told and read and remembered. Your heart will break over and over when you read this powerful and necessary graphic memoir.

Rosa is a student at a ballet academy, where her father is ballet master. She‘s obsessed with Prince, who happens to be training upstairs for a performance. And the ballet students get a chance to audition for the very concert that Prince is headlining.

I loved Rosa and following along with her struggles as she tries to figure out her own path. This was an incredible debut. Loved all the 80s vibes and all the diverse characters.

Ah the things that one does for a book photo. Like picking out doughnut flavors, buying doughnuts, and eating doughnuts, all because of a book about a baker and a meet-cute where a movie star causes some matcha tiramisu doughnuts to fall on the floor. Alas, we didn‘t have matcha tiramisu doughnuts. So regular doughnuts will have to do.

Lunch of leftover pork meatballs and watercress soup, fried tofu, instant noodles tossed in soy sauce and sesame oil. And this beautiful and sad graphic novel about families separated during the Korean War.

Good things come in small packages. Like dim sum. Siu Mai and Har Gow are perfect one or two bite dumplings, any bigger and they just seem a bit too much. And in Ghost Forest, the scenes and vignettes, are often just a few paragraphs long. But they convey so much. Ghost Forest is a quiet and soft read but it managed to wring out all these emotions from me via its spare prose and blank space.

Book and breakfast: pulut hitam (black glutinous rice) with a drizzle of coconut milk. And this book about a fictional interracial Afro-punk band. I‘m still waiting for my hold on the audiobook to come in but thought I‘d start reading the ebook first. What are some books about music and musicians that you‘ve loved?

I probably had too high expectations of this one, about a boy who doesn‘t quite feel emotions. He has a disorder called alexithymia because of underdeveloped amygdalae.
But while I enjoyed the first part of the book, the ending seemed too…easy. Also, the main character just never quite drew me into his story.

Overall, an interesting read but I just wanted more.

Some books I borrowed for #koreanmarch

Library day!

I kept thinking of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as I read this book. Except that instead of a procedure to erase memories, there is a drug in which you can store your memories. One that holds not just memories but also all your feelings about those moments. Initially an Alzheimer‘s treatment, it‘s now being abused as people take it to get high. Quite fascinating.

Worked on these crewmates while listening to this audiobook. A very impressive list of voices make up this oral biography of Anthony Bourdain.

Not an easy nonfiction read. A son‘s search for answers about his father‘s abduction & imprisonment by the Libyan govt. But I wondered, why do women not seem to exist in this book? His mother was his sole parent for most of his life and he even travels to Libya with her, but we never learn about her thoughts on her husband‘s disappearance.

I read more than I thought I did last month!

Today‘s read: Fiona and Jane, stories about two young Taiwanese-American women who have been best friends since second grade

Today‘s snack: sesame balls with red bean filling

Today‘s drink: lemongrass tea

This book was just magical to read. The world building was fabulous and I always appreciate when writers include food and drink into a story, as it helps to complete a reader‘s journey into a fantasy story. It was a lush and immersive experience. There is a romance in this story but I didn‘t feel be very invested in it. I was surprised by a plot twist and do hope that the second book explores more about one of the characters involved.

This worked well for me as an audiobook. It might have been a bit repetitive as a print read since it‘s told from three perspectives, but as I can be a bit distracted when it comes to fictional audiobooks, it didn‘t come off that way to me. I loved the very distinct voices by the three narrators. The audiobook was very compelling and kept me hanging on. I tend not to do well with fiction audiobooks but I enjoyed this one greatly.

This novella is quite different from The Black Tides of Heaven, reflecting the differences in personality between the twins Mokoya and Akeha. I found that I enjoyed this one more, perhaps because I was already familiar with the world building and the characters, whom we first meet as children in Black Tides. Just behold this magnificent cover. I can't wait to read the rest of the series

Taking a walk and listening to this book that‘s read by Richard Armitage, Georgia Maguire, and Emily Watson. I reckon I wouldn‘t have liked this book if I read it myself. But this audiobook narration is superb. And not just because of Richard Armitage!

LOVE IN THE BIG CITY is a funny and thoughtful story about Young, a gay Korean student who lives in Seoul. The narrative flits back and forth between present and past. If you‘re looking for a plot-driven book, this isn‘t exactly it. It‘s maybe more like an exploration of a queer man‘s life in Seoul. Nightlife. College. His mother‘s illness. His relationships. All its vibrant highs and heartbreaking lows.

Book and popcorn while the boys watch the Super Bowl

Hydrating and luxuriating in this gorgeous book

😆

As Japanese lit goes, this one is low on the weird scale (which for me goes from a bit absurd to completely bonkers). But it does offer the reader a chance to reflect on what life would be without some essential items in a bid for an extra day of life. Then as the title goes, would remove cats from this world for that extra day? Either I‘m an unfeeling bot or this book didn‘t delve deeply enough into the character‘s life that it‘s just a soso read

Waiting for the kids‘ tennis class to finish. It‘s been bright enough for me to read longer in the car these days. Reading this translated book and listening to Map Of The Soul: 7.

Grabbed a couple of books from the library! Excited to read them this weekend. Have you read these?

The story is told from multiple points of view, from different time frames, different countries. It‘s like putting together one of those jigsaw puzzles where each puzzle piece is a complete shape in itself. Each chapter is complex and satisfying, even the minor characters like a woman whom Daniel meets on a bus in South America. She‘s so well created and whole that I felt like I knew her in just a few pages.

Happy Year of the Tiger! Here are some red covers for good luck, happiness, and prosperity for the new year. 新年快乐！xinniankuaile! Happy new year!

How‘s your Goodreads challenge going?

Made this tangzhong half-whole-wheat bread yesterday while listening to Lin-Manuel Miranda narrating this great audiobook.

What celebrity-narrated audiobooks have you enjoyed?

Oh I loved this one! A funny and relatable graphic novel about trying to fit in. Huda‘s family moves to Dearborn where she realizes she‘s no longer the only hijabi in class. She doesn‘t seem to belong to the gamers or the athletes or the fashionistas. Can Huda figure out who she is and learn to accept herself? The author blends self-discovery with heavier topics like Islamophobia and microagressions. Honest and charming

The Woman in the Purple Skirt is an ordinary woman who only ever wears a purple-colored skirt. She doesn‘t do anything unusual or unique. Our narrator is the woman in the yellow cardigan, who watches the woman in the purple skirt, and knows her life thoroughly. Some say it‘s disturbing but I feel sad for the narrator. The loneliness of living in a city leads her to longing for a friend, into voyeurism and idolization of an everyday person.