Books & Boba discussion

Hello! Sorry for the delay on creating this thread. We are stretching out our current book club pick, Babel by RF Kuang, over two months.

We will be reading up to Chapter 12 for the month of December and be discussing it on the show. We will read the latter half of the book for the month of January.

Please use the spoiler tags if you plan to comment on major turning points. Thank you!

I finished reading it yesterday, I enjoyed it very much, I just felt like the Main characters could have explore more into the silver work.

Five stars from me. So creative the idea of language being the building blocks for the world we live in is a cool premise. Kuang puts so much into this book but it didn’t feel overwhelming to me.

I liked how she explored the relationship between Robin and the professor. The exploration of the White savior trope through Robin’s, Remy’s and Victorie’s experiences is something I haven’t seen that much in pop culture, at least the feeling of not having to feel grateful for being “saved”.
Of course I have some things I didn’t like but I’ll wait for the January thread.

As usual, the food descriptors were on point. Food talk in books is a bright spot for me. The way they would buy and share baked goods for each other was cute. Just very college cute.

Just commenting on what I've read so far, as I've just gotten to chapter 12, but this book is amazing. It's a world that really grabbed me and pulled me in a way that made me forego doing things to continue reading!

I really love language learning and I love that this book identifies the difference between speaking a language and thinking/dreaming in a language. I love all of the historical language anecdotes and facts that introduce readers to how languages travel and influence other languages. I love the exploration of who gets to own a language, and the varying experiences that exist between people who speak a language versus those who have lost it. I love the exploration of morality behind translating religious concepts and whether it is right to do so when it means so much to the language speakers.

"This all hinged on him, Robin realized. The choice was his. Only he could determine the truth, because only he could communicate it to all parties." I'm a first generation Asian American and resonated with this quote so much, being the translator for my family. I've definitely been in the position of choosing to say words differently to protect my family.

"And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods." And this ooooh snap of sick burn! Oof!

I finished reading the book this morning and I'm so my glad my initial first impressions about it were proven wrong. I recall the hype when the book came out last summer, but on a surface level, it didn't come off as overly interesting. I also thought initially that Robin Swift was a white guy. This is the latest novel of R.F. Kuang, so I should have known better on all of that! The world building is impressive, the stakes are high, and the characters are well developed.

Well, regarding the latter, for the most part. It took such a long time for Robin to morph beyond being a studious peacekeeper -- longer than I think it was necessary. It's because of his slow evolution as a character that a majority of the novel felt like a very long first act. It really isn't until well past the halfway point that things start to take a turn, on a narrative level. I think that aspect of the story could have been paced better than it was.

But otherwise, I'm glad I closed off 2022 and kicked off 2023 with this novel. It's been a hot minute since I've read something as engaging as this. Leave it to R.F. Kuang if you want a story that gets deep and dark.

Just finished the book and found that I couldn't put the book down for the later half. Themes around exceptionalism/model minority, working with the system versus bringing the system down, the contradiction of minorities oppressing other minorities to maintain their worldview were all apparent and explored in a way that I found very engaging.

The ending of the story really brought tears to my eyes. The idea of the sacrifices that minorities have to make in order to demonstrate their humanity and prove that they are equal is truly unreasonable and unbearable.

Agree with Lauren! A great book to start the year off with!

Loved the book. Let me just say though, living and working in London, where the majority of my colleagues went to Oxbridge… the bits about Oxford in this book are absolutely insufferable.

Chris wrote: "Loved the book. Let me just say though, living and working in London, where the majority of my colleagues went to Oxbridge… the bits about Oxford in this book are absolutely insufferable."

Hahaha do tell. I'm really curious to know how accurate the Oxford culture is in the book, despite it being a historical fiction.