American Born Chinese

My first graphic novel of the year is the young adult gem, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.  This quickly-moving piece weaves together three stories.  One is a parable about a monkey king with super powers including flight, immortality, and super-strength…but who is still just a monkey and therefore treated like a second-rate citizen by the other gods.  The second story is about Jin Wang, a typical second-generation Chinese American who must deal with the usual teenage growing pains on top of being continuously stereotyped by his teachers (who introduce him as Jing Jang from China instead of Jin Wang from San Francisco) and white classmates (who immediately ask if his family eats dogs).  The third section of this story features Chin-Kee, who is an offensive caricature of a Chinese relative who comes to visit his very white jock cousin Danny.

I was initially intrigued by the first section, captivated by the second, and bewildered by the third (which seemed offensive and out of place at first).  However, the second time through each section, the author does some very Almodóvar-esque tying together of these disparate stories.  My eyes popped, my jaw dropped, my mind was blown, and then I ran out of clichés just as I finished the last page.  I wholeheartedly recommend American Born Chinese.

The Liebster Award

Thank you so much Heather Ellis for our Liebster Award nomination!

Link to her blog: http://heatherellisbooks.wordpress.com/

1) What is your favourite book of all time? Well there are so many great books that I have loved over the years, but I’m from the Harry Potter generation, so I’m going to go with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

2) Have you ever met anyone famous? No, I have not. I’m not sure I would do anything if I did.

3) Do you like sports, what is your favourite? I love sports! I love playing volleyball. My favorite sport is actually football. My team just happened to win the nfc championship last week. I’m extra excited for the superbowl! Go hawks!

4) What is your favourite, juice, tea or coffee? I am definitely a coffee person, but not everday. Juice is really good too though…

5) Where is your favourite place in the world? I haven’t been to too many places, but my favorite place to be is home.

6) What was the last movie you watched? The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

7) Do you have any new years resolutions? I guess I want to read a lot more books this year, if that counts.

8) Have you stuck to your new years resolution? Yes, I’ve actually already  finished 2 books and I’m halfway through 2 more.

9) What is your favourite music band? The Black Keys

10) Do you plan an instrument? I used to play the clarinet, but it’s been a long time.

The rules for Liebster Award are as follows:
•Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
•Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
•Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
•Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
•Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.

We have nominated the following bloggers for the Liebster Award:

1. The Bibliophibian

http://breathesbooks.wordpress.com/

2. The Skiffy and Fanty show

http://skiffyandfanty.com/

3. NovelSisters

http://lydiamhill.wordpress.com/

4. Mummy’s to do list

http://mummystodolist.wordpress.com/

5. slate breakers

http://slatebreakers.com/

6. Librarian Arika

http://librarianarika.wordpress.com/

7. The BookYArd Writers

http://bookyardwriters.wordpress.com/

8. Tammie Painter

http://tammiepainter.com/

9. Tiffany Samson

http://tiffanysamson.wordpress.com/

10. Shells of Our Minds

http://smames.wordpress.com/

10 questions for you to answer:

1. Why did you start your blog?

2. Who is your favorite book character?

3. What is one of your favorite quotes?

4. If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you meet?

5. What would you name the autobiography of your life?

6. What’s your favorite indoor/outdoor activity?

7. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?

8. 15 hours of a train journey through a scenic route or a 1 hour plane journey?

9. If you were to get an opportunity to live anywhere in the world, which place would you choose?

10. Would you ever go skydiving/bungee jumping/deep sea diving/paragliding?

New Year’s Books?

How many books do you want to read this year? We want to read 30-35 each!