Book cover of The Woman Warrior

Book description

With an introduction by Xiaolu Guo

A classic memoir set during the Chinese revolution of the 1940s and inspired by folklore, providing a unique insight into the life of an immigrant in America.

When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talking-story, we learned that we failed if we grew…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Woman Warrior as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Writers often ask, “What if I don’t know what really happened?” Memory is so slippery that many writers trip up with self-doubt. Here’s when I turn to Maxine Hong Kingston. Unable to hunt down the facts, Kingston instead revels in speculation: Maybe this is what happened, or maybe this. She might not know why her pregnant aunt drowned herself in the family well, but she sure as heck knows the impact of her aunt’s story on her family dynamics.

This is an exceptionally smart rendering of emotional truth regardless of facts, and as such, signs a permission slip for memoir…

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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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