Skip to main content

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Meeting date: September 25, 2018 ;
Star rating: 3.3/5 stars

When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country’s most eligible bachelor.

On Nick’s arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.

Comments from attendees:
  • The amount of wealth in this book is OBSCENE.
  • Money cannot buy happiness - none of our super rich folks appear truly happy.
  • Social divisions and ancestry are everything to the characters of this book.
  • Why would Nick not tell Rachel this important information about his family?
    • Embarrassment?
    • Afraid of women only wanting him for money?
    • Protecting himself?
  • Money = success? Money doesn't equal success? Money does equal power though. Reputation is all.
  • For being a comedic book, this title brings up a lot of issues about class, wealth, and power.
  • Humans create hierarchy, its natural. Doesn't matter who you are.
  • Self-worth is based on how we view others, not ourselves.
  • Examples of marriage/relationships are fascinating in this book:
    • Astrid and Michael - love match for Astrid but stressed (money, family) for Michael (but this might have happened for any partner not wealthy before marrying Astrid)
    • Eleanor and Philip - "business partners" ; "schemers"
    • Eddie and Fiona - opportunists
Lowest rating: 1
Highest rating: 5
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Selections

*4/28 Pick* Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Meeting date:  CANCELED - April 28, 2020 ; Star rating:  not yet calculated Book Club meeting canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak.  Please visit  ferguson.lib.mo.us   for further information. Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then one of them goes missing. In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling. Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late. Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once hear...
Post a Comment
Read more

*5/26 Pick* The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica

Meeting date: May 26, 2020 ; Star rating: not yet rated Propulsive and addictive, and perfect for fans of “You,” The Other Mrs. is the twisty new psychological thriller from Mary Kubica, the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl Sadie and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling Chicago to small-town Maine when their neighbor Morgan Baines is found dead in her home. The murder rocks their tiny coastal island, but no one is more shaken than Sadie. But it’s not just Morgan’s death that has Sadie on edge. And as the eyes of suspicion turn toward the new family in town, Sadie is drawn deeper into the mystery of what really happened that dark and deadly night. But Sadie must be careful, for the more she discovers about Mrs. Baines, the more she begins to realize just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light. Comments from attendees: TBD
Post a Comment
Read more

Finding Chika by Mitch Albom

Meeting date: February 25, 2020 ; Star rating: 4.7/5 stars Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince. With no children of their own, the forty-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.” Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, arou...
Post a Comment
Read more