The Books That Made Me

As a young child, I fell asleep every night to my grandmother reading next to me. She read ‘Journey to the West’, the Chinese classic, and though there’s a lot I don’t remember from those days, I do remember how the main character, a monkey king, could pluck a strand of fur, blow on it, and duplicate himself. I think of it whenever I am picking cat fur off of my clothing, especially when I am traveling, and wishing my cat could be there too.

Perhaps naturally, my next love was the Redwall series, also featuring very clever animals. It was the first time I read a book that had a character die, and I made a scrapbook memorial for that character afterwards. My Christmas wish list had only have other Redwall books. And when I spent my first summer in Taiwan, hanging out with my cousin for the first time, we found that we both loved Redwall. After that, it was easy to get over our pre-teen awkwardness. We spent our summer pretending we were the hares in Redwall fighting against the stoats and ferrets.

In high school we had to read ‘The Once and Future King’ by TH White. Although it also featured clever animals, I was, maybe for the first time, drawn to the human characters. The way White analyzed their childhoods, how their traumas followed them to adulthood, even as they became legendary heroes. That he could make a character as astounding as Sir Lancelot have the lowest self-esteem in the world made me understand the power an author has. It is still one of the only books I’ve reread more than once, though the last time I reread it, I said never again, for it was just too sad.

It wasn’t until college that I really read books by Asian authors. I took an Asian American literature class where we read Ruth Ozeki’s ‘A Tale for the Time Being’. I had never both laughed and cried that much for a book before. I went on to read all of her other novels, and am always struck by how her books manage to examine a huge issue without ever becoming didactic, staying character focused, and often humorous until the sudden gut punch. When I reread bits of her books, I am always reminded of how much more I can level up. And how good she is at name puns.

After college, I went back to reading a lot of science fiction and fantasy, only now, there was even SFF written by Asian writers! I became a huge fan of Ken Liu’s books, both his short stories and epic fantasy, how he seamlessly weaves East Asian mythology with science fiction and fantasy. Since I am a software engineer, I particularly appreciated how he implemented technical concepts in his fiction. I also loved The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee. Again, for how it weaves in East Asian mythology to create a world of its own, but also for how it fuels the epic magic system and the delicious relationships between the siblings. It is the only book series I have convinced my whole family to read. I also adored Ryka Aoki’s ‘Light from Uncommon Stars’, a perfect blend of science fiction, fantasy, heart, and food. And most recently, I’ve been drawn to more grounded speculative fiction—a recent favorite is C Pam Zhang’s ‘Land of Milk and Honey’.

And I’ve finally started getting into nonfiction, after many years of resistance. Mostly they center around science or technology. Chris Miller’s ‘Chip War’ and Lulu Miller’s ‘Why Fish Don’t Exist’ (no relation between those two authors, I believe!!) both had me seeing the world in a different way. But there have been some really good historical ones too—Helen Zia’s ‘Last Boat out of Shanghai’, and Daniel Immerwahr’s ‘How to Hide an Empire’ both had me in awe.

These are just a few of the books that made me, but they are all inevitably linked to the people that made me—the grandmother who read to me every night, the cousin who imagined worlds with me, the teachers who put amazing books in my hands, the family willing to try my recommendations, and the partner who buys all the nonfiction. I am so grateful for both the books and the people!

Allison King, Author of The Phoenix Pencil Company
Fiction Book of the Month for August