50books_poc | Sep. 13th, 2007

Sep. 13th, 2007

This is the first of my 50 books that isn't a re-read. I picked up Beloved by Toni Morrison a couple days ago at the library -- primarily because it's a modern classic, and I'd not ever read it, and can't remember having read anything else by Toni Morrison. I think I may have read The Bluest Eye at one point, but I honestly don't remember -- if so, it was so long ago that I don't remember any details about it.

Beloved is a slave narrative with a slight supernatural bent to it; there's a definite presence of ghosts/demons/haunting in it. At the same time, it almost seems wrong to classify it as a fantasy, because while ghosts may not be real, it's entirely possible that the people who lived at that time would have believed in them completely. The reality of the story is definitely up for debate.

( More thoughts. )

helens78

"Weren't you just here?" "Yes! But now I have a children's book..."

I just finished the 32-page kids' book Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, a book I would like a lot better had it been named something less over-the-top. However, OTT title aside, this is a book about the Japanese-American internment camps of WW2, a subject that most Americans these days know little-to-nothing about. Well, unless you happen to be Japanese-American.

The story's about a kid who has to go to the camps, is part of a drive by the camp to build a baseball field, and then goes back to "normal" life after the camps are abolished, with baseball as a strong theme throughout. It gives him a sense of accomplishment and a way to fit in, but it also brings out some of the ugly bits of people (he deals with catcallers who yell things like "The Jap's no good!").

The illustrations in the book are excellent and heartbreaking; it's not like I haven't seen the pictures, but somehow seeing them drawn out that way is even more stark, especially when juxtaposed with, people, a kids' book. I think there's something great to be said about the idea that you're never too young to learn about the mistakes that have been made in (even very recent) history, and I really think the book did a good job of explaining what was going on without making it too complex for a 4-8-year-old audience. Thumbs up.

oyceter

Hrm, since I usually write things up on my LJ, I figure I will try to do compilation posts here each month. Also, I'll link my manga write ups here as well, though I won't be counting those toward my own 50 books (partly out of embarrassment of my total manga tally each year...).

Chu, Carl - Chinese Food Finder: The Bay Area and San Francisco
I am generally leery of English-language write-ups of Chinese food; in my experience, they tend to portray Chinese food as something exotic and foreign at worst and as something non-normative at best. More importantly, the Chinese food that they talk about is not my Chinese food, which is normal, everyday and comfortingly familiar. Also, either I can't figure out what the books are talking about because the names are funny transliterated English (ex. "Dragon Phoenix Soup") that make sense in Chinese but not really in English or because they're talking about stuff that I don't eat very often (ex. banquet food from the seventies). (more)

Zia, Helen - Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
Contrary to expectation, this is not actually a history of Asian Americans. For that, I would grab Ronald Takaki's Strangers from a Different Shore. Instead, this is a history of the politicization of Asian Americans as a group and the formation of an "Asian-American" identity, as opposed to many separate groups (Chinese Americans, Cambodian Americans, Thai Americans, etc.). (more)

Manga