#shanghailanders

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Shanghailanders: A Novel

By Juli Min.

[wttnblog]

10 Anticipated May Book Releases: Memoirs, Queer Fiction, Fantasy, and More

It’s May, and that means I’m back with another list of books coming out this month that I am desperate to get my hands on. Unlike usual, there’s a heavy emphasis on memoirs in this list. I’m not sure what it is about the month of May, but everyone’s publishing! Aside from that, we have queer romance, a thriller, fantasy, and so much more. If I missed out on your book coming out this month (or one…

[bloodmaarked]

➫ monthly book round-up: april 2024

books read: 6 [1 DNF] [=] average rating: 3.8 [+23%] average speed: 6.6 days [-37%] total pages: 2,215 [=] yearly goal progress: 22/50 best of the month: the girl with the louding voice, abi daré worst of the month: daughters of nri, reni k. amayo

5* reads:

the girl with the louding voice, abi daré

4.5* reads:

the gifts, liz hyder

4* reads:

the meaning of mariah carey, mariah carey

3* reads:

four eids and a funeral, faridah àbíké-íyímídé + adiba jaigirdar

2.5* reads:

shanghailanders, juli min

DNFs:

daughters of nri, reni k. amayo

currently reading:

black girls must die exhausted, jayne allen

[likeclarabow]

2024 Books Read

In a Holidaze - Christina Lauren (Jan 1)

The Long Games - Elena Armas (Jan 2)

The Seven Year Slip - Ashley Poston (Jan 3)

Something More - Jackie Kalilieh (Jan 3-Jan 4)

A Study in Drowning - Ava Reid (Jan 8-Jan 13)

Cockroach - Rawi Hage (Jan 17-Jan 24)

Confessions of an English Opium Eater - Thomas De Quincey (Jan 18-Jan 24)

The Night Circus (reread) - Erin Morgenstern (Jan 24-Jan 29)

Manfred - Lord Byron (Jan 29-Jan 31)

White Nights - Fyodor Dostoevsky (Jan 26-Feb 1)

Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie (Feb 1-Feb 5)

Fronteras Americanas: American Borders - Guillermo Verdecchia (Feb 8)

Total Chaos - Jean Claude Izzo (Feb 7-Feb 16)

I Was Their American Dream - Malaka Gharib (Feb 17-Feb 21)

Once in a Promised Land - Laila Halaby (Feb 26-Mar 1)

Babi Yar - Anatoly Kuznetsov (Feb 17-Mar 2)

Northanger Abbey (reread) - Jane Austen (Feb 27-Mar 3)

Delicious Monsters - Liselle Sambury (Mar 10-Mar 11)

The Flatshare - Beth O'Leary (Mar 12-Mar 13)

Divine Rivals - Rebecca Ross (Mar 13-Mar 14)

The Breakup Tour - Emily Wibberly + Austin Siegemund-Broka (Mar 14)

Foul Heart Huntsman - Chloe Gong (Mar 15-Mar 16)

I Hope This Doesn't Find You - Ann Liang (Mar 16-Mar 17)

Less - Andrew Sean Greer (Mar 17-Mar 18)

Night of Power - Anar Ali (Mar 20)

Winter in Sokcho - Elisa Shua Dusapin (Mar 20-Mar 22)

The Last Man - Mary Shelley (Mar 19-Mar 30)

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels - Janice Hallett (Mar 30-Mar 31)

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - Timothy Snyder (Jan 10-Apr 4)

The Reappearance of Rachel Price - Holly Jackson (May 5-May 8)

Winter Garden - Kristin Hannah (May 14-May 16)

Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney (May 17-May 28)

Biography of X - Catherine Lacey (May 30-June 9)

Her First Palestinian - Saeed Teebi (May 30-June 10)

Funny Story - Emily Henry (June 11-June 16)

November 1942 - Peter Englund (June 16-June 26)

Alone With You in the Ether - Olivie Blake (June 23-June 27)

A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman (June 27-June 29)

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin (June 29-June 30)

The Girl in Question - Tess Sharpe (June 30-July 3)

The Girls I've Been (reread) - Tess Sharpe (July 4-July 5)

The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K Dick (July 6-July 12)

Ruthless Vows - Rebecca Ross (July 12-July 16)

Body Grammar - Jules Ohman (July 17-July 19)

Shanghailanders - Juli Min (July 19-July 23)

They're Going to Love You - Meg Howrey (July 24-July 26)

So Late in the Day - Claire Keegan (July 26)

That's Not My Name - Megan Lally (July 26)

The Blonde Identity - Ally Carter (July 27)

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands - Heather Fawcett (July 27-July 29)

The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie (July 31-Aug 2)

Beautiful World Where Are You - Sally Rooney (Aug 3-Aug 8)

Mr Salary - Sally Rooney (Aug 9)

Penance - Eliza Clark (Aug 9-Aug 10)

Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata (Aug 11)

Educated - Tara Westover (Aug 12-Aug 14)

The Couple at No. 9 - Claire Douglas (Aug 15-Aug 20)

A Curse for True Love - Stephanie Garber (Aug 17-Aug 19)

London - Edward Rutherford (Aug 20-Aug 28)

The Girls - Emma Cline (Aug 28-Aug 29)

The List - Yomi Adegoke (Aug 30)

Florida - Lauren Groff (Aug 30-Aug 31)

Less is Lost - Andrew Sean Greer (Aug 31-Sept 1)

Love in the Time of Serial Killers - Alicia Thompson (Sept 1)

Zoya - Danielle Steele (Sept 1-Sept 3)

Where Are You, Echo Blue - Hayley Krischer (Sept 4-Sept 7)

Bellies - Nicola Dinan (Sept 8-Sept 15)

[iguessitsjustme]

Books Tag Game

I was tagged by @littleragondin I barely talk about books but I've been trying to get back into reading so thanks for the tag! :)

hardcover or paperback // bookstore and library (someone remind me to get a library card I keep forgetting) // standalone and series (depends on if the story was intended to be a series or not) // nonfiction or fiction (not by much I like both) // thriller or fantasy // under 300 pages or over 300 pages // children's or ya // friends to lovers or enemies to lovers // read in bed or read on the couch // read at night or read in the morning // keep pristine or markup // cracked spine or dog ear

Currently reading:

I am perpetually in the middle of reading a million books and put them down and pick them up when I have time. Some take me much longer to get through then others.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (my sister would not stop talking about this book so it got moved to the top of my list)

Shanghailanders by Juli Min

The Power of Language by Viorica Marian (this is fascinating)

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia by Nurfadzilah Yahaya (also fascinating but taking me much longer to get through mostly because I read it on my lunch at my desk and I get easily distracted by people)

Oh! And I almost forgot I've been going through the Blue Lock manga. What an interesting concept for a sports manga. I'm having a good time with it but it is not what I expected.

I think a lot of people I would tag to do this have already done it. Hmmm...@heretherebedork have you done this yet? Also @neighborhood-yogurt...you too. Tag you're it.

[tianshiisdead]

Reading about the foreign British community in Shanghai ('shanghailanders') in 'Life in Treaty Port China and Japan' and it's honestly quite striking how many times more privileged the lives of settlers were in colonies/pseudo-colonies compared to back in the imperial motherland - it's mentioned that on top of their class status being padded by absolute and enforced racial superiority, even the new arrivals had access to at least one cheap local servant and there was a rudimentary credit system so settlers could live extravagantly beyond their means. It's something brought up in literature wrt white women in the empire as well, that their racial status and the general place of settlers in colonies afforded them more rights and privileges in colonies compared to back home. In this sense, it's no wonder Shanghai and the many colonies consistently attracted settlers even into their waning years, there was always the allure of many servants who may be paid pennies and dehumanized at will, and absolute superiority, far away from the debates about liberty and such found in the west as the 1900s rolled on.

Another interesting note is that during the brief period of treaty ports in Japan, in between the Meiji and the black ships and their gunboat diplomacy, some British settlers in Japan brought along Chinese servants - although there were certainly South Asian people brought in to pad the military and police force in China, I don't recall reading much about the British bringing them over as servants? It could very well be a case of political relation, however, it seems even from the beginning Japan was slightly more prepared (due to having seen the precedents) and in any case, they hadn't lost any large wars so their situation would have been slightly less imbalanced perhaps. I know very little about the Japan side of things however so I could be wrong.

Lastly, Shanghai was called by one of the chapter authors as 'the jewel in the crown of the British Chinese empire' despite not being a formal colony, which is definitely interesting. Many thoughts lol

[dezithinks]

Book Haul #37

Ghouls…I may have went a bit overboard, and when I say a bit, I am in the middle of the ocean without a life raft. Did we expect anything different? Nope.If you did, you are the sweetest. Anyways, here are all the books I have recently purchased. Books: Past Present Future Entangled The Breakup Artists Give Me A Sign Sweet Bean Paste Shanghailanders Make Me Dream of…

[bookjubilee]

Book Review: ‘Shanghailanders,’ by Juli Min

bookjubilee.com http://dlvr.it/T6PfRW

[finishinglinepress]

FLP SHORT STORIES BOOK OF THE DAY: The Calamity of Desire and Other Stories by Judith Dancoff

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: : https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-calamity-of-desire-and-other-stories-by-judith-dancoff/

The literary critic Walter Benjamin once said that, “There is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” The Calamity of Desire and Other Stories, speaks to this truth in a debut collection that combines the personal dramas of sometimes real, sometimes fictional artists and protagonists with the life and death conflicts that surround them. In “The Beautiful Gaze,” the American Impressionist John Singer Sargent overcomes the scandal of his painting “Madame X” against the backdrop of 19th century homophobia; in the novella “Women Bathing,” a young woman comes to Paris to study painting and becomes involved with the Dreyfus Affair; in the “Calamity of Desire,” Gustav Klimt paints the death portrait of a young Jewish woman who committed suicide over a broken heart–a painting stolen by the Nazis. In vivid, lyrical prose, the seven short #stories and one novella explore the intersection of history, ambition, heartbreak, and desire, to illuminate the human heart. All of the stories in this collection have been published and “The Calamity of Desire” (the Southern Humanities Review, 2020), was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

A well-published writer and Pushcart Prize nominee, Judith Dancoff’s short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications including The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Shanghai Literary Review and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers as well as an MFA from the UCLA Film School. Her documentary on the feminist artist Judy Chicago has screened at and is owned by universities and museums around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

PRAISE FOR The Calamity of Desire and Other Stories by Judith Dancoff

This gorgeous collection brings to life Foucault’s dictum that meaning requires the viewer’s inclusion. Readers are folded into classic artworks, transported across time and space. Art lovers, history buffs, storytellers—read this magical book!

–Nan Cuba, author of Body and Bread, winner of the PEN Southwest Award.

In Judith Dancoff’s radiant stories, painterly subjects become narrators, celebrated figures are saturated with sinister shadow, and the artist becomes a canvas on which the process of art-making makes its transformative mark. The Calamity of Desire is both timeless and quietly subversive: an essential for any art lover, artist, lover, human.

–Juli Min, author of Shanghailanders, Editor in chief and Fiction editor of the Shanghai Literary Review

Skilled critics help us understand art in its historical context. In these luminous stories, we experience the rest of that world—through families, through chance encounters, through desire—and are utterly changed.

–Diane Smith, author of Letters from Yellowstone and Pictures from an Expedition, Judge, the L.A. Times Festival of Books

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #prose #Shortstories #read

[djitxgjuv]

The Valley Of Amazement

Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping, evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village. 

Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign "Shanghailanders" living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II. 

What does it mean to be true to oneself?

Being true to yourself starts with knowing who you are and accepting yourself; knowing your strengths, passions, limitations and purpose in life and then living that way all the time. You come to know yourself only by living life. Finding what works for you. What defines you and makes you whole. You have the total power to live your life any way you want and to be faithful and factual to the truth about you. Lastly, Being true to yourself means you don't worry about pleasing other people; living by someone else's standards or rules. You don't care what people think of you. You live as your natural self. Without compromise.

[cutiepienatividad]

The Valley of Amazement

Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping, evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.

Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign "Shanghailanders" living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II.

A deeply evocative narrative about the profound connections between mothers and daughters, The Valley of Amazement returns readers to the compelling territory of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic insight and humor, she conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.

what does it mean to be true to oneself? it is acting in a way that agrees with one's beliefs or values. I believe that you are not true to yourself if you do not like what you are doing in your life, and if you do not feel joy and contentment in what you are doing. For me, I can prove that I am being true to myself by reading stories like books or wattpad because I know that this is where I am happy and this is what I want to do. So these are the insights to prove that Im true to myself.

[cutiepiedomingo]

"The Valley of Amazement"

Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping, evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.

Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign "Shanghailanders" living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II.

A deeply evocative narrative about the profound connections between mothers and daughters, The Valley of Amazement returns readers to the compelling territory of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic insight and humor, she conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.

What does it mean to be true to oneself?

It is acting in a way that agrees with one's beliefs or values. I believe that you are not true to yourself if you do not like what you are doing in your life, and if you do not feel joy and contentment in what you are doing. For me, I can prove that I am being true to myself by reading stories like books or wattpad because I know that this is where I am happy and this is what I want to do. So these are the insights to prove that Im true to myself.

[island6artscenter]

"La Brique Ordinaire" (普通砖)

Whether it was planned or chaotic, chaotically planned or spontaneously perfect, monumental or low-rise, multi-lane or just wide narrow just enough for a bicycle; if it’s not the abandoned future, but the futuristic not-so-still- life present, these buildings hide something we need to see. It must have started a hundred years back when the first brick was placed to form the shape, be it French or British, followed by each one arriving from the Bund through the Avenue Edouard VII, turning to the Rue des Press, being pulled on flatbed carts crossing the Blvd Montigny. La Brique Ordinaire… somewhere under the footsteps of the Shanghailanders. It was suspicious from the beginning. “What are they building?” We could have asked but were busy looking at the mesmerizing colors and listening to the rhythm of throwing them on top of each other. When it ended, it had already been built. Now, the rest is history and it’s fair to say that setting up four walls and a roof is a legit idea if one wants to escape to a place within. But hiding to be seen is something only they could think of.

47*35cm. Unique.

art for sale: camilla@island6.org

Our ig: island6_gallery

[bloodmaarked]

shanghailanders // juli min

first published: 2024 [to be released 09 may] read: 28 april 2024 – 29 april 2024 pages: 288 format: e-book [ARC]

genres: fiction; literary fiction; family; asian literature favourite character(s): ayi least favourite character(s): most of the characters were forgettable

rating: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 thoughts: i don't know about everyone else but i have been hearing about this book left, right and centre. i saw it a while back and wasn't moved to add it to my reading list - it looked like it had an interesting concept, with the story of a family being told in reverse (no time travel involved!), and it had a pretty cover. still, something about it felt like it would just be exceptionally mid. i'm not sure what changed my mind - probably coming across it so frequently - but in the end, i did add it to my list, and shortly after was offered an ARC. well, i sped through it in two days, and it seems shanghailanders entirely lived up to my initial expectations.

as i mentioned, i liked the idea of the story being told in reverse, but i don't think that it really served the narrative. by the end i wasn't entirely sure of the story trying to be told. i didn't feel i had gained much additional context on what happens at the beginning of the novel. the story also feels a little choppy; each chapter is a snapshot of a period in a different character's life, selected without much rhyme or reason. for example, the family's chauffeur has his own chapter, which was pretty cool but also out of place and i don't think he's mentioned anywhere else in the book? another is kiko's chapter, which was odd and i'm just not sure what we were meant to glean about her.

the characters, in general, are not that interesting. there were some really good moments of character dynamic exploration - i liked seeing yumi and yuko (i wish more had come from that, some further resolution or exploration), and eko and neo. but things felt a bit half-baked. i wasn't that drawn to any of the characters, and a book like this relies almost entirely on the strength of its characters. i will say ayi and her chapter was a standout for me, and i was emotionally invested in the short time we spent with her.

overall, this book wasn't objectively bad, but it had the potential to be far stronger than it was. i was mostly apathetic by the last page, but maybe this just wasn't the book for me. massive thanks to Dialogue Books and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review!