Welcome to Litsy!

"It was in o'clock when Madame Vera handed me the telegram: Very I'll. Come immediately." (from tagged book) @MonthlyBookClub #readathon #mbcreadathon #mbcbookfrogsreadathon2

Balance of urban poverty and country survival, Communism and individualism, plenty of rich Tet banquets and deathly hunger. A story of a woman who desires nothing more than a mother's love, but the mother is too enamored with her narcissist brother. Paradise of the Blind symbolizes how the author wakes up to her disillusionment of Communism. She is banned in Vietnam. #ReadingAsia21 @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle #FoodandLit. @Texreader @Catsandbooks

In every life, there must come a moment when what is most sacred, most noble, in us evaporates into thin air. #FoodandLit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

One Pillar Pagoda Image from https://www.itourvn.com/blog/8-amazing-vietnam-pagodas-you-have-to-see

In predominantly rural cultures like Vietnam, food is often a powerful form of human expression, a currency that, like money, is used to quantify one's love, respect, or even hatred for another human being.

#FoodandLit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

Starting my #foodandlit book today... and sharing an adorable Valentine @Crazeedi made ❤️😃📖

#Foodandlit #readeattravel #Vietnam

@Texreader @Butterfinger

Next up for “teacher reading.” The students I‘ll have in HL Language A read this last year for their Works in Translation part and I need to know the book to be able to comment effectively on their writing.

This novel and much of Duong‘s other work looks at the lives of regular people during the communist rule in Vietnam. She herself has a fascinating history. Here we follow Hang, who‘s cadre maternal uncle worked to have her father‘s family classed as landlords (they were on a very small scale, as in they owned a paddy). Her father gone, she is raised by her mother with her paternal aunt‘s help. #1001books

I have read this book as a story about Vietnam for the Vietnamese. The detailed descriptions of the food, the village of the aunt and the life in the city, I thought beautiful; they show the timelessness of the country and the way people live there. I think it is the story of a country and its people that has always managed to remain authentic, despite the influences of other countries. #1001books

#TBRtemptation post! Looks like this book meets all kinds of points for various reading challenges for 2017 ???. Should hold prominence during #BannedBooksWeek: banned in Vietnam & the first novel published in the US from there? That's all I need to know ???! 3 women fight to maintain their dignity & families under brutal government rule. Sounds intense & poignant. The NYT calls it "daring". #LitsyLovesLibraries #blameLitsy #blameMrBook ?

An emotionally charged book. Am truly annoyed with the hypocrisy of people who are not being emphatic even with their own family for the sake of gaining political power