Reviews and Comments

It’s not a perfect story but I think it is pretty honest and probably the best he’s got right now. David is a man who is struggling. He tries to take ownership of his harms but maybe not in the way the public expects of him. It’s really hard to tell amid the eye of public judgement. I saw someone call his food gentrified. It’s amazing how he both acknowledges the ways diaspora needs to overcome their fear of appropriation of their own culture to the point of being frustrated with the legitimacy of appropriation completely and yet also says that every reference in your cooking needs to come with a citation. I think that is a real struggle among diaspora about “getting things right” and some people unfortunately (or sometimes, just as fortunately) fail many times before getting to a point they feel they can take accountability for. I had no idea about his relationship with Anthony Bourdain either.

There’s a lot I didn’t know about how momofuku came to be. It’s really interesting learning more about it and thinking about where I was in my life as it evolved. I share sentiments to David’s complicated relationship to his dad as a kid (though I don’t have the resolution he found) and with the Presbyterian church. I like what he says of giving credit to where things come from and it’s clear that he doesn’t think he has all the right answers. Asian rage is complex and not always something we can be proud of. It takes a lot of guts to lay it all out the way he has. There’s admittedly a lot of toxic stuff going on early on in his book even if you can get where he’s coming from (wasn’t sure what to think of his friendship with David Choe being mentioned so early). However knowing about some of his current work I’m curious to see how things will turn in the second half of the book especially as I know parenthood is on his horizon and the NYC we both knew isn’t what it was.

Ughhhh the opening was so good. YA that doesn't have characters that are fucking annoying. Really enjoy this writing style, plus the little nods to things like "the wide legged pants with lots of chains" and the pseudonym "cassandra". The only other book i'm reminded of is sister snake.

Warming up to the book. it's really not shaping up to be what i thought it was going to be. at least it's something i can understand more easily?

"When you discuss a specific subject, you subconsciously reference part of a large internal map of what you know.

Other people can't see this map. It only exists in your head, and it's called your mental model.

When faced with a problem, you reference your mental model and try to organize the aspects and complexities of what you see into recognizable patterns. Your ongoing experience changes your mental model. This book is changing it right now."

Sure, she jokes that her ship with huge guns should really be classified as a fighter ship, a murderbot even. But no, the ship disagrees: with a partial fungal database, the stealth features must have been intended for swiftly foraging across the land. Fuck yes, finally some good mushroom loving representation in fiction, where mushrooms are cool and neat to check out - not mind controlling monsters.

I think a former classmate recommended the author to me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. YA can be really cringey, and there were the seeds that could have been hard cliches. A part of me worried it was going to be an attack on titan or hunger games. In the end, the story really matured to be unique along with commentary on classism. I could tell how committed the author was to building an immersive world and I found the flight combats surprisingly engaging. It wasn’t too overtly romantic either which was a relief. Still, it would be nice to have some queer trans rep given this is supposed to be a far flung future.

Fans of the murderbot diaries might enjoy this too. It’s not an incredibly difficult read but is very lengthy to keep you company for a while.

I’m dreading that the first two audiobooks are audible exclusives. The rest aren’t though!