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My first 5-star read of 2025 🤩
Nate and Koru seemed so real. All their family drama, cultural confusion, not wanting to have kids, pressures from work/parents/siblings, and especially just tension in their marriage - all of it was well-written and intense. Not intense like yelling and fighting, but rather like getting to the real heart of a person. A deep, deep book where people are just piddling about on vacations

Liked this one a lot! Though it pleased me perfectly well as a quirky, maybe-unlikable-but-also-relatable characters + marriage/family story, I thought it was also sneakily deep in its engagement with social issues, including race, culture, and politics.

Oh, there were parts of this that hit a little too close to home... But it also gave me some interesting perspective I didn't have before, which made it a really compelling read. A great way to start 2025.

Working on the super mega crossword while watching the snow come down. Finished Rental House and really liked it- really smart observations re race,class, marriage and ambition. Wangs writing has really matured since Chemistry which I also enjoyed

I‘ve got the perfect reading spot this week in Big Sky Montana and the book is good too. Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday

I low-key loved this. She took a married couple and showed the difficulties of their relationship in two bite-sized vacations. You first join them hosting each set of parents at the Jersey Shore. Wang highlighted the difficulties with in-laws in mixed-race marriages. Several years later the couple vacations alone in the Catskills, but nosy neighbors in the next bungalow bring out tensions in their now long-distance marriage.

An interracial couple deals with her Chinese immigrant parents, his right wing parents, and everyone‘s opinion about their choice to not have kids. This felt very topical and relatable to me as a left wing childfree person in our current moment.