Beautiful writing and essays on race and cultural writing, combined with Hong's personal reflections as a first generation Korean-American. Great for those who feel lost "in-between," and those who struggle with belonging.

Minor Feelings is a beautiful blend of memoir, culture, and quest to find belonging. Hong tried to determine - where does a American-born child of Korean immigrants fit in US society? She identifies herself as an Asian, cis female, professional, atheist living in the United States. The title comes into play here - is this experience minor in comparison to more urgent feeling matters of race in the United States? She wrestles with this as well as where she belongs in the greater group of 'Asian Americans' in the US. Most essays in here were beautiful, some felt disjointed or without a throughline theme but I really appreciated reading this perspective.

Was really excited to get this title as I had been looking forward to it. Unfortunately it was very mixed for me. The good was very good - valid points made. Unfortunately the unlikability if the writer’s voice in which she wrote - exceptionally whiny and somewhat cutting made it an unpleasant read and then overshadowed the few good points made.

I’m so grateful for all that I learned in reading #MinorFeelings by #CathyParkHong. I appreciated learning about her experience as an Asian American woman, her exploration of what that term even means, her candor about her own internal struggles and ongoing frustrations with the white world around her. I particularly enjoyed the closer looks at often overlooked moments or figures in history—as much as it also infuriated me and reaffirmed how much there that is we aren’t taught. There were many moments I had to just pause and reflect, or go back and reread powerful statements.
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I did enjoy some essays more than others. The author is a poet and an artist, and generally that world doesn’t resonate with me personally as it can feel a bit pretentious. In the essay on their college lives in art school, I had a hard time as she and her friends reminded me of some (not all!) artistic types I knew and began to avoid during my own college days at NYU. But that is my personal reading taste and does not take away from my complete respect for her work, recognition of her talent, and appreciation for the rest of the essays.

A really incisive collection of essays about Hong's experience grappling with her identity as a Korean-American artist. Some hit harder than others (her essay about Theresa Hak Kyung Cha in particular was perfection), but all of these essays are worth reading.

I feel like this wavered in its focus collectively, but in parts it hit with such a force! Incredible writing and nuanced reflections!

As an Asian American, Minor Feelings was a particularly powerful read. Cathy Park Hong does a beautiful job of sharing her thoughts and feelings on the Asian American experience in a way that I wish I were able to. Especially in today's day and age with Asian hate crimes on the rise in the U.S., this is a must read.

“Minor feelings arise, for instance, upon hearing a slight, knowing it's racial, and being told, Oh, that's all in your head."

A powerful group of essays which provided an enlightening history of Asians in America and about race in general. Hong is a great writer, funny, with unique insights and impactful storytelling.

It's hard to pick a favorite essay because I enjoyed them all, but the essay called The End of White Innocence was truly amazing. I’ll leave you with this excerpt from it -

“For to be aware of history, they would be forced to be held accountable, and rather than face that shame, they’d rather, by any means necessary, maintain their innocence.” 💯

I feel like this book is too smart for me. There is so much to absorb and reflect on in every essay, I could read them over and over again and learn something new every time.

Thanks to One World for the ARC to review.

Minor Feelings is a beautiful book of essays about race in America, in which Hong interweaves personal stories with wider historical and cultural context. She is a poet and talks a lot about language, including how she de-colonizes English through her poetry. (I definitely want to pick up her poetry books now!) She talks about stand up and what she's learned from watching Richard Pryor, even going so far as doing stand up herself at readings in lieu of reading her poems. Her essay on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was devastating - I read Dictee as an undergrad and struggled with understanding it, but don't remember learning anything about Cha herself. Minor Feelings is excellent, and is a book everyone should read and re-read. Highly recommended.

Minor Feelings is a triumph of memoir and cultural criticism merging into a scathing and quietly devastating portrayal at the ways in which Park Hong experiences America as an Asian woman. While the cadence of the novel isn't perfect, with some essays, such as the one that explores the David Dao plane incident, blowing the reader apart, while others fall flat, it is an undoubtedly powerful reckoning for an America currently at an identity cross-roads.

I received this as an eARC and audiobook to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to The Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for giving me access.

Essay collections aren't my cup of tea, but these hit home. Never have I felt more understood.

While this is definitely a truth hitting read, this is something that those who don't understand what being a minority really is, should read.

What a breath of fresh air!! I was surprised by how quickly I read it – books this perceptive usually take me longer, but the style is both sharp and conversational and I dashed through it. I may need another time through to really feel if it all really sticks but the first time through was a comfort, and with finally a healthy dose of rage to go with the classic Asian-American melancholy.

An entire chapter on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha?? it’s what we needed (though it left me wanting more... in fact the entire book was over so quickly i wished it were longer!).

I guess I also kinda wish she would’ve delved a little further into her myriad examples – maybe it’s me being a pedant but I appreciate most when she dives deep or sticks with a longer thread rather than bring something up only to never bring it up again.

Oh this all reminds me. I should read Dictée again.

*I received this book as a free eARC through NetGalley*

This was such an important and eye-opening read! It explored the way Asian Americans are complicit and implicated in white supremacy while also engaging and providing ways to move and act outside of white-dominated structures. This is a revolutionary text and I highly recommend it. Every essay in this collection asks necessary questions that have long been left out of anti-racist dialogues.

Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings is an interesting intersectional work that mixes memoir with cultural criticism. She's a true artist - also having a background as a poet. The most powerful moments to me were the moments of first-person memoir and her exploration of her own experiences with "minor feelings" in America.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Minor Feelings is an extremely honest and original collection of essays focused on the Asian American experience. Hong describes “minor feelings” as “the racialized range of emotions that are negative, dysphoric, and therefore untelegenic, built from the sediments of everyday racial experience and the irritant of having one’s perception of reality constantly questioned or dismissed.”

I loved her honesty and transparency. As I continue to learn more about the varieties of racism in America, I’m struck by its impact on the human development of persons of color and the challenges they face in sorting out their identity as a result. I found this rich collection of essays to be very educational, and it helped to know that my closest Asian friend found Hong’s experience to be so helpful in understanding her own experience of growing up as a Korean American.

I'm not sure I was in the best headspace when I was reading this book and will potentially give it another try in the future. Right as I started this, COVID-19 hit and I was feeling angry and frustrated. This book added to that, because it did incite a lot of anger and frustration in me. I'm not Asian, but I am a POC, and although my tales aren't the same as Hong's I've had similar experiences being Mexican. Being called brown. Being shunned by the other half of my family (the white half) for being the darkest of my siblings. Anyways, this book triggered me, but I believe it's important. The best thing about this book is it made me feel something, so I know it was real. But it made me go really intrinsic rather than being able to focus on the author's story or maybe even her message.

I thought this book was excellently written. The author, Cathy Park Hong, gives a great look into what it’s like to be an Asian-American in today’s society.

I am thankful to have been given the opportunity to have read this book in exchange for a non-biased review.

One World and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. I voluntarily chose to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The central theme of the essays in this book are minor feelings, which are racialized emotions that are negative, dysphoric, and are built on the perception of reality that harbor stereotypes. These ugly feelings and negative emotions come from the false expectations that, because you have a certain ancestral background, you must have a particular set of characteristics. Trying to live up to the expectations of others can bring resentment, self-loathing, and doubt. This is true of any number of ancestral groups and can even be based in religion.

The biggest issue that I had with Minor Feelings is that the essays are disjointed, despite being centrally themed around the idea encapsulated by the title. I also thought the book suffered a bit from a lack of focus, that the author tried to cover too much ground in a wider context. Had the book been solely a memoir, with the author giving her own personal reflections instead of cultural and historical context, it would have been much stronger. Her personal experiences are lost and not given as much weight as they should have been. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning to other readers.

I loved this book and will be including it in a round-up of great new innovative nonfiction at Book Riot, probably in March or April. This is a vital, brilliant, necessary collection of essays. https://bookriot.com/2020/04/10/innovative-nonfiction/