Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Hasu August GENRE: Contemporary Drama PUBLICATION DATE: January 14, 2025 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary drama about the struggles faced by an ordinary family in China. Has some interesting topics that aren’t commonly seen in OwnVoices Chinese fiction, but the plot needs more structuring. The blurb is somewhat misleading, but surprisingly, the actual content is even better than the blurb. A good option if you aren’t too fussy about a meandering writing style. Plot Preview: Thirty-three-year-old Jade Bai, an HR professional with an MNC, is married into an influential family. Her father-in-law is a top-tier government official, leading to his getting many envelopes to earn favour, though he always refuses the offerings thanks to his uprightness. When Jade becomes pregnant, her mind goes to through the events of the past seven years, many of which have left long-term guilt, grief, and trauma. Can she let go of the past and accept the pregnancy? The story comes to ...

AUTHOR: Helen H. Wu ILLUSTRATOR: Zihua Yang GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: January 7, 2025 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A wonderful OwnVoices picture book about a young girl’s attempt at making the perfect pot for the lunar year. Great story, great life lessons, great illustrations, great representation, great information. Recommended! Plot Preview: Ping and her grandpa have brought home a little tangerine tree for the Lunar New Year. The tree is lovely but the pot it is planted in is plain. So Ping decides to make the perfect pot to go with the special tree. This task turns out to be tougher than she assumed as all her attempts fail in some way or the other. What if she cannot make the perfect pot in time for the celebrations? Will the new year be ruined? I like how the setting isn’t specified in the book. So the story can fit in any Asian location celebrating this special occasion as well as in an Asian-dominant locality in another country such as the...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Cai Tse GENRE: Middle-grade Graphic Novel. PUBLICATION DATE: August 13, 2024 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade graphic novel about two lion dancers who realise the value of team spirit. Excellent information on lion dancing. Great lessons on working as a team. Good characters. Straightforward story. Wonderful illustrations. Recommended. Plot Preview: Wei had always dreamt of becoming a champion lion dancer just like his dad. He enjoyed training as the ’lion head’, with his best friend Hung performing as the ‘lion tail.’ However, after Wei’s dad suddenly passed away, the friendship as well as the dream shattered. Now, two years later, Wei is stuck in a rut of frustration. Though great in studies, he has no talent for any sport. When he discovers the existence of a junior lion dance training group nearby, he reignites his old passion. The only problem is that Hung is also part of this group. Now Wei and Hung need to overpower their animosity and l...

AUTHOR: Juli Min GENRE: Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: May 7, 2024 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A literary fiction structured in reverse, going from 2040 to 2014. Character-driven all the way. The structure is what will make or break your experience. I loved it, despite the few gaps in the jigsaw. A marvellous debut. And guess what, I am an outlier… on the positive side – Yippee! 🥳 Plot Preview: 2040. After dropping off his family at the airport, real estate businessman and Shanghai local Leo Yang is in the train back to the city. On the journey, he mulls over why his wife insisted on accompanying his two elder daughters to Boston, though they are grown up enough to travel independently. Leo’s family comprises his wife Eko, an artistic Japanese-French woman who is tired of Shanghai, and his three daughters, Yumi (20, self-obsessed, and has a dark secret), Yoko (18, academically inclined, and has a dark secret), and Yukiko (16, the baby of the family, and has a dark secret.) A...

AUTHOR: Selma Benkiran ILLUSTRATOR: Valeria Loskant GENRE: Children's STEM Picture Book, Inspirational RATING: 4.75 stars. In a Nutshell: An amazing picture book for older children that goes much beyond what the title promises. Informative and inspiring in all the right ways. Much recommended! Plot Preview: Young Lilo loves spending his summer vacations with his grandparents, but this year’s summer brings with it a special surprise: his parents are taking him on a month-long trip to the rainforest. Lilo is over the moon with joy, but his excitement soon peters out as he realises that there is no one to water his beloved plants when he goes on vacation. Taking advice from his friends as well the adults in his life, Lilo tries out some ways of creating a self-watering system. But every idea fails miserably. Lilo, however, is blessed to have some trustworthy adults around him, and with their ideas, he keeps working towards his goal. Will he succeed in creating a watering system for...

AUTHOR: Jesse Q. Sutanto NARRATOR: Eunice Wong GENRE: Contemporary Drama with elements of mystery. RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: Great as a dramedy; decent as a mystery. Straddles well the thin line between being comical and being stereotypical. Entertaining but predictable. Story Synopsis: Vera Wong is a sixty-year-old teashop owner in San Francisco, and like every Asian mom, she is an expert not just in tea brewing. She loves her son Tilly though he doesn’t have time for her, and she stays updated about everything from “the Google.” When she wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her teashop, Vera knows that she can do a much better job than the police at catching the killer. Within a couple of days, Vera has her list of suspects ready. Now to nab the culprit! The story comes to us in the third person perspective of Vera and her various “suspects”. Here’s what you need to know about the goods and the not-so-goods of this work: 👉 The title and blurb support the...

AUTHOR: Chiang-Sheng Kuo TRANSLATORS: Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-Chun Lin GENRE: Literary Ficton. RATING: 3.5 Stars. In a Nutshell: Good in bits and pieces, but as a whole, it didn’t work much for me. The writing is a treat to the senses, but the nonlinear flow and abstract hops across people and timeframes made this a tricky read. Story Synopsis: Lin San is an old widower mourning the death of his young wife Emily. In a subconscious quest towards healing the present grief and past hurts, he ends up getting close to the narrator of this story, the piano tuner who remains unnamed for most of the book. However, the piano tuner has secrets of his own, and through his thoughts, we discover a tale of broken dreams and shattered hopes, and the impact these have on their harbourers. The story is written in a random mix of first person (the piano tuner) and third person (Lin San and a couple of other characters.) While the story begins with a focus on Lin San, we realise as it progresses...

AUTHOR: Weina Dai Randel GENRE: Historical Fiction RATING: 2.8 stars In a Nutshell: First half pretty good, second half is a cheesy, corny mash. Offers a decent look at Shanghai during WWII, but the romantic relationship overshadows the war story. Story Synopsis: 1940, Shanghai. Twenty-year-old Aiyi is the owner of a successful night club. Rich and beautiful, she appears to have firm control over her life, but she knows her future path. She is engaged to another rich Chinese, and she knows she'll be expected to give up her business and settle into the life of a glam wife. When a young German Jewish refugee named Ernest Reismann joins her club as a pianist, her life changes, her dreams change. But can she change her future, risking it for an impoverished refugee who'll never be accepted by her people? Add to this the increasingly unstable local environment, thanks to the Japanese occupation. How will life turn out for Aiyi and Ernest? The story comes to us from the first person ...

Author: Melissa Fu Genre: Chinese Cultural Fiction, Historical Fiction Rating: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: Outlier review alert! Call this either bad book timing or a mismatch of expectations. But after a particular point in the story, I just couldn’t concentrate. The story is impactful and the writing, lyrical. But it wasn’t on the same wavelength as I was. Story: The narration begins in 1938 in the Hunan province of China. Meilin is looking forward to a happy future with her husband Xiaowen and young son Renshu. But with the Japanese attack changing her fortunes, she is forced to escape with the help of her brother-in-law Longwei and his family. What follows is a tale of sorrow and courage, with Meilin trying her best to provide for Renshu the future she had dreamed of. The above forms the first one-third of the story. The rest of the story is divided between the US and China. Where the book worked for me: ❤ The characters in the initial segment, especially Meilin, are so well-carved t...

AUTHOR: Lan Samantha Chang GENRE: Retelling, Historical Fiction, Chinese. RATING: 2 stars for the book, and an added 1 star for the narration. In a Nutshell: Strongly mixed feelings. The adaptation from a classic is faithfully done, but those who don’t know the original might just be left furious at the stereotypical depiction of Chinese Americans. Story: Leo Chao has been running a restaurant serving Americanized-Chinese food in Haven, Wisconsin since thirty five years. He isn’t honest, his wife Winnie isn’t happy at being the resident unappreciated cook, ad his three sons have taken their distinct paths in life but none of them are truly satisfied. The eldest, Dagou - a man who thinks more from the heart than from the head, attempted music studies before returning to the restaurant as the head chef. The second, Ming – a successful businessman who hates his Chinese roots, struggles between his two identities. The youngest, James – a medical student who is kind and unambitious much to ...

AUTHOR: Sue Lynn Tan SERIES: The Celestial Kingdom Duology, #1 GENRE: Chinese Fantasy RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: Loved the plot. Loved the Fantasy world and everything out-worldly. Liked the characters. Hated the writing style. Story: Inspired by the Chinese legend of the moon goddess, this story tells of a young girl Xingyin accustomed to living alone on the moon with her mother Chang’e. What she doesn’t know is that Chang’e has been exiled for stealing the elixir of immortality from the Celestial Emperor. Due to her presence coming to light, Xingyin is forced to escape from the moon and somehow lands up in the Celestial Kingdom, working as a maid for a local wealthy family. When there’s an opportunity to train alongside Crown Prince Liwei, she grabs at it, not knowing that her life will change from that moment. What follows is an interesting story of secrets and scandals, battles with strange and scary monsters, and even forbidden romantic entanglements. The story comes to us i...

AUTHOR: Pearl S. Buck GENRE: Historical Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1946 RATING: 3.75 stars. Madame Wu takes an unheard-of decision on her fortieth birthday. She decides to withdraw from her "marital duty" [sic] and ask her husband to take a concubine to satisfy his physical needs. On top of that, she decides to search for the suitable concubine herself, because she feels she knows her husband best. This happens in chapter one. What happens as a result of this decision comprises the rest of the 466 page book. If you can forgive the excessive religious ideas (Pearl S Buck's father was a missionary, and that shows in her writing), then the book is definitely worth your time.  Madame Wu is a character who will stay with you. The other female characters are quite intriguing too, each facing their own demons and dealing with them in different ways.  The book is fantastic almost entirely. Unfortunately, it falls flat towards the end (say, the last 70 or so pages.) I j...