#Asian Lit

[belovedapollo]

diving into Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2024 📖 reblog is ok, don’t repost/use

[reverie-quotes]

The kindness in his smile seemed infinite.

— Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold

[she]

I am curious how a cripple finds himself in the stuff of gods and rebellion.

— The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

[read-alert]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Full titles under the cut!

The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War #2) by RF Kuang

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon

The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

A Witch's Guide to Magical Inkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire edited by Alice Wong

Tell Me How It Ends by Quinton Li

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom

Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

[booksandboba]

Book Releases in 2025

(Last Updated: 11.3.2024)

January

(7) Immortal, Sue Lynn Tan (novel)

(7) Ballad of Sword and Wine: Qiang Jin Jiu, Volume 3, Tang Jiu Qing (light novel)

(14) Stars of Chaos: Sha Po Lang, Volume 5, Priest (light novel)

(14) Spy x Family, Volume 13, Tatsuya Endo (graphic novels, manga)

(14) Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 13, Kamome Shirahama (graphic novels, manga)

(21) Dinghai Fusheng Records, Volume 2, Fei Tian Ye Xiang, Qian Er Bai, LV FEI (comic, manhua)

(21) The Remarried Empress, Volume 9, SUMPUL, HereLee (comics, unscrolled web comics)

February

(TBA) Pet Shop of Horrors: Collector's Edition, Volume 1, Matsuri Amino (graphic novels, omnibus, manga)

(TBA) Legend of Exorcism: Tianbao Fuyao Lu, Volume 1, Arise Zhang (light novel)

(4) Remnants of Filth: Yuwu, Volume 6, Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (light novel)

(11) Case File Compendium: Bing An Ben, Volume 4, Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (light novel)

(18) Peerless, Volume 3, Meng Xi Shi (light novel)

(25) Legend of Exorcism, Volume 1, Fei Tian Ye Xiang (light novel)

(25) Father, I Don't Want This Marriage, Volume 2, Hong Heesu, Roal, Yuri (comics, unscrolled web comics)

March

(4) The Undoing of Violet Claybourne, Emily Critchley (novel)

(25) The Ayakashi Hunter's Tainted Bride, Volume 1, Mamenosuke Fujimaru, Midori Yuma (manga, graphic novels)

April

(1) My Happy Marriage, Volume 5, Akumi Agitoki, Rito Kohsaka, Tsukiho Tsukioka (manga, graphic novels)

May

(TBA) Love Between Fairy and Devil, Volume 1, Jiu Lu Fei Xiang (light novel)

(20) Dinghai Fusheng Records, Volume 1, Fei Tian Ye Xiang (light novel)

June

(TBA) Joyful Reunion, Volume 1, Fei Tian Ye Xiang (light novel)

July

(3) Immortal the Blood, Molly X. Chang (novel)

August

September

October

November

December

[literatureaesthetic]

kafka on the shore by haruki murakami | full review

this book was a wild experience, i don't even know what to say lmao

[annafromuni]

Banana Yoshimoto's Dead-End Memories - A Collection of Human Experiences

I’m new to the realm of short story compilations, so opening up Banana Yoshimoto’s Dead-End Memories did not seem like it would be that big of a deal. I have been pleasantly proved wrong as the short stories have snuck up on me while I read them, starting off on a casual note before diving deep into themes that feel so finely threaded through the stories you cannot help but be awestruck by the…

[meltotheany]

Goodreads | Amazon US | B&N | Blackwell’s | Bookshop “I love the world I hate simply because you live in it.” this is truly the weirdest book i’ve ever read. i kind of thought i was going to like it, just from the title and premise alone, but i was a little apprehensive because so many of my goodreads friends did not vibe with this one. but from chapter one, and reading some of the most impressive writing ive ever read, let alone from a debut, i knew this was really going to work for me. i am a bit hesitant to recommend it, because i just know it is going to be too weird and too satirical, and the writing too purple prose and too stream of consciousness for a lot of readers. but if you’re looking for something very different, something that’s really going to pull you out of your own comfortability, something unlike anything else you’ve read before, i would recommend that book wholeheartedly. the very basic, surface level, premise of this story is that we follow a fanfiction writer (who goes by y/n of course) who become more and more obsessed with a kpop idol. there is a constant emphasis on the idol industry and how harsh it is – from eating disorders, to being overworked, to pushing your body beyond its limits, to also being stalked by people who call themselves fans. these are a constant throughline of obsessive fandom culture and how that enables capitalism even more, and how sometimes parasocial relationships can feel very manipulative and cult-like. and i feel like this is where the disconnect comes from (besides that insanity that is this book) because either people aren’t familiar with the kpop industry or they feel attacked because they do understand the kpop industry and they feel uncomfortable with their place in it. (and i say this as someone who has a youtube channel dedicated to park jimin and collecting his photocards lol) “But his first-place ranking made the disturbing suggestion that my imagination, one of the few remaining places where I felt truly free, was actually the site of my dreariest conformity. I knew my feelings for Moon were neither unique nor all that extreme, and I even viewed mass popularity as his rightful due. But writing stories about him was supposed to have represented a higher level of devotion, an elitist kink in the plain template of fandom.” but, to me, this is a book about depression – and it truly is one of the most powerful depictions of it that i have ever read. following y/n and seeing the way she justifies everything, and feeling so much disgust one page and then so much empathy the very next page, it is truly a roller coaster through a fever dream feeling reading this entire book. this is a story about consuming, yet wanting so badly to be consumed. Feeling so lonely, and hyperfocusing on the one light in your dark world so you can feel like you are somewhat living. this is a depiction of mental health for south koreans (and so many asian communities) where help can be nowhere to be found, both professionally and from your family. (and additionally, lack of resources, lack of empathy, and just lack of help everywhere to help people who need help be able to have access to help – from our young to our elderly!) and how industries, marketing, and capitalism will prey on individuals trying to live their lives escaping. and this is a story about giving yourself wholly to something so it’s all not for nothing. “For the first time, I doubted the singularity of my love and thereby its truth. I glimpsed a future where I felt nothing for Moon, as one did, with both relief and melancholy, on the cusp of a breakup. I nearly fainted from disorientation. My love, which I’d considered, not without pride, a destabilizing force, was turning out to be exactly that which stabilized me.” i also feel like this book is about identity and being a diaspora adult, going back to your home country, and experiencing a lot of feelings that you don’t really know what to do with. loving something that makes you feel more connected to your identity, but then...

[raybeanschildrenslit]

A Single Shard - Historical Fiction

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Historical Fiction) Published 2001 by Clarion Books

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park is a historical fiction piece that puts us in historical Korea during a major moment in art history when ceramics in the country change forever. We follow Tree-ear, a young orphan, who after spying on the local potter for a while before becoming his apprentice in hopes of one day becoming a potter himself. However, he is only tasked with the back-breaking labor of hauling materials like wood and clay for his master while dealing with his terrible temper and ignorance- with some solace in the kindness of the potter’s wife to help push him along. To prove himself and earn his master a royal commission, Tree-ear tirelessly provides and strives for a chance at greatness. 

It isn’t often I find historical fiction that takes place in Korea though I have no doubt there is a good chunk of it out there, but also finding one whose focus is on art like ceramics rather than a cultural/ historical tragedy feels refreshing. Tree-ear’s story focuses on self growth and art rather than a war or genocide which is nice to see in historical fiction while also still being invested in the goings on. Park helps in this by keeping the tempo of the pacing solid and not slowing down with inbetweens but pushing the significant moments that compile Tree-ear’s journey within just under 200 pages. Whether read or listened to, the tale is quite nice and not that laborious for a reader to get through.

I feel that unless fantasy or tragedy is involved, I don't see enough asian or even minority representation as a whole. I know there is quite a bit but there could always be more, especially with the growing diversity of communities and the work presented to publishers. I like the idea of realistic fiction depicting victories of all forms for individuals but especially those who are under-represented to remind readers that look like them that they can’t only be great by winning a battle or doing something other-worldly. This piece could proudly hold a place in Korean representation while celebrating its own heritage or Asian heritage as a whole. I also like the idea of more children/ readers in general reading stories about artistic pursuit in individuals their age. I wonder if someone were to do a unit with this if there could be a ceramics adjacent project to follow- I don’t expect kilns but maybe oven set or air dry. 

-Ray 02/04/2024

Park, L. S. (2003). A single shard. Dell Yearling.

[world-literatures]

just read: The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

I've read some of Yiyun Li's short stories (the whole collection of "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" and some selected stories from "Gold Boy, Emerald Girl") but never one of her novels. I've owned this one for quite a while so it was nice to finally pick it up.

One thing about this book - it's not really what the jacket says. The premise is that a woman named Gu Shan is executed after the cultural revolution for being a counterrevolutionary which sparks a protest in the town of Muddy River. While this event does happen, it isn't until part 2 of the novel.

This is more of a character study about how these characters lives are informed and impacted by the cultural revolution. It is a study of the time period itself, narrowing in on the death of Mao Zedong and democratic protests in Beijing impact this small, rural town in China.

It's very well written but it's also very bleak. It's sort of a book you have to stay with - don't expect to rush through it. Sometimes it really was a "30 pages and I'm done for tonight" kind of book. That said, I like the way the author lingers on the details, sits in the characters heads to where it's actually uncomfortable. It really felt placed in this exact moment in time with these exact characters. I really like that instead of her, observing them, it's like she lets us see how they observe the world, think and feel.

Yiyun Li is a great writer and I would really like to read her entire catalog.

genres: historical fiction

translator:  nil

rating: ★★★★

themes: politics and revolution, love and sex, power and ambition

Brilliant and illuminating, this astonishing debut novel by the award-winning writer Yiyun Li is set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell designed to move China beyond the dark shadow of the Cultural Revolution toward a more enlightened and open society. In this powerful and beautiful story, we follow a group of people in a small town during this dramatic and harrowing time, the era that was a forebear of the Tiananmen Square uprising.

Morning dawns on the provincial city of Muddy River. A young woman, Gu Shan, a bold spirit and a follower of Chairman Mao, has renounced her faith in Communism. Now a political prisoner, she is to be executed for her dissent. Her distraught mother, determined to follow the custom of burning her only child’s clothing to ease her journey into the next world, is about to make another bold decision. Shan’s father, Teacher Gu, who has already, in his heart and mind, buried his rebellious daughter, begins to retreat into memories. Neither of them imagines that their daughter’s death will have profound and far-reaching effects, in Muddy River and beyond.

In luminous prose, Yiyun Li weaves together the lives of these and other unforgettable characters, including a serious seven-year-old boy, Tong; a crippled girl named Nini; the sinister idler Bashi; and Kai, a beautiful radio news announcer who is married to a man from a powerful family. Life in a world of oppression and pain is portrayed through stories of resilience, sacrifice, perversion, courage, and belief. We read of delicate moments and acts of violence by mothers, sons, husbands, neighbors, wives, lovers, and more, as Gu Shan’s execution spurs a brutal government reaction.

Writing with profound emotion, and in the superb tradition of fiction by such writers as Orhan Pamuk and J. M. Coetzee, Yiyun Li gives us a stunning novel that is at once a picture of life in a special part of the world during a historic period, a universal portrait of human frailty and courage, and a mesmerizing work of art.

[bookish-wanderer]

Blog Tour: What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

Hello, bookish friends! Welcome to my blog tour for a lovely, insightful book published by Hanover Square Press, an imprint of Harper Collins, called “What You Are Looking For Is in the Library!” It’s a modern world setting Japanese award-winning bestseller and is now translated into several languages all around the world. That being said, I’m beyond thrilled to share more about the book and my…

[soracities]

Dunya Mikhail, from Diary of a wave outside the sea (trans. Elizabeth Winslow and Dunya Mikhail) [ID'd]

[reverie-quotes]

She wanted to do things without having to worry what others thought. She simply lived for her freedom.

— Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold

[read-alert]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Here's some of my favorite reads by Asian authors from the past year!

Full titles under the cut!

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

Djinn City by Saad Z Hossain

Femme in Public by Alok Vaid-Menon

The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea by Kai Cheng Thom and Kai Yun Ching

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

[booksandboba]

"Because it was depravity, for a woman to desire more than her lot in life. To aspire to more than safety, protection. To aspire to power."

The Night Ends With Fire, K.X. Song

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½

Retelling of Mulan

Shallow characters with no growth

Quick-paced

Self-serving protagonist

Cringey names and dialogue

📖 Read more in my review on Blogger

📖 Follow Me on GoodReads

[elysiumaze]

Mieko Kawakami in, Heaven.