Books: Second Quarter Review
This was supposed to be the year of “let’s read more fiction books!” So far it’s shaping up to be a losing effort. But enthusiasm remains high and summer is around the corner!
Books Read, Fiction
- Babel, R.F. Kuang ⭐
- Homeseeking, Karissa Chen ⭐
- Jade City, Fonda Lee ⭐
- Emergent Tokyo, Jorge Almazán, Joe McReynolds ⭐
- Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
- Shattering the Glass, Pamela Grundy, Susan Shackelford ⭐
- Stay True, Hua Hsu ⭐
And it’s August, which is clearly not quarter two, but there has been a lot of travel so here we are. After essentially three months away, I’m back at home and ready to cover what I’ve read in April through July. The short answer is: next to nothing! After logging six books in quarter one, I only added three more eligible books in the four months since. So um, here we go and let’s hope second summer’s ocean waves brings a lot of beach reading!
Why did my friends and frenemies not tell me to read Babel sooner? My video game group read and had a virtual book club about Poppy War a few years ago and some of them had read Babel—and liked it better. But none of them emphasized how much better it was. R.F. Kuang is an undoubtable genius and I won’t have anyone say different! The magic system alone in Babel—carving words into silver for their translation properties—is incredible. I understand some of the quibbles with the book, with stretches that seem like lectures on endless evils of colonialism, but since that topic is right up my alley, I dug it all. I want everyone to read Babel, and if you are everyone, you should read it. I'm going to see her talk in September and I'm very excited--the last author I was so inspired to go watch in person was William Finnegan.
Right before I read Babel, I had finally gotten myself through Jade City. It wasn’t for lack of trying, as I’d been putting it up and down for awhile now. That’s not a knock on the book though, as I just kept getting interrupted. I loved Fonda Lee’s world as well, with its Hong Kong inspired fantasy and The Godfather vibes. The accolades for Jade City are many and I really loved it. If not for Babel, I would have been on the rooftops shouting about Jade City recently. The magic system is fun, the world building is tremendous, and while the character archetypes and plot may not be all that original, who cares? Jade City wasn't simply a fantasy book papered over with Asian characters, but a true Asian inspired world through and through. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.
As for the third book I managed to finish in the past few months, it was Homeseeking by Karissa Chen, who I’ve been reading online forever. We had a little Taiwan-based book club about it and the discussion was wonderful. (I have an upcoming post about book clubs, and what I’d like them to be like.) This is Chen’s debut novel and it follows two childhood lovers who are separated by fate and circumstances, only to be semi-reunited in their old age. It’s a Chinese diaspora book and a really good one, and I’m so happy Karissa’s book was so well received and reviewed by all. She was on Good Morning America with it! That is not easy for any novel. Go go Taiwanese American authors!
Also a short mention of A Map of the Sun by Sloane Leong, which is a graphic novel I’d been waiting to dig into. It’s about teen girls who are on a basketball team and it’s also got surfing, friendship dynamics, and lyrically evocative artwork. Plus, the colors match my house really well... While I’m not really counting graphic novels as “books read” anymore, this was a real work of art.
On the non-fiction side, also a lot of hits. Quality over quantity right?! I took one physical book with me on our trip, Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City, which is an exploration of Tokyo’s unique urban spaces. It really illuminated the city in a wonderful way, such as illustrating the history and effectiveness of yochoko alleyways. If you’re heading to Tokyo or have been there already, I highly recommend this book as it'll give you an additional great perspective of the city. Somewhat related note: I am similarly very excited to read Geoff Manaugh's A Burglar's Guide to the City. "Encompassing nearly 2,000 years of heists and tunnel jobs, break-ins and escapes, A Burglar's Guide to the City offers an unexpected blueprint to the criminal possibilities in the world all around us."
Since May, I’ve been all-in on the WNBA, and even started a Substack about this new obsession, Swish City. Thus, I'm reading Shattering The Glass: The Remarkable History Of Women's Basketball has been a months-long joy ride. I’m going to be reading as many WNBA related books as I can, and this was the perfect start. I just bought Hoop Muses: An Insider’s Guide to Pop Culture and the (Women’s) Game, which features artwork by Sophia Chang, who IYKYK!
Lastly, I finally got around to finishing Hua Hsu’s Stay True. Much like Jade City, I’d picked it up here and there over the years but then I finally dug back into it. And I kept highlighting stuff, sending quotes to my friends, and it really captured a particular Asian American college experience, and also how music and friendship can shape your social world order. I’d read a lot of Hua Hsu’s writing over the years and am happy he got a Pulitzer for this memoir. Since finishing Babel and Stay True, I’ve just been putting podcasts and interviews with Kuang and Hsu on, to see what these two great minds have to say about life, writing, whatever.
Books Quit
- Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid
- We Need to Hang Out, Billy Baker 🎧
Additionally, I’ve been exploring physical book clubs lately and well, so far every book has been an absolute bust—except Homeseeking. I mostly finished Martyr, quit Project Hail Mary and half of Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. But the point of book club isn’t to read great books, but to meet people and have conversations. I’m glad I got to dip into all of these very in your face and popular books but let’s just say they were all reading failures in some way. I am very excited for the Ryan Gosling starring film version of Project Hail Mary though!
The one book club meeting I was very psyched to attend—but had to miss-was for Killers of the Flower Moon. I rewatched the movie, listened to the audio book, and concurrently read through the young readers version (who knew this was a thing?) of the book for about a week. I like Grann’s work and was very intrigued about going to a book club about this book but alas, I’ll just have to shelve talking about it for some other time.
Audibooks I Tried
- I Heard Her Call My Name, Lucy Sante
- Jade Shards, Fonda Lee
- Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
- Persuasion, Jane Austen
- Seoulmates, Susan Lee
- The Pale Blue Eye, Louis Bayard
- The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, Steve Brusatte
- Trust Exercise, Susan Choi
And the audiobook journey continues… I tried all these books in audiobook, and not one of them really hit the mark. Some of the ones I’d seen the movie versions of I stuck with longer—such as The Pale Blue Eye, Persuasion, Killers of the Flower Moon—but so far none of the fiction books have stuck. I can’t even get through more than a chapter or two with those before I start to think “I just want to read this…” I’ll keep trying though! My book friend is churning through like fifteen books a month and she says her secret is audiobooks. I need this book reading hack...
- 50 Architecture Ideas You Really Need to Know
- An Opinionated Guide to London Bookshops
- The Travels, Marco Polo
