Posted: May 9th, 2015

book review

book review

Project description
Choose one of the six optional books (Chen, Lee, Lui, McClain, Ngai, Yung). I will upload the six books for you later, and you have to choose ONE book to write!!! The review must following five
things:
1. Provide a summary of the authors main arguments (what did the author say?) This
should be both complete and short. The summary will probably be most effective if it
is integrated with the analysis.
2. Analyze and explicate the authors arguments (how did the author say what they
said?). This should be the largest portion of the review. You should explain the
building blocks of the argument and how they fit together to create a greater whole.
Look for themes, motifs, characters, or other things that recur throughout the book
and explain their importance to the argument.
3. Evaluate the authors claims particularly as they relate to the evidence used to
substantiate each claim. Ideally, this will be built into the analysis portion of the
review. For this task, you should answer the question of how the author can say what
they said.
4. Situate the work historiographically by showing how the authors argument relates to
other books, articles, or conversations in Chinese American History, Asian American
Studies, gender studies, race studies, or other academic fields. What authors did the
author use? How did they use them (to critique, to expand, to revise, etc.)? How does
the work relate to other articles and authors weve read in this class?
5. Suggest additional questions or paths that one might pursue based on the book. This
should be a small portion of the review, probably no more than a paragraph. You can
base these suggestions on the authors method, ideas, topic, or anything in the book
that stimulated your intellectual curiosity (yes, I am mandating that you say your
curiosity was stimulated. If its a lie, make it convincing.).