aweekinthelife's reviews
481 reviews

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

intended to read this as part of the #AsianClassicsReadAlong hosted by @ktlee.writes but december got the best of me and i ended up picking this up only after the readalong finished. 

this is my third Chee of the year and i am impressed with how different each of the books are and the history and voice he gave the main character. the historical research is stunning (and the Comtesse is based on a real person!) but i wasn't as pulled in as I expected to be. i think love stories, even tragic ones, are still not quite my thing. but appreciated the read nonetheless! 

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

everyone saying Hanif Abdurraqib is an auto-buy author who will get you immersed and engrossed in his narration even if you're not that into basketball is telling the truth. i look forward to reading more of his backlist next year. 
very engaging on audio, highly recommend.

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

informative mysterious reflective

4.25

listened to this on audio, which was well done but it took me a little bit to get into the book. i think i personally would've followed some of the initial physics of the first chapter better in print, but maybe the disconnection was also because i started the book while in transit and navigating around a different city. 

once we got into the chapter about the physics of skin and melanin though, I was fully hooked. 

Reading into a New China: Deciphering a Changing Society (变化中的中国) Volume 1, Second Edition by Irene Liu, Duanduan Li

3.5

appreciate that the textbook provides the main passage text in both simplified + traditional but the content about "a changing china" is pretty outdated, even 10 years since the textbooks were first published. the content is also very china specific, but good for learning cultural and societal tidbits. 

pro tip: there's audio recordings available on the publisher website! you just have to fill out a form and the downloads will be available. 

What Does Israel Fear from Palestine? by Raja Shehadeh

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

stumbled upon this one in a bookstore and read the ebook on my phone. provides a lot of context and explanation for how a lot of current narratives have been shaped. a lot of the essays are adapted from speeches, so it feels like the author is sitting down with you to explain his insights and viewpoints. 

But What Will People Say?: Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures by Sahaj Kaur Kohli

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

having followed Brown Girl Therapy for a little bit of time, I was excited to see that she was writing a book! i really appreciate the nuance she brings to understanding the immigrant experience and all that she shares about her own relationships with her parents. she is specific in her own experiences but then is able to bring out insights that she has observed from her time with clients and running Brown Girl Therapy. 

Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

picked up on audio after the National Book Awards. appreciate this ethnographical account of some of the smugglers leading people north to the US border and the complicated reasons people end up in that line of work. 

this is focused on the lives of the smugglers that he gets to know, would be interesting to read a memoir by the author at some point too. 

pairs well with: Everyone Who Is Gone is Here (Jonathan Blitzer)

Silencing Shanghai: Language and Identity in Urban China by Fang Xu

informative slow-paced

4.25

academic investigation into how language policy is shaping the status of the Shanghainese dialect. was a good follow-up to Last Boat out of Shanghai (Helen Zia) where i have the historical development and growth of Shanghai then a leap forward into more modern day. 

the Chinese language class I took this semester was also a China-based curriculum and through the class, I learned about some of these policies and the ways that the Chinese government views things which bolstered my understanding of the context. 

Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung

funny reflective fast-paced

4.25

an interesting piece of the immigrant experience is that what media you know is often based on when your family arrived. i first heard of Connie Chung from Connie Wong's New York Time piece (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/11/opinion/connie-chung-named-after.html). 

now in her late 70s, it was fun to listen to Connie describe her experiences growing up and getting into the news business. there's definitely strategies about the news business that makes me a little uncomfortable, but it is still helpful to think about how the stories that make the news are created. also got me thinking about how Vietnam was the first war Americans experienced on TV and how the current Israeli invasion is the most prominent aggression we are witnessing in real time on social media.

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

started out a little slow for me but really picked up in the second half as i got more invested in the people and Emezi's life. having read a few of Emezi's novels, i appreciated getting to learn about the author outside the novels and how the books intertwined with their life. haven't read freshwater yet, and now that's bumped higher on my list!

alright on audio, but maybe i would've gotten more into it in print.