Qian is trained from age seven when she first immigrated to never trust anyone other than her parents. In the United States, they have the lowest level of jobs, none of which are particularly stable and all of which are boring and sometimes dangerous. In China, her parents were both professors her father taught English, while her mother taught mathematics. Residing on long-expired temporary visas, none of them has legal documentation. Written by Qian Julie Wang, this is the story of her immigration to the United States from China and her experiences as a little girl living with her parents in New York City in the 1990s. Think of the magic of Christmas or the tragedy of death as a child would see these. When we make the effort to see so many things in life-joyful and tragic-through the eyes of a child, our viewpoint shifts. Because I have seen on YouTube some of her speaking engagements, I was surprised that she became a convert to Judaism. There is good reason this memoir has become a NYTimes best seller.

For those who are concerned about the memoir not covering more years, know this: in interviews she has said she will write the next years, but only when she feels ready to do so. I like that we don't get the parents' points of view, that this is told from the young daughter's. The mother works stitching clothing in a horrid factory setting. The memoir is really told from the point of view of the author during the first five years of her life here where the family of three had to live in a single room, an apartment shared by others, including the kitchen. Both parents had been college professors in their home country and outspoken about the government, enough so that they had to leave but without benefit of papers allowing them to live here legally. She is seven years old when she arrives with her mother from China, her father having been here for about two years. The way in which this memoirist learns to read English is just amazing, especially when I would have expected the school in Brooklyn to have provide English as a Second Language.

A beautiful country by wang