#lan samantha chang

[infactforgetthepark]

[Free Audiobooks] The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang & Faraway: Fairy Tales for the Here and Now [Classic Lit Multicultural Retelling & Fantasy Anthology]

The annual SYNC Summer of Listening program encouraging literacy among teens by giving away a themed weekly pair of audiobooks—1 modern or non-fiction, 1 classic or drama—returns for another year, courtesy of sponsor AudioFile Magazine and participating publishers.

This 2nd week's theme is “Classics Reimagined For Our Time”, with works updating their well-established enduring stories to address new concerns in modern settings, available from Thursday May 4th through Wednesday May 10th:

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang, read by Brian Nishii from Recorded Books. This is a contemporary literary fiction drama novel retelling of 19th century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic The Brothers Karamazov, recasting the story in a Chinese-American family in Wisconsin and examining the complicated relationships between the three sons and their difficult father, as they come under suspicion of murder after his untimely death.

Faraway: Fairy Tales for the Here and Now by authors Rainbow Rowell, Nic Stone, Soman Chainani, Ken Liu, & Gayle Forman, read by various narrators from Brilliance Audio. This is a mini-collection of remixed fairy tale fantasy shorts commissioned for the Amazon Original Stories line, giving a modern contemporary spin reinterpreting them in various styles including one done as a murder mystery recounted in police interviews (performed by a full cast).

The freebies are available via Overdrive's Sora service (listenable via browser on their website, or via their mobile app for iOS & Android devices).

To claim them, you'll need to register on the SYNC website with a valid email address to use in a Sora account, using the setup code and directions in the instructions in SYNC's FAQ (no need to re-register if you've participated in previous years' giveaways), clicking “Borrow” to add them to your Sora library as a permanent loan. NB: if you need to free up space on your device later, follow the instructions in the FAQ to only “delete files” and DO NOT “Return” the title, which would remove your future access.

Offered worldwide through Wednesday May 10th until just before midnight Eastern Time, available via the Sora website and app. You can also browse AudioFile Magazine's planned season list to see what will be offered in the weeks ahead and if there's anything you'd especially like to get.

[bookishlyread]

Taking shots at me like its Patron: Read a book with a fruit on the cover.

-Hunger a novella and stories by Lan Samantha Chang

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: The Family Chao

Author: Lan Samantha Chang

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2022

Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, contemporary, retelling

Blurb: The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao Restaurant’s delicious Americanised Chinese food for 35 years, happy to ignore any unsavoury whispers about the family owners...but when brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo Chao is found dead - presumed murdered - his sons discover that they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers: Dagou, the restaurant’s reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James.

[englishsub]

book rec by me

so you want to get back into reading books but have no idea where to start and disdain booktok (if you get me started on this however i will become an unskippable cutscene so that's for another day). understandable. there is so much out there and it is all so overwhelming and you don't even know what you like now that you've been a decade out of the game. again, understandable. it does not have to be scary. i will help you. below i have created some categories that can get you started.

i want to read Literature

literary fiction, with crossover from historical fiction and magical realism

PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING by melissa fu

THE VASTER WILDS by lauren groff

THE FAMILY CHAO by lan samantha chang

OUTER DARK by cormac mccarthy

SEVERANCE by ling ma

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS by ryka aoki

IDENTITTI by mithu m. sanyal

PIRANESI by susanna clarke

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that won't break my brain

sci-fi and fantasy that is gentler on the brain cells. easier to grasp magic systems with multiple but not an overwhelming number of overlapping plotlines

EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by heather fawcett

KINGS OF THE WYLD by nicholas eames

THE JASMINE THRONE by tasha suri

THE CITY OF BRASS by s.a. chakraborty

A RIVER ENCHANTED by rebecca ross

JUNIPER AND THORN by ava reid

BLACK SUN by rebecca roanhorse

THE FINAL STRIFE by saara el-arifi

THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by andrea stewart

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that forces me to lock the fuck in

i would not recommend picking these up as your first foray back into books after many years of not reading recreationally, but i'm not your mom.

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by simon jimenez

JADE CITY by fonda lee

THE FIFTH SEASON by n.k. jemisin

THE RAGE OF DRAGONS by evan winter

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by arkady martine

GIDEON THE NINTH by tamsyn muir

THE ART OF PROPHECY by wesley chu

THE GRACE OF KINGS by ken liu

horrify me!

there is far more to the horror literary canon than stephen king and dean koontz, i promise. consider looking up warnings for these.

TENDER IS THE FLESH by agustina bazterrica

THE RUINS by scott smith

CONFESSIONS by kanae minato

EPISODE THIRTEEN by craig dilouie

REPRIEVE by james han mattson

MARY by nat cassidy

DEAD SILENCE by s.a. barnes

AUDITION by ryu murakami

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by cassandra khaw

don't care, i want romance

some of these feature crossover genres, like fantasy and horror.

VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by isabel cañas

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by sue lynn tan

SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by tia williams

HAPPY PLACE by emily henry

ONE DARK WINDOW by rachel gillig

i want QUEER romance

again, a mix of historical, fantasy, and contemporary crossover genres.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD by cat sebastian

IN MEMORIAM by alice winn

MOST ARDENTLY by gabe cole novoa

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE by foz meadows

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by freya marske

THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE by justinian huang

SPELL BOUND by f.t. lukens

SORRY, BRO by taleen voskuni

ONE LAST STOP by casey mcquiston

DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE by ashley herring blake

i haven't felt anything since i read percy jackson/the hunger games in middle school/high school

adventure is still out there.

SCYTHE by neil shusterman

WE HUNT THE FLAME by hafsah faizal

SIX OF CROWS by leigh bardugo

GEARBREAKERS by zoe hana mikuta

i'll read anything that's not straight or white

many books in the above categories fit this, but here's even more, across a variety of genres.

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB by malinda lo

BABEL by r.f. kuang

WHEN THE RECKONING COMES by latanya mcqueen

THE UNBROKEN by c.l. clark

IF YOU'LL HAVE ME (graphic novel) by eunnie

LEGEND OF THE WHITE SNAKE by sher lee

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by shelley parker-chan

"all ya books suck"

like any other genre or book age group, there are duds and there are standouts. ya is not special in this regard. try some of these!

DIVINE RIVALS by rebecca ross

STRIKE THE ZITHER by joan he

THE RED PALACE by june hur

A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid

EMPIRE OF SAND by tasha suri

LEGENDBORN by tracy deonn

i check out and read a lot of these books for free via my local library by using the libby app (you can even add your friends' library cards to gain access to libraries in places you don't live). when i'm feeling like reading via audiobook, i use libro fm!

look, no one HAS TO read diversely. no one is going to be reverse fahrenheit 451'd and locked in a room with no fanfic and only books and not let out until they work their way through the entire literary canon. but reading, and reading widely, and reading diversely, is what teaches people to form their own opinions and question the things they are told. it's why they hang up stuff like "READ READ READ!!" in grade school classrooms.

we live under systems that increasingly benefit from going unquestioned. no, of course reading ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE by robin hobb is not going to dismantle these systems tomorrow, nor probably even in our lifetimes. but doing it will help set up a world capable of doing it in the future. and until further notice, we are all part of this wretched world. might as well read a good story while we're here.

anyway, i'm reading THE WEST PASSAGE by jared pechaček and the new cmq book this week.

[girljeremystrong]

books about dads and about family and about complicated feelings

FICTION

they're going to love you by meg howrey: carlisle goes back to greenwich village to her father's house and finds herself dealing with her complicated feelings towards her dad.

foster by claire keegan: a story about a young girl who's sent to live with another family and founds a love she wasn't familiar with before.

the namesake by jhumpa lahiri: most beautiful novel by our gratest author about the son of immigrants from calcutta growing up in america.

east of eden by john steinbeck: the nobel prize winning greatest story of a father growing two very different boys in california.

still life by sarah winman: ulysses finds himself with a child and chooses to become the best man he can for her (and they move to italy).

unlikely animals by annie hartnett: emma's dad has a mysterious brain disease so she drops out of med school and goes back home. it's a delightful story.

the family chao by lan samantha chang: a retelling of the brothers karamazov set in a modern day chinese restaurant in america.

the incredible winston browne by sean dietrich: sheriff browne recieves some bad news and suddenly he finds himself taking care of a runaway girl who doesn't speak.

we begin at the end by chris whitaker: duchess is only a kid but she takes care of her little brother with all she has even when circumstances keep getting worse and worse.

razorblade tears by s. a. crosby: two black men are killed and their fathers, who always had trouble accepting their sexualities, decide to get justice.

the sweetness of water by nathan harris: in the waning days of the civil war two brothers find refuge with a couple in a farm.

salvage the bones by jesmyn ward: esch's brothers and her dad in the 12 days before during and after hurricane katrina. a modern classic and one of the most beautiful books ever.

the patron saint of liars by ann patchett: in a kentucky home for unwed mothers, a woman meets a man and can't escape her past.

homeland elegies by ayad akhtar: a very personal story of a man and his father dealing with feelings of dispossession and belongings. again one of the best books in the world.

NON-FICTION

the three mothers by anna malaika tubbs: the story of the three women who raised and shaped martin luther king jr., malcolm x and james baldwin.

how to say babylon by safyia sinclair: a memoir of a childhood shaped by a volatile father.

beautiful country by qian julie wang: after moving from china to the usa young qian finds a place among books as her family struggles to adapt to their new home as undocumented immigrants.

between the world and me by ta-nehisi coates: a black father shares his fears for his son growing up in current day america.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“But I am concerned rather with an internal than an internal truth; and, as I have already said, the internal truth is almost indescribable. We have to speak of something of which it is the whole point that people do not speak of it; we have not merely to translate from a strange tongue or speech, but from a strange silence.”

+

“But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”

+

"...the sincere reaction to making meaningful art is often speechlessness. We make art about what we cannot understand through any other method. The finished product is like a pearl, complete and beautiful, but mute about itself. The writer has given us this piece of his interior and there is frequently no explanation, nothing to be said about it. Often, the writer himself has very little idea of what he has created."

[lantur]

Just landed in Athens and am on the metro heading to my hotel! It was a pretty smooth flight compared to my last trans-Atlantic flight, which featured a tight connection at the most cursed airport of CDG in Paris. (Never. Again.) I think it really helped to make my connection in the US rather than in the UK or Europe since I didn’t have to go through customs and security again.

I started and finished reading Making a Scene by Constance Wu on the Minneapolis to DC leg of the journey. I really enjoyed Constance Wu from Fresh off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians. I picked up the book expecting some good Hollywood tea. I loved her collection of essays about her life and experiences for so much more than that. She’s a great writer and I’d love for her to write more. Definitely recommend!

The flight from DC to Athens was 2 hours delayed for take off 🔪 which I was not thrilled about, but it was a smooth flight afterward! All the people around me were quiet and chill, compared to the one guy on my flight last year who kept trying to hit me up for advice about his struggling marriage. I actually slept through more than half of this flight. That + a Diet Coke with breakfast + some time listening to my hype music left me feeling ready to take on the day after landing.

Before sleeping, I read the first half of The Family Chao, by Lan Samantha Chang. I’m really enjoying it so far. The cast of characters feels real, the setting feels like a character in itself (which is really important for me), and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.

I bought an iPad (my first ever!) because I wanted to have a larger screen to read my library books from Libby on, and it’s been so worth it. :)

[florriescreamlagoon]

As I looked at my daughter’s face, I began to understand that to love another was to be a custodian of that person’s decline — to know this fate, hold onto it, and live.

Lan Samantha Chang

[littleeartharchive]

“had not the crux of their attachment been that he was the pupil and she was the instructor?”

- lan samantha chang

[oracleoutlook]

It’s as if none of us can bear to be in our present lives—and James feels a sudden constriction in the area of his heart and lungs. Is it really true, he wonders, that there might be, in any human life, a certain window of time that matters more than any other? That he could be passing through it now as he sits holding a forkful of eggs, glimpsing it around him, as through the window of a train, and then leaving it behind, irretrievable, disappeared? “I don’t believe it,” he says aloud. “It’s impossible that a person could get to be thirty-three and have already lost his hope for the future.” “Almost thirty-four,” Ming says. “Youth is over at thirty-four. By then you’ve lost the gleam and possibility of youth, and most Americans couldn’t give a shit about you."

The Family Chao, by Lan Samantha Chang

[churail]

Writers, Protect Your Inner Life By Lan Samantha Chang

[godzilla-reads]

May 13, 2022

I rediscovered this book (hiding in my closet) so I figured why not? Let’s add an extra book to my pile of books I’m reading. What could possibly go wrong?

📖 The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang