USF Book Club: American Born Chinese

8 thoughts on “USF Book Club: American Born Chinese”

1. Meeting in the garden this week was fun. I was amazed at how beautifully and how fast people’s plots have grown since I was last there in the spring. And it was great to see new faces at the book group. I’m looking forward to another lively lunchtime discussion for this book. Note to self: bring sunscreen.

   I just read an interview with Gene Yang (who teaches high school in Oakland) here and discovered his website.

   When asked about graphic novels vs “real books” he had an interesting response:

   I like old ways of doing things. Combining words and pictures in books, though, isn’t new. … Books are about communication. And books communicating through images, even sequential images, aren’t something new trying to substitute for the tried and true. They’ve always been there. They’re getting more attention now, sure. But they aren’t going to replace the prose novel. Instead, what I think we’ll see is a bleeding of the boundaries between media. Comics will bleed into prose and vice versa.

2. America.gov has an interesting section called: Graphic Novels: Drawing the Asian-American Experience. http://www.america.gov/apa-graphic-novels.html

3. Also–if you haven’t already seen the first Asian American graphic novel anthology, check out the groundbreaking Secret Identities released this past spring:

   http://www.secretidentities.org/Site/Secret_Identities_Homepage.html

   Here’s a video trailer:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TuX-xJ4MlI

   1. Thanks to a generous donor this book is in our collection at Gleeson Library.

4. Talking about graphic novels, check out the SF Cartoon Museum:

   http://www.cartoonart.org/

   Free First Tuesdays!

5. The Secret Identities book has been donated to Gleeson but it’s not in the catalog yet. Soon!

   1. update: it’s in the catalog now and ready to check out.

6. Looking forward to the discussion and the selection of our next book!

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