FDL Reads: Beautiful Country
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
Reviewed by: Deb Alig, Circulation Assistant
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Suggested Age: Adult
What is this book about? Qian Julie Wang’s memoir is an insider’s look at the dark side of living illegally in the United States. During the 1960s, when the Cultural Revolution began in China, Qian’s uncle was arrested, tortured, and imprisoned for publicly criticizing Mao Zedong and Communism. This trouble then affected the whole Wang family. They were labeled “treasonous” and Qian’s grandparents were often humiliated and beaten. Qian’s father was also persecuted. Though he became an English professor in China, he fled to New York City without his family to escape the political restraints and oppression of the Chinese government. On July 29, 1994, with temporary visas, Qian and her mother joined him in Mei Guo, the Chinese word for America literally meaning beautiful country. But as undocumented immigrants who constantly faced prejudice and lived in the fear of being found out, the United States proved to be less than beautiful for them.
Though both her parents were professors in China, in the United States, because of their undocumented status, they had no choice but to work menial jobs in Chinatown sweatshops where the pay was poor and the working conditions deplorable. Qian’s parents worked long, brutal hours, but they barely made enough money to survive. They could only afford to live in a run-down apartment in Brooklyn where they occupied a single room and shared a kitchen and bathroom with other impoverished tenants. There was little privacy. There was little food. Qian was always hungry, especially when she attended school. Being hungry, it was difficult for her to concentrate. Plus, she did not speak or write English. She was placed in classes with students who had cognitive disabilities and was mostly left on her own to learn. She slowly picked up English by reading children’s books like The Berenstain Bears, Clifford, and The Babysitters-Club and by watching PBS Kids and The Puzzle Place on a TV her father found in the garbage. (Qian’s middle name Julie comes from a puppet who portrays a Chinese-American girl on The Puzzle Place.) Qian’s mother became ill, but she did not tell anyone for months fearing the scrutiny of a doctor’s visit and the cost of medical care. There was always the fear of deportation, so Qian’s father repeatedly told her, “Whatever happens, say you were born here, that you’ve always lived here.” The Chinese refer to being undocumented as living in the shadows or living in the dark. For five years, Qian and her family lived this way. They then fled to Canada where they attained documented immigration status and had better access to food, healthcare, housing, and education. Qian eventually returned to the United States to attend Yale Law School. In 2016, she became a citizen. She now works for a successful law firm and advocates for education and civil rights.
My Review: The United States is known world-wide as a beautiful country, so I was disappointed and saddened to learn how deplorable living and working conditions are for undocumented Chinese immigrants who currently reside here. These immigrants do not complain or demand better conditions because they fear deportation. Landlords and employers take advantage of this fear, and the illegal Chinese immigrants such as the Wang family struggle to live from day to day and to attain United States citizenship. Clearly, there is great need for reform in our country, a not-so-beautiful country for undocumented immigrants as described in Qian Julie Wang’s memoir.
Beautiful Country is written in English, but Chinese phrases written in the Latin alphabet are also included. This is called pinyin which is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese. When I finished reading the book, I listened to an audio version. The Chinese sounded like music to me with its high tones, low tones, and sharp inflections. It is a beautiful language.
Rating: 5/5
Three words that describe this book: eye-opening, unforgettable, poignant, humbling
Give this a try if you like: The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio and A Beginner’s Guide to America by Roya Hakakian
FDL Reads: Bring Me Back
Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris
Reviewed by: Becky Houghton, Reference Assistant
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Suggested Age: Adult
What is this book about? Is the 10-year missing woman, Layla Gray, back? That is the crux of the story in Paris’s Bring Me Back. Protagonist and narrator, Finn McQuaid’s girlfriend (Layla) goes missing from a locked car in a rest area in France as they return from a ski vacation. But early in the story, ten years later, while Finn has finally moved on with his life and is now engaged to Layla’s older sister, Ellen, Layla is spotted by a her former neighbor in the small English town in which she and Finn had lived. Is Layla back and does she want Finn back? More importantly, does Finn still love Layla more than his fiancée, Ellen? The “mystery” in the story revolves around these questions and the ominous appearance of Russian nesting dolls which both girls owned during their childhoods. As the plot twist and turns, the reader begins to unravel the backstory.
My review: I was a bit disappointed in this novel. The first novel by Paris, Behind Closed Doors, was excellent so I had been looking forward to this one, her third psychological thriller. Don’t get me wrong, Bring Me Back still kept me reading and changing my theories on what the outcome would be, but it did not have the horrific terror-producing effect on me that her first book did. As the story unfolds, the reader may lose sympathy for Finn as his temper and inability to let go of his obsession with Layla unfolds. Ellen is an opposite personality type to Layla, making me wonder how Finn could love both women or was he just “settling” for Ellen since Layla had vanished without a trace. The mysterious appearance of Russian nesting dolls and the sightings of Layla caused me to wonder about the disappearance. I did find that I wanted to keep reading into the night to learn the outcome of this story even as I began to suspect what the ending might be.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Suspenseful, Menacing, Contrived
Give This a Try if You Like… B.A. Paris’s previous two books, Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown or A.J. Finn’s Woman In the Window
Rating: 4/5
Books that Talk
Have you heard the news about our Books that Talk? You can now check out five of them at a time! Our Books that Talk are amazing books that read themselves to you. A recording of the book is included in the integrated speaker. They’re a great option for when you have a frog in your throat, if you want to take a break from reading the same book for the hundredth time, or need to distract the kids while you make dinner. Or you could ignore the speaker and enjoy a fun picture book together. Here’s a few of my favorites!
Astro Girl by Ken Wilson-Max
Baby Ducks by Christina Leaf
Bulldozer’s Big Day by Candace Fleming
Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein
The Hug Machine by Scott Campbell
I Am Enough by Grace Byers
Jabari Jumps/Jabari Tries by Gaia Cornwall
Just Add Glitter by Angela DiTerlizzi
The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anne Dewdney
Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn
Not Quite Snow White by Ashley Franklin
The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Sometimes People March by Tessa Allen
Miss Turie’s Magic Creatures by Joy Keller
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown
– Miss Alice, Youth Services Manager
#FDL: Read Beyond the Beaten Path
Get in the mood for summer reading and try one of these books about hiking, camping, or survival.
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.
Between a Rock and Hard Place by Aron Ralston
One of the most extraordinary survival stories ever told — Aron Ralston’s searing account of his six days trapped in one of the most remote spots in America, and how one inspired act of bravery brought him home. It started out as a simple hike in the Utah canyonlands on a warm Saturday afternoon. For Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven-year-old mountaineer and outdoorsman, a walk into the remote Blue John Canyon was a chance to get a break from a winter of solo climbing Colorado’s highest and toughest peaks. He’d earned this weekend vacation, and though he met two charming women along the way, by early afternoon he finally found himself in his element: alone, with just the beauty of the natural world all around him. It was 2:41 P.M. Eight miles from his truck, in a deep and narrow slot canyon, Aron was climbing down off a wedged boulder when the rock suddenly, and terrifyingly, came loose. Before he could get out of the way, the falling stone pinned his right hand and wrist against the canyon wall.
In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home and livelihood is taken away. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.
They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn’t slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning, he learned that six of his fellow climbers hadn’t made it back to their camp and were desperately struggling for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated.
-Annotations from the publishers
Posted by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: The Sentence
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Reviewed by: Beth Weimer, Communications Specialist
Genre: Fiction
Suggested Age: Adults, Teens
What is the book about?: A mildly eccentric ex-convict has forged a quiet life for herself working at an Indigenous bookstore in Minneapolis. Now happily married to the man who arrested her, Tookie doesn’t ask for much more than to be left alone with her books. But then her most irritating customer dies and audaciously decides to haunt her, and Tookie’s forced to confront and explore the pain of past transgressions (personal and collective), traditions, relationships, community, and more – as the haunting intensifies amidst the unfolding chaos of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.
My Review: I haven’t encountered a character I love as much as Tookie in a very long time, and she haunts me still. Louise Erdrich is an author I’ve long heard of but just never got around to, and now I definitely have to read the rest of her work. This weird little plot may not sound that appealing, but it merely sets the stage for deep thematics and an ode to the transformative power of literature, and Erdrich’s mastery will hook you. She crams so many seemingly disconnected themes into the story (marriage, colonialism, incarceration, the pandemic, police violence, literature, parenting, etc.), but the disparate plotlines work because her main character is so fiercely funny and endearing, and her observations are entirely on point. While slyly bordering on autofiction, it perfectly captures the surrealism that 2020 unleashed upon us and the chaos of everyday life, how we experience a multitude of crises big and small, internally and externally, all at once and endlessly, as we plod along within our own sentences. Plus, Erdrich narrates the audiobook, and I cannot recommend the warmth of her natural storytelling enough.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Relevant, Layered, Endearing
Give This a Try if You Like… The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Rating: 5/5
Book Giveaway for AAPI Heritage Month
Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu
It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge.
Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story?
Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home?
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough.
Until Frida has a horrible day.
The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers — that she can learn to be good.
My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding Sajni Patel
Zurika Damani is a naturally gifted violinist with a particular love for hip hop beats. But when you’re part of a big Indian family, everyone has expectations, and those certainly don’t include hip hop violin. After being rejected by Juilliard, Zuri’s last hope is a contest judged by a panel of top tier college scouts. The only problem? This coveted competition happens to take place during Zuri’s sister’s extravagant wedding week. And Zuri has already been warned, repeatedly, that she is not to miss a single moment.
In the midst of the chaos, Zuri’s mom is in matchmaking mode with the groom’s South African cousin Naveen—who just happens to be a cocky vocalist set on stealing Zuri’s spotlight at the scouting competition. Luckily Zuri has a crew of loud and loyal female cousins cheering her on. Now, all she has to do is to wow the judges for a top spot, evade getting caught by her parents, resist Naveen’s charms, and, oh yeah . . . not mess up her sister’s big fat Indian wedding. What could possibly go wrong?
*Annotations from the publishers
-Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
Giveaway
Enter your name here for a chance to win ARCs of the books mentioned in this post. One entry per person. Drawing to be held approximately 7 days after this post.
ARCs are “advanced reading copies.” These are free copies of a new books given by a publisher to librarians and other reviewers before the book is printed for mass distribution.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and East Peoria.