Adult Books

Of all of the things that I could do at any moment of the day gladly...my favorite would have to be reading. I love it. I do it as often as possible. It makes me happy. I involve my children in it. I believe in the power of it. So today, after I finishing my verbal adoration...we are going to talk about books related to Korean Adoption that are available. The hardest part is that I have not read many of these books personally, so I cannot vouch for them... In the adult reading category: A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China by Chris Winston I Wish For You a Beautiful Life: Letters From the Korean Birthmothers of Ae Ron… [more]

I am writing this post because, if I don’t, my mother will badger me until I do. It’s self preservation. Awhile back, I wrote about Anne Tyler’s book, “Digging To America.” Part of the story line is that every year two families that met at the airport while picking up their Korean adoptees have an Arrival Day party. At the first party, they thought there should be a theme song for the girls and all they could think of was “She’ll Be Coming Around The Mountain.” Everyone sings the song (complete with “toot toot”) and the two little girls enter from the other room (symbolizing their original arrival). Though I found it amusing, it causes… [more]

I finally finished Anne Tyler’s book “Digging To America.” The fact that it took me several months has absolutely nothing to do with the book. In fact, it probably has a lot to say about the book. I’m rather famous for speedy reading. Give me a genre book and chances are I’ll have it down before the night is over. However, when I read books that make me really think about the world, I tend to read them a little more slowly. Anne Tyler’s book follows two families who adopt little girls from Korea. The families don’t have a lot in common, except that they share the arrival day of their girls. The story follows the two families… [more]

I want my son to know that I am the kind of parent who will listen to anything he needs to tell me. I want him to know that he can come to me with any issue and we’ll work through it. However, I know that he won’t always come to me – that’s about the only given in parenting. Reading stories together is a great way to introduce some of the tougher topics. You might find that even the younger children have been thinking about some of the big ones and didn’t know how to tell you. When I was small, there were very few books out there for Korean adoptees, but now libraries and on-line bookstores are full of books… [more]

Somebody’s Daughter, by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, is a novel that tells two stories. For someone who is not a Korean adoptee, Marie Lee did her research because she was able to capture the many emotions of Korean adoption with her words. There are two stories in this novel. The first is the story of Sarah – a young Korean adoptee who is struggling with her identity. Sarah’s search leads her to study in Korea where she learns some hard lessons about who she is as she realizes that just as she doesn’t feel a part of her family in America because of the way she looks, she also doesn’t feel a part of Korea despite how she looks. The author takes us on… [more]