Tag: Book Reviews

Roundup of my publications for the first half of 2023 at WaPo, NPR, SF Chronicle and Boston Globe.

Leland Cheuk

Time for a belated recap of my writing in the first half of 2023. I started 2023 at the Djerassi Alumni Residency where I worked on my novels-in-progress for two weeks. In January, for the San Francisco Chronicle, I reviewed Have You Eaten Yet? by Cheuk Kwan. In Februrary, I wrote about Sonora Jha’s The Laughter for The Washington Post, and in March, I reviewed Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada for NPR.

Also in March, I was interviewed by Berkeley Fiction Review, the literary journal at my alma mater, UC Berkeley. It was an honor to judge their fiction contest in the spring for the journal where I used to read the slush as a student.

In April, I reviewed Han Kang’s fabulous new novel Greek Lessons for NPR, and in May, I wrote about Ava Chin’s Mott Street for the Chron, and Elysha Chang’s A Quitter’s Paradise for NPR’s Summer Books List.

In June, High Country News ran my piece on Jane Wong’s memoir Meet Me Tonight In Atlantic City, and I wrote about a host of books for Boston Globe’s summer reading list. Finally, I reviewed You Can’t Stay Here Forever by Katherine Lin for the Chron.

Phew! More to come in the second half of 2023 . . .

Rounding up publications from the 2nd half of 2022 in @npr @sfchronicle @heavyfeatherrev #bookreviews #doingthework

Leland Cheuk

The second half of 2022 was active on the writing front. I was a special guest on the faculty of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and attended the Monson Arts Residency in Maine to work on my next books.

On the book coverage front, my work made three appearances in the San Francisco Chronicle. I interviewed Catherine Ceniza Choy about her book about Asian American histories. Then I reviewed Ryan Lee Wong’s debut novel, two books about North Korea, and selected my best book of 2022.

For NPR, I reviewed two novels I loved at the midyear mark, Paradais, by Fernanda Melchor, and The Stars Are Not Yet Bells, by Hannah Lilith Assadi. I also reviewed Ghost Town, a novel by Kevin Chen, published by one of my favorite indies Europa Editions.

For my friends at Heavy Feather Review, I rounded up my top five reads of 2022 with an emphasis on small and independent presses.

Happy new year to all!

My review of THE STORY OF MY TEETH by Valeria Luiselli is up at [PANK] Magazine

Leland Cheuk

teeth-200x300

In Valeria Luiselli’s first novel Faces In The Crowd, a promiscuous, melancholy mother loses herself so thoroughly while translating the work of a Mexican poet named Gilberto Owen that her narration slowly becomes that of the equally promiscuous, swashbuckling poet. In Luiselli’s funny new picaresque The Story of My Teeth, Gustavo “Highway” Sánchez Sánchez picks up where Owen left off. He too is a charismatic raconteur whose first-person narration simultaneously charms and cuckolds. Highway not-so-humbly describes himself as “the best auctioneer in the world.”

Read the rest of the review at [PANK] Magazine.