Wednesday Reading Meme
May. 27th, 2026 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Grace Lin’s Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods, a compendium of the stories behind various dishes frequently found on menus in American Chinese restaurants (plus a few less-common dishes that just have a cool story, like Buddha Jumps Over the Wall). Loved this! As always in Lin’s work, the illustrations are gorgeous, and she gives a great sense of the flavor experience of many of the dishes, too.
I also finished Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For is in the Library, translated by Alison Watts. Like Aoyama’s other books, each chapter follows a different character who is at a turning point in their lives. All of them go to the same library in the local community, and find unexpected guidance in the books that the librarian suggests, which helps them make changes both large and small. One girl starts to learn simple cooking so she can make her own lunches; a new mother realizes she needs to find a more family-friendly workplace if she is going to successfully balance raising her toddler and pursuing her career as an editor.
And now I’ve read all the Aoyama novels that have been translated into English. A bit bummed to be out, but happy to report that another translation is coming out in July: Matcha on Monday, which going by the title might be a companion novel to Hot Chocolate on Thursday? We shall see.
What I’m Reading Now
Onward in The Romanovs! Paul has been assassinated just like his dad (well, except his wife wasn’t behind the assassination, so maybe not JUST like his dad), leaving his son Alexander to deal with the Napoleonic Wars. After a brief honeymoon period between autocrats (“I’m happy with Alexander; I think he is with me,” Napoleon mused to Josephine. “Were he a woman, I think I’d make him my lover”), Alexander pulled back from the alliance, and now the infuriated Napoleon is marching on Russia. Hell hath no fury like a dictator scorned.
(Side note: aside from England and France, every single nation in Europe seems to have changed sides in the Napoleonic Wars at LEAST once. I’m starting to understand Hitler’s conviction in World War II that the Allies would inevitably fall out with each other if he could just hang on long enough. Wishful thinking yes, but wishful thinking with the entirety of European history up to and including Russia’s abrupt departure from World War I to back it up.)
What I Plan to Read Next
I found Patricia McKillip’s The Riddle-Master of Hed and Harpist in the Wind in the Little Free Library next to the farmer’s market, so I guess I’ll be giving the Riddle-Master trilogy a try. Full disclosure, I did not care for The Forgotten Beasts of Eld when I read it, but that was back in high school so it is entirely possible that I have come around on McKillip since then.
Grace Lin’s Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods, a compendium of the stories behind various dishes frequently found on menus in American Chinese restaurants (plus a few less-common dishes that just have a cool story, like Buddha Jumps Over the Wall). Loved this! As always in Lin’s work, the illustrations are gorgeous, and she gives a great sense of the flavor experience of many of the dishes, too.
I also finished Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For is in the Library, translated by Alison Watts. Like Aoyama’s other books, each chapter follows a different character who is at a turning point in their lives. All of them go to the same library in the local community, and find unexpected guidance in the books that the librarian suggests, which helps them make changes both large and small. One girl starts to learn simple cooking so she can make her own lunches; a new mother realizes she needs to find a more family-friendly workplace if she is going to successfully balance raising her toddler and pursuing her career as an editor.
And now I’ve read all the Aoyama novels that have been translated into English. A bit bummed to be out, but happy to report that another translation is coming out in July: Matcha on Monday, which going by the title might be a companion novel to Hot Chocolate on Thursday? We shall see.
What I’m Reading Now
Onward in The Romanovs! Paul has been assassinated just like his dad (well, except his wife wasn’t behind the assassination, so maybe not JUST like his dad), leaving his son Alexander to deal with the Napoleonic Wars. After a brief honeymoon period between autocrats (“I’m happy with Alexander; I think he is with me,” Napoleon mused to Josephine. “Were he a woman, I think I’d make him my lover”), Alexander pulled back from the alliance, and now the infuriated Napoleon is marching on Russia. Hell hath no fury like a dictator scorned.
(Side note: aside from England and France, every single nation in Europe seems to have changed sides in the Napoleonic Wars at LEAST once. I’m starting to understand Hitler’s conviction in World War II that the Allies would inevitably fall out with each other if he could just hang on long enough. Wishful thinking yes, but wishful thinking with the entirety of European history up to and including Russia’s abrupt departure from World War I to back it up.)
What I Plan to Read Next
I found Patricia McKillip’s The Riddle-Master of Hed and Harpist in the Wind in the Little Free Library next to the farmer’s market, so I guess I’ll be giving the Riddle-Master trilogy a try. Full disclosure, I did not care for The Forgotten Beasts of Eld when I read it, but that was back in high school so it is entirely possible that I have come around on McKillip since then.
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Date: 2026-05-27 12:54 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, another Michiko Aoyama book to add to my to-read list! She seems like such a reliably pleasant read.
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Date: 2026-05-27 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2026-05-27 06:34 pm (UTC)I love the trilogy. I do not think it is necessary to get on with The Forgotten Beasts of Eld in order to enjoy it.
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Date: 2026-05-29 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-05-29 06:00 pm (UTC)Fair. I don't dislike it, but it's not one of my favorite McKillips.
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Date: 2026-05-31 11:32 pm (UTC)