APAHM 2024 Hodgepodge

This is mostly a conclusion, with two clarifications.

Even though one of the great things about catching up this year has been clearing out columns, I am leaving the books that relate to difficult parental relationships. I don't seem to be done with that yet, or it is not done with me. 

I don't know if I will put it off all the way until next May, but I hope to have it done by Father's Day 2025 for sure.

In addition, I am going to get a few one-off posts out of the way before doing the spotlight on George Takei, which I want to do right before I start blogging about the Pride reading. 

So other than those two exceptions, this is what was left in my Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month reading.

Fiction I didn't like very much:

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

It's probably me, and maybe it's fiction, though I used to read so much of it. 

Of them, The Book of M was the most gripping, I have to admit that Yellowface was entertaining (though also bleak), and whatever weaknesses the movie version of The Descendents had, the book was worse.

I may just not fit into contemporary fiction, and I may be okay with that.

Getting out of North Korea:

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape From North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa
Escape From Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

I resent bleakness more in fiction, because then it's a choice, though there are times when it is important for what needs to be said. In non-fiction, it can be very powerful.

Looking inside North Korea is horrifying, but it's important to know, even if it feels like an area where there is not much that outsiders can do. For both escapees, one of the key indicators that they had crossed into China was the presence of dogs; pets can exist when everyone is not starving.

I toyed with the idea of putting these with immigration, but it feels like a very different focus, and with different results. The source of Harden's books spends a lot of time in China and South Korea before coming to the States. Ishikawa had been in Japan, then his Korean family went back after being recruited, which later turned out to be a bad idea. After getting out, Ishikawa returned to Japan.

Doing things differently:

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 
The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka  

I have referenced Kondo's writing a lot (though more from when I read the manga). I'll link to a couple at the end.

Fukuoka was new to me. I had read related things, but this was the first with an Eastern focus. It was really interesting, especially his path to natural farming. 

I was horrified that he killed an entire orchard his first year, but it is kind of a testament that you can recover, even from massive failure. The land can recover too. (Those specific trees may not.)

Memoir and Biography:

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzhai and Christina Lamb
Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli
Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama by Diane Fujino

There was also a children's book about Fujino, but it is worth reading the full biography. I read this close to when I also read a short bio on Dolores Huerta. As different as their lives were, there were ways in which they reminded me of each other.

History:

The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy by Kenneth Pomeranz
The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War  by George L. Hicks
Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism by Nancy Wang Yuen

The Great Divergence is an attempt to bring together a large body of scholarship on economics. This may sound boring. It kind of is. However, if you are the kind of person that would read such a thing, knowing that there will be significant dry patches, it does a good job.

The other two are interesting because they are both about things that are unpleasant, where people will often be uncomfortable with the subject matter and try to avoid having the conversation. They are two wildly different conversations, but ones where prejudice and dehumanization play a role.

I always want to know, and then I want to fight it.

And now we move on, though it is not impossible that I will reference some of these books as I write about myself on Tuesday posts.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/09/books-come-together.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/09/expanding-gratitude.html

Regrouping

I thought I was going to write about healthcare, but I am having a hard time concentrating on it. 

My state of mind is kind of off and I am trying to get back on track.

Part of it is that there were three big weights on me. 

I was giving a talk in church, and thinking about that a lot in the time leading up to it. That was resolved about two weeks ago.. 

I also found that as a returning student, getting back into the swing of writing papers was harder than I thought. I admit overthinking was a part of that, which is such a core part of me.

I had to write four papers for the first class. For the first one, just getting started was a struggle. Eventually I got it submitted and it passed. 

A lot of photos and video clips get captioned that someone "understood the assignment". 

It took me longer than it should have to understand the second assignment. First I missed that we had switched from writing about types of technology to specific tools. Then, once I got that down and made my recommendation, I did not give reasons for it. I thought that from the paragraphs leading up to it the choice was obvious; that is so me! However, when they are grading you on your ability to make a reasoned argument, you need to complete the argument. 

Actually, the third went pretty well, but then I struggled with the fourth, possibly because of the third weight.

It was really difficult finding a new PCP for Mom.

That is something else healthcare related, so you can see how that would be on my mind. At that point, it was just one more thing. Finding someone who could meet her specific needs in the near future, rather than 4-6 months out, was not easy. 

There had been on potential solution that seemed like it was going to work, and then it fell apart a few days before the first appointment. There are a lot of ways in which being a senior works better, because there are good things about Medicare. For the things that don't work well, there is a lot of regulation surrounding it. 

Anyway, for a few weeks I was struggling with those three things and getting really frustrated with myself for not concentrating better or just being able to get these stupid things done. 

Then they got done, and now I am kind of dazed.

There's plenty of other things to do, but I still need to refocus. 

(Also, I am tired, but at this point that's a personality trait.)

For some things, I know I just need to keep plugging along. For others I need to change habits, which is difficult, but I at least know what I need to do; it is just a matter of doing it.

Then there are other things where I really don't know.

The Immigrant Experience: APAHM 2024

As mentioned in the overview, there is blurring of the categories; that is especially true with immigration. 

From movies, YA and graphic novels, Picture Bride, Front Desk, Children of the River, Family Style, and The Best We Could Do contain details of coming over, while many others at least reference aspects that relate to being here after that move.

For example, in the To All the Boys movies, Laura Jean and her sisters have all been born in the United States. Their Korean-American mother is dead, but they still participate in traditional celebrations and they visit Korea in the final movie.

It makes sense that immigration comes up. It does seem like it was a little more this year, but that may just be due to the extended time period. There was also a lot of variety.

Here are the books intended for an adult audience that dealt with immigration. While all are to the Americas, that does not necessarily mean the United States.

Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur

Bahadur's great-grandmother went from India to Guiana as an indentured servant. This is a story about one family, but also the other women who came alone, and the experiences they had.

Unfortunately there are many questions that Bahadur raises but cannot answer. Sometimes starting that research can lead to other people getting farther, so it is worth the effort, but there are some frustrations because of that.

The Concubine's Children by Denise Chong

This one was a little more satisfying, though you do get a real idea of the difficulty of immigration and family separation. 

In this case, Chong's grandfather came from China to Canada, leaving his first wife there to tend the home, and taking a concubine to help as he earned money. On one trip back to China he took his two elder daughters, and they remained in China with their half-brother. The third daughter born after remained in Canada. There was a separation between those children that lasted for decades, along with additional issues with their mother's disappointment in them all being girls.

Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang

This one almost went into the complicated parental relationships category. It is pretty entertaining, but there is a lot of anger and things to be disturbed about. I suspect that was less of a factor in the sitcom.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong 

Night Sky is poetry and On Earth is very poetic prose, and they are both powerful and very painful. 

I preferred the poems, as sometimes the fiction in On Earth feels too depressingly real.

The thing that might make sense to write about as well are the differences in being a refuge from other types of immigration, which can be very hard. Vuong seems to locate so much misery, often locally grown, that it's like it all flows together.

He declares himself a monster, along with his mother, but they are really only human. 

Things that worked

Finally, right? I know.

When I was laid off in 2016, it was because my work was being outsourced to India (even though they said they were only going to send overflow there, and that we were safe).

Because of that, I was eligible for training through the Trade Act. I could go back to school. Unfortunately, that was just at the point in our mother's dementia where she was still better off staying in the home but could not be left alone.

That had come up through regular job hunting, as leaving for job interviews required getting other people to stay with Mom. I had thought that if I could find another telecommuting job maybe I could make it work, but it was clear that was going to be unworkable by the time I was contacted about the Trade Act.

Getting my school paid for felt like it should be a dream come true, but it would have required spending hours away at a time. I couldn't do it.

One of the most comforting things about Mom's disease is that we have consistently done the right thing for her, and we have known what to do as that has changed. It takes frequent adjustments and we are trying to figure out a new situation now, but overall, I can live with myself on that count. That's really important. 

It was still a little disappointing then. 

Among the options I had down to investigate after quitting, one of them was whether I still had any Trade Act eligibility. 

That was more important in light of my results in checking out one of the things I had looked into: school.

That thing where I kind of want to know and understand everything (while acknowledging its impossibility) has been around for a while, but it had shifted in the past few years. 

As I found that knowing some things helped me understand other things better, and discovered interesting connections between different areas, I started thinking about how to facilitate knowledge. 

It wasn't just about academics, but also the world around us. There is science in personal hygiene and cooking and cleaning. Things that people used to learn at home weren't necessarily being taught there anymore. Or learning things about other countries can teach a lot about democracy and what is bad for it and what is good for it, but often we only learn out own history and government. Then if you focus on standardized testing, there may be a limit to how much students engage with that.

A lot of current reading problems kind of make kids hate reading.

So I would keep making mental notes on things and ruminating on that. In my mind it was becoming an interest in curriculum design. I didn't really have any concrete plans for it yet, figuring that would be easier to pursue when I was further along in my quest for more (but not really "all") knowledge. 

Then a friend mentioned that Western Governors has a program for that.

It was just one of the ideas that I had down to investigate, but I did go through the application process and someone actually called me while I was filling it out.

Sure, that seems a little aggressive, but then it ended up being very supportive. 

I was admitted and Trade Act came through and is paying my tuition. I will complete my Masters in Education and Instructional Design in early 2026.

That feels pretty cool.

It doesn't solve everything, because I still need to figure out living expenses during that time period, but it is the one thing that really feels like progress.

The other thing that works out is that I have health care through the Oregon Health Plan.

Now, I could not get it started online and needed to call, but nonetheless it worked. That is really important.

There are many issues with health care that I have alluded to in reference to my job, and that may be its own post, but I'll tell you one thing that helps is that OHP actually wants people to have health care. They know it ultimately costs more to withhold it, while causing irreparable harm.

There might be things we can learn from that. 

Children's books for APAHM 2024

As with the graphic novels, the extended time period led to a lot of books with no evident theme. I have broken these down into categories that mostly make sense.

For the upcoming (September 17th) Mid-Autumn Festival:

Mooncakes by Loretta Seto and Renné Benoit 

The Moon Lady by Amy Tan and Gretchen Shields

These were both fine. I didn't want to read them again and again or anything. However, both give different looks at the festival, both in different eras and locations but also in terms of size. In this case, we are only a month away, so it is something to think about. 

I would say for appreciating the festival, I got more out of the Mooncakes graphic novel by Suzanne Walker, but that's a different age group and focus.

Prominent figures:

Brush of the Gods by Lenore Look and Meilo So 

Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather's American Journey by Katie Yamasaki

The Bridges Yuri Built: How Yuri Kochiyama Marched Across Movements by Kai Naima Williams and Anastasia M. Williams

The best of these was probably Brush of the Gods.

There is a lot more to learn about Yuri Kochiyama, but the nice thing about this book is that it can provide an early introduction.

This is perhaps a minor quibble for Shapes, Lines, and Light, but the art needed to be a little stronger and it would have really helped. That being said, it could make a good companion to Curve & Flow, about Black architect Paul R. Williams. Both Williams and Yamasaki persevered and excelled, and how many children's books about architects are there?

Stories of World War II:

My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story by George Takei and Michelle Lee

Yukie's Island: My Family's World War II Story by Yukie Kimura, Kodo Kimura, and Steve Sheinkin

Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind by Cynthia Grady and Amika Hirao

So Far From the Sea by Eve Bunting and Chris K. Soentpiet

Yukie's Island is actually set in Japan, so that's an interesting perspective. 

Write to Me was my favorite. It features kindness and reminds us that there can be many ways to help if we will care.

With My Lost Freedom, again, the graphic novel is better, but it's got a different target.

Older stories:

The Fire Keeper's Son by Linda Sue Park and Julie Downing

The Runaway Dosa by Suma Subramaniam and Parvati Pillai

These are completely different, giving a look at the military alert system in imperial China in one and many characters from the lore of India in the other.

In case it is not obvious, The Runaway Dosa is very much like The Gingerbread Man. I have also seen a version with tortillas, but generally these stories will give you rhymes and motivation to try different foods.

Stories to help:

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho and Dung Ho

The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden by Heather Smith and Rachel Wada

Eyes that Kiss is a very gentle look at differences. It doesn't start with teasing or anything; just a noticing of a difference, treated poetically and with love.

The Phone Booth is a grief book; like most of them, it hurts. They are also sometimes very necessary.

Like some other stories, a physical item helps with the emotional pain.

Even worse

This next experience was the least personal, but also the most discouraging.

Back in June, I saw a flier about a Free Food Market:

https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/Home/Components/News/News/14606/4300 

I thought it was a great thing, especially in not requesting ID or means testing. 

Do a search at https://foodfinder.oregonfoodbank.org/ and you will find many places that have severely limited hours or require appointments or that specify limited selection. I don't want to knock anyone's efforts, but the closer you are to the edge, the fewer obstacles you can navigate.

This seemed like a good addition (especially being so close to the train) but not one that applied to me.

I got a strong sense that I needed to check it out.

I didn't want to. We were fine for food; this should be for people that had an actual need.

My not wanting to go was increased by a lively discussion we'd recently had about needs and resources.

Someone who complains a lot complained about rising grocery costs to someone solution-oriented, so was offered a grocery order filled by our church. They wondered if we would want part of it, though they phrased it in such a convoluted matter that it was not immediately clear what was being asked. No! What is wrong with you?

That made the thought of visiting any food bank feel even more wrong, but the thought wouldn't go away.

I hemmed and hawed about it until it was actually too late to go to the June date. The feeling did not go away, and now I needed to wait a month.

Fine, I was committed to going to the July one. It ended up being a very hot day. Did I really need to see it so much I needed to ride Tri-met in that weather? There was at least a solution for that, in that Julie agreed to drive me. 

As we were leaving, Maria called on her lunch break. I referred back to my attempts to explore...

"How the system screws you?"

"Well, this is supposed to be about how it helps you," I replied, but not as confidently as one would hope.

I was still worrying about taking something someone else needed, but how in some ways just going and looking could be even worse and make people feel scrutinized. In truth, I did not need to worry.

On the way I kept looking at people waiting for buses and walking in the heat. The high was forecast for 103 degrees. It wasn't there yet, but it was on the way.

Missing the June date gave me much worse weather. The other thing I did wrong was I had not written down the address. I was fairly familiar with those offices from some training I had taken. Of course, there is more than one office, but I had not worried about it too much. Two mistakes, perhaps, but I think I got a fuller picture.

It made sense to me that it would be the entry that handled food stamps. There were two workers, but one was doing something on her computer and said I could go to the other window or wait. At the other window, a woman was trying to help a non-native English speaker, and it was going to take a while.

I looked for signage, or people coming and going with bags, but didn't see anything. 

Finally, the woman who was not on the computer was done. I asked her where the Free Food Market was.

"Oh. Is that today?"

Well, it was the second Tuesday...

That was in another building in the next parking lot, but she did point the right direction.

Let me just say, if this is where people needing food assistance go, that could be helpful information to have on signs and to have the staff up-to-date on details.

Let me also say that it was not the next parking lot, but two over. However, the actual "next" parking lot was clearly under construction, so that was not a big deal.

Let us also remember that the market runs from 1:30 to 3:30. When I got back to the car the second time, it was 1:59. That part did not take very long, because before I reached the doorway someone leaving told me that they were out of food. They only had diapers and some other non-food item that I didn't quite hear.

As we were pulling in, I did see one couple walking away with one bag; that might have been the last of the food.

Perhaps I should have gone inside anyway, but I felt like I had seen what I needed to see.

We were fortunate. I was returning to an air-conditioned car where we could quickly drive to our air-conditioned home, that did have plenty of food, even though I am unemployed. I imagined someone busing there in the high heat, and enduring because they did have empty cupboards, and then finding nothing. 

I know that we need to do better.

But also, for the people who believe that there are all these programs that put lazy people on easy street, and that there are programs to help everyone except white men... all of the racist, sexist, hateful lies that get told are just that: Lies.

You know the main factor that makes things easy? Money. A system that keeps consolidating wealth will continue spreading misery. A scattering of people with good intentions is insufficient for that. 

Graphic novels for APAHM 2024

Remember, the reading for this round mostly goes back to 2021. Over that time period, I came across a lot of graphic novels. I liked most of them. Well, I guess it was really just the one that I didn't.

Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda

I read this one because of a reference to an Ainu character, Asirpa. I don't generally hear much about indigenous Japanese, so that seemed worth checking out.

While it would be easy to root for Asirpa herself, really the series is about blood, revenge, and tattoos leading to treasure, which is just the motivation that some people need to kill and skin other people. There is a gory ruthlessness that I can't enjoy. I may read more about Ainu people, but I won't be this way.

Shadow of the Batgirl, by Sarah Kuhn and Nicole Goux, is very much a good but normal offering in terms of the Bat-family. That's not an insult. As it was, I think I read it because Cassandra Cain was featured in the Birds of Prey movie, and it is how I found I Love You So Mochi, so that was a good service to me. However, one's feelings about superhero comics will probably have a bigger impact on desire to read this than anything I can say. This includes feelings about DC versus Marvel and specific feelings about the Bat-family.

Hungry Ghost by Victoria Yang led me to even more books when I was searching for it at the library, which led to some Halloween-themed reading. That's because "hungry ghost" is a thing, but it is not what this book is about.

Instead, it was an uncomfortable but ultimately affirming story about a girl struggling with an eating disorder, largely due to her mother's obsession. The grace she is able to find for her mother surprised me, but may have been part of what made it feel so hopeful.

For other books geared toward teenagers, Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu, and Joamette Gil gives you the magical and possibly sweeter, but Himawari House by Harmony Becker is a bit more bittersweet and realistic, as various transplanted students try and find their way.

It's okay; it's not like you have to choose.

Speaking of difficult realism, Talk To My Back by Yamada Murasaki kind of takes the issues of The Feminine Mystique to '80s Tokyo. There are no easy solutions for Chiharu, but I remember one of the points that stuck with me -- and nothing has changed my mind -- is that the deference and coddling that goes to men does not make them happier or better.

The Only Child by Guojing has its own magic, but it is based in a harsh reality, that the one child policy and the Chinese economy left a lot of lonely children. It is still a beautiful, practically wordless book. In that way it reminds me of The Arrival, but is its own, beautiful, thing.

I had mentioned earlier that across the categories of types of books, there were many about the immigrant experience.

Papaya Salad by Elisa Macellari may be the least obviously so. The granddaughter could easily be simply Italian, as that is where she and her parents live. Her grandfather even spent time in Europe, but family visits keep the connection across countries.

Much of the narration is built around meals, for both the sharing and the preparation. That is also a pattern in Family Style by Thien Pham.

Here the food is strongly associated with memories of escaping Vietnam, running a cooking stand in the refugee camp, and with American milestones, including briefly running a bakery. 

One of the story points is Pham having wavered on getting citizenship until feeling the need to vote during the rise of Trump. It is good to remember that what is horrifying when it is not targeted at you is worse when you are the target. 

That was also very present in Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao. In this case, much of the animosity is driven by COVID, and feels worse because of Gao's connection to Wuhan. 

There is also a thread of that in The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66 by Shing Yin Kor, relating to feelings of safety on the road. There is enough to worry about on a long road trip without having to worry about xenophobia.   

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui is the one that takes the hardest look at intergenerational trauma, and that is not something that is unique to Vietnamese refugees. This one might be helpful for people from various types of families.

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen gets us back to magic, again, and tells us it is doing so. 

Some stories that may sound very familiar, but a little different, get updated with very thoughtful imagery. That art is very interesting and beautiful, but ultimately the biggest, most helpful magic, is love and friendship.

We end with Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang (who also made a cameo in Family Style). 

There is a story about sports and a story about choosing change, but one of the most touching things for me was a brief story of kindness shown to an ailing and disgraced coach, except because of how things were handled it was never investigated whether he actually deserved the disgrace, so people just assumed they should shun him. A legal resolution might have cemented that, but it might also have exonerated him.

It just reminded me of how much I believe in the importance of investigation.

It was minor, but sometimes small things are very important.

These things really should work better

The things I wrote about last week were interesting for me, but not vital. There might be possible improvements to the systems, but they affect a fairly small amount of people.

I did not expect any success in these next two areas, but they are considerably more important. 

My reasoning for trying anyway was that I wanted to know how things worked; understanding the system better would allow me to be more helpful to others.

A lot of it was very discouraging.

For example, I did not entertain any hopes that applying for disability would ultimately be useful for me. I didn't think it would be enough money anyway, but also I have heard that everyone gets turned down automatically the first time. Success requires multiple tries and the help of a lawyer. I had no intention of applying a second time, but let's see what the initial process is like.

I applied on March 4th. 

The disability listed was diabetes, which of course does not completely preclude me from working, but it does make some jobs inappropriate. Whether it is aging or other factors, I can no longer maintain health as a call center agent. That's what I was indicating -- that I could look at training for some other job or something -- but I can't currently support myself in my former manner.

The online application on March 4th led to a phone call on April 29th. Knowing that most people who end up being granted disability have legal representation, maybe that is why most of the questions were confirming I filled out the form myself, and no one helped me, and if I had talked to a lawyer. Nope.

I mean, the call purported to be about things that were not clear from my application, but it seemed really lawyer-centric. 

I get it; when I was looking for the application a quick search brought up more sites helping you tell if you have a chance and helping you with that chance. It would be easy to accidentally submit the information to a lawyer instead of to Social Security. 

Once we settled that, she submitted my case. Determination takes about nine months, but I should call if I started working. 

If that had been the end of the process, I would have considered it a good turnaround time, even with a denial. It took almost two months for the process to even get started. I know that there can be a large back payment at the end of the process, but then how much goes to the lawyer?

For someone in need, the delays and the need for legal help must be really impractical. I am sure it does some good, but it seems severely lacking.

I also did not expect to get unemployment. After all, I quit. I've had some pretty terrible bosses and have been driven out of jobs, but if they do not intend for you to get unemployment, my experience is that you will not get it.

Going through the process, it did say you could be eligible for unemployment if you were in circumstances where a reasonable person would quit. Well, I thought so, but I was still sure it would be denied.

If only it were that simple.

I got an approval, with how much I would be getting weekly and how long it could last. Great! This will take a lot of the stress out of my job search! 

I did need to go through a few steps, one of which included going down to the WorkSource office. This is where I was told that my claim was actually in adjudication. I had a good chance of being approved, but it wasn't official. I did need to keep reporting my job searches for the 8-12 weeks adjudication would take, though, because I couldn't fill out the backlog later.

One of the things they do at WorkSource is talk about your job searches. She asked me if I was looking for call center work. I replied "I will kill myself" so quickly and without thought it was a little scary. I mean, I would like to think that I wouldn't kill myself, but my solution to not doing so was quitting. If you take away that option, then what?

Anyway, while that was not premeditated, that may be why she said I had a good chance of being approved. Apparently, the law does not technically require you to stay in a job that makes death look like your best option.

As comforting as that is, I was denied. It was not that I did not have cause to quit, but that I had not explored my options sufficiently before quitting. I had not checked within the company for other jobs, and I had not applied for 

Truly, I did not think of either of these. 

For applying internally, one of the weird things about Moda is that it is much harder to search for jobs internally than externally. At least, that has been my experience. (I had tried looking multiple times, and always given up in frustration.)

Part of that may be that your current manager has to approve the transfer. Given how overworked everyone was, I am not sure if I could have made that work, but not trying counted against me.

For the temporary paid leave, that is kind of newer. I know someone who knows someone who used it, but it just wasn't on my radar.

https://paidleave.oregon.gov/employers-overview/#howemployersizeworks

Again, I don't really object to being turned down for unemployment. That was my expectation.

I do object to getting an approval message that did not explain that it was provisional. I got two mentions of the adjudication: once at WorkSource and once when I got the final denial. That was extremely unhelpful. I object to getting jerked around.

I was also not thrilled with the reasoning behind it. Navigating the system successfully is much harder than it should be. If the idea is to prevent scammers, complications like that are going to impede the overtired and downtrodden far more. I assure you they have less ability to do the research and fill out additional forms and then make the corrections for obscure rules.

(My experience there is more from a few years ago with caring for my mother, but there are definite similarities.)

Disability and unemployment didn't need to work for me, but they should still work.

APAHM 2024 for Young Adults and Middle Grades

At times I have been very annoyed by YA books.

I have tended to do better with Middle Grade books, even though YA is technically closer to my demographic, middle-aged crank.

My usual frustration with YA is that so much of the angst comes from not recognizing the obvious, perfect solution. Hello? It's right there!

One thing that helped was I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn.

The funny thing was, when I checked it out I thought it was going to be a graphic novel. Kuhn had also worked on Shadow of the Batgirl (graphic novels should be the next post), and I thought it was worth a shot.

Kimi does miss the obvious solution to her issues for quite a while (though I realize parental pressure plays a role), but I didn't notice as much as I could have because I kept being enthralled with Kyoto, and wanting to go there. 

Ultimately, I may be a little removed from the difficulty of growing up, but I vaguely remember that it exists.

It is perhaps only while reading in the YA category that one would find two separate books about a teenager forming a contractual relationship with a young movie star.

This Time It's Real by Ann Liang

A Show For Two by Tashie Bhuiyan

Bhuiyan handles it better. That may be that she is a better writer, but she also creates a more complex, interesting situation. Mina is not pretending to be Emmitt's girlfriend, but instead helping him with a contest. It still works for them spending enough time together to fall in love. In addition, she has a mood disorder that sometimes complicates even her friend and family relationships. 

Also, her parents are terrible. 

As much as I prefer it when children and their parents gain a new appreciation of each other and come to understand each other better, sometimes it isn't possible. Those kids need to have books for them too.

Here is where there is some movie overlap: while the To All the Boys movies are based on a book series, I have not read the books, but I did watch the two sequels. 

The first movie, To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018), started with a contractual relationship. I don't remember anyone doing that when I was in school; kids these days?

I did actually write about it:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/06/ruined-for-rom-coms-apahm-2021.html 

My issue was seeing how these commitment issues and inability to move forward are related to grief and trauma. It was emotionally painful for me. Aren't rom-coms supposed to be fun. 

I wondered if I would be able to enjoy movies at all.

However, I did end up viewing the other two, as mentioned in last week's post:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/07/movies-for-apahm-2024.html  

They worked a lot better. The relationship between Laura Jean and Peter was really good for both of them. Continued growth over the next two films and their support for each other was sweet. Maybe I am less cynical.

That is not a commitment to read the books or to watch the movie about Kitty (Laura Jean's younger sister, with a very different personality). I haven't ruled it out either.

Speaking of series, I did at last minute read of another installment in the Front Desk series: 

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Three Keys: A Front Desk Novel by Kelly Yang

I read the first one because it came up in an article about banned books:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2022/07/reading-banned-books.html 

I remember knowing at the time that there was more to tell, and thinking it good make a good series. 

At this point it turns out that there are a total of five books and Yang appears to have started another series. 

There is a realistic optimism about her books. Real challenges come up, but the characters persevere, and find what they can do. I may return.

There are another three books that relate.

Children of the River by Linda Crew

This is the oldest of the books, by a long shot. Published in 1989, it's the story of Sundara, who was with her aunt's family when they had to flee the Khmer Rouge, leaving her with questions about her parents and siblings, and adjusting to a new life in Oregon. 

It reminds me a lot of Chanrithy Him's When Broken Glass Floats, even though that one spends a lot more time in the camps, and of course that is more memoir. Children of the River is fiction, but there is a lot that feels real.

The next two books both switch between the viewpoints of multiple characters.

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolf

We Are Not Free follows a group of teenagers from San Francisco into internment, and in some cases out of the camps as they enlist or as the war ends.

Bat 6 takes place after the war, and includes one family returned from internment. None of the other characters are Japanese-American, but the war and the changes during and after have affected more of them. It's okay, but could have been better. 

We Are Not Free was really good.

There are a lot of experiences in the world, and we need many stories. I know not all will be for me, especially as a grumpy old person.

Sometimes, I can enjoy spending time with the young.