![luce [is reading]](https://wishfullyreading.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/9429655-1.jpeg){kind=small}
-
Tell Me I’m an Artist by Chelsea Martin
Restrained yet acutely realistic, Tell Me I’m An Artist presents its readers with the unfinished portrait of an artist as a young woman. Throughout the course of this novel, we read of the trials and tribulations of an art school student Joey, who attempts to reconcile herself with a new existence in San Francisco. She…
1st pov, 3.5 STARS, academia, addiction, Adult, ALIENATION, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, anxiety, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, atmospheric, California, campus, Chelsea Martin, class, coming of age, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, ennui, female authors, films, friendships, GUILT, identity, introspective, jealousy, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, mumblecore, navel gazing, no plot just vibes, PRIVILEGE, published in 2022, read in 2022, restrained prose, san francisco, SISTERS, Tell Me I'm an Artist, the female malaise, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE -
Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang
“Who knows. I could change my mind. It is changing all the time.” Days of Distraction should have been right up my street. Alas, it turned out not to be the ‘wry’, ‘tender’, and ‘offbeat coming-of-adulthood tale’ its blurb promised it’d be. Our quasi-unnamed narrator is a Chinese American woman in her early twenties who…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, California, China, chinese american author, coming of age, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, cultural dissonance, ennui, female authors, ithaca, loneliness, millennial, mumblecore, My reviews, navel gazing, new york state, published in 2020, RACE, read in 2021, reading, san francisco, slow pacing, subject over characters/story, unnamed narrator, work culture -
Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng
“After all, wasn’t it true that to love someone is to figure out how to tell yourself their story?” With understated lyricism, Feng charts the experiences of a family divided by physical and emotional borders that are nevertheless united in their pursuit of a more ‘promising’ future, for themselves and each other. The narrative intertwines…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 3.5 STARS, 3rd pov, America, beautiful prose, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, California, China, chinese american author, cultural dissonance, DEATH, disabilities, family, GRIEF, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, Linda Rui Feng, LITERARY FICTION, Longing, MARRIAGE, migration/immigration, music, musicians, My reviews, published in 2021, read in 2021, san francisco, Swimming Back to Trout River, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE -
Soy Sauce for Beginners by Kirstin Chen
In Soy Sauce for Beginners Kirstin Chen explores the dichotomy between tradition and modernity. When her marriage collapses our narrator and protagonist, Gretchen Lin, leaves San Francisco behind and returns to her family home in Singapore. Gretchen begins working at her family’s artisanal soy sauce business—hence the title—which was recently embroiled in a food-poising…
1st pov, 3 STARS, addiction, Adult, affairs, America, California, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, divorce/separations, drama, family, female authors, food & cooking, friendships, identity, intergenerational, jealousy, Kirstin Chen, MARRIAGE, published in 2014, read in 2021, san francisco, singapore, singaporean, Singaporean author, Soy Sauce for Beginners, work culture -
The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio
“One of the perks of being born neither in America or the Philippines. The only history he needed to know was his own.” A few weeks ago I read Lysley Tenorio’s collection of short stories, which had some real gems such as ‘Monstress’, and I was looking forward to reading his first novel. The Son…
3 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, America, American, coming of age, Contemporary, family, Filipino, filipino american author, identity, LGBTQ+ Author, Lysley Tenorio, male authors, migration/immigration, mothers & sons, philippines, published in 2020, read in 2020, san francisco, social issues, The Son of Good Fortune, work culture -
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
There are so many new releases that are focused on a particular family’s history, and there is a trend for storylines that follow members of a family through the decades (e.g. The Good Children, Commonwealth). The Immortalists might revolve around four siblings, but there was little – if any –interaction between them. This novel focused…
1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 3rd pov, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Chloe Benjamin, Contemporary, existentialism, family, FAMILY SAGA, female authors, gay, growing up, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, Jewish, labs, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, MAGICAL REALISM, MARRIAGE, san francisco, science, siblings, The Immortalists, why the hype
luce [is reading] 