Two Terrific Books with a Lunar New Year Twist
Hey Hungry Readers,
I've never really been a huge Valentine's Day person, but then like hating Valentine's became a personality, and I am contrarian enough to hate that. Also, I don't hate it. I once went out to a dinner and a show with a friend, (yes, just a friend, we were not even fake dating) and it was an amazing time.
In that funny convergence of things, I have a friend I usually go to get Lunar New Year ice cream with. Except the place we used to meet at just closed. And the place's other nearest location in being renovated, (which yay!). So, boo. Disruption. So, same ice cream place had a Valentine's Day pack you could preorder, and I was like fine, I'll order ice cream. I am aware it will arrive to late for the Lunar New Year this year, but whatever. It's ice cream and brownies, there's not really a wrong time to eat it.
But while I think it's fun to read romance all year long. This is also the time of year other folks who don't always think about romance novels, remember romance novels.
So, usually I tell you about two terrific books I have recently read. And include the bookshop links. And I will still do that. Or Barnes and Noble, if it's not on bookshop. But if you want two Lunar New Year set stories, I also have two of those I love to recommend. One is in an anthology and came out a while ago, and one is a novella.
"Six" by Marjorie M. Liu, is a romantic fantasy that about a deadly agent on a stakeout in a brothel during Lunar New Year, when a strange man comes in and throws everything off. This book came out long enough ago that it appears to only be available in e, though check your library also. The book itself is called Holidays are Hell, and I also adore the Thanksgiving story in there, and reread it every year.
On a very different note, Jackie Lau's A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year. He brings home a fake girlfriend to stop his family from matchmaking. I wonder what happens next?
And my two that I recently read are:
Conjure Island by Eden Royce, is a military kid about to start summer in a new house with her grandmother when her grandmother falls ill, and her dad is away and can't get back, so tells her she's going to meet her previously unknown great grandmother who runs a school. It is a magic school. The timeline is tight, and I want to tell you that you have to read with your kid glasses on. Because she gets in trouble and then sneaks away to do the exact same thing again, twice. This is not to say Del and her new roomie Eva aren't great, they are. But they are young, as they should be.
Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones. I listened this memoir in audio, and there's a note that the audio has like three hours of extra content. I think in stand up style, she wrote the whole book, but didn't want to
just read, so used the book as kind of a launching pad and told stories that thing reminded her of. So, in some ways it feels like a very long, raw stand up, session. Also, I have never heard someone take so much joy in reading the credits before.
Content note: discussions of surgery and recovery, parental death, sibling death, cheating, recreational drug use.
Okay, this was a long one, but happy reading. I hope whatever holidays you are or are not having are wonderful.