Chinese American Writers – Equal Opportunity Reader

[REVIEW] Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham

The Kindle cover of Lunar New Year Love Story, depicting a young Asian couple in front of a pinkwashed sunset sky, is propped up in front of a lily plant and surrounded by wooden hearts and wrapped chocolate hearts.

(Buy this book here.) Valentina Tran loves the holiday she’s named after. Every year she makes heart-decorated cards for all her classmates, and an extra special one for her dad, who’s still trying to cope years after his wife’s death. To the disgust of her realistic bestie Bernice, Val maintains a belief in romance soContinue reading “[REVIEW] Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham”

[REVIEW] Chlorine, by Jade Song

The Kindle cover of Chlorine by Jade Song, which depicts a mermaid tail flashing out of view into the water. It's held up by a Black woman's hand in front of a grimy collegiate swimming pool.

(To buy this book, click here.) Ren Yu– daughter of Chinese immigrants, indifferent high school student, favorite pupil of her lecherous coach, unrequited love of teammate Cathy’s budding lesbian life — knows deep down that she’s really always been a mermaid. The Pennsylvania suburbs are a bit far from the beach, but Ren feeds herContinue reading “[REVIEW] Chlorine, by Jade Song”

[REVIEW] Making A Scene, by Constance Wu

The bright red book cover of Making A Scene by Constance Wu, who is depicted in black silhouette. The background is the interior of a non-descript, grimy subway car during a morning commute. A Black woman(Mel's) hand holds the book.

(Pre-order this book!) I’m not really into celebrity culture and I’m not sure I would have read this if Scribner Books hadn’t kindly sent me an ARC. But I’m SO glad they did. What I thought about Constance Wu before reading this: Um…she was good in Crazy Rich Asians I guess. She was the momContinue reading “[REVIEW] Making A Scene, by Constance Wu”

[REVIEW] White Ivy, by Susie Yang

A Black woman's hand holds the ebook of White Ivy up in front of a little island cottage in New England. The cover depicts an Asian woman with her arms wrapped around herself on a black background. The top half of her face is not in the picture.

(Buy it on Bookshop here.) I moved to Boston recently, and as a result I’ve been slurping up books set there. Most of them are not diverse, to put it mildly. White Ivy, a book about a Chinese-American immigrant in the city, was a refreshing surprise. There are a lot of reviews of this byContinue reading “[REVIEW] White Ivy, by Susie Yang”