The little truth bombs about family and marginalization scattered all over this book really captivated me-- on a narcissistic grandmother Zhang writes, "she had to adopt a confidence that was embarrassing to witness." There is an element of repetition in this collection of stories, but that just makes it seem all the more real and alive with the tensions and frustrations of her characters. Loved this one.

"Sometimes you can change the psychic space, the landscape of the emotions, by carrying out actions in the physical world." Loving this analysis of destructive tendencies...and the book itself so far.

"No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act." I really enjoy Murakami and this was no exception. How he describes his pursuit of running- both the reasons behind it and the experience of it- is down to earth and sometimes made me laugh out loud.

Seems like the sign of a great writer when their short story collection makes you hope they write a novel soon. These characters are full of life, ordinary and captivating.

There's a dreamlike quality to this story, and something about that seems to capture both the disorientation of extreme political violence and the innocence of those who find themselves surrounded by it. I had a visceral dislike for the social worker character, maybe because her escapist, objectifying tendencies felt a little too real. Overall a great, important story and I'm glad I stuck with it till the end.

Been giving this another go, and enjoying it more than I expected. There are some great moments that reveal a lot of complexity... Glad I tried again (on a day when not so easily triggered by racial tropes, I guess).

"It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing."

Reading for a book group. Not sure where this is going- maybe I'm not in a good space for a potential white-savior social worker narrative tonight (or ever)... I'm more than skeptical. Anyone else read this?

Welp, I'm hooked! So much depth and beauty, so well crafted and intimate. I went to the library catalog and, strangely, they don't have a hard copy of the second title in their holdings. Is it so good that people steal it? 😂

"Every second something might happen that will cause you such suffering that you'll never have enough tears." Fitting words for the world we live in, it often seems. ?

I can hardly put this book down long enough to post about it. So engrossing!

Thumbs up for an unyielding, yet unsentimental account of a personal search for meaning and how it (somewhat inadvertently) led to connections beyond the self.

I'm a little conflicted- this seems to embody the DIY, indie style Georges immersed herself in when she moved to PDX, and her reflections are brave and genuine. On the other hand, it feels unfinished at times and story elements like the Dr. Laura connection are almost forced.

The book and de la Peña's Newberry acceptance speech are a must-read... "Nana...is urging CJ to see the beauty of his surroundings, yes, but she‘s also steering him toward something much more fundamental. She‘s teaching CJ to see himself as beautiful. To see himself as worthy." ❤️❤️❤️

"Once the imagination learns how to construct an image of another persons subjectivity- however sloppy and improvised that image may be- it's hard to get it to stop. Anyone's suffering is a potential emergency."

"...in order to save his life, he is forced to look beneath appearances, to take nothing for granted, to hear the meaning behind the words."

A hard lesson to learn, but she nails it: "I didn't hate her... because I understood that no one could have lobbed such a stinging wad of shame without having a considerable personal reserve of it to draw on."

It's amazing to me how the bewilderment and morbid curiosity of early childhood are represented in the storytelling here. A darkly funny, somewhat confounding, fascinating book.

"'Crows are cunning. They watch you from the corners of their eyes, and when you leave, they steal your things!'
(We were being followed by the boy who pooped in the street.)"

Read this over the weekend- kinda 'meh' sometimes, but overall a fun read with particular insight on cultural assimilation/preservation, motherhood, and family. When I heard her talking about her endometriosis on the Another Round podcast I knew I wanted to read this and get to know her better.

Chapter 3, Unhappy Queers: "the conditions of liveability involve a relationship to suffering, to 'what' a life must endure. A bearable life is a life where what must be endured does not threaten that life, in either the bare facts of its existence or in the sense of its aim, direction or purpose."

Fascinating topic, got me thinking about my obsessive but short-lived childhood love of Tamora Pierce novels. Bad-ass heroines aside, I can't for the life of me get into the genre again. (Not to mention the colonialist and cultural appropriationist implications of this particular volume 😳😳)

Haunting images and writing that makes you slow down to understand the many layers of detail. Read this for a book group, but re-reading parts on my own has made my appreciation grow. Insights on childhood, relationships, and loss that linger.

The recent New Yorker tribute to the love and friendship between these two is pretty much a tearjerker. Frog and Toad forever. ❤️❤️ http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/frog-and-toad-an-amphibious-celebrati...

"Something about his unaesthetic physicality and sense of coming undone irked her orderly mind. She was only willing to concede good so long as its human form stayed far away from herself and her siblings."

"He had the untroubled look of the blameless, further enhanced by its suggestion of an unshared inner life."

"We speak of being /in/ a body, as though the self were somehow contained in a bodily exterior. Conversely, we understand the body as materiality held within an encompassing self-consciousness.. Inside and outside run into each other, as when you run your finger along the side of a Möbius strip."

"... The tropes of pain display the awkwardness of catachresis."

Read, fittingly, on a sick day. Vindicating and troubling. Demands questions and answers about pain, misogyny, violence, memory, and the many intersections encountered in life with a disability.

"However I state it, the fact is I have assumed the right to imprison others in what I seem to see, think, feel, imagine, and know." Wowzers, I gotta read this one when it's out.

Absolutely loved the characters and descriptions, and the way Smith layers so many elements of culture and relationships with sharp, intelligent humor. But as it progressed I found myself a bit underwhelmed by the story.

Bit of a vicarious thrill from this rant... "Every single f*cking day is not this huge battle between who they are, and who they should be, what they were and what they will be." ??????

Excited to buy this book last night at Powell's after reading a library copy. Still can't stop thinking about Emerence and her story. "I tried to draw together the true co-ordinates of her being."