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Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
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Little Fires Everywhere (edition 2017)

by Celeste Ng (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8,827374930 (4)261
From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, the intertwined stories of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the mother and daughter who upend their lives "I read Little Fires Everywhere in a single, breathless sitting. With brilliance and beauty, Celeste Ng dissects a microcosm of American society just when we need to see it beneath the microscope ..."--Jodi Picoult, New York Times -bestselling author of Small Great Things and Leaving Time In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood - and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.… (more)
Member:ChrisKourim
Title:Little Fires Everywhere
Authors:Celeste Ng (Author)
Info:Penguin Press (2017), Edition: First Edition, 352 pages
Collections:Your library
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Work Information

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

  1. 30
    The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (vwinsloe)
    vwinsloe: Cross racial adoption
  2. 20
    Digging to America by Anne Tyler (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Two disparate families become entangled in each other's lives in these insightful, character-driven novels that tackle the weighty topics of privilege, class, adoption, and identity. While the themes are serious, both authors inject humor and poignancy into their stories.… (more)
  3. 10
    Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (sturlington)
  4. 00
    Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (vwinsloe)
    vwinsloe: A dystopian view of many of the same themes of abortion, adoption, motherhood.
  5. 00
    Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (wandering_star)
  6. 11
    Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (sylvarum)
    sylvarum: The books are by the same author, are both set in suburban areas of America, and touch on similar themes of belonging, adolescence, cross-cultural conflict and familial tension.
  7. 01
    Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (KatyBee)
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» See also 261 mentions

English (369)  German (2)  Finnish (1)  All languages (372)
Showing 1-5 of 369 (next | show all)
I listened to this book during the pandemic quarantine. It was enjoyable to listen to during long walks in my neighborhood.
This book beautifully blends several themes: the meaning of motherhood, racism and microaggression, art and the creative process, families and the power of secrets, teen- age angst, non- conformity, and suburban living.
The author creates vivid and believable characters. By the way, I despise Elena Richardson, but in the end, I had compassion for her plight!
This book makes the reader think. During the courtroom scene, the characters talk about books and childrens' dolls as mirrors and as a parent and teacher, I could not agree more.
I am definitely putting other books by Celeste Ng on my reading list. ( )
  Chrissylou62 | Apr 11, 2024 |
A nice book, a well-rounded story, well written. I read this book at a leisurely pace and while for me, it was not a page-turner, I was interested in every page. I would recommend this book and will try Ms. Ng's other writings. ( )
  LyndaWolters1 | Apr 3, 2024 |
Wow...just one of those beautifully written stories that will just stay with you for a long time to come. The ending brought tears to my eyes and I was sad to say goodbye when I finished that last page. Great book! ( )
  jbrownleo | Mar 27, 2024 |
The Richardson's are well-to do parents with careers outside their home in Ohio. He as a lawyer and she as a journalist. They have four teenage children. They own another property which they end up renting out to a single mother, Mia, who is an artist and she becomes their housekeeper. The children are very involved in school activities. Moody the third child,becomes close friends with Pearl, their housekeeper's daughter. Pearl spends a lot of time with the Richardson kids and becomes important to each of the children in her own way. Mia learns many secrets of the Richardson's as she cleans, cooks and becomes a confidante to some of the children. She soon realizes that a friend of the Richardson's adopted a baby and she knows who the mother is. If you enjoy a book that slowly reveals all of its secrets, this is a good book. ( )
  dara85 | Mar 12, 2024 |
I'm glad I saw the show before reading the book. Had I read the book before the show came out, I may not have watched the show. For the most part, the show was true to the book but I enjoyed the show much more than the book.

The book starts out with Mrs. (Elena) Richardson standing on her lawn in her bathrobe watching her house burn. Three of her 4 children are behind her but she does not know where her 4th child, Izzy, is. She fears that Izzy is the one who set the house on fire.

Then, the story goes back to when Mia and Pearl Warren arrive in town and are in need of a place to rent. They rent part of Mrs. Richardson's rental property and start to get situated in the neighborhood. The neighborhood that has rules - grass cannot be over a certain length, houses on one side of the street can only be "this" color while houses on the other side can be "that" color.

Pearl becomes friends with Mrs. Richardson's kids - Moody, Trip, Lexie and Izzy - and they hang out and spend time together. Izzy forms a bond with Pearl's mom, Mia who is an artist. Mia also works at a Chinese restaurant when she befriends a waitress there who had left her baby outside a fire station some months prior. Mia also becomes a cleaner for Mrs. Richardson. Mrs. Richardson realizes Mia isn't what she says she is and starts looking into her background.

Meantime, Mia realizes that the baby her co-worker left at the fire station may be adopted by friends of Mrs. Richardson's and she convinces the baby's birth mom to pursue custody of her baby. ( )
  Cathie_Dyer | Feb 29, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 369 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ng, Celesteprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Lim, JenniferNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mudder, MarianNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Whether you buy a homesite in the School Section, broad acres in the Shaker Country Estates, or one of the houses offered by this company in a choice of neighborhoods, your purchase includes facilities for golf, riding, tennis, boating; it includes in unexcelled schools; it includes protection forever against depreciation and unwelcome change.
---Advertisement, The Van Sweringen Company,
Creators and Developers of a Shaker Village
Actually, though, all things considered, people from Shaker Heights are pretty much like people everywhere else in America. They may have three or four cars instead of one or two, and they may have two television sets instead of one, and when a Shaker Heights girl gets married she may have a reception for eight hundred, with the Meyer Davis band flown in from New York, instead of a wedding reception for a hundred with a local band, but these are all differences of degree rather than fundamental differences. "We're friendly people and we have a wonderful time!" Said a woman at the Shaker Heights Country Club recently, and she was right, for the inhabitants of Utopia do, in fact, appear to lead a rather happy life.
---"The Good Life in Shaker Heights," Cosmopolitan, March 1963
Dedication
To those out on their own paths, setting little fires
First words
Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.
Quotations
Remember, Mia had said: Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground and start over.  After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow.  People's are like that, too.  They start over.  They find a way.
"Some pictures, " Mia said, " belong to the person who took them.  And some belong to the person inside them...."
Every bedroom was empty except for the smell of gasoline and a small crackling fire set directly in the middle of each bed, as if a demented Girl Scout had been camping there.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, the intertwined stories of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the mother and daughter who upend their lives "I read Little Fires Everywhere in a single, breathless sitting. With brilliance and beauty, Celeste Ng dissects a microcosm of American society just when we need to see it beneath the microscope ..."--Jodi Picoult, New York Times -bestselling author of Small Great Things and Leaving Time In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood - and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

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