Thu's Top Ten Books of 2018
Since I started working at Brazos Bookstore in August 2017, I have read over 100 books by Asian and Asian-American authors. I counted them all on my shelf, and around the 100 mark I stopped counting. At one point, I even speculated whether this was a form of racism.
In August, I saw the movie Crazy Rich Asians 4 times. I was in that camp of heartwrenched and teary Asians, and it astonished me. I was in awe of portrayals of friendship, family, love, fuck ups, silliness, courage, deceit, confidence, pride, and shame through characters that I could identify with, characters that resembled me. I wondered whether other people, upon seeing themselves in books and movies, felt the same as me.
I think representation matters. Everyone, regardless of their skin color, cultural background, sexual orientation, gender, or whatever, deserves to have a vast range of stories, to share their stories, and break away from stereotypes. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t put everything on here, but I am incredibly proud of these authors, their stories, and what this means for the future of literature. Season's readings!
This powerful anthology was my introduction and gateway to some of my favorite Asian voices like Alexander Chee, Esmé Weijun Wang, and Jason Koo. My favorite story is Fariha Róisín’s "Meet a Muslim". Go Home’s daring and diverse collection of stories feel so real and transform the concept of home and turn it upside down.
How often do we get to grow along with and spend the greater part of our lives with another person? Does persistence and proximity pull us closer? Would creating and nurturing something together help us anticipate and strengthen our bonds? Can loss and change define relationships? Aja Gabel’s The Ensemble affords us this rare opportunity to witness bonds that surpass time and what defines and strengthens them through the lives of Jana, Henry, Brit, and Daniel, who form the Van Ness String Quartet.
Marcine is obsessed with the Japanese theory of sanpaku, where seeing the white around the irises is the sign of a terrible fate. Sanpaku has everything that would pull me towards a book: set in my hometown of Houston, tantalizing depictions of food, by an Asian author about Asians. But aside from the details, what makes Sanpaku so special and what keeps me coming back to it is Marcine’s connection to her late lola, the lengths she takes to compensate for it after her death, and fully realizing the space your loved ones and their memories occupy in your heart. A gorgeous and quirky coming-of-age graphic novel that tackles love, family, and self-realization. Read my interview with Kate here!
Hiromi Kawakami’s Strange Weather in Tokyo is not quite your typical love story. A treat for fans of Haruki Murakami’s love stories (i.e., Norwegian Wood), SWT thoughtfully renders humanism where Murakami’s other-worldly characters miss. In addition, read it for the vivid Tokyo cityscape and drool-worthy Japanese meals.
R.O. Kwon surpasses the impossibility that plagues most holiday gatherings by bridging the spectrum of faith and belief in this alluring novel about three strangers from troubled pasts who become tangled with a religious cult with secret ties to North Korea. Apart from being the hottest book of 2018, The Incendiaries has been reviewed and raved about by everyone. It’s that good! Read my interview with Reese here!
Two reads, interview, and a panel discussion later, Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant is the one that did it for me and for the record is my ‘Number One Favorite Book’ of 2018. A rich and heartfelt story about a Chinese restaurant and the colorful lives of the people who breathe life into it, Li’s intention and brilliance shine through every page and gives me hope for the future of Asian and Asian-American stories. Read my interview with Lillian here!
Yan Lianke is one of China’s most prolific and banned authors, and his newest novel The Day the Sun Died is a dystopian Chinese allegory meets The Walking Dead. Sharp and sinister, all of the villagers in a small town begin to dreamwalk as if carrying on with their daily lives and eventually meet exhaustive deaths. A young narrator and his parents, proprietors of a funerary service, desperately try to save the town.
For 18 years, fluorescent lighting, beeps and chimes, ebb and flow, and even the food of the convenience store courses through Keiko’s veins. The convenience store provides for her and it’s the life she knows. But when this life clashes with her family’s wishes for her to meet society’s standards, she is resigned to conform. An entertaining and refreshing critique on the pressures of society.
Akutagawa Prize-winning author Masatsugu Ono’s Lion Cross Point is part Japanese ghost story and a young boy’s reconciliation and catharsis from unspeakable brutality and abuse. 10-year-old Takeru casts a gentle and pure lens to heartless and dark places from his memories. In this eerie and breathtaking novel, the reader’s path teeters on the verge of hope and hopelessness.
What do we know about the unnamed narrator in Weike Wang’s Chemistry? She has roughly a year to finishing her Ph.D. in chemistry (and fulfilling her parents dreams), her boyfriend Eric proposed (twice), but all she can think is how she’s not up to the task. Hilarious, smart, penetrating, and poignant, Wang’s narrator is brilliant albeit lacking in social skills whose relentless and polarizing sensibilities makes her the greatest unsung hero. I love this book!
