Reading Envy

Sunday, April 30, 2017

National Poetry Month 2017

My goal was to read one poetry collection PER DAY for National Poetry Month. I am one collection short! However In Praise of Defeat was 800 pages, quite a bit longer than the usual 60-120 page poetry collection (although to be fair, half those pages were in French!)

My five-star reads for National Poetry Month:

In Praise of Defeat by Abdellatif Laabi, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith (2017)
Satan Says by Sharon Olds (1980)
Rowing Inland by Jim Daniels (2017)
Readings from the Book of Exile by Padraig O' Tuoma (2012)
Terra Incognita by Adebe De Rango-Adem (2015)
Even This Page is White by Vivek Shraya (2016)
Sorry for Your Troubles by Padraig O' Tuoma (2013)
A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom (2017)

I have to say thanks to Edelweiss and NetGalley because I had quite a few poetry galleys through access to publishers there. Poetry is often published by small presses, and particularly when it is translated or from Canada, it might never cross my radar otherwise. And of my favorites, three are Canadians (all writing about gender and race!), and one is translated.

Review: The Leavers

The Leavers by Lisa Ko
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've heard rumors that this book is on May's Book of the Month list, so I wanted to make sure to publish my review asap.

Deming is a child when his mother disappears, and not too long after, he is adopted by a childless couple in Upstate New York and renamed Daniel. They don't know the whole story of how he became available for adoption, but neither does Deming, and his entire world that he knows is taken from him. This novel traces the story back to how his mother came to be in New York when he was born (because he is, in fact, an American citizen) and everything that happened to the periphery characters in the meantime.

There is a lot to like about this novel. Lisa Ko is not writing the typical "good immigrant" narrative. Deming's mother suffers from many failures, but so does he. Getting adopted does not save him. Being Chinese does not make him good at math. And living in the United States is not necessarily better. I so appreciated the nuance of the different characters, including the white professors who may not be completely sure adopting a child was the right thing to do! There is also a lot of commentary on identity, how being "from China" means different things to different people, how you don't necessarily escape that identity if you look the part, and finding your own path is a universal struggle.

Thanks to the publisher for providing early access to the title through NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Reading Envy 085: An Acquired Taste

Thomas Otto (from The Readers) stops by the Reading Envy Pub to chat books. Jenny also tries one of Thomas's favorite authors!

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 085: An Acquired Taste.

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The first Reading Envy Readalong is coming ~~in May~~ next week!

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