I started reading Angela Tung’s blog many years ago, drawn in by stories of her single life in New York City with a good communications job at a big pharma company. Searching back through GMail, I learned she commented on my blog for the first time in October 2006–I hadn’t realized it has been that…
Category: Reading Asian American Literature
Currently Reading: Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go
As with a lot of the world, I learned about this novel when the 2010 movie got rave reviews and mentioned the origin of the screenplay. I heard it was a sci fi storyline with low/no tech, so of course it intrigued me to read the novel before watching the movie. A Japanese-British author behind it…
Currently Reading: Maragaret Dilloway’s “How to be an American Housewife”
I learned about Margaret Dilloway’s How to Be an American Housewife from the June 2010 batch of LibraryThing.com’s Early Reviewer’s List. I peruse the list every month when I get the e-mail alert but I don’t know how to win the “lottery” and obtain a book hot off the presses to review it for the Library…
Currently Reading: Lisa See’s “Shanghai Girls”
Earlier this summer, I read Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan because it will be a Hollywood movie in 2011. See’s current novel is Shanghai Girls, released last year in May. Snow Flower is probably See’s masterpiece so I was willing to read another See novel, one still too new for us to…
Currently Reading: Anchee Min’s “Pearl of China”
I don’t quite remember what led me to Anchee Min’s Pearl of China, published earlier this year, in the first place. I probably noticed the Chinese author’s name in a book list and looked further into the synopsis. Once I realized it is about Pearl S. Buck and recalled quickly how Buck’s The Good Earth…
Currently Reading: Jean Kwok’s “Girl in Translation”
Another 2010 book down. I pat myself on my back to have started borrowing books from the library, even when they are still “ON ORDER”, paying attention to recommendations from AAM, and getting Google Alerts about “asian american literature”!! From the latter, the most consistent recommendations have come from Asian American Literature Fans, a Livejournal blog,…
Currently Reading: Somewhere Inside
I try to recall the media furor over the captivity of Laura Ling and Euna Lee last year but I can’t really separate in my mind “actual” coverage by mainstream news and the re-coverage and opinion by bloggers. I followed Angry Asian Man and he echoes a lot of Asian-American-related news for his readers’ benefit…
Currently Reading: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Oh boy, the way in which I figure out the next novel I will read scares me, and is a testiment to how much of an Internet junkie I can be. I was listening to the podcast, M and MX Radio, the episode in which Hugh Jackman regales you (at the 4-minute mark) by singing…
Currently Reading: A Thread of Sky
I feel like I just got back from a two-week tour of China’s Must-Sees with the women in my family. I guess that means Deanna Fei’s A Thread of Sky was good! My Google Alerts set up for “Asian American literature” alerted me to a Huff Po article by author Deanna Fei, I Called Amy…
Currently Reading: I Want Candy
In the spring, I spent ten Thursdays going to the downtown UBC campus for Adobe courses and quickly acquired a routine: briskly walk down after work (30 minutes), often listening to a podcast or talking on the phone with my sister, stopping by the Chapters (bookstore) just next to campus for a quick browse through…