What We're Reading: May 22, 2020
Welcome to Ampersand Books!
Browse curated book lists and special order any book in print for delivery to your doorstep. Book club and staff pick selections are always 15% off, and Writers & Books members receive a 10% discount. Please indicate your membership at checkout.
Honor Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage with NEW & FORTHCOMING #OwnVoices books
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, by Cathy Park Hong
“ ‘For as long as I could remember,’ Hong writes, ‘I have struggled to prove myself into existence.’ With Minor Feelings, she simultaneously grapples with associated anxieties about her potential disappearance in writing on behalf of the Asian American subject. ‘I began this book as a dare to myself,’ she explains, because ‘I still clung to a prejudice that writing about my racial identity was minor and non-urgent.’ ”--excerpted from The Nation. Read the full review.
This is One Way to Dance: Essays, by Sejal Shah
Publisher’s Weekly calls this a “sterling collection,” saying, “Shah is insightfully self-reflective… [and] makes lyrical use of language, as when she ruminates on summer nights that have ‘a particular kind of warm, which is not too hot, not too humid, not anything but enough to make you glad that your skin is the only layer between you and the world.’ ” For the full review, click here.
Obit: Poems, by Victoria Chang
The New York Times writes, “In the book’s poetic cosmology, mortality is not a before and after state, but rather a constantly shifting enigma: ‘To / acknowledge death is to acknowledge / that we must take another shape.’ ”
If you’re finding it difficult to sit still with a book during quarantine, you’re not alone.
- Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid, narrated by the author
- Watership Down, by Richard Adams, centennial edition narrated by Peter Capaldi
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, narrated by Allison Hiroto
- High School, by Tegan Quin and Sara Quin, narrated by the authors
You can buy your next Libro.fm audiobook from Ampersand! Use our libro.fm/ampersandbooks link or type a title, author, or ISBN in ampersandbooks.org’s Search Audiobooks field. When you place your order through Ampersand, you’re supporting the literary arts in Rochester.
Did you know that you can borrow audiobooks with a library card from Monroe County Library via the Libby App by Overdrive? Download the app or visit libbyapp.com.