Home Remediesby Xuan Juliana Wang is a collection of incredibly moving short stories oscillating between depressing, funny, tragic, and cringy.
There is a lot going on in this little book. The short stories in Home Remediesare divided up into three sections: Family, Love, Time and Space. The first story does a great job setting the tone of the book. It’s serious and pulls the reader into the book. There is no way you can put the book down once you start reading.
One of the most impactful scenes in the entire book is a scene on page 89. It made me angry, uncomfortable, and feeling a little gross. Good writers don’t shy away from the tough topics, and Wang dove right into the difficult stuff throughout all of Home Remedies. There is never a moment she doesn’t shy away from the human topics. Life is complex and difficult, and Wang captures these moments in her short stories. It focuses on a generation of people in China and Chinese immigrants.
Wang bridges a gap. Giving a voice and story to people who have had very little representation in the Western world. Wang helps define people as human and not by their culture, skin color, or place of birth. Things may be different on the surface, but deep down humans all have similar desires, feelings, and experiences.
Wang’s debut book, Home Remedies, will be available May 14, 2019, and it’s going to make an impression.
Memorable Quotes “Love could be a burden, too.” “She was keenly aware of time lines, expiration dates of food, the shelf life of flowering plants, and the appropriateness of behavior at any given age.”
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Title: Home Remedies Author: Xuan Juliana Wang Publisher: Hogarth Copyright: 2019 ISBN: 9781984822741
Worth A Read Hell Yes Length 544 Quick Review An intense look into the challenges of emmigrating during the mass exodus from Shanghai in the midst of the communist revolution in China of 1949.
Chinese history – and Asian history for that matter – is so basically covered in the United States. If you want to know about non-white history, you have to educate yourself. It’s Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month; coincidentally, I’ve been reading a lot of books by and about Chinese/Chinese-Americans. Great timing. Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia is a beautiful tribute to the men, women, and children who lived through the exodus from Shanghai.
People were leaving Shanghai in droves during the ‘40s as a reaction to the turmoil going on within the country after the Japanese occupation and the rise of Mao and the communist party. Zia focuses on four people’s lives before, during, and after the exodus in Last Boat Out of Shanghai. Benny, Ho, Bing, and Annua lived very different lives, but they were all affected. Benny was the son of an affluent comprador family. Ho grew up well-off in a large extended family compound. Bing was abandoned, adopted, abandoned, and adopted all during the uproar in China. Annuo grew up with two highly educated and revolutionary parents. Each of these people have their own very interesting tale about struggle and survival. Zia gives them each their own spotlight while intertwining their stories.
I have so much to say about this book, but I would be giving the story away. I have a particular affinity for Annuo because she spent time in Ames, Iowa, and her brother earned a PhD from Iowa State University. Last Boat Out of Shanghaigives an emotional depth to the intense era. China was recovering and reacting from years of difficulty and occupation. Trying to find its way and identity to an ever changing world. Zia begins each person’s story before the communist revolution in their childhoods and follows them through their adolescence and adulthoods after fleeing Shanghai. Their lives began and ended differently, but they all went through the struggle.
I completely consumed this book. I have always had a love for history and the individuals who live and create it. These four people show their extraordinary resilience by surviving. Helen Zia is able to bring a humanity to the stories and history found in Last Boat Out of Shanghai, which was the General Gordon by the way.
Memorable Quotes A message was sent via a photo “If he was standing, all was well. If he was sitting, things were bad. When he finally sent them a picture, he was lying down.”
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Title: Last Boat Out of Shanghai Author: Helen Zia Publisher: Ballantine Books Copyright: 2019 ISBN: 9780345522320
Worth A Read Yes Length 304 Quick Review A Chinese woman arrives in the U.S. to give birth to her baby, but due to circumstance stays to make her way in the face of adversity in Vanessa Hua’s A River of Stars.
Reading books about immigration is important right now. It’s easy to talk about immigrants as a group or an other, but when you’re faced with stories of struggle, despair, children, and the humanity of it all, it’s hard to think of keep them separate from ourselves. The political climate in the U.S. is very …interested in immigration right now. We need these stories. Even though, A River of Starsby Vanessa Hua is a novel, it is very much grounded in reality for millions of men, women, and children living in fear and unknowns here in the U.S. and around the world.
Scarlett is a 37 year old Chinese woman who arrives in the United States to give birth to her bosses baby. She stays at a home for pregnant Chinese women, but it feels more like a prison filled with gossipy, rich ladies. Scarlett runs away with Daisy, a well-off, pregnant, teenage. They end up in San Francisco’s China Town scraping by, giving birth, and figuring it out, while the clock on their tourist visas keeps ticking away. They make friends and learn to lean on one another for help and companionship.
There are four fundamental characters in A River of Stars: Scarlett, Daisy, Boss Yeung, and Mama Fang. Chapters randomly alternate perspective allowing each of these characters to tell their side of the story. It humanizes each of them, and shows their motivations, misunderstandings, feelings, and more. If the story had followed just Scarlett, it would have been vastly different. The immigrant story is not one sided but multifaceted and complicated. Everyone is searching for something, and at the core it is a search for identity and belonging. Hua also makes use of transliterations instead of using just English. The Chinese infusion is a lovely addition to the story because immigration stories usually include a language hurdle. Motherhood is an essential element to this story. Without it, the narrative kind of falls apart. Emigration is often heavily influenced by existing children or future children. Parents want the best for their kids. It’s a fairly fundamental emotion.
Vanessa Hua does a great job of creating an interesting story that is both fun to read and right on the nose for the political climate in her debut novel A River of Stars. It’s perfect for the upcoming summer months.
Memorable Quotes “Daisy didn’t realize that you might share the same bed, but dream different dreams.” “She didn’t yet realize aunties specialize in contradictory advice.”
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Title: A River of Stars Author: Vanessa Hua Publisher: Ballantine Books (Random House) Copyright: 2018 ISBN: 9780399178788
Worth a Read Yes Length 208 Quick Review Work Wifeby Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur explores the unique relationship between female duos as company founders and how these duos are changing the workplace.
Women and men are different. Whether that’s due to nature, nurture, or a combination is up for debate – and not likely to be figured out any time soon. There is one very evident thing, we work and lead differently. Where men tend to compete and fly solo, women tend to support and congregate. Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur are cofounders of the company Of a Kind and cowriters of Work Wifeinspired by their own work wife relationship.
Cerulo and Mazur were college friends long before they began their Work Wifejourney. After moving to NYC and having individual careers, they decided to mesh their passions into one company: Of a Kind. Their friendship was the foundation of their company, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t face all the hurdles every startup faces. Instead of going it alone, they were able to lean on one another and still do to this day. Work Wife chronicles their journey as cofounders, but it also looks to other iconic female duos leading companies of all sorts. They wanted to highlight there is more than one way of being a duo or even a trio in a leadership position. There is no set way of being successful as a female leader but many.
Work Wifetalks about several high profile duos and trios. These women are uber successful in their spheres. If you do any reading about women owned businesses or leadership or friendship, these women will inevitably crop up. I am familiar with all of their names because of this. I think it’s fabulous. Also a little sad that there are so few women in leadership roles, and we have to keep using the same women on repeat. It just proves we can do it, and there is a need for more of us. Obviously.
Cerulo and Mazur approach Work Wifewith humor and friendship. There is a ton of great information, but you can sense their relationship and sense of fun coming through in their words. There is a great amount of admiration for each other. I love the sense of collaboration. There is very little ego; though, they do tackle some of the issue that come with the money and percentage side of things – not so cheery and rainbows. One of the biggest takeaways from Work Wife, which transcends business relationships: How partners talk in meetings is an indicator of their relationship and the health of the business. Are they competing? Or are they supporting, listening, and building off one another. This is such an important thing to take into life and other relationships. You can even see this in how they write the book. They speak in the third person “Claire…” or “Erica…” and then switches back to “we,” which is the guiding force behind the book. They are a united force. Other important topics they touch on for women: how men and women deal with money differently, motherhood, communication, regular meetings with a coach, how things tend to come out in the wash.
The writing seems very them. I don’t know them, but it would be hard to make up that playfulness. They write using the acronyms they undoubtedly use in day to day life. In partnership, it’s important to have a short hand. One thing I found a little redundant was the constant reminder of who each woman was. The other duos and trios of female partnerships are mentioned so consistently, it is hard to forget who they are. I do love that they included a profile and portrait of the duos at the very beginning of the book. I like having faces to go with names.
I want to end on this quote: “Female hysteria may no longer be recognized as a medical condition, but the stereotype – and the reliance on it as a tool to silence and discredit women – persists. Having someone to validate perceptions help eradicate the self-doubt that can ratte even the most confident among us.” It’s a central theme in Work Wife and life. As a woman there is always the fight against centuries and milleniums of oppression and stereotype. It’s been a long battle, but I think we’re starting to make some head way, in great part to the work and openness of women like Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur.
Memorable Quotes “At its core, our friendship was built for two.” “Following your gut is the one hard-and-fast rule of forging a work-wife partnership.”
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Worth a Read Yes Length 256 Quick Review Chelsea Handler’s never been afraid of the truth. In her latest memoir,she sits with personal trauma in a way she has not before. Laugh out loud funny with a serious edge.
I love Chelsea Handler. I have read several of her books and watched her TV show fairly religiously. When I saw she had a new book coming out, I had to have it. Life Will Be the Death of Meis still laugh out loud funny, but she tackles her mental health in a serious way.
Chelsea Handler has made her living making people laugh. I think it’s easier to make people laugh in person than on the page, but I have always been giggling with my nose in her books. Life Will Be the Death of Medeals with death in a serious way. Her brother died when she was very young, and that experience changed her and her family forever. Throughout the book, she talks about her grieving process several decades after his death. She visits a psychiatrist, who helps her work through her issues.
We can be cute. I had to hide a treat in my cleavage….
I love her writing style and voice in Life Will Be the Death of Me. She’s one of those people whose voice shines through anything she touches. It’s probably one of the reasons she is so successful. I think for the first time in her books – I have not read all of them, don’t quote me – she spends more time being serious than being funny. Her honesty and self reflection are brilliant.
She’s not eating the apple. Treat in my hand. She’s eating my hand.
My two favorite parts of Handler’s memoir are this quote: “How can it be that a swab of saliva can determine a dog’s genetic heritage yet there isn’t a more precise way to determine the age of a dog at this juncture in modern society?” We are both rescue dog moms. As the proud mama of a rescue dog, I identify this on a very deep level. I wish I knew the age of my dog, but I do not. Also one running theme throughout Life Will be the Death of Me is her anger towards Trump. There is a lot, a LOT of anger being funneled in his direction, and I love it. I personally think almost all evil is his fault, at this point in time. Darth Cheeto sucks donkey balls.
If you want some laughs and some insight. I say check out Chelsea Handler’s latest book Life Will Be the Death of Me. If nothing else, you’ll giggle a few times, and there are really cute pictures of her dogs and family.
Memorable Quotes “Having an older brother is a lot like a crush – in fact, it is a crush.” “No person is just one thing.”
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Title: Life Will Be the Death of Me Author: Chelsea Handler Publisher: Spiegel & Grau Copyright: 2019 ISBN: 9780525511779
Worth a Read Yes Length 336 Quick Review Ayelet Tsabari was born and raised a Yemeni Jew in Israel. The death of her father was a catalyst leading her into a transient lifestyle always leaving for her next “home.”
The Art of Leavingis an apt title for this moving and sometimes cringe worthy memoir. What can be seen as a memoir about leaving people and places can also be read as a search for belonging, home, and being seen. People yearn to belong to someone, somewhere. Ayelet documents her life of wandering around the United States, loving, gaining citizenship in Canada, roaming Southeast Asia, returning to Israel, becoming a mother. She is not only leaving people and places, she’s leaving herself. The parts she doesn’t like, the parts she doesn’t want in her narrative, the parts that other people have forced upon her. Tsabari yearns to belong in the world and in her own skin.
Tsabari grew up in the Tel Aviv area of Israel. She was the daughter of a beloved lawyer and the second youngest in a large family. At the tender age of ten, her father passed away. She spent her adolescence rebelling and searching for an identity while simultaneously flaunting and avoiding the stereotypes hounding her as a Yemeni and a woman. She joined the army as all Israelis do; instead of being a good soldier, Tsabari pushed all the boundaries and buttons (literally). After completing her time, she left. Exploring life in foreign lands, she did what many young people do: experiment in many ways. At one point landing on a beach in Goa, India, she didn’t even own shoes.
I had no idea about the racism in Israel towards people of Yemeni heritage. The Art of Leavinggreatly opened my eyes to a culture and country I know very little of. The plight of Yemenis in Israel is reminiscent of the treatment of blacks in the United States; different, of course, but similar. Tsabari references childhood bomb shelters and gas masks like they were as every day as an ice cream and a swing set. Maybe, they were.
Tsabari touches briefly on the irony of her very Jewish urge to wander and find a home when her home is Israel in The Art of Leaving. Jewish people wandered for centuries searching for a place to call home with no success. She wanders with the same yearning of her ancestors. She looks for a home for her body and a home for her soul.
I loved how Tsabari writes her memoir. It is very much in the present even though the events are in the past. The syntax and tense pull the reader into her life, identity, and crisis of being. There is a transparency between herself and the reader. She has no qualms about looking back into her diary and stating she wrote a story she could live with. Human. Reshaping stories and lives to fit in a pretty box. Her narrative was not the only narrative reshaped with years and in memories. Her great-grandmother was demonized and hated. Life is rarely as simple as walking away. Life and stories are complex and layered. Many of Tsabari’s life choices are questionable at best and downright stupid at worst. That’s the point. We all make choices in moments without thinking or ignoring what should be done. Tsabari took her own path and doesn’t apologize for it. I always admire the unapologetic even when I want to save them from their mistakes, which you can’t do. Saving people doesn’t really exist.
The Art of Leavingis a very personal, unique, and beautiful memoir. Even though she grew up under very unique circumstances, her story is very relatable. Many people wander with the need to find home.
Plot hole question: What happened to your feet??? I need to know!
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Memorable Quotes “…they are proof that you don’t have to stop traveling to grow up.” “Leaving is the only thing I know how to do.” “Stories to her were luxuries, like dreams and regret.” “I never feel that much anymore, which I suppose is the trade-off for not falling apart.” “I didn’t want to become someone else. I wanted to be me.” (Motherhood)
Title: The Art of Leaving Author: Ayelet Tsabari Publisher: Random House Copyright: 2019 ISBN: 9780812988987
