The Book Thread Book • Page 103

Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li review – a confident debut

Finished Number One Chinese Restaurant. It is a great book, especially if you, like me, grew up in hospitality.

"He knew what Annie had seen from her hostess stand: A garish Chinese restaurant. Uppity, gloating, and hopelessly oriental. But if she'd look a little harder, she would see what a magical establishment her grandfather had built. She might understand the limitations and expectations her father and uncle had managed to surpass and the lives they had affected. Almost every waiter had a house in a nice neighborhood because of the Duck House. Waiters who had never finished high school, who came to America with nothing, now had savings, healthcare, SAT tutors for their children. Yes, a handful of these waiters were past the age of retirement and still working, but they told him they liked the job. It kept them young."

 

@Vivatoto have you read Carrion Comfort? This 40 hour audiobook is very daunting.

 

Hell yeah. Dan Simmons was one of the first authors I turned to after I finished reading all of Kings books so its been awhile since I read it but I loved it. I know you've read at least Hyperion so you have a feel for Simmon's writing, that's good because he can be tough to get into. I thought of it as Simmons' The Stand, not only in length but scope and characters. It's a good one, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

RIP Mary Higgins Clark

 

I’m almost done with Girl, Woman, Other. It’s pretty brilliant. Definitely deserved the Booker Prize.

The next book I’m planning to read is The Man Without Talent, an apparently legendary Japanese graphic novel from the 80s that has only now been translated.

Also I kind of want to properly read the Iliad. I’ve been thinking of going with Peter Green’s translation.

 

Just started Missoula. I’m only a few chapters in but it is a very difficult read. Very heavy.

 

It only gets heavier..

 

George Steiner, Prodigious Literary Critic, Dies at 90

“I’d love to be remembered as a good teacher of reading,” he told The Paris Review in 1994. Characteristically, he had a specific, lofty notion of reading as a moral calling. It should, he added, “commit us to a vision, should engage our humanity, should make us less capable of passing by.”

 

Finished The Left Hand of Darkness yesterday. first time reading Le Guin and I really liked it. I don't typically read a lot of fantasy/science fiction stuff so it took me a while to get into a good rhythm with it but the last 100 pages were really something

 

I will always recommend her Earthsea series for a beginner fantasy novel.

 

Finally finished Dark Age. Woo boy, that was a doozy but I loved every moment of it. Definitely will require a rereading at some point since I did half read/half audiobook so I was bound to miss something. Pierce Brown just keeps getting better and I can't wait for #6!

 

Currently working on finishing up Seven Blades in Black. I fell off on reading towards the end of last year and had books half finished so it's been difficult hopping back in and remembering what the hell happened prior.

 

I felt like it took me a while to get into a good rhythm with it too, when I talked to someone about it they said that they felt like that was by design as a defamiliarization tool re: gender/sex politics and I thought that was a cool idea and kind of made me see it a little differently, even contextualized the casual sort of disdain Ai initially has for femininity for me

 

very interesting idea! I read some stuff about it today and I did read that she called it slow at the beginning so that might be right. The last third of the book with them crossing the ice was absolutely incredible to me and I thought that maybe it became easier to absorb because the complicated political networks at play kind of sunk into the background and it became more of an intimate story.

 

oh yeah, definitely agree that the intimacy helped, especially because (for me at least) it was described so richly that it made their respective character arcs so much more satisfying for me. I wasn't super into either Ai or Estraven as individual characters bc it's like you said, they kind of got swallowed by the structural stuff. but I also definitely liked the political stuff once I felt like I was clear on what the stakes were, if that makes sense

 

Re: Left Hand of Darkness, what really struck me is that it could have easily been written today and you wouldn't necessarily notice. Le Guin wrote it in 1969 (!) but I remember she mentions climate change occurring on Hain or Earth, if I remember correctly.

 

I am about 75 pages into Ducks, Newburyport and I think I really like it so far? I was worried that "the fact that" ad nauseam would immediately grate on me but I actually find it kind of soothing in a way so far. I have a whole lot to go though so let's see if this changes haha

 

Last night I finished The Rise and Fall of the Dinoaurs by Steve Brusatte. As a big dinosaur fanboy it's the book I've always wanted, super accessible history of the creatures with some interesting paleantology anecdotes thrown in.

 

Only about 100 pages left of Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer. Sheesh, talk about a slow-burn. I've enjoyed it though...prose is beautiful, characters are rich and complex. Plot is very thin though so there's nothing to compel you back but the world it steeps you in. Next I think I'll do something short--maybe Cisneros' House on Mango Street.

 

@Garrett L. I know you've read One Of Us Is Lying... Have you read the sequel yet?

I'm going to finish it today

 

Haven't read the sequel yet. I've got like six books to read on my friend's Audible, this is one of them, haha.

 

End of Prodigal Summer was beautiful, though I wish the story as a whole had a little more drive than lull. That said, it was a patient, very human story and I enjoyed it. On to the next one!

 

So maybe not a a particularly original question, and maybe been done to death in this thread, but gun to your head who is your one favourite author?

Just asking coz I've been on a Kurt Vonnegut kick and I don't think there's anyone else who comes close for me.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien and it’s really not close.

 

Not really a hot take, but mine is Stephen King.