The synopsis, title, and cover immediately drew me in- the promise of an exploration of loneliness, love, labor, and class through the story of a nail salon owner serving unaware, privileged clients. Sounds fascinating! But while the premise is compelling and the writing sharp, I struggled to stay invested. The plot development was lacking and I was waiting for something more to happen. That said, I recognize this may be one of those “right book, wrong time” experiences. Sometimes, I am fine with less happening. On another day, I might’ve appreciated its quiet elements more.

This is a slice of life book about a Lao salon owner (or possibly Thai, the author doesn't specify and the names can be either Thai or Lao).
It gives insight on how service workers are overlooked, undervalued, and often times invisible. It also gives us a look into how the salon workers go about their day. The challenges they face. Ning is the owner of the salon. She is a former boxer but doesn't want anyone to know about her past or about her life. She is the narrator.
Entertaining and insightful this is a quick read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @souvankhamthammavongs and Little Brown Books for this egalley. I was under no obligation to leave a review all opinions are my own

I enjoyed this realistic portrayal of a nail salon owner, Ning, how she deals with her staff and clients, and how she achieves the smooth running of her shop. Nings's observances of people and situations puts her on top of all possible scenarios that might crop up, and rewards the reader with astute comments in this first person narration.

Ning is acutely aware of the biases and the stereotypes that the public makes of her occupation, even by her very own clients. This character driven novel is informative, giving us an inside look into a workplace and the staff and customers and their interactions or noninteractions as the case may be.

A highly recommended and unusual book.

~ I received an ARC copy of Pick A Color from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ~

Pick A Color is a reflective narration of a day in a nail salon run by immigrants. The main character reflects and interacts with her employees/co-workers as she takes on clients and hires a new employee. The piece is a quick read and an interesting window into all the thoughts a worker would have throughout the day.

I requested this short book on a whim, and I’m glad I did! It’s an ideal length to read during a short flight, like the one I just had.

The narrator’s perspective on the intricacies of a nail salon was intriguing. I appreciated how, despite the entire story unfolding in a single day, brief flashbacks provided valuable background information about the main character, “Susan.”

The writing is exceptional, and the cast of characters is captivating. I’d be interesting in reading more from this talented author!

This is a story of "Susan" and her other "Susan's" who work with her in her nail salon/spa.
Ok, her name isn't really Susan, but she doesn't really care for people to call her by her name, or necessarily even know if... she likes to be standoffish and keeps herself to herself. But we, as the reader, get many glimpses into her inner workings.
The whole story plays out in the course of one day working at her shop.
There isn't much plot development, and there isn't any climax or big end.
I did kind of want *something* to happen at the end, that is why I am marking it down a star from what I would otherwise rate it.
But the writing was beautiful and I appreciated the window into another type of life that I am not familiar with.
Definitely worth a read to put yourself in someone else's shoes and "live a day in their life".
Overall, I enjoyed it. (Also, it was a quick read!)

PICK A COLOR REVIEW
RATING: 4.5
GENRE: Literary Fiction

Pick a Color is depicted as a novella as we peek into the span of one day in the life of Ning, retired boxer and now nail salon owner. We see her dedication to running her own shop that she started after she was kicked out of her former salon and how she treats her employees. We meet three main employees; Mai, the season manicurist, Noi, her first day working at the salon, and Annie, the part-timer that Ning met through her old employer.

We learn about Ning’s fierce independence about running her salon and how she tries to not get too close to her staff but also establishes camaraderie through joking about their customers.

I really enjoyed learning about Ning’s thoughts, her interactions with her customers and staff, and even a brief encounter with a surprise visitor. I highly recommend this read and it’s a quick and easy one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC. Please check out this book releasing on 9/30/25!

This story was an absolute eye-opener in terms of the lives of nail techs & beauty service workers. Often times, many walk into these salons or shops expecting the best services without any questions about the lives of their techs based on the norms presented to us regarding beauty service workers. It truly was an eye-opening read about the intersections of immigration, service work, and racism l (though I do not believe the story is explicitly set in the US, that is the lens I read through).

Similarly, the way the author weaves the identities of the women without ever attaching a race/ethnicity to the characters was a fascinating choice- the only time this really happened in my eyes was the conversation about accents & how the dominant population thinks these women talk. It allowed me- and i presume those who will choose to pick this up- as a reader to examine my own biases and assumptions throughout the book, which I wholeheartedly appreciated.

All in all, I appreciated the opportunity to read this before its publication and look forward to sharing the recommendation with my reader friends! Thank you NetGalley & Little, Brown and Company for access to the ARC!

Much to enjoy here, in a portrait of the peculiar culture of a nail salon - the comical responses (in a foreign and therefore impenetrable language) of the staff, the obligations, intimacies and assessments of the customers. And then the portrait of its owner, with her boxing past and mysterious missing finger. The mood, detail and consistency are all admirable. Less so, though, the cumulative content. The book is atmospheric and absorbing, but does it have enough content for a novel? I’m unsure. Ultimately it amounts to a terrific scene-setting. But not enough happens. A plot would have been nice.

I thought this was such an interesting read—I finished it in just 24 hours! It’s a quick, easy book that’s perfect for getting out of a reading slump. The story takes place over the course of a single day in the life of a nail shop owner, following her from just before opening to closing time. It honestly made me want to book a nail appointment.

I really appreciated the way she talked about wanting to help people, especially offering services to the homeless man for free. Her background in boxing added a unique layer to her character, and I loved hearing those stories. The theme of sisterhood really stood out, especially in the dynamic between her and the shop girls—even in how she reflects on Noki, who hasn’t shown up in weeks.

I loved it! 4.25 stars.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book, however, I'm not sure I loved this as much as I loved the authors first book. At times I found the story dragged a bit.

This story is a master class in subtlety. It’s full of small, memorable details that hint at the nuance of owning a business, employing people, working with customers, and experiencing prejudice. I was expecting something loud and mocking, perhaps a run through of outrageous client interactions, but what I experienced instead was a collection of moments, an entire business day, actually, that portrayed the main character’s life so much better than I could have imagined. There’s technique to be found in elevating the mundane to create meaning and I’m here for it.

I truly enjoyed this sometimes funny and sometimes heartbreaking look at a day in the life of a shop owner. If you’ve ever had a pedicure and the workers are speaking in a language you don’t speak and they are laughing, they’re likely laughing at you! Ning works hard and her shop is her whole life. Her “Susan’s” feel like family, but they are not. Both her sense of humor and her loneliness come through in this unique story.

Thank you to @netgalley and @souvankhamthammavongsa for an ARC of this gem! I’m excited to get my hands on an audiobook copy when it’s released.

A look into the life of a woman running a nail salon, navigating the invisibility of service work in tandem with the surprising intimacy of this work. The writing style is reflective and stream-of-consciousness, which helps readers to feel immediately close to the main character. Good discussions of the issues facing service workers intermingled throughout the novel, particularly exploring the issues facing Asian women in service work that predominantly serves upper-class White women. Overall a short but good read!

I enjoyed this a surprising amount! While other reviews are technically correct that this isn’t really a story with a plot and deep character development, it’s also kind of remarkable what the author accomplished. We find out pieces of Ning’s backstory the way we have flashbacks throughout a day, or how pieces of our past just sort of live within us without necessarily always giving a lot of context within our own personal narrative. The book really follows Ning and her movements and experiences throughout the course of a day, and the lack of a true arc also seemed to represent the ways in which the salon’s customers interacted with the employees each day. There is a superficiality to it. A lack of desire to really dig deep and know someone else’s history and experiences. And in that way, the author gets us attached and invested in the character while also not letting us in very deeply. I really loved reading PICK A COLOR! It was a short, quick read but was pretty impactful. Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-arc!

“Pick a Color” by Souvankham Thammavongsa is an entertaining novel that takes place in one day at a nail salon. It’s a powerful story told through the eyes of the owner who has journeyed from boxing, to abused nail tech employee, to owning her own salon. The insight into how the customers are treated as well as the immigrant point of view is stunning. The inside discussions in a foreign language where the customers cant understand were disturbing but perhaps honest, as we really see how the customers treat their technicians. Honestly, for me this was quite an eye opener and I think it will be the same for anyone who has visited a nail salon. A slice of life from an immigrant perspective. A very good read!

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a fascinating look at a nail salon and its owner, Ning who used to be a boxer. Now all of her workers are known by the name "Susan" and they gossip about their clients as no one else can understand their language. It's a clever look at race, classism, and women bonding together in friendship--and gossip!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

In *Pick a Color*, retired boxer Ning, now working as a nail salon manicurist under the alias Susan, navigates a day of routine interactions, masking her brilliant mind behind a facade of politeness. As she reflects on lost opportunities and the power dynamics among her colleagues, the tension between her two identities escalates, ultimately demanding a reckoning with how the world perceives women like her. A sharp, insightful exploration of the immigrant experience and identity.

This book is like listening to someone's inner monologue in the best way possible. I loved this story from the first to the last page. I liked how this story takes place all in one day and we get to see another side of the nail salon industry. Ning is an interesting character who is more than meets the eye. Next time I go to a nail salon, I'll definitely be thinking about this book! This was the perfect little slice of life story that can be read in one sitting and have you wishing you could witness what will happen the next day and who else may come into the salon.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thammavongsa's How to Pronounce Knife is one of my all time favorite short story collections, so I dropped everything when I got approved for her novel. It lived up to the hype! Thammavongsa has such a gift for creating complex interior worlds, and for saying so much with so little.

Our protagonist, Ning, has a lot of trauma, and we never fully understand why, beyond that she used to be a boxer and her coach greatly impacted how she sees the world. There is more to the story (as there always is in life), and we never see why, but that just makes it feel more real.

The discussion of classism, racism, and privilege is so well done without being heavy-handed- especially the fact they have to tell customers to "pick a color" twice, because they never hear them the first time, no matter how loud they are. While Ning and her team of "Susans" (another clever critique of white supremacy) gossip about all their customers, the customers don't make it easy for the reader to sympathize with them.

This is a slim slice of life over one day, but it's impactful and draws you into a very real world. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to Little Brown for the eARC!