hua hsu Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

hua hsu

I forgot language could do that. And I went down a rabbit hole of reading about Surrealism and the practice of “automatic writing.” It sounded like magic to me; I am so much less creative or open to experimentation than I was when I was younger. I wish I had read this back then.

hua hsu

Cookie Mueller’s life seemed like a dizzying, non-stop adventure ... “Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black,” was reprinted this year and I couldn’t stop reading it, astounded by the restless energy and insight inflaming each of her sentences.

hua hsu

A delightful novel about the erratic rhythms of friendship ... It’s funny and sad, finely attuned to the microgestures and rituals that mean everything when you’re in your teens and 20s, convinced you have a telekinetic bond with your closest friends.

hua hsu

I’VE NEVER READ a book like Ryan Lee Wong’s delightfully laid-back debut, WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON, which attempts to think through one of the great questions of our times: How do we balance our political convictions with the need to sometimes just chill out and live?

hua hsu

McDonnell has written a wonderfully fitting tribute to Joan Didion: one that avoids simple platitudes, approaching the great writer with a fierce, probing intelligence, flawless language, and the impulse, which drove Didion’s finest work, to understand the dreams of another.

hua hsu

each time i talk to wayne wang i see something new in CHAN IS MISSING—one of the greatest/kookiest films ever!—and his career, and consequently myself. our @NewYorker interview: https://t.co/aAW0vnNrD6

Out of stock

hua hsu

She makes the case that talking to others—sharing our stories—is how we learn things and sharpen our belief systems, how we piece together what it means to be funny or empathetic. Conversation can change our minds while sustaining our souls.

hua hsu

wrote about erin Khuê Ninh's wonderful PASSING FOR PERFECT, Debbie Lum's charming/terrifying TRY HARDER, college impostors/admissions, and the inescapable trap of Asian American "success" for @NewYorker https://t.co/oPGDDEEP8A

hua hsu

A buoyant and persuasive account of how the company’s fluctuating fortunes reflect Americans’ shifting attitudes toward dress, shopping, and identity... an absorbing story from the viewpoint of the visionaries, and the “competitive, deeply bonded believers” who worked for them.