pickSO good. I‘m really looking forward to my book club‘s discussion! This book was very readable and centered on a Chinese American college student and her grandmother. They are part of a legacy of women who made elite pencils and… there is some magical realism about how they use the pencils. It‘s so original and memorable. Themes of memory, war/loyalty, communication, privacy, queer love. Great relationships of all types. Well written. Read it!
so-soThis is a supremely frustrating book. The writing is great, but it is in desperate need of editing. It goes on and on in a way that just makes it a slog, then finally perks up in the last quarter. The only reason I stuck with it was that I was determined not to bail on two #NBAshortlist for translated lit books in a row. If you try to read it and get bogged down, I recommend skipping forward to chapter 11 and going from there.
pick4.75⭐
This has an interesting time-travel aspect that doesn‘t get bogged down with the science of it. So it‘s perfect for someone who gets tripped up by too much technical jargon. It also leaves you feeling like it‘s completely feasible in the near future. I may have hoped for different fates for some characters, but ultimately everything worked out exactly as it should.
I saw this post on Instagram about being nostalgic and wrote a #haiku about it.
#haikuhive
pickLoved this story of two Chinese grandmothers and their story through magic that is in their blood. Granddaughters that live in Boston and want to learn about their grandmothers past. Fantasy mixed with history and technology of today. So good. First novel by this author. Excellent. Power of the written word and the loss of people talking to each other.
pickOliver Saks meets The Twilight Zone. I loved this twisty, turny, psychological, philosophical novel. An extraordinary patient comes in to a psychiatrist‘s office, and he is not sure if what‘s she‘s seeing is real. It reminded me of one of my favorite books ever, Into the Silent Lands by Paul Broks.
