2023 Year In Review

Wow, it's hard to believe that we are already at the end of another year!  Time certainly seems to fly by faster than anticipated!😊

The last couple weeks of the year have been particularly busy for me.  In addition to the usual exercise of reflecting on the past year, tying up loose ends, and preparing this year end reading recap, I’ve also been busy trying to stay ahead on my assignments for school, which started back in September (I’m working on an MA in English Literature so there is quite a bit of academic reading and writing involved).  While I love the back-to-school experience so far (especially the part where I get to read and learn about so many different things), the downside is that, now having to juggle the demands of work, school, and family, I’m left with much less time for “leisure” reading.  Indeed, when I look back at my reading year for 2023, one of the first things I notice is how few books I read in the last few months of the year that weren’t related to my studies in some way.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing of course, since I’m still reading a ton, plus I’m finally getting to some backlist titles that have been on my TBR (and my bookshelves) for years.  Another thing that I did more of this year is re-reading – this was mostly out of necessity, as a few of the novels for my classes were classics that I last read 20+ years ago, so I had to re-read in order to refresh my memory.  Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against re-reading and would actually love nothing more than to engage in re-reading more often, except for the fact that there are just way too many books out there that I haven’t yet read (and want to read) and there just isn’t enough time in the day for me to get to everything.  This last point is something I’m particularly aware of this year given all the 2023 new releases that, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find time to squeeze in (more on this later).

I actually decided to do this recap differently this year, since my reading has been a bit all over the place, especially in the latter part of the year.  Instead of recapping a list of “favorites” based on star ratings, I am going to list out books I read based on categories.  This year specifically, I found myself struggling more than past years to rate books according to the traditional star rating system.  To be honest, I have never really been fond of ratings systems because I feel they are too arbitrary and limited in scope, which renders them ineffective in painting an accurate picture of a particular experience.  As such, assigning ratings becomes even more of a challenge for people like me who prioritize “the reading experience” (basically, how a book made me feel) over the technical elements (such as writing style, pacing, plot, etc.).  For instance, I may have a book that is brilliantly written, nails all the technical elements to near perfection, is widely read and beloved, and from a literary/scholarship perspective, absolutely blows me away, however I find all the characters in the story to be exceedingly unlikable to the point that I can’t bring myself to root for anyone -- so overall, the reading experience for me was unpleasant / frustrating / miserable.   What would be the “fairest” way to rate such a book?  On the one hand, giving it a low rating would appear to signal that I dislike the book or that I’m discounting its literary merit (neither of which is my intention), while on the other hand, giving it a high rating would appear to delegitimize my own feelings and experience with the book (which also is not my intention).  After much agonizing, I eventually chose the “happy medium” rating (though with the caveat to read the actual review rather than go off the rating alone).  All this is to say that a reader’s experience of a book can be shaped in a myriad of ways that can’t be simply explained on a 1-5 rating scale. 

So for the purposes of this post, I am going to ditch the ratings!  Instead, I’m going to focus on whether I fulfilled my reading goals this year as well as what my reading experience was like overall.  In terms of the reading log stats that I usually include in these year-end posts, I will still include some stats in my write up below, but I won’t be doing screencaps of each section as I’ve done in the past.

Ok, so let’s get to it…

At the start of the year, my reading goals for 2023 were as follows:

-       Read as many books as possible from my own shelves:  Based on my reading log, out of the 57 books I read this year, 25 of them were books I own.  While it’s true that some of these books were newly bought this year, quite a few were ones I already had sitting on my shelves but never got to them – book club and school gave me a chance to finally pick these up.  So yes, I would count this goal as met.

-        Work through my list of backlist “must-read” books:  I read 16 backlist books this year, which is the most backlist I’ve read in a single year since I started tracking my reading 6 years ago.  A large part of this was due to school, since most of the books I’ve had to read for my classes were written years ago.  No doubt this will continue to be the case in 2024 with the rest of my classes focusing on the classics.

-        Read widely and diversely:  To be honest, I’m cheating a little in making this a goal, since, as a person of color myself, I’ve always made it a priority to support POC and other authors from marginalized groups.  In past years, a little over a third of the books I read would by POC/marginalized authors, but this year, I exceeded that:  out of the 57 books I read this year, 30 were by POC / marginalized authors.  Of course I intend to continue this reading habit in the coming year.

-        Re-start my “completist” project:  This is a carry-over project from 2022 wherein I wanted to read all the books written by my favorite authors.  The goal was to finish at least 1 author on my favorites list each year.  Unfortunately, I have not made any progress on this goal, so it will continue to be a carry-over for next year (though if I’m being honest, based on all the reading I’ve got lined up for 2024 so far, most likely this is going to continue to carry over into subsequent years).

-        Incorporate books about Writing into my reading schedule:  This one is also an ongoing goal for me.  In terms of stats, I was able to read 2 books that were specifically about the craft of writing this year.  However, this doesn’t count all the writing / craft stuff I’m involved with for my classes, which in a way, offsets not being able to read actual books about writing.  With that said, I still intend to continue this goal, but like my completist project, it will likely be carried over to subsequent years.

 

Now for the actual book lists.  I tried to separate the books I read into categories that give an overall idea of what my reading life was like this past year.  Some of these books were indeed “favorites” that I adored, while others were ones I appreciated but didn’t necessarily love.  If you’re interested in my specific thoughts on each of these books, feel free to check out the reviews for more details. [Note that the below are not listed in any particular order].

 

1)     Classics that I read/re-read for School:

-        Emma by Jane Austen

-        Persuasion by Jane Austen

-        Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

-        The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

-        The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan

-        Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

-        Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

 

2)     New 2023 Releases by Favorite Authors:

-        Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

-        The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

-        Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

-        Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

-        Watch Us Shine by Marisa de los Santos

-        No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

-        The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton

-        Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

 

3)     2023 Releases I Read and LOVED (Fiction and Nonfiction):

-        The Porcelain Moon by Janie Chang

-        Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

-        The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

-        Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

-        Good Fortune by C.K. Chau

-        The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

-        The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

-        A Man of Two Faces by Viet Thanh Nguyen

-         

4)     Other Notable 2023 Fiction Releases I Read and Enjoyed:

-        A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo

-        The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges

-        Paper Names by Susie Luo

-        Community Board by Tara Conklin

-        A Quitter’s Paradise by Elysha Chang

-        The Sorrows of Others by Ada Zhang

-        The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

-        The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

-        The Golden Gate by Amy Chua

-        Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

-        Tomb Sweeping by Alexandra Chang

 

5)     Backlist Books I Read in 2023 (and ADORED):

-        A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

-        Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

 

6)     Notable Nonfiction Reads (New & Backlist):

-        The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner

-        The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

-        The Writing Life by Annie Dillard

 

7)     Book Club Picks I Enjoyed (New & Backlist)

-        The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

-        Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

-        Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett

-        Fault Lines by Emily Itami

-        Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

-        Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul

-        Talking at Night by Claire Daverley

-        Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

-        The Postcard by Anne Berest

-        Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

 

8)     2024 Releases I Read and LOVED:

-        Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung

-        The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Review: Good Bad Girl (by Alice Feeney)



My Rating:  3.5 stars

 

Having read all of Alice Feeney's previous books, I of course couldn't pass up her latest, Good Bad Girl, even if it already came out several months ago.  Ever since I read Feeney's debut Sometimes I Lie (which blew me away) back in 2017, she has been a "good-to" author of sorts for me when it comes to the thriller/suspense genre.  With that said though, her books since that debut have been somewhat of a hit or miss for me – only one has gotten close to the level of her debut in terms of story and ending "twist" (that would be 2021's Rock Paper Scissors); the rest were al largely enjoyable (and all were very well-written), but didn't grab my attention like the aforementioned two did.  For me, Feeney's latest book falls into the latter category – definitely not her best work, but not her worst either.

 

As this is a thriller where you want to go in knowing as little as possible, all I'm going to say about the plot is that the premise revolves around a "mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim."  While I'm not necessarily sure that I agree with this premise now having finished the book (the "explanation" of this in the story was a little bit of a stretch in my opinion), I guess it does work to describe the plot overall.  Speaking of the plot – this is one of those "slow-burn" stories told from the alternating perspectives of multiple characters, which adds some complexity, but the plot also meanders in places, which made it harder to maintain my attention at points. 

 

To be honest, this one didn't really feel like a thriller/suspense novel to me, at least not in the same vein as Feeney's earlier works that were chockful of twists and turns and usually had me at the edge of my seat anticipating what would come next.  Instead, this one seemed to focus more on the complexities of mother/daughter relationships as well as the notion that each person has both good and bad qualities that motivate our actions – while I appreciated these insights (and in any other book, probably would've liked to see these ideas explored more), I felt like it waxed a little too philosophical and ended up bogging the story down a little.   Perhaps this is also why the ending felt somewhat anticlimactic to me (though it could also be that I had already figured out how the different threads would come together by that point).

 

I would say that overall, this was enjoyable and I'm glad I read it, even though it didn't have all the twists and turns that I usually expect from Feeney's thriller/suspense novels.  The writing, as usual, is good though -- Feeney writes in a way that is smooth, flows well, and not choppy – which is why I like reading her books even if I'm not necessarily keen on the story.  I continue to look forward to her next book and will definitely read it whenever it comes out.

Review: Daughters of Shandong (by Eve J. Chung)

My Rating:  5 stars

This incredible debut by Taiwanese-American lawyer Eve J. Chung doesn't come out until May 2024, but I was able to get an advance copy and boy am I glad I did.  Inspired by her family's history, Chung weaves the fictional story of Li-Hai, the eldest of four daughters from the Ang family, wealthy landowners in the small rural town of Zhucheng in Shandong, China. The year is 1948 and even though World War II has officially ended, China is caught up in its own civil war between the current ruling party, the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists led by Mao Zedong.  In a country still steeped in the Confucian ideal of "zhong nan qing nu" ("value men, belittle women"), Hai's mother Chiang-Yue is treated worse than a servant in the Ang household due to her inability to produce a male heir (to say that Yue is "mistreated" is an understatement —  in addition to suffering constant physical and verbal abuse at the hands of her mother-in-law, her husband also neglects her and never speaks up for her).  In the eyes of the Ang elders, Hai and her sisters, being daughters, are considered "disappointments" and "useless mouths to feed" (their grandmother Nai Nai has no qualms about telling them to their faces that they are better off dead  so the family doesn't have to waste money on them anymore) — which is why, when the Communist army invades the town and the family is forced to flee, they decide to leave mother and daughters behind.  Abandoned and left to fend for themselves, Yue and her daughters become destitute and penniless after the Communists seize their home and kick them out.  Worse yet, in the absence of any Ang family males, Hai, as the eldest daughter at 13 years old, is chosen to answer for her father's and grandfather's "crimes" and is subsequently tortured to near death.  With the help of former workers whom Yue had always treated kindly, mother and daughters escape to the city of Qingdao, where they hoped to reunited with the rest of the family. They survive the arduous journey to Qingdao, only to find out that the family actually relocated to Taiwan (where Chiang Kai-shek re-established the Nationalist base after fleeing China).  Abandoned once again, the Ang women figure out a way to overcome the many obstacles they face, including  enduring a thousand mile journey to Hong Kong and eventually finding their family in Taiwan.  

The story is narrated in the first person from Hai's perspective, which was the perfect narrative structure in this case because it made the experience more immersive and personal.  In her Author's Note (which is not to be missed), Chung explains the inspiration for the story, which was originally going to be a biography of sorts about her maternal grandmother, whom she had stayed with in Taiwan as a child.  But after her grandmother died, she realized there were too many gaps in her grandmother's life that she knew nothing about and regrettably had never asked, so she pivoted to turning the family history she was planning to write into a fictional story using the notes and interviews that she and her mother had already gathered.  Basing the character of Hai on her maternal grandmother, Chung was able to fill in the gaps of her own family history, but more than that, for us readers, she delivered a beautifully-written story about a family of women who survive devastating heartbreak and hardship to resiliently rise above the entrenched cultural norms that bind them to inferiority within their society. 

As a Chinese daughter myself, I resonated deeply with Hai and many of the struggles she went through in trying to reconcile her identity with her culture.  While I didn't share all of the experiences she went through, I did grow up under the same Chinese culture, so I was familiar with many of the antiquated traditions as well as the historical context in the story. Even with this familiarity, I have to admit that many of the scenes involving Hai's POS (pardon my French) father and grandmother and their horrible treatment of the mothers and daughters in the family were hard to read. With that said though, this is actually where Chung's story stands out from many of the other historical novels that revolve around Chinese culture and tradition — I appreciated the way that she succinctly and clearly lays out the facts of how women were treated during that time without mincing words.  More than any other novel I've read in recent years (specifically ones written in contemporary times), this one does a great job exploring the internal battle that many of the women who grow up in these restrictive cultures face — despite understanding the injustices they suffer, they've internalized what they've been taught to the extent that it not only becomes a "normal" part of who they are, they also oftentimes end up perpetuating these same injustices (whether intentionally or unintentionally) onto future generations. To this point, there were many thought-provoking quotes throughout the book (which I of course marked up), but the following excerpt stood out to me the most.  In this scene, Hai (as an adult now) gets into an argument with her mother, who finally, after many years, gives birth to a son, Ming, to carry on the Ang family name (though ironically, this doesn't alleviate the poor treatment that the mother continues to endure because the mother-in-law is already used to abusing her); Hai sees her mother giving her baby brother Ming a bottle of milk while she only gives her other daughter Hua (who was born right before Ming) a bottle of rice water — Hai is livid that her mother would continue to perpetuate the "preferential treatment of boys over girls" tradition after everything they suffered the past couple years precisely because they weren't sons:  "…Mom began to weep. "Hai, Ming is the only one who will support us when we are old. The only one who can care for us in the afterlife. I love Hua and all my other daughters, but I have a duty, as a wife, to make sure Ming grows up well. When you have your own son, you will understand." She cried because she thought I was judging her unfairly, without realizing that her words had cut me deep. Mom hadn't said it explicitly, but I heard it loud and clear: All of us girls were worth less than Ming. She loved us less than Ming. Yet Mom was confused by my anger, and oblivious to my pain. To her, the ancient traditions centering the son were our pillar, entwined in our religion, inseparable from our existence on this earth. Telling her I was hurt would be like saying I was offended by the typhoon that tore through Mount Davis. In her mind, these injustices were part of being a woman, and bearing them was simply our fate. Men made the rules in our society, but women often enforced them. Was there something about having a son that transformed us? Was that why Nai Nai was so wretched? Was that going to be me as a mother? I didn't want it to be. After what I had been through, how could I fall into that same pattern?" Arriving at this understanding becomes tremendously important for the characters in the story, which I won't get into here (you will need to read this one to find out more).

Needless to say, this is a book I highly recommend, but with the understanding that it definitely won't be an easy read.  As with most stories about the travesties of war, this one has brutal scenes as it follows the harrowing journey of the Ang women through several generations, but the payoff at the end is well worth the read.  This story (and its characters) is not one that I will forget anytime soon!

Received ARC from Berkley / Penguin Random House via BookBrowse First Impressions program.

Review: The Upstairs Delicatessen (by Dwight Garner)

My Rating: 4 stars

This interesting memoir from New York Times book critic Dwight Garner came out last month and while it initially wasn't on my radar at all, I decided to pick it up when I saw what the book was about: reading and eating (perfect timing for Thanksgiving!). In this memoir, Garner writes about his "upstairs delicatessen" (a term borrowed from critic Seymour Krim) which refers to his memories involving his two lifelong passions — "reading about eating" and "eating while reading" (what a fantastic title/subtitle!!). Divided into 5 chapters (aptly titled Breakfast, Lunch, Shopping, Drinking, Dinner) plus an Introduction and Interlude, Garner writes enthusiastically about his experiences with his "twin joys" of reading and eating, but more than that, he also compiles for us a full-to-the-brim cornucopia of food (and eating) references and quotes from his broad range of reading over the years (his reading runs the gamut from books, poems, short story collections, essays, magazine and newspaper articles, etc.). Some of the writers and works he mentions are well-known, others I've honestly never heard of, but regardless of whether I was familiar with the works or not, it was still a lot of fun to read.

Literary references aside though, I also enjoyed reading about Garner's life and his "food adventures" growing up in West Virginia and Florida. I found the section where he talks about his relationship with his wife Cree especially fascinating given their completely opposite food-related backgrounds — she comes from a family of "food connoisseurs" (chefs and restaurant owners) who were all about fresh ingredients and growing their own food (he mentions that his wife grew up bringing leftover frog legs to school for lunch), while he comes from a working class family that pretty much ate whatever they found around the house (i.e.: bread laden with mayonnaise and cheese slices, potato chips, some red drink from powder mix, etc.). Despite these differences, their relationship not only works, but thrives — Garner relays their family's "quirkiness" in relation to food with such affection and humor, which I really appreciated.

Overall, this was a fun, delightful read that I highly recommend — though words of warning that some of the food that Garner describes as having eaten might make you feel queasy (personally, I will admit to feeling a tad grossed out when I read about the famous "peanut butter and pickle sandwich" that Garner describes his dad making for him, but that's mainly because I dislike pickles). With that said, the sheer volume of food-related anecdotes that he gathers in here is impressive, so if anything, picking this one up for those nuggets alone was well worth my while.