This past summer I learned that by completing my local library’s summer reading club (reading two books per month for the duration of the summer), I would get to choose a free advanced reader’s copy of a book coming out in 2018. As you can probably already guess, reading two books a month is not generally challenging for me. I completed the club, and then went on to sign up for the winter reading club, looking forward to another free book at the end of the challenge, only to find out I first got a free book simply for being one of the first people to sign up. Score. Score. Score. This is said “free book.”
Book 37:
All You Can Ever Know
by Nicole Chung
Genre:
Memoir
Published:
October 2018
Synopsis According to Mandi:
Without spoilers, All You Can Ever Know is Nicole Chung’s story, told in memoir fashion, of growing up as both an adoptee and a minority. Nicole was born 10 weeks premature and domestically adopted upon NICU discharge. She grew up an only child in a community where Asians were scarce. Like any adoptee, she always wondered about her biological family – are they still out there? Why did they give her up? What place do they have in her life?
Favorite Quote(s):
“Family lore given to us as children has such hold over us, such staying power. It can form the bedrock of another kind of faith, one to rival any religion, informing our beliefs about ourselves, and our families, and our place in the world.”
-Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever Know
Awards (based upon my brief research):
None yet.
Pages:
222
My Overall Rating:
3 – Nicole has such an eloquent writing style and, as a fan of memoir, this book was so beautiful to me. Unfortunately, I am not very in tune with the overall theme of adoption. It was enlightening, to say the least, but not a topic that pulls on my heartstrings. I was still very grateful to have read a book written by a woman born years ago at 10 weeks premature; such a short part of her story, that was the part that lured me in. The rest was merely educational. I cannot imagine having grown up either adopted or as a minority. I’m glad she told her story.
