Cracking open the angst of reclaiming culture, history, and identity in “Portrait of a Thief”

Chinese American students plotting an art heist made me think of the Beijing 2022 Olympic diaspora geopolitics.

I should start off with an apology to Grace D. Li, the author of Portrait of a Thief. Her upcoming debut novel, out this April, didn’t ask to be over-analyzed by a book blogger with too many thoughts and too little education, but that’s what the internet is for. Portrait of a Thief is one of the new books from Tiny Reparations Books, the publishing imprint under Penguin Random House founded by comedian Phoebe Robinson. Pitched as a modern and flashy art heist, “Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell,” and it already has a bit of buzz, including a Netflix deal. I really enjoyed reading it; I’m excited to recommend it to anyone who walks in the store and I already have thoughts on who Netflix should cast (Mark Tuan as Will Chen, please!) That said, I read it throughout the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and kept noticing similar themes, intentional or not, that complicated both representations of what it means to be Chinese.

“Ain’t Burned All the Bright” is the coolest book I have ever seen

Seeing and reading a book as a physical object, as art.

This is going to be a shorter “review” because I don’t really know how to put into words what I’m thinking. I’m mostly just holding Ain’t Burned All the Bright, the newest young adult book written by Jason Reynolds and artwork by Jason Griffin, turning it over in my hands and marveling at it. It’s a book: weighty and dense in your hands. It’s art: from the dust jacket to the hard covers, to each page heavy with photos of mixed-media pages. It’s a poem: all of the words written in “three longggggggg sentences” broken up into acts by breaths. Put together it’s an indescribable artifact of media that tells a story of “the strangest year of our lives.”

What I read in 2021

This year I started to use The Story Graph to keep track of what I read, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a really, really good Goodreads alternative since it does a lot of the same things but more user friendly (and not owned by Amazon.) I don’t really engage in all of the reviews, ratings, challenges, or social parts, but it’s a great way to keep track of books I read, want to read, and am currently in the middle of reading. All of the basic features are free, so it’s definitely worth it! Anyways, in no particular order here’s what I read in 2021.

“K-pop Confidential” is for those in the know

Flashy and achingly hip, this insider take on K-pop trainee life is def for the dedicated.

Months ago I got an excited message from a coworker saying she ordered copies of the upcoming K-pop YA novel K-pop Confidential by Stephan Lee for our bookstore, but really specifically for me. I’ve established myself as the K-pop bookseller at work and that means I absolutely had to read K-pop Confidential as soon as possible. But once I started reading I had the same feeling that I get when I hear a new comeback song I’m not sure about: do I actually like it, or am I just a devoted fan? Both?

Getting your fairy tale ending in “You Should See Me In a Crown”

Finding Black queer joy in the chaotic world of high school prom season.

Prom can mean a lot of things to different people; for me, it means indifference and some nice photos taken in my backyard. But that doesn’t mean I’m indifferent to the fun of YA prom: the friends, the date, the outfits. Prom stories are popular because they encapsulate so much of the quintessential American high school experience full of drama and traditions that in hindsight may not have aged well by 2020. So what could challenging those traditions look like? I think a glimpse at what new YA fairy tales should be lies in Leah Johnson’s debut novel, You Should See Me in A Crown.

Following your dreams and finding what makes you sing in “Shine”

“Shine” is about being true to yourself, your dreams, and the people important to you. Reading into the book for dirt on the K-pop industry or Jung’s past is ultimately a disservice to her as a writer and the book she wrote. 

Last summer, poet and author Ocean Vuong came to speak at Harvard Book Store about his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. During his talk he spoke about the trap of autobiographical fiction, the thing that happens when an author writes a book heavily based off their life experiences, but the story and actual events may or may not be true. Even though it’s a fictional story and characters, because it so closely resembles the author’s real life readers will automatically use the story to make assumptions about the author. This was the case for many Asian American writers including Vuong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, and I expect will repeat itself for Jessica Jung, former K-pop idol and debut young adult author of Shine.

Apartment Book Club Round 1

About a year ago my roommates and I decided to start a book club together. I don’t remember who or what prompted it, but the rules were simple: each person picks a book, we draw the titles out of a jar, and then after about a month or so we’ll go out to dinner and discuss it. 

The four of us have somewhat similar tastes in what we like to read: fiction, YA, fantasy, fun tropes, magic. But we chose books new to all of us and each pick could vary wildly in how much others like it. Sometimes we’ll choose books from our TBR lists, other’s recommendations, or if we heard enough good things about it. It’s an interesting mix, and the books from Round 1 definitely felt like a grab-bag of miscellany, but that’s what makes our book club fun.

OMG can you believe “Anna K”? Because I’m not sure I can

Perfect for fans of “Crazy Rich Asians” and not just because both books feature attractive young Asian people with too much money.

I know it’s unpopular to pitch new things––books, movies, TV shows, etc––relative to how it’s alike to other already popular things. It’s not fair to say that every new magical book series for kids is the “next Harry Potter” when really the only thing in common is some magic wands. I get that. However. Jenny Lee’s YA debut book, Anna K really is the next Crazy Rich Asians (but teenagers).