Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“A woman’s life is endless work and suffering.”

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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CBR15 BINGO: Asia & Oceania, because it focuses on characters in Korea and Japan Pachinko is the saga of a Korean family that spans 79 years, beginning in Korea in 1910 and ending in Japan in 1989. Being a weighty tome covering five generations, it’s hard to summarize the plot, though the main story begins with Sunja, the only surviving child of a struggling Korean couple who run a boarding house in Busan, Korea. Sunja’s father, Hoonie, has a cleft palate and a crooked leg, […]

Myth, history and culture collide

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Ho Lin’s short story anthology was an interesting read. Each tale aimed to shed light on random moments from varying points of view. He pulls in the reader with unexpected juxtapositions of settings and tone. The collection exudes emotion as if the stories were collective memories meshed together. He rarely delves deep into any specific narratives. The stories bounced between Asia and American even within the same story. We meet an American ex-Pat in China, then a host of characters in San Francisco, while another […]

Crazy Rich Asians AKA Kevin Kwan was eavesdropping on my childhood

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My decision to read Crazy Rich Asians wasn’t an accidental one. I had just returned from a family wedding in Singapore, and being around so many of my relatives — some of whom I haven’t seen in more than 15 years — aroused such a bizarre sense of nostalgia. Part of it is comforting, like seeing the faces and personalities of my aunts and uncles (all of whom are physical variations of my mother); part of that nostalgia came with relief. It reminded me of how exhausting […]



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