February TIOLI: the lunar new year

In honour of the Lunar New Year, which starts on 4 February this year, my challenge is to read a book by an author new to you from a culture which celebrates Lunar New Year - Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, or Vietnamese.

That includes authors from those ethnic communities in different countries, so Hong Kong, Taiwan, Chinese communities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, as well as immigrant communities in other parts of the world would all apply.

In a nutshell, if there's a reasonable chance the author themselves would celebrate the lunar new year, the book will fit.

I am really looking forward to reading The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng. This author is of Chinese decent and originally hailing from Malaysia. The book is a story set in Malaya in the late 1930's and into the war.

If you are looking for a non-fiction read, I recommend Lucky Girl by Mei-Ling Hopgood. I read it a couple of years ago and gave it four stars in my review- a painfully honest memoir about cross-cultural adoption.

Some writers of Chinese descent who I particularly like are Shaun Tan and Gish Jen. I also loved Vincent Lam's Bloodletting And Miraculous Cures, a collection of linked short stories.

A Korean-American author I very much like is Chang-rae Lee. I was so happy to be able to hear him speak at this past year's National Book Festival.

I highly recommend his books Native Speaker and A Gesture Life. I have his newest book, The Surrendered here at home but I'm not sure if I'll have time to fit it into any challenge (not this one, as this author's certainly anything but new-to-me!).

My SantaThing books arrived today, and one of them fits this challenge. I'm planning to read Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie.

I've had The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee in my stash for awhile. It's set in Vancouver's Chinatown. It sounds like it should fit this category!

I've had Waiting by Ha Jin in my TBR Tower for a while and have not yet read this or anything else by this author. I think this would be a good time to dust take it out of the Tower.

It's halfway through the month, just wondering whether anyone has any reads to report back on? My next book will be one for this challenge (honest).

I ended up abandoning my read for this category after 86 pages. It wasn't working for me. My review is at: http://www.librarything.com/work/2609742/reviews/30154717

Just started The Surrendered for this challenge. So far so good...

I've completed The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng. The book left me with mixed feelings. A beautifully written story, set in a lush paradise during a heart-breaking war, but I just didn't feel any passion from the author.

I finished Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie for this challenge. I received this book through SantaThing, and I was glad for an excuse to move it to the top of my TBRs. It's a historical novel about two city boys sent to the country for "re-education" during the cultural revolution. The discovery of a hidden cache of Western literature has unexpected results. The author was himself a re-educated youth. He left China and has lived in France for several decades. I read an English translation from the French. I discovered that there is a movie version of the book and it's available for streaming on Netflix. I may try to watch it this weekend.

If I'd thought about it and bought Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother earlier this month I could have read it for this challenge. I was just about to buy it for under half price when it went up by over £2 on Amazon.