Front Desk

Front Desk by Kelly Yang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This #OwnVoices story of a 10-year-old immigrant from China who wants to be a writer and helps her family manage a motel for a racist owner who cheats them and intimidates them into accepting below-poverty wages grabbed me from the start and made me wish I could leap into the pages and rescue all the immigrants from those who take advantage of them. Finding out that many of the events in the book are based on real-life experiences of the author just made that impulse all the stronger. Sadly, I do not have the ability to protect fictional people. Now I need to focus my attention on ways to help their real-life counterparts. The story is set in the 1990s, but as we've seen in the recent days, weeks, months, and years, many people's racist attitudes towards Asians, Latinx, and African Americans haven't improved.

The extra sections at the end of this book, especially the author's background and the discussion questions, make this an excellent book club selection. Because so much of the story is based on the author's life, I am categorizing the book as "biographical fiction" as well as "realistic fiction."

For readers' advisors: Character doorway is primary, but story is also very strong. No sex or swearing. Mia's mother is beaten up, as is a friend they aid early in the story, but the violence is all off-screen. Strong themes of friendship, respect, care for others, hard work, and persistence in following your dreams.

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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is absolutely outstanding and, in my opinion, should be read by every adult and teenager in America and India. I am so incredibly thankful the Courageous Conversations group at my church chose to read and discuss it because there was just So Much to think about and absorb, it really helped to have a group of people to share in the experience. Isabel Wilkerson is a phenomenal writer--taking horrendously heavy subject material and making it so readable and accessible. Her research is detailed and very thorough. I learned SO much. I had no idea just how much I, a very well-educated white woman, did NOT know about US history! My knowledge turns out to have been just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. It will take me a while to digest and process everything I learned from this book, but I am even more determined to do whatever I can to disrupt the caste system in this country whenever and however I can make a difference.

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