Arsenic and Adobo

 Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala, 336 pages.

Lila Macapagal's life is starting to look like a rom-com. After she catches her terrible fiance cheating on her in the big city she moves back to her tiny hometown in Illinois to help her aunt save her failing restaurant. She also has to deal with meddling, match-making aunties and old and new crushes. Of course her food-critic ex-boyfriend being murdered in her family's restaurant throws a wrench in the genre. 

Now Lila has to solve the crime before she, the prime suspect, goes to jail for it. Luckily, the tight-knit Filipino community in Shady Palms, Illinois is ready to help, and Lila will meet a really fun cast of diverse characters in the course of her investigation.

I don't read much in the cozy mystery genre, but I really enjoyed this book. It was really funny, and I loved Lila's voice throughout. I also really appreciate the recipes in the back, and there's definitely some I want to try (if only I could stand the smell of bananas enough to make banana bread!). I'm definitely looking forward to the second book in the series next year!

Interior Chinatown

 Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, 273 pages.

This book was brilliant, but also not really for me. The novel follows Willis Wu, who thinks of himself as "Generic Asian Man" and works as a bit actor on the cop procedural "Black and White." He dreams of someday being "Kung Fu Guy," like his father before him, the greatest aspiration he can imagine for someone like him. Ultimately, Willis begins to wonder if he should dream bigger, and if there could be more than one way to exist available to him. Ultimately, this is a book not only about the history of race in America (especially centered on the experiences of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans), but also on the history of perceptions of race in America, which I thought was a particularly interesting direction.

I believe I may be a bit to literal for this book. I spent most of it way to caught up on what was real, what was actually happening, versus what was happening in the show, or in the story, and ultimately it definitely impacted my enjoyment. The screenplay format this novel uses is very interesting and effective, but it also definitely contributed to my overall confusion. This is not a literal book, but I don't seem to be capable of releasing that framework. 

However, there are still definitely scenes from this novel that will stick with me for a long while. The trial scene in particular is one that I've thought of a lot since I read it. Overall this is a well-crafted novel with a lot to say, even if narrative isn't one of it's strong suits.

They Called Us Enemy

 They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker, 208 pages.

This graphic memoir follows the journey of George Takei (of Star Trek fame) during his time in Japanese internment camps during WWII. This is a phenomenal memoir. The fact that Takei was a child during internment gives a very different perspective on a historical event, and it does a really good job balancing life as he experienced it and the things he has realized and learned about those experiences as an adult. In addition, I really appreciated the notes on legal history throughout. This memoir manages to be simultaneously very personal and very historical, which makes for a very engaging book overall.