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 long! I’m 100% sure her Internet handle at the time was a big hook for me and then her writing, her sardonic way of relating her life kept her blog amongst my most anticipated reads …

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 with Remains of the Day under his belt did not dissuade me at all, quite the contrary.
The story is told from the conversational narrative point-of-view of Kathy H. who is played by Carey Mulligan. I …

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 Thing site. So I immediately requested a copy from the library and waited (and waited and waited) for the library to get it after its August release date.
The bulk of my Asian-American lit reviews are …

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 know its ultimate impact. I caught a glimpse of a review on Amazon.com of Shanghai Girls (SH Girls) that was quite negative in terms that See tried, but failed, to recreate the bond between two women …

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 was a spectacular read, I put it on my library request list.
Aside from many an Asian’s initial surprise that a novel that studies in-depth a Chinese peasant’s story at the beginning of the last …

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, an article from which nearly spoiled the novel for me if I hadn’t closed the browser tab as soon as it started to delve into plot points.
I had begun reading Jean Kwok’s 2010 debut novel, …

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 and this news story just didn’t go away. Then the highest levels of American government finally got involved and it was finally all over mainstream American news.
I don’t suppose many people knew who Laura Ling …

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 a Chinese folk song. It’s hilarious! He learned this song because he is starring in the movie adaptation of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The movie, due out in 2011, also stars Vivian Wu …

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 Tan A Dirty Word–And Then She Friended Me. In turn, I learned that Fei published her first novel, A Thread of Sky, in early April. I requested it from the library and actually read a book …

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 the bargain books and to pick up my tall non-fat chai latte to nurse through three hours (I drink really slowly).
One day, screaming from the bargain books table, I saw this book–the “Asian font”, the …