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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5/4 stars. I can't decide how I feel about this book. I thought the perspective and story were really strong but I found it slow and hard to get into.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
An intriguing start that just didn't go anywhere. It meandered and then sort of sputtered out without really engaging in the core themes.
Told in the voice of her childhood, the author chronicles her life when her parents came to the United States as undocumentated immigrants from China. As I read this book, I had to keep rechecking that the year was 1984 and not 1954. She gives voice to the thousands of children living in our country in similar circumstances. My heart broke from her honesty in tellling her tale. Highly recommended.
Memoirs have long been one of my favorite reading genres. They have the unique ability to take you to places and perspectives that are so different from your own life, all through the pages of a book. While our circumstances and environments can be vastly different, relating with someone else's vulnerabilities is one of the most powerful forms of connection we can have.
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang is an incredibly powerful and detailed account into one families quest for the "American Dream". Wang gave me a new perspective of the Chinese immigrant experience that was both incredible and heartbreaking. Her ability to share this mulitfacted coming of age experience with such honesty and vivid detail is something I will never forget. 4.5/5 stars.
Thank you to Doubleday Books for my gifted review copy. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang is an incredibly powerful and detailed account into one families quest for the "American Dream". Wang gave me a new perspective of the Chinese immigrant experience that was both incredible and heartbreaking. Her ability to share this mulitfacted coming of age experience with such honesty and vivid detail is something I will never forget. 4.5/5 stars.
Thank you to Doubleday Books for my gifted review copy. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I liked this book and think it’s an important story / POV we don’t listen to enough. The US needs to majorly improve our immigration policies and attitudes. I would have liked more of the story to cover her adult years vs all grade school. I appreciate her honesty, she didn’t shy away from her own flaws or that of her family.
A heart wrenching and emotional journey of an undocumented immigrant girl and her family from China. Qian is unflinching in her portrayal of the poverty, fear, hunger and emotional trauma she experiences as a young immigrant girl. Highly recommend this for a unique and introspective memoir.
slow-paced