Three Thoughtful⏳☕️, Sometimes Difficult 🍽️🤑, Books 🕌🧕

 

painful, eye-opening, sensual, tactile

    I found Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang challenging, not because it wasn't well written and complex, but because the topic is abrasive and terrifying. Zhang skillfully juggled many themes like rich versus poor, weak versus strong, insider versus outsider. She creates a dystopian world covered in a cloud of smog that causes crops to fail and vegetation to die. An aspiring chef with a failing career applies for a restaurant position that caters to the 1%. It's located high in the mountains where the sun can still penetrate. What does it take to work for the ultrarich in a time of famine? What is uncompromisable? How much of the chef's uniqueness can she retain and still be herself? In the book, at least partly about identity, the main character is never named. 

    Zhang's writing gives fleshy and sensual descriptions of food and pleasure against a backdrop of poverty and separation. It is disconcerting. It feels obscene. This was a powerful book that has caused me to examine personhood afresh. That's good, not fun.

🍓🍎🍫🍽️🤑

    I have read Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Tashikazu Kawaguchi (review here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Before+the+Coffee+Gets+Cold) and was excited to read the sequel Before Your Memory Fades. It is an uplifting collection of different characters and why they would want to travel back in time knowing they can only stay fifteen minutes. During their visit, they can't change the present or get up from their chair. This book is an excellent answer to the aphorism, "You can't change the past." However, you can change how you perceive the past. That's important. Before Your Memory Fades revolves around an imaginary book called What if the World Were Ending Tomorrow? 100 Questions. The answers reveal what the characters value and point them to their true desires. The book is both thought-provoking and heartwarming.

🕰️⏳☕️💝

    I was browsing my local Barnes and Noble on Saturday, thinking about Christmas gifts, and I checked out the award winners in the children's section. I picked up Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. The goal of the book is to represent those like the author. It is a peek into a world I know little about. Jude is a  child sent to America with her mother because of the unrest in her home country of Syria. She encounters misinformation and prejudice, but also makes new friends and has new experiences. Warga depicts the conflict within Jude well and how people can be a mix. Some are generous and friendly, others unkind. Jude rises to the occasion. 

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