Maan | 
pick“the room was aglow with red-not the red of love but that of luck. Superstition dictated that each gift be be wrapped in that colour, which represents good fortune, because newlyweds need a lot of luck to find the balance that allows two individuals to build a single shared life.”
pickKim Thúy's writing is just so ELEGANT, y'all. She offers the reader a wealth of vignettes that slip around and through one another to create a portrait of Mãn's emotional life, limned by the foods that call to mind particular experiences and relationships. There's almost no plot, but that doesn't matter. Each scene forms a complete world.
Reading Mãn by Kim Thuy and thinking about the durian party at my auntie‘s house in Singapore some weeks back when we were visiting. I fled indoors, away from the smell, but of course can one really hide from the pungent odor?
Last days of the year and we are all #survivingdecember as best we can. Two wonderful, quick read to discover an amazing writer, another culture and how one survives despite great odds. I love Kim Thuy. #openyourmindtoothers
pickThis has to be read in book format. The way the text is printed, the typography, the layout are essential for the experience of reading about the heroine's journey from war torn Vietnam to Montreal. Thuy is able to make you smell, almost taste the food her character prepares with so much love.
This is also a journey for the reader through the many forms of love. Family, frienship, comfort, tenderness, passionate love.
French Canadian beef stew with a Vietnamese twist. Great pairing for book club discussion of Man by Kim Thuy
pickQuiet book that tackles immigration, family, marriage. Great passages on food and language. I will definitely be reading Thuy's Ru. 📚😍
#litsypoetry365 Today's poem brought to you my current read, a quiet, touching story of a Vietnamese woman in Montreal.
pickThis has to be read in book format. The way the text is printed, the typography, the layout are essential for the experience of reading about the heroine's journey from war torn Vietnam to Montreal. Thuy is able to make you smell, almost taste the food her character prepares with so much love. This is also a journey for the reader through the many forms of love. Family, frienship, comfort, tenderness, passionate love.
pickAlmost finished. I much preferred her first book, Ru. So for anyone who has not read her, I would recommend reading Ru first. That being said, this was a good read. Her books consist of one page chapters that weave together to create a beautiful picture of her life experiences. Great author.
Given everything that happened this month, not a bad tally. I have a couple of really good books I'm working on that will show up in next month's totals (Notorious RBG and A Gentleman in Moscow).
Question: if you read a book in multiple formats, how do you choose to tally it? I have 0 e-books listed, but in reality 6-7 of the books I read I bounced between hard copy and e-book format. Curious how others handle. #photoadaynov16 #bestofnovember
pickI had the privilege of hearing Kim Thuy speak tonight. She was, by turns, incredibly funny and charming, but the most compelling moment came when she described her time as a refugee (her family were "boat people" who fled Vietnam in 1978). "A refugee has no past and no future. They live only in the moment." She also noted that refugees will continue to risk the boats, despite the odds, because "they are dead either way". A timely reminder.??
Cold and blustery out tonight, as winter has descended on southern Canada, and unfortunately I have to go out in it to take my daughter to her trampoline practice. So I'm squeezing in some cozy couch cuddles with the dog and speeding through a re-read of this book in anticipation of an author event tomorrow night.
pickSpare and understated, I love Kim Thúy's prose and her ability to draw her characters and events with a few deft strokes. Be warned though, you WILL crave Vietnamese food!
pickAn arranged marriage makes her Canadian. Her Vietnamese cuisine makes her famous. A French chef makes her adulterous. Thuy's lyrical prose was often breathtaking but I must also admit this sparse, fragmentary novel made me crave Vietnamese food far, far more than it made me care about any of its characters.
For me, this one's not so much a #MisogynyMinute as it is an eyerolling #SliceOfSexism...
SASKATCHEWAN BOOK HAUL - BOOK #9
I finally got one of her books! I remember hearing Rebecca and Liberty rave about this Vietnamese-Canadian writer quite a while back; if memory serves, it was on one of their very first All The Books podcasts, and I remember thinking how impressive it was that these two American book experts knew about her, and how depressing that I was hearing about her for the very first time.
I'm not officially participating in #24in48, but do have some reader problems to address. I'm 3 books behind in my reading goal and need to catch up this weekend! I keep short books on my TBR for just such an occasion. Looking for to seeing what everyone is reading for readathon!
pick"Sad and poetic book about love and loneliness and Vietnamese food." - @Amanda
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