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/

This just what I needed as we hear about the increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans since COVID19. Sadly, I doubt that people who need to read it, will read it. She's honest and forthright in her essays. This along with _White Fragility_ should be on all our reading lists.

Before Minor Feelings officially came out, I was intrigued by what I read online about it. I knew that this was a book I'd definitely have to read. When I received a copy through NetGalley, I then realized that this was something I'd really want to sink my teeth into, so I waited and bought a copy as soon as the book became available. 
While the book is not what I expected, it was still very much a good read. It reads like an academic text, memoir, cultural criticism, diary, and poem, all rolled together. There were incredibly relatable parts, and also points in which I had difficulty following, like when she wrote about the artist  Theresa Hay Kyung Cha. The text is rich, and made Hong's inner world incredibly enticing and I think part of that is because it helped reveal some of the same or similar parts within me. Even though I don't particularly enjoy poetry, Hong's magical way of weaving words together evoked so much feeling in me that I couldn't help but be impressed. I wish I had her way with words to adequately describe what reading this book was like for me, but you'll just have to read it yourself to experience it.

An affecting set of essays based on Hong’s experience as an Asian American in America, how it impacted her childhood and later education, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) racism that is still pervasive against Asians in America. As a white woman who grew up in suburban America, there were several moments throughout the book that gave me pause and asked me to step back and consider if I am complicit in perpetuating stereotypes and racism in America. It’s a must-read to become more aware of how America often looks down on Asians and what we can do to break that.

Absolutely loved this essay/memoir compilation, in particular the discussion of mental health and identity politics  of Asian Americans. Beautifully written and intelligent, I would definitely recommend.

Usually with essay collections, you're trying to adjust to the inevitable inconsistency: Some of the stories are page-turners, while others are just begging to be skimmed altogether.

Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings is remarkable in that every essay is a must-read. In weaving together her background, historical context, and theoretical texts, Park Hong's work is thought-provoking and impressive. While I was moved by every piece in the entire book, I found her exploration of her time at Oberlin with her friends Erin and Helen and her essay on the rape and murder of novelist and artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha particularly poignant and important.

You bet your ass I'm about to go read all of Cathy Park Hong's poetry collections. She's magic.

This book gives light to all the things I have felt as an Asian woman . Cathy Park Hong beautifully elucidates the nuances of this identity with well done research and lots of history for context. She uncovers hidden and ignored harsh truths with courage and wit. Her essays are original and brutally honest, and I recommend this book to anyone who has felt as thought they take up "apolagetic space".

Cathy Park Hong writes from the point of view of many Asian-Americans. We aren't white enough to be white. We aren't ethnic enough to be a consideration in many global conversations. We feel slighted, we feel overlooked. We are expected to be a certain way, all of the time. This minor feelings that Hong writes about are familiar and I see myself in many of these same issues. I look....like I have something, I'm not necessarily white, but I'm not necessarily Asian. I'm an other. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong is a must read! It was so insightful and descriptive that I felt like she was speaking directly to me! She speaks about her own history and the history of Asia and Asian Americans. Reading this book gave me new knowledge that I did not have before. It was a privilege to read this book!