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"You have to ask the right question, throw the right rope bridge, to get there—and then bolt across the chasm between you, before your bridge collapses." 

"And I get that peculiar knot of fear and wonder and anger, the husk that holds my whole childhood."

This book made me think about the difficulties of changing who you are just to fit in, particularly reminding me of when I was an adolescent. I liked how Russell combined real human struggles with magical elements.

"If the history of Chinese exclusion teaches us about the perils of racial discrimination, it should also warn us about the dangerous inequalities produced by alienage."

"The interior of the nation was not as soft as it should have been; the exterior was not as hard as it could become."

Painful, yet eye-opening. While Asian American discrimination has often been neglected,  this book helps give me a stronger sense of the history behind my Chinese-American identity. We've always been fighting for a better America.

"I never learn anything from listening to myself."

"Mistakes wreck your life. But they make what you have. It's kind of all one."

I took a long walk at my state park after this one! Kingsolver helped me realize how disconnected a lot of us (including me!) are from nature. Personal struggle is actually deeply intertwined with climate change.

"ConaLee, there is no forever. We are on our walk and the day is fine."

"Story dismises chance or destiny but believes in the still, small voice that draws one forward incrementally."

This one hurt to read. Centered around a mother and daughter's refuge in an asylum, this novel made me reflect on my mom's own hidden traumas from when she was abused as a child. It really makes you think about all of those stories about healing that aren't told.

"It is quite possible to obtain knowledge and retain one's soul. Perhaps one simply needs to respect and understand one's cultural values and learning beliefs but also venture into those of others."

"Globalization increases rather than reduces the need for us to understand cultural variations."

What does it really mean to be a "good student"? A daunting read, yes, but a worthwhile one that helped me make sense of the "Eastern" effort and discipline learned at home and the "Western" independent thinking learned at school.

"When we were young, we took everything so seriously...We were so earnest and principled but so intense, about democracy and love and death, as if we knew what those things were..."

“Ben-Zion Netanyahu . . . Which meant nothing to me, or to anyone . . . not even the surname, which was still a generation from its infamy... An alien name, eons old but also from the future; a name equally from the Bible and the funny papers.”

A wild and satirical book. The way the Jewish-American kids navigate (and act out on) their competing identities makes me think about my own identity as Chinese-Korean and American. It's hard to balance one's home identity and outside identity.

“Every life is organized around a small number of events that either propel us or bring us to a grinding halt. We spend the years between these episodes benefiting or suffering from their consequences until the arrival of the next forceful moment. A man’s worth is established by the number of these defining circumstances he is able to create for himself. He need not always be successful, for there can be great honor in defeat. But he ought to be the main actor in the decisive scenes in his existence, whether they be epic or tragic.”

Reading this book as a young person still figuring out who I am and developing my own views of the world, I recognize how stories can be distorted based on who's telling them. I choose to claim my story before an Andrew Bevel can.

"I knew there was something unwholesome in being seen as a doll, and a fragile china one at that." 

"Finding my voice didn't always mean that my words were welcome, even among my Asian American pals." 

This book has allowed me to rethink my identity as an Asian American with the new knowledge of Asian Americans' transformation from a marginalized group to a powerful activist force. Even more so, I can identify with the struggle of "finding my voice" in general. Example: One of my classmates attempting (and failing) to tear down my beliefs in eliminating global poverty.

“The humiliations of girlhood. The separating of the beautiful from the plain and the ugly. The terror of maidenhood. The trials of marriage or childbirth – or their absence. The loss of that same beauty around which the whole system appears to revolve. The change of life. What strange lives women lead!”

Main character Eliza Touchet isn't afraid to speak her mind and question the stories powerful men tell—even in Victorian England. It's inspiring, and like Eliza, I have challenged the narratives of my family members and society.

"Writing 

has no voice 

because voice is a metaphor..."

"We're all pretending 

the pool is our ocean...
how does a body take the undertow"

How to navigate between various roles? An Authentic Life  makes me think about I'm shaped by my family and my own individual desires.  It gives me a room to explore vulnerability as a young Asian American woman.

“I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.”

“Redemption, transformation--God how she wanted these things. Every day, every minute. Didn't everyone?"

Time changes people in ways we can't control. This book made me reflect on how all of my actions have real lasting effects. I will embrace change as it comes (college) but appreciate the moments I have now with my family and friends.

"A man was the sum of his limits; freedom only made him see how much so."

"Anything is possible. A man is what he makes up his mind to be." 

What does it really mean to be a "true American"? The immigrant experience of Ralph Chang made me think about my dad's own experience as an eight-year-old in America for the first time and appreciate the struggles he went through.