Today I have two recent books that I LOVED- we’ve got themes of mother-daughter relationships, children of immigrants, learning about what really matters in life, along with some laugh out loud scenes- a recipe for happy reading tears.
Plus one that I just started and am already excited about!
“Throwback,” Maurene Goo
It’s like Freaky Friday, except instead of the mom and daughter switching bodies, Gen Z teen Sam accidentally goes back in time to 1995 and meets Priscilla- her mom, as a teen. Sam has to figure out how to get back to 2025, and she thinks her mission is to help her mom win Homecoming Queen. In the process, she learns so much more about who her mom is, and why- all the ways that they make each other tick. I loved reading about Sam learning what it was like to live without a cell phone- these nostalgic scenes make the book appealing to current Gen Z readers, as well as those of us who remember what life was like in the ‘90s. The time travel world created in this book is delightful and I wanted more!
“Sunshine Nails,” Mai Nguyen
Nguyen is a child of Vietnamese immigrants whose family owned a nail salon in Toronto and she was inspired to write a novel where the nail techs are the main characters. The Tran family own Sunshine Nails, a salon that is already struggling with the gentrification in their neighbourhood, when a trendy new salon opens across the street. The result is a funny and smart look at the lengths we go to protect what we love (blackmail, revenge, green card marriage, oh my!) If you’ve ever wondered if your nail tech is maybe talking to her co-worker about you- the answer is, probably yes.
“Loot,” Tania James
This is not like anything I’ve read before! It is a bit similar to “Washington Black” by Esi Edugyan- a young native (here, India in 1794, there, Barbados in 1830) is taken under the wing of an eccentric European inventor, then- adventure, drama, etc.
It’s not “fun” in the same way as the other two books, and there are lots of words that are foreign to me (easy solution: google can be a friend) but there is a dry humour that has already had me laugh out loud. Excited to see where this book takes me!