Play Book Tag discussion

I know absolutely nothing about this book but it was recommended several times in the AAPI reading list thread and there was enough interest to warrant a buddy read.

May is actually AAPI Heritage month, so while we started the AAPI reading list and sharing ideas last month it is fitting we can keep the party going in May :)

I look forward to reading this with you all and sharing our thoughts here. Feel free to share spoilers, but try to note where you are in the book and use the spoiler function if you know how 👍

I’ll try and fit this one in this month!

I have this on my TBR, I may not be able to fit it in but will try

Yay, Nicole!!
And YAY, Joanne *>_<*

I understand if you can't, but when you do I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Meli, are you starting it right away?

I have it and am thrilled to be pushed to read it finally. Will be a couple weeks before I can start it thoufh. Reading less or more slowly these days

I had this planned for another challenge so I hope to join the discussion.

I read it last year so will follow the discussion. Not sure if I will have anything to add.

Nicole R wrote: "Meli, are you starting it right away?"

Not quite.
I have a couple other books for book clubs, so I was going to try and make some progress on those before digging into this one.

I finally started this last night.
Sorry, I got a late start because I was really struggling with one of my book club reads this month.

So much happens in the first 10 pages!
Completely hit the ground running.

This is also interesting because I just watched the first episode of the PBS series Asian Americans which focuses on the first Chinese immigrants, many who came too late for the gold rush but stayed to work on the railroad. 80~90% of the labor force were Chinese immigrants, but of course they only received posthumous recognition and in our most famous photograph commemorating the completion of the railroad there is not a Chinese face in sight.

So, always cool when different media converge.

I highly recommend the series on PBS, by the way. The first episode especially will tie in with this book.

Has anyone else started?

I found my copy of tbe book...

Will likely start this week. Looks pretty short after the chunksters lately.

I have actually read a fair amount of historical fiction about the Gold Rush both in California and Alaska. By the time most even in US heard about it, let alone got there, it was over. Remember it took months to travel. One if my faviorite fictional accounts is Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow. I reread it every few years.

I wish I could remember what I read that centered on the Chinese working on the railroads...too many years have gone by!

Theresa wrote: "I wish I could remember what I read that centered on the Chinese working on the railroads...too many years have gone by!"

Glad you found your copy!
No rush, but yes shorter than others books I've been reading as well.

If you remember re: Chinese working on the railroads, please let me know. I would be interested in reading more about it, fiction or otherwise.

I picked up my copy yesterday but still need to finish up/ start my Fly the Skies and Pursue it books. Hoping to start next week.

Read the first chapter last night! Interesting start and looking forward to seeing where this goes.

I read some more this weekend.
Kinda feel constantly on the edge of my seat because it is hard to fathom all the dangers lurking in the wild west for 2 young girls on the run 😢

Oh man! I really hope to start at the end of this week! Sounds like a great 3 day weekend read for me!

I have 2 short story collections to finish first, neither particularly long. Then I am diving in!

Just finished Chapter 3 when they find the salt and I'm kind of dying. It is an excellent solution for the problem but wow.

Definitely enjoying and indeed, who knows what will happen with this start.

Theresa wrote: "I found my copy of tbe book...

Will likely start this week. Looks pretty short after the chunksters lately.

I have actually read a fair amount of historical fiction about the Gold Rush both in Ca..."

Love Love Love Calico Palace. It was one of my favorites as a teenager. I haven't thought of it in years. I'll have to add it to my "Nostalgia Reread 2021 Tour".

I finished How Much of These Hills Is Gold and gave it a 3.5. I don't know what I was expecting but felt disappointed with it. I know I'm in the minority but I've forgotten almost everything about it now that I'm done. It might also be because I read three or four books since then that I absolutely loved. Two words........Armand Gamache. I hope you all enjoy it though.

Olivermagnus wrote: "I finished How Much of These Hills Is Gold and gave it a 3.5. I don't know what I was expecting but felt disappointed with it. I know I'm in the minority but I've forgotten almost everything about it now that I'm done. It might also be because I read three or four books since then that I absolutely loved. Two words........Armand Gamache. I hope you all enjoy it though."

I look forward to reading your review after I finish.
I should get more done (finish?) this weekend since I get 3 days off (WOOHOO!).

My problem is every freakin book I am reading lately is so depressing. I am getting fatigued... I need something that is either light and fluffy, or mindless, or if traumatic more fantasy - not real traumas.

If this book will be consistently devastating, and I don't see how it couldn't be, I am not sure I will land too favorably.
But so far I like the characters (Sam is easily my favorite lil spitfire), the story is fascinating, and the writing is great.

Meli wrote: " Olivermagnus wrote: "I finished How Much of These Hills Is Gold and gave it a 3.5. I don't know what I was expecting but felt disappointed with it. I know I'm in the minority but I've forgotten al..."

Agreed, bring on the beach reads!

Still haven’t started it and I may have missed my window!

Jen K wrote: "Agreed, bring on the beach reads!"

No shit! Couldn't have come at a better time, thank you PBT members 🙏🏼

Nicole R wrote: "Still haven’t started it and I may have missed my window!"

The page count is short, but reads kinda slow because the font is small (I think). We are getting a late start, so I think if you can fit it in you should join us!

I finally finished my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I liked it but I didn't love it.

Jen K wrote: "I finally finished my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I liked it but I didn't love it."

Same. I rated it a 3 as well. I remember it being a little disjointed. I live in Northern California and expected to be more able to follow their location. I finally figured at one point they were around Mount Diablo, which isn't where the gold mining was done.

Same! All three of us are at 3.

I will get my review up soon, but basically the structure and pacing were just off. It started off real strong then I was less engaged as it went on.

Sam was the standout for me.

Sam was fascinating. I would have loved Sam's POV and more story.

Just started it, and wow does that first chapter pack a wallop!

I just picked this up again...after getting one of my trim out of the way, plus FtS and Pursue reads. I am at page 50 and it seems to me to be taking a weird turn...or weirder.

I have 2 other books that must be finished this week. This might go on hiatus a bit.

Olivermagnus wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I Love Love Love Calico Palace. It was one of my favorites as a teenager. I haven't thought of it in years. I'll have to add it to my "Nostalgia Reread 2021 Tour".

You should also read Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow if you haven't. That was actually her best seller and fits with Calico Palace.

I didn't read any comments in case there are spoilers, but I have a question. Do you think this would be a good book for the cultural tag?

I just got this book from the library and hope to read it soon.

NancyJ wrote: "I didn't read any comments in case there are spoilers, but I have a question. Do you think this would be a good book for the cultural tag?"

What is the culture tag?
Not a spoiler, but it covers Chinese coming to the US to help build the railroad... would that be culture?
Some dress and customs are referenced, but it is not an overall theme (I don't think) as much as just being different is a theme.

I am not sure how this "cultural" tag works now that I have checked the list, but since this deals with the immigrant experience it looks like it would fit!

Once again, I am the caboose on the buddy read train, which is pretty amusing considering how fast I read, how I always finish what I start, and read a LOT of books. This is a new record though - a full year and a half after everyone else finished. My bookmark was still sitting at page 50! Good thing I consider any buddy read evergreen and worthy of my eventual comments.

I still have 60 or so pages to go - the last part. It's my book with a tiger on the cover for Popsugar prompt, and I have been planning to pick it up and finish it since Jan 1! Finally this week, I picked it back up.

When I stopped reading it last year, it was taking a weird, grim turn that didn't jive with the strong intriguing start. It has been moving quickly this time. But.... I am thinking this is only going to get 2 stars from me. It feels like the book is a failure, and I don't get how it made the Booker short list (although in truth I rarely see why any are on the Booker long or short lists). It is definitely suffering by comparison to In the Distance by Hernan Diaz which I read and loved and totally appreciated in the last month. It also does not stand up to On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family, Lisa See's history of her family.

The jumping time periods make no sense to me, and in fact killed the momentum of the story. The section where the dead father's .... ghost? Spirit? Memory? ... is telling Lucy the family history and about the mother just seemed pointless and unnecessary and since he says he actually told Sam the story while he was alive, why is it not Sam telling it to Lucy on this journey? I really think it would have been better told sequentially, with the history of the family interspersed in various more organic ways.

I am at this point assuming this is less historical fiction about asians building the railroads and arriving to prospect for gold than the story of an asian family (presumably Chinese?), 3/4's of whom were born in the western US, continue to be foreign outcasts and needing to rely on the strength of family unity to survive. But so far even that fails.

I know you all loved Sam but I don't. I find her supremely selfish, immature, even crazy - and not because she pretends she is male with a fake penis. She is only a year younger than Lucy, yet she seems to be bent on living in this desperately inhospitable territory living on air, thinking as a very young child thinks? Contrast Sam with the boy Hakån in In the Distance. Given the lives Sam and Lucy have lived, neither Lucy nor Sam could possibly be as naive as presented here, or as alienated from each other.

I also found the inability to place it geographically off-putting. The same geographic vagueness did not bother me in the Hernan Diaz. I also found the tiger imagery confusing and unhelpful. It is supposed to bring luck to the home? Protect the home? Yet the real appearance of a tiger dead or alive triggers a bad turn for the family? Again, I feel it a miss by the author.

I do applaud the author for the attempt at a truer, grittier western and telling the story of the asians who came during the Gold Rush and the railroad building lured by false promises. It just didn't work.

I think I need to delve into a Zane Grey or Louis L'Amour, or a Longmire, or even just a cowboy Christmas Romance to pull myself out of the trough of despair about the Old West this has dropped me into.

I finished it. I found the ending irritating - author's way of talking round things, sort of metaphorically or poerically or just trying to be clever and let reader decide what happens to Kucy. Or Sam for that matter seeking home where she may fit in ohysically but not otherwise.

Although Sam returning, though no surprise really, did let me like her as a character really.