Book Recommendations

[chonies]

Interesting, thanks smitten! I've read it, or started it and abandoned it to be more precise, but I don't think that would be the same since it's fantasy, anyway. Although...maybe I could get through it if I approach it through the Pearl S. Buck lens. I really loved the concept of book but I thought it need better shaping and a heavy hand from an editor.

The list of Newbery winners has a lot of books that are written about a people or culture by people outside that culture. Julie of the Wolves, Black Pearl, Shen of the Sea, Sing Down the Moon, A Girl Named Disaster, and others that I didn't catch. I don't have a problem with the concept at all--it didn't occur to me as a category until last night. I asked my coworker what she liked about The Good Earth and she said she knew it was all history, and it wasn't surprising, and she liked to see how other people wrote about it. So, selfishly, I want the same.

[sumire]

Not a book recommendation, but regarding this situation--

Jun 7, 2016 21:10:54 GMT -4 chonies said:

I expressed surprise that this person, who is from China and has only been in the US for a decade or so, considers the The Good Earth one of her favorite books. I gawped for a bit--I don't know what I was actually thinking, but it just seemed kind of jarring.

--I'm assuming that English is not her native language, so I'm not at all surprised. Based on my attempts to read in a second language acquired in more-or-less-adulthood, it's infinitely smoother going when the subject matter is something you already know about. The first (actually, still pretty much the only) Japanese novels I read were this series of mass-market mystery novels set in my home state of Hawaii. All the detail of the writing was in descriptions of (the Japanese author's idea of) the local lifestyle written for a Japanese audience. The Good Earth does something similar, painting a picture of China for an insular 1930s American audience. If you already have some familiarity with what the author is trying to describe, it's easier to glean new vocabulary and grammar from context and maintain the flow of your concentration on the story, which makes for a more pleasant reading experience.

Aside from that, though, or in addition to that, 1) The Good Earth is a really good book, 2) it's a really famous book, and 3) your acquaintance apparently is not the only Chinese person to really like it:

Min read that paperback copy of The Good Earth on the airplane from Chicago to Los Angeles. When she finished, she says, emotion overcame her.

"I couldn't help myself, and I broke down and sobbed because I have never seen anyone, including our Chinese authors, who wrote our peasants the way Pearl Buck did, with such love, affection and humanity. And it was at that very moment Pearl of China was conceived."

Oh, and getting back to your request for recommendations--what about, like, Vladimir Nabokov? Lolita and Pnin? (Those are the only two books of his I've ever read, so I don't know what else he's written that's set in the US.)

He's an immigrant, though--I think your request for an author who's "not an immigrant" is going to rule out a ton of people. I'll bet a lot of the books that fit your description are only available in Swedish or Japanese or Italian or something.

ETA: Oh, I just remembered I read an English book that matches your description exactly--I picked it up from the freebie shelf in my apartment lobby last year. It's written by a Japanese guy who spent some time in the US, and it's about a Japanese college student in the US chafing against his parents' pressuring him to move back to Japan and conform to Japanese society. A friendly midwestern farm family takes him in when his car breaks down on a cross-country trip, and while working on the farm and living with the family, the protagonist comes to the revolutionary discovery that rebellious sons chafe against strict fathers everywhere. Towards the end of the book, the American misfit younger son has a big fight with his dad, runs away, and comes back announcing that he's joined the military; the protagonist asks his American girlfriend to marry him; the protagonist learns that his father has just keeled over and died back in Japan; and then there's a huge fire that destroys the farm.

The book is terrible. If it's not vanity-published, it's, like, just a smidge above it.

[chonies]

Thanks, sumire! The language aspect occurred to me, for sure--when I was teaching ESL, the students were way more engaged when they could talk about their lives at home in English, rather than learning "American" vocabulary scenarios, at least at first.

I don't know much about my colleague's life--for me, books about rural settings about be about as equally alien as anything from a different country.

[trifle]

Maybe Changing Places by David Lodge? I haven't read that one, only Nice Work.

[chonies]

Maybe! I've just discovered the campus/academia novel genre, so maybe I'll put that in that column.

[smitten]

I just want to post this on one other thread, since I can never be sure how much traffic the "Pimp your site" thread gets. And I know we have so many librarians and librarian-adjacent greecies!

As some of you know, I'm working on a November ballot issue trying to get a new library built in my town, outside of Chicago. But our committee is running out of money. We've gone through the 300 yard signs we ordered like water, and we desperately need more but need about $300 to make it happen.

If you would indulge me a little, we could use donations from anywhere and can take them on our youcaring page here:

YouCaring Page

Thank you all for being such an awesome community that I feel comfortable asking something like this, which is never easy.

ETA: the proper link

[smitten]

I know at least one of you helped out, secrets secrets! thank you so much! We needed about $700 and wound up with close to double that! Signs are ordered. Things are looking good. Go Libraries!!

[chiqui]

Glad you were able to get the signs!

[smitten]

Thank you! We are supposed to get the new ones this week and now the donations are pouring in. Now we just need good vibes for the referendum to actually pass!!!

This has taught me how votes are so much more important than money. You can get a lot of money from one person, but only one vote. Down with Citizens United.

[chonies]

This is a mix of "Everything you wanted to know" and a bit of other stuff, but can anyone recommend a book, movie, documentary or even a thoughtful long-form article that deals with actual sexuality of young people in the 1950s? I would also love information about young people's sexual lives in Europe from the same time period. I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year, but I like my idea enough to keep it around, and my story is about a young man in 1950s New York City*, so things...I need a bit more information about.

*Not Holden Caulfield.