#xiaolu guo

[lazyydaisyyy]

I like what Flaubert said about Greeks. If you are a real artist, everything in your life is part of your art. The art is a memorial of the life.

Xiaolu Guo, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

[dk-thrive]

I often find myself embarrassingly earnest as a person – it’s not very cool.’

Xiaolu Guo: ‘It would be tacky to ask: can you forgive me for writing this?’ Interview by Hephzibah Anderson in The Guardian, April 8, 2023.

[straycalico]

People always say it’s harder to heal a wounded heart than a wounded body. Bullshit. It’s exactly the opposite—a wounded body takes much longer to heal. A wounded heart is nothing but ashes of memories. But the body is everything. The body is blood and veins and cells and nerves. A wounded body is when, after leaving a man you’ve lived with for three years, you curl up on your side of the bed as if there’s still somebody beside you. That is a wounded body: a body that feels connected to someone who is no longer there.

Fenfang, from Xioalu Guo, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

Art by Toshi Yoshida

[justforbooks]

The new memoir from prize-winning writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo - playful, provocative and original, it's her deeply personal take on striving for a life of her own.

'When it comes to spinning light and shadow on the complexities of living, loving and language, Xiaolu Guo is one of the most valuable writers in the world. The world can seem strange and lonely when you step away from your family and everything you have tried to call your own. Yet beauty may also appear. In the autumn of 2019 Xiaolu travelled to New York to take up her position as a visiting professor for a year, leaving her child and partner behind in London.

The encounter with American culture and people threatens her sense of identity and throws her into a crisis - of meaning, desire, obligation and selfhood. This is a memoir about separation - by continents, by language, and from people. It's about being an outsider and the desperate longing to connect.

Xiaolu uses her exploration of language (one of the meanings of the word 'radical' is the graphic component, or root, of Chinese characters), and her own life, to create this unique text. At once a memoir, a dictionary, and an ardent love letter, it is an expression of her fascination with Western culture and her nostalgia for Eastern landscapes, and an attempt to describe the space in between. An archive of an artist's search for creative freedom, it is above all else an intimate account of her efforts to carve out a life of her own.

Radical in angle of attack, smart and brave.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[makingqueerhistory]

Letters to a Writer of Color

Taymour Soomro (Editor) Deepa Anappara (Editor)

A vital collection of essays on the power of literature and the craft of writing from an international array of writers of color, sharing the experiences, cultural traditions, and convictions that have shaped them and their work "Electric essays that speak to the experience of writing from the periphery . . . a guide, a comfort, and a call all at once."--Laila Lalami, author of Conditional Citizens Filled with empathy and wisdom, instruction and inspiration, this book encourages us to reevaluate the codes and conventions that have shaped our assumptions about how fiction should be written, and also challenges us to apply its lessons to both what we read and how we read. Featuring: - Taymour Soomro on resisting rigid stories about who you are - Madeleine Thien on how writing builds the room in which it can exist - Amitava Kumar on why authenticity isn't a license we carry in our wallets - Tahmima Anam on giving herself permission to be funny - Ingrid Rojas Contreras on the bodily challenge of writing about trauma - Zeyn Joukhadar on queering English and the power of refusing to translate ourselves - Myriam Gurba on the empowering circle of Latina writers she works within - Kiese Laymon on hearing that no one wants to read the story that you want to write - Mohammed Hanif on the censorship he experienced at the hands of political authorities - Deepa Anappara on writing even through conditions that impede the creation of art - Plus essays from Tiphanie Yanique, Xiaolu Guo, Jamil Jan Kochai, Vida Cruz-Borja, Femi Kayode, Nadifa Mohamed in conversation with Leila Aboulela, and Sharlene Teo The start of a more inclusive conversation about storytelling, Letters to a Writer of Color will be a touchstone for aspiring and working writers and for curious readers everywhere.

(Affiliate link above)

[soracities]

hi Mim! how are you?

i was wondering if you had any recommendations of poetry or some books for when you're feeling really lonely and yearning for romantic love? (preferably for when you've never had someone like that)

💖

a few!

Rapture: Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

Essays in Love by Alain de Botton

A History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The Carpenter's Pencil by Manuel Rivas

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Posession by A.S. Byatt

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel

Love in Summer by William Trevor

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov

Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith

Open Water: A Novel by Caleb Azumah Nelson

[saelterlude]

I've been working on this fic for weeks! You don't understand how excited I am to post this

Time In A Tin Can

Summary: Twelve years ago, back in middle school, Mao Weijia and her two friends, Guo Xiaolu and Liu Sanjie, went on a camping trip. Together, the three of made a time capsule and buried it somewhere in the middle of the forest. Now she needs said time capsule back. Hopefully this photo hopping sorcerer can locate it, she'll even pay extra to get it retrieved. Qiao Ling and Cheng Xiaoshi are excited they're essentially getting paid to go camping, and Lu Guang is just along for the ride.

It's a Link Click camping fic! This is by far the longest oneshot I've written and I'm so proud of it. (12k lol, I thought it would be a 3k)

The base concept for this is a case fic where both Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang have to work simultaneously in the past and present. My first idea was darker, a missing journalist case, but I decided to go with a lighter treasure hunting case instead. And I'm glad I did that, because this ended up being what I like to think as the perfect balance of hurt/comfort.

Anyway! I would appreciate if you give it a read, thanks!

[burninghillgirl]

fave books please i’m bad at reading not much seems to grip me unless i’m reading the wrong stuff !!

i'm used to read so much but school really stamped that out of me so i get how you feel dw! i just finished the master and margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov which was brilliant and i didn't get bored! the names and storylines are a bit convoluted but it's very good.

some books that got me back into reading because they were so easy to read was Norwegian wood by Haruki Murakami, kitchen by banana Yoshimoto, my year of rest and relaxation by otessa moshfegh, the haunting of hill house by Shirley Jackson, perfume by Patrick Süskind . They're all fairly popular books across booktok and tumblr too so easy to start with.

I'd recommend starting with children's classics too as they are gripping, entertaining and aimed at children starting to discover reading.

Gulliver's travels, Robinson crueso, Anne of green gables!! (I loved these when i was like 13) what Katy did (i also loved these as a kid) etc. basically browse the penguin classic section of well known "children's" books.

Obvs i know adults read them and love them but they are books I remember my parents giving me when i first started to love books :) my attention span isn't great anymore and being a writer too if a book doesn't grip me in the first couple of pages I don't read it. Ik it's harsh but i am very picky lol.

When I'm going to Greece I'm going to pack books I've been meaning to read that are in my bookshelf:

The sea by John Banville

The good thief by Hannah Tinti

Boy parts by Eliza Clark (bought this bc of tiktok too lol)

Water for elephants by Sara Gruen

A lover's discourse by Xiaolu Guo

Letters to a young poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

The girl with the pearl earring by Tracy Chevalier

[all-lined-up]

2023

Getting Lost, by Annie Ernaux

The Rag and Bone Shop, by Veronica O’Keane

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

Really Good, Actually, by Monica Heisey

Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe

The Husband, by Maud Ventura

High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby

Stray, by Stephanie Danler

Strong Female Character, by Fern Brady

Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton

The Happy Couple, by Naoise Dolan

All the Beauty in the World, by Patrick Bringley

The Rachel Incident, by Caroline O’Donoghue

Yellowface, by Rebecca F. Kuang

The Years, by Annie Ernaux

Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan

Swimming in the Dark, by Tomasz Jędrowski

Lanny, by Max Porter

The Wager, by David Grann

Foster, by Claire Keegan

Avalon, by Nell Zink

Bellies, by Nicola Dinan

An Uneasy Inheritance, by Polly Toynbee

Conversations on Love, by Natasha Lunn

I’m a Fan, by Sheena Patel

The Girl with the Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier

Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann

The Stranger in the Woods, by Mike Finkel

Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again, by Katherine Angel

Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata

Good Material, by Dolly Alderton

Prima Facie, by Susie Miller

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, by Xiaolu Guo

The Crane Wife, by CJ Hauser

Your Face Belongs to Us, by Kashmir Hill

The Promise, by Damon Galgut

[singing-river]

“I feel the sea inside me”

— Xiaolu Guo

[straycalico]

Patton, you Americans take watching films much too seriously. It's like going to church for you. For us, going to the cinema is just the same as going to the market to buy cabbages.

Fenfang, from Xiaolu Guo, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

Art by Toshi Yoshida

[shinyeternatus]

do you have any book recs

okay so keeping in mind that i haven't read two of these books in years so they must be taken with a grain of salt i would say

i am china by xiaolu guo

shutter island by dennis lehane

ace of spades by faridah àbíké-íyímídé

books i haven't finished but would still recommend thus far are

spinning silver by naomi novik

corpses, coffins, and crypts: a history of burial by penny colman

second rec is nonfiction and exactly what it says it is so if that stuff is uncomfortable for you don't read it 👍

[heavenlyyshecomes]

Do u have any books that are objectively bad but you love it will all your heart?

I don't think i have read any 'objectively' bad book and still loved it if i like something it can't be bad 4 me rly but there are exceptions like the ruins by scott smith and braised pork by an yu which i rated low but then thought about for months... There's also books somewhere in the middle mostly forgotten by people that are v dear to me like the square root of summer by harriet reuter hapgood or a concise chinese-english dictionary for lovers by xiaolu guo!

[thechaosoflonging]

had my y/n moment in a parisian bookstore!!! i met da author or radical (xiaolu guo) by complete coincidence as i was flicking thru her book & i got her to sign it for me in my mando name omg🥺

[shugademus-fbandt]

cologne

-zumthor - bruder klaus feldkapelle, kolumba

-rudolf schwarz - duren

podcasts

chinese whispers: food;influencers; rural/urban; india rivalry;

poltiics weekly us

politics weekly uk

ns podcast

rest if hist

long read: can i sendfuncs now; modi in leicester;

fiction/new fiction

this american life

thes times: western europe; emmanuel macron; germany & uk economics;

writers & co: amis; xiaolu guo