With all of the holiday madness, and tendency to focus on New Year ‘s resolutions, diet, exercise and other vices, I feel it is my obligation to make sure you are also focused on your must-reads for 2011!!
Bitter Melon, snuck in right in the middle of all the holiday craze from Egmont. It is a first novel from the very talented Cara Chow. The story follows Frances, a Chinese-American student at an academically competitive school in San Francisco, and her timeless battle we have all faced, where does obeying your parents end and your true identity begin? Think of The Glass Menagerie and Gypsy as a reference point.
“Maybe you should just forget about Scripps and go to State. . . . You’re the only family she has. . . . What will she do without you.”
Frances has always had it drilled into her to be obedient to her mother and to be a straight-A student so that she can go to Med school. But is being a doctor what she wants? It has never even occurred to Frances to question her own feelings and desires until she accidentally winds up in speech class and finds herself with a hidden talent. Does she dare to challenge the mother who has sacrificed everything for her? Set in the 1980s. A perfect title for young adult readers, and for anyone else that has gone through the journey to adulthood.
Reading Group Guides are available…