Essays, Short Stories, and a Fantasy: Sunday Salon

 In my mailbox

I requested this book because of its use of Japanese mythology in its storytelling.

The Lost Souls of Benzaiten

by Kelly Murashige Pub Date Jul 23 2024

Soho Press, Soho Teen, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Teens and YA, OwnVoices

Description

This heartfelt and quirky young adult fantasy debut follows a young outcast on a journey of transformation . . . into a robot vacuum cleaner.

A fresh twist on Japanese mythology that doubles as a deep, honest dive into mental health.

“I wish to become one of those round vacuum cleaner robots.” That’s what Machi prays for at the altar of Japanese goddess Benzaiten. Ever since her two best friends decided they want nothing to do with her, Machi hasn’t been able to speak. After months of online school and a carousel of therapists, she can no longer see the point of being human. She doesn’t expect Benzaiten to hear her prayer, much less offer a different prayer on Machi’s behalf—that Machi  discover the beauty of humanity, ultimately restoring her to her previous self.

From an author to watch, The Lost Souls of Benzaiten is a highly original debut about the nature of happiness and the potential for healing.

Thanks to Soho Press for a review copy of this book.

Ebook Downloads

The cover and the title grabbed me. Besides, I wanted to read more short stories from a woman's point of view.

Miss Kim Knows

And Other Stories

by Cho Nam-joo, Jamie Chang (translator)

October 29, 2024; Liveright, NetGalley

Description

From the international best-selling author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, a collection exploring the intimacies of contemporary Korean womanhood.

A woman is born. A woman is filmed in public without consent. A woman suffers domestic violence. A woman is gaslit. A woman is discriminated against at work. A woman grows old. A woman becomes famous. A woman is hated, and loved, and then hated again.

Miss Kim Knows follows eight women, ranging from preteens to octogenarians, as they confront how gender shapes and orders their lives. “Despite her characters’ hardship and disappointments, there is mischief and glee to be found in these pages” (Hephzibah Anderson, Observer), resulting in another riveting read from an essential voice in world literature.

Collection of Essays

Dancing on My Own

Essays on Art, Collectivity, and Joy

by Simon Wu

Published June 25, 2024; Harper

Description

An essay collection on the aesthetics of class aspiration, creating art and fashion, and the limits of identity politics by emerging art critic and curator Simon Wu

Some interesting and revealing quotes from the essays about being artistic, and being an immigrant:

"...we had chosen to follow our passions into precarious creative professions where few others looked like us and our parents could offer little help. Children of immigrants who pursue creative careers often contend with the perceived opportunity cost of endangering the economic foothold their parents carved out for them." (from "For Everyone")

Simon Wu is a curator and writer involved in collaborative art production and research, and is currently in the PhD program in history of art at Yale University. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Myanmar. 

 What are you reading/watching this week?  

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

Sunday Salon: A Theory of Everything Else: Essays by Laura Pedersen

Re-reading

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

March 26, 2019, Penguin

This, for a book club meeting early August. A reader on FB admitted to reading the novel four times!  I might go for three, but I doubt four times!

Books to be finished

I have too many of these. I must be having attention deficit when it comes to reading, as I'm tempted by new Netgalley and Kindle Unlimited books very quickly. And I'm not always in the mood for a specific genre. How about you?

In the mail 

A Theory of Everything Else: Essays by Laura Pedersen

She Writes Press (September 1, 2020)

In A Theory of Everything Else, Pedersen vividly demonstrates how life can appear to grind us down while it’s actually polishing us up―and why everyone wants to live a long time but no one wants to grow old. (publisher)

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Book Review: My Chinese-America: Essays by Allen Gee

First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted weekly by Bibliophile by the Sea. Share the first paragraph of your current read. Also visit Teaser Tuesday at A Daily Rhythm.

My Chinese-America:Essays by Allen Gee
Published April 1, 2015; Santa Fe Writers Project
Genre: literary essays

Book description:
In the first collection of essays by A Chinese-American male to be published in over a decade, Allen Gee writes about aspects of Asian American life in a detailed, eloquent manner, looking at how Asian-Americans view themselves in light of America’s insensitivities, stereotypes, and expectations. My Chinese-America speaks on masculinity, identity, and topics ranging from Jeremy Lin and immigration to profiling and Asian silences. 
The essays have an intimacy that transcends cultural boundaries, and casts light on a vital part of American culture that surrounds and influences all of us. (publisher)

My comments: 
I was both amazed and delighted at the frankness of some of the essays on the subject of Chinese-Americans in the U.S. Allen Gee is forthright and honest about some of his experiences and observations, yet he also shows how in touch he is with ordinary American life and how he lives it every day with his American wife and children, and his American creative writing students at Georgia College. 

His topics range from racial stereotyping of Asians to his practice of non-violence in dealing with physical and emotional challenges in his daily life. He shows himself also as a hunter and fisherman, in tune with his surroundings and American life,  but also in touch with the perceptions of other minorities and ethnic groups in a multi-cultural country. 

This collection of essays is frank in its assessments and also eye opening for those who are interested in the point of view of a group in American society who are often seen as silent, nerdy, possibly weak except in the area of academics. It shows many sides of the Chinese-American experience, and especially the one experienced by Allen Gee. 

Objective rating: 4.5/5

First paragraph, first chapter:

In mid-July during a summer when I wanted to remain in only one place, my mother called from upstate New York and asked. Won't you visit? You aren't going to miss your father's sixtieth birthday, are you? And what about Matthew? she reminded me, speaking of her first grandchild - my nephew- who was almost nine months old. You should see him now. He's trying to walk, and you should hear hin laugh. Can't you leave work for a while? Hers was a selfless voice that strove to weave connections, that valued community and the continuity of tradition. 

About Allen Gee
I grew up largely in Albany, NY, but spent a lot of time in NYC, visiting family there. I attended the University of New Hampshire, then the Iowa Writers Workshop, and finally, the University of Houston. I'm now a Professor of English at Georgia College. I live on Lake Sinclair, in Milledgeville, GA, and often volunteer at Andalusia, Flannery O'Connor's farm. My wife, Renee Dodd, is also a writer. Her terrific novel is: "A Cabinet of Wonders." I have two daughters, Ashley and Willa. My favorite pastimes outside of reading and writing are: running, fishing, traveling, hiking, and backpack-ing. I went fishing up in Alaska last summer, and I want to go back again.

Thanks to Serena Agusto-Cox of Poetic Book Tours and the author for a review copy of this book for its book tour.

Visit the tour schedule for more reviews and information 

Throwing Out Books, an Opinion Essay

Throw out books? That's a no-no, in my opinion. I donate books I don't want and will never read to the local library, which welcomes all books in almost any condition. If the books don't go on the shelves, they end up in a 50-cent or $5-a bag book sale and someone else gets to read them.

Tear off the cover of a book and throw it into the recycling bin? Only if it's an old telephone directory!

Here is someone I can sympathize with on everything except for the books he chooses to discard! His "slam-dunk discards" would be my lucky finds. Maybe we should start a book exchange?

The editorial below appears in The Opinion Journal . The writer starts off with an interesting comment.

Hardback Mountain
Giving my books the kiss-off
by TUNKU VARADARAJAN
February 16, 2007

"I was once told by an old graybeard (was he a teacher at school? an uncle in Madras? alas, I can't remember . . .) that a cultured man should have very few friends but very many books. I must have been a youngish mite at the time, for I feel that I've carried the imprint of those words for as long as I've been sentient."

(Want to read more? The link to the full editorial is below).

Throwing Out Books, an Opinion Essay