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RJ

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RJ is Currently Reading

RJ is currently reading

Swing Time

by Zadie Smith

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Oct 15, 2016 04:10AM

RJ is currently reading

The Wangs vs. the World

by Jade Chang (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in October 2016

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RJ said: " When Charles Wang moves to America as a young man, all that he possesses are his indomitable spirit and ambition. Years later, when Charles Wang, the business tycoon, loses his makeup empire and his assets to the financial crisis crippling the econom When Charles Wang moves to America as a young man, all that he possesses are his indomitable spirit and ambition. Years later, when Charles Wang, the business tycoon, loses his makeup empire and his assets to the financial crisis crippling the economy, all that he has left are his indomitable spirit and ambition. That, and a family in tow.
In order to get back all the material wealth he has lost, he embarks on a cross-country trip with his second wife Barbra (Yes, like Streisand!), his daughter Grace, and his son Andrew. They pack up their left-over possessions into an old Mercedes, and drive towards where his oldest daughter, Saina, lives. Charles dreams of going to China, reclaim his ancestral land, and thus some of his wealth.
The question is, is Charles' spirit alone enough to weather all that has happened? Grace and Andrew have lost their places in their school and university, Barbra loses her comfort and luxury. Saina, in the meanwhile, is grappling with a disastrous career move, and a rather calamitous love life. The sudden poverty they've been plunged to is startling to all of them, and even the very vocabulary of poverty seems strange to them.
None of them, it seems, can catch a break. How,then, are the Wangs going to make it across the country, settle down with Saina, and help Charles make his way to China, where he surely will have to battle the State to get his land back? Even if he does so, is that enough?
The journey that the Wangs undertake in the book is both literal and metaphorical. As they travel from Bel-Air to Catskills, the Wangs piece themselves back. They reclaim bits of themselves, their roots, their identities. As a family, they move from being dysfunctional to realizing each others' worth. Perhaps what indeed does matter is the journey, not the destination.
This book is endearing, insightful, and humorous. The characters are very well written, and their stories blend in very comfortably. There are some scenes that are just very touching, and the kind that tend to stay with you long after you've finished the book. There are wry observations that make you go, damn, that's spot on! Overall, the Wangs vs the World is a delightful read, and deserves all the buzz it's been getting. ...more "

Oct 22, 2016 10:54AM · see review

RJ is currently reading

A Fraction of the Whole

by Steve Toltz

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Aug 17, 2016 04:20AM

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RJ’s Quotes

“Ignorance killed the cat; curiosity was framed!”
― C. J. Cherryh

2374 likes

“What about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls? When you skateboarded down the street at night you could hear everyone's heartbeat, and they could hear yours, sort of like sonar. One weird thing is, I wonder if everyone's hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about, but don't really want to know about. That would be so weird, except that the place in the hospital where babies are born would sound like a crystal chandelier in a houseboat, because the babies wouldn't have had time to match up their heartbeats yet. And at the finish line at the end of the New York City Marathon it would sound like war.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

tags: heartfelt-vernacular

954 likes

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

tags: life

11451 likes

“You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

tags: unique

2936 likes