#american panda

[ijustkindalikebooks]

Library book haul #2.

[montagov]

@lit-society book fair 4: on campus — american panda

I like you, Darren, Lord Pecan, Sir Almond, and I want to date you, and just you. Like normal MIT students. I want to awkwardly hold your hand, share bowls of liquid nitrogen ice cream, and drop metallic sodium in the Charles.

[the--art--of--reading]

book review | American Panda

Author: Gloria Chao

Genre: YA fiction, romance

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

American Panda is the book you didn't know you needed right now. Besides being a great way to diversify your reading list with a relatable POC main character, the themes explored in this novel go deep. Readers will follow Mei's journey as she struggles to figure out what she truly wants in life, despite her oftentimes overbearing parents. Read on for the review!

This is an ownvoices novel and Mei's experiences resonated with me several times throughout the book. Pleasing parents who were raised in a different culture from you is no easy feat and I loved how the author portrayed Mei's feelings and internal conflicts so realistically. I cannot speak to Taiwanese, Chinese, or Asian-American culture, but there are so many overlaps with the first generation American experience here and they were very well done. I liked Mei as a character. She was written as well rounded and had all of the same anxieties as a typical college student as well as some quirks (her thing with germs? I think we all can relate to that right now). I didn't really see the humor that was gushed about in several of the back cover reviews, but that's probably just me. I also enjoyed the character development in her mother and how their relationship developed as the plot progressed. Despite the title, there were few truly black and white characters to be found. The writing confused me at times. Some of the transitions within scenes was a bit jarring with sudden shifts in focus or action. I liked that the author included Chinese words within the dialogue as well as little excerpts between chapters of voicemail transcripts and texts. It added some interest to the plot and helped with the transition between sections. Overall, this was a solid read and a nice surprise as I grabbed it off a library shelf on a whim. If you enjoyed seeing Mei and her mother's relationship evolve (plus more dancing), I'd recommend I'll Be the One. For those who were drawn to the college meet cute and romance, check out Fangirl.

[princessofbookaholics]

Disappointing Reads of 2020

Disappointing Reads of 2020

2020 is coming to a close and this year was the year I read the most books! But all books can’t be the best, right? I normally don’t tend to give a low rating but there were quite a few books that disappointed me this year that I wanted to warn you guys about so sit back and get ready for my rant:

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

After loving Caravalso much, I immediately dived into the sequel…

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[emilies-book-club]

American Panda by Gloria Chao

I read this in: February 2020 Rating: 3/6 stars

I have been searching for a book to read about college instead of high school for a little while now. I love YA, but I’ve only been reading about high school kids so far, and as I am 22 (turning 23 soon), I thought I was ready to move on to read about people my age instead of all the 17-year-olds. 

I read a short summary about this book before reading it, saying how it was about this Chinese girl in college who experiences pressure from her parents to become a doctor, but doesn’t like her major and doesn’t actually want to become one. That’s what it said. I thought like okay cool, that can happen to all of us, right? Little did I know, this book focuses more on her strict parents and the dilemma of being a Chinese girl with Chinese parents and traditions to follow in America. The book contained a lot of Chinese phrases, and there was even a section in the beginning of the book that explained how exactly you’re supposed to pronounce all the Chinese words in the book. At first, I thought it was pretty cool, like look at me I’m learning Chinese, but after about 5-6 of these words, I couldn’t really focus anymore, and I mostly just skimmed the words but didn’t understand what they meant. Sure, I learned that ‘mom’ mŭqīn and ‘dad’ is babá, and although it was fun to begin with, all the other words were skipped.

Anyways, let’s talk more in detail about my thoughts on this book. I love Mei as a character. I think she’s funny, independent and someone I would look up to if I knew her in real life. She is strong and thoughtful, and I really enjoyed reading about her story.  I also loved Darren. He is very sweet but not very present in the book. However, I actually liked that about the book. I feel like most writers turn any problem into romance-related problems, and choose to mainly focus on the relationships, as if relationships cured all the problems in the world. In this book, it’s only Mei as a person who can fix her problems, and it’s not a knight in shining armor who comes to her rescue. Sure, Darren does exist in the book and is there to support Mei, but the book doesn’t focus on him which I really liked. The book was well-written and very funny, and I truly did laugh out loud sometimes. I loved it when Mei and her mother (or mŭqīn) finally bonded and apologized to each other, and even though I couldn’t relate to their issues (as the 100% Danish girl I am) I was still touched and felt empathy.

Now, the reason for its 3/6 stars is mainly because of my expectations of this book. I thought it would focus more on her college life rather than family issues, and I didn’t really find the book very interesting before I had read about 200 pages. That’s where the drama finally started happening, and after that, I couldn’t put the book down. However, I don’t think a book should take 200 pages to get exciting. I continued, because I wanted to know what Mei chose to do with her doctor-problem. If it wasn’t for that, I would probably have returned the book before finishing.

I think this book is mainly for people wanting to learn about the ups and downs of Chinese culture, or for anyone who can relate to Mei in terms of her background. Sure, I enjoyed this book and thought it was hilarious and sweet, but I was still a little disappointed.

[-outofcontext-]

American Panda #OutOfContext

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

#ThisAgain Challenge - July 6th - To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Read-a-like: YA contemporaries featuring Asian-American characters! 

American Panda by Gloria Chao  Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P Nguyen Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo

[the-book-ferret]

Otterly in Love