We're excited to do something a little different for our August pick for "Now Read This," our book club in partnership with The New York Times. Given that many of us return to a beloved older book or classic in the summer months, we decided to ask one of today's top writers to choose a book she loves and keeps returning to, and recommend it for us all to read.
We asked Celeste Ng, author of the best-selling novels "Little Fires Everywhere" and "Everything I Never Told You," and a regular champion of other writers online and off. And her pick for our August read is…
Maxine Hong Kingston's lauded 1976 memoir "The Woman Warrior: Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts."
The memoir, which blends autobiography and folktale, dips back and forth in time between the past of Kingston's ancestors in pre-Mao China, to her growing up Chinese-American in modern-day California, to the fantasy of an imagined life as a female avenger. As cultural critic John Leonard wrote in the New York Times' 1976 review, the result is a book that is "fierce intelligence, all sinew, prowling among the emotions."
The New York Times recently named "The Woman Warrior" as one of the 50 best memoirs of the last 50 years.
"This book is more than four decades old, but I can't think of another memoir quite like it that has been published since," New York Times book critic Jennifer Szalai wrote. "True stories, ghost stories, 'talk stories' — Maxine Hong Kingston whirs them all together to produce something wild and astonishing that still asserts itself with a ruthless precision."
At the end of the month, Celeste Ng will join us on the PBS NewsHour to answer questions about the book. We hope you'll join us and read along.
Sustain our coverage of culture, arts and literature.
John Leguizamo has appeared in more than 100 films while also telling a distinctly Latino story in documentaries, one-man shows…
In death, Leonard Cohen is having a rebirth. The legendary singer is being remembered by older and younger generations alike…
Alec Baldwin's Western "Rust" had its world premiere Wednesday at a film festival in Poland, three years after the shooting…
In her new collection of columns from The Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer Prize-winner Peggy Noonan takes readers on a journey…
If you've ever wanted to own a piece of Hollywood history, now's your chance. A pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers…
When Centurion was founded, it was the first group of its kind working to overturn wrongful convictions for people facing…
As major American museums reexamine their collections to ensure diversity and inclusion, there's a growing realization that they need more…
As a dancer, choreographer, director and speaker, Jamison's distinguished career leaped over barriers of race and gender.
In the 1980s, about 70 percent of clothes sold in the U.S. were made in the country. Today, it's down…
This is her first time receiving nominations in the country and Americana categories.
For many Muslim and Arab Americans, Israel's wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider Middle East are personal, and so…
A giant in the music and entertainment industry has died. Quincy Jones, known to many as 'Q,' was revered as…
Jones rose from music school dropout to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives…
Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in the final days before the presidential election, playing herself…
