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Book reviews for reading from January - August

• Essential book to read
  The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  An insightful and amazingly accessible look into the many nuanced struggles and feelings felt by people of color, especially relevant to America's current social climate. This novel gives names to many realities that are often overlooked, and serves as great starting material for important conversations in race and race relations. 
   
• Fiction
  The Vegetarian by Han Kang
  Beautifully written, The Vegetarian uses evocative and unsettling imagery to tell the story of an every day housewife who, after a series of nightmares involving human brutality, seeks to free herself of cruelty by rejecting meat and ultimately rejecting human society completely. 
   
• Parable
  The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  This classic novel is a parable about finding and achieving one's destiny-- simple and direct, it challenges readers to let go of their fear of suffering, fear of failure and even fear of success in order to achieve the destiny available but not promised to them. 
   
• Memoir
  Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X Pham
  After the suicide of his transgender sister, Andrew Pham quit his lucrative engineering job to embark on a yearlong bike journey through Vietnam, a country he hadn't visited since he and his family fled from the war many years ago.
   
• Nonfiction
  In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
  An easy-to-read and easy-to-incorporate guide to food, culture and health which Michael Pollan himself summarizes as: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. 
   
• Graphic novel
  My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Volume 1) by Emil Ferris
  The first of a two-part series, this 350+ page graphic novel illustrates a compelling tale that includes a murder mystery, 1960's Chicago socio-political issues, the Holocost, and a 10-year old girl who finds comfort only in B-horror movies and monsters. 
   
• Poetry Collection
  Thousand Star Hotel by Bao Phi
  In this honest and heart-felt collection, Bao Phi pulls you through an emotional rollercoaster focusing on race, racism and fatherhood-- through his words, you find yourself in awe of immigrant resilience, celebrating the vibrancy of culture, and cringing at everyday racism while burning with shame at your own.
   
• Comic book
  Monstress (Volumes 1 & 2) by Marjorie Liu & Sana Tanaka
  A beautifully drawn fantasy series with a feminist twist, Monstress tells the story of Maika Halfwolf, a girl bonded together with an ancient god, as she tries to understand the mysteries of her past in the midst of a brewing war between the human witch-nuns known as the Cumea and the animal-hybrids known as the Arcanics.
   
• Children's book
  A Different Pond by Bao Phi & Thi Bui
  A simple but powerful snapshot of a regular day in a Vietnamese-American boy's life as his father wakes him up early to go fishing-- not for sport, but for sustenance to make sure his family has food for dinner. 
  
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• Honorable mentions
  (Memoir) Eaves of Heaven by Andrew X Pham - In this novel, Andrew Pham now takes on the task of retelling his father's story of growing up in, living through and eventually fleeing from Vietnam as the war between the Communist North and Democratic South rose, climaxed and fell.
  
  (Fantasy) The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson - A feminist response to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H P Lovecraft, this short novel details the adventures of Vellitt Boe, a 55-year old female professor who goes on a quest to rescue one of her students, and in the process rediscovers her strength and identity. 
  
  (Fiction) Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng - When the favorite daughter of a mixed-Asian and white-American family is found dead in the local lake, all the feelings and words left long-unspoken come tumbling out.
  
  (Fiction) Hardboiled Wonderland & The End of the World by Haruki Murakami - An incredibly enjoyable novel that is part fantasy, part cyber-punk, part noir-detective story, and all action.
  
  (Fiction) Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill - Department of Speculation is a wonderfully written first-person stream-of-consciousness account of a young woman as she basks in the simple joys of putting her hands in the warm pockets of her husband's jacket, goes nearly mad with anxiety as they wash and wash everything for months in their battle against bed bugs, and details other such moments, sometimes trivial, sometimes monumental.  
  
  (Fiction) The Mothers by Brit Bennett - This novel tackles the concept and role of mothers and motherhood through the lives of two teenaged black girls as they face issues including suicide, pregnancy, sexual abuse and racism. 
  
  (Graphic novel/memoir) The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf - The son of a nationalistic Syrian father and quiet French mother, Riad Sattouf recounts his life from his early days in France to his adolescence in Syria, detailing the joys and the fears, the cultural connections and disconnects, and the scents and colors throughout it all. 
  
  (Graphic novel) Daytripper by Fabio Moon & Fabriel Ba - What if I died right now? This graphic novel explores this question, playing out the many way its main character may have died at different moments in his life from childhood to old age.