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Years ago, Lieutenant Abby Mullen survived the infamous Wilcox cult. Now working as a hostage negotiator for the NYPD, nothing fazes her anymore… at least she thought. When fellow survivor Eden Fletcher comes to Abby for help finding her kidnapped son, Abby can’t help but wonder why a kidnapper would target Eden. But Eden refuses to talk. She’s silent about the relics of their shared past hanging on her walls. About the kidnapper’s possible motives. About what’s happened in the years since she and Abby parted ways.
Welcome to Read This Book, a newsletter where I recommend one book that should absolutely be put at the top of your TBR pile. Recommended books will vary across genre and age category and include shiny new books, older books you may have missed, and some classics I suggest finally getting around to. Make space for another pile of books on your floor because here we go!
Today’s pick is, in my opinion, one of the best books of 2020. It’s on a lot of recent book lists in response to the rise in anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander violence. It has spent multiple weeks on the New York Times’ Best Sellers list and deservedly so.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Content warnings for racism, primarily anti-Asian racism, lychings, rape, violence against women including murder.
This book is phenomenal and some of the best creative nonfiction I have ever read. It is simultaneously the embrace of a shared experience, a kick in the face, and a punch in the heart. Cathy Park Hong explores her immediate, singular experiences as a daughter of Korean immigrants in some parts of the book, while interrogating the wide range of experiences of Asian Americans and Asians in America. We are not a monolith, yet so often treated as such. Our oppressions range from shared to pointedly personal. The author writes about the external oppressions, the hate, and the racism in both American history and American present as well as in academia and media. She also writes about the unique ways that we as Asians sometimes interact with other Asians who are not our same ethnicity.
The places Hong brings us as readers are unexpected but deeply relevant. She goes into detail about the United Airlines Express Flight 3411, when a Vietnamese American passenger, David Dao Duy Anh was violently removed from the plane when he did not give up his seat. Many of us saw the two-minute viral video, but Hong tells us so much about the story I hadn’t realized. It is absolutely heartbreaking. Another section is dedicated to the artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, who was brutally raped and murdered. The case had little coverage, and though her work has been shown in many places, Hong was curious as to why no one would talk about her death. The chapter about the ways that language is used to both racially oppress and racially glorify is alone worth the price of admission.
This book has fundamentally changed the way I think, especially the way I think about what I see in the media. It’s an absolutely fantastic read.
That’s it for now, book-lovers!
Patricia
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