Join us as we discuss Banyan Moon by Thao Thai. La Crescenta Library Book Club Meets on the 4th Tuesday of each month from 6:30 - 7:45 pm. If you have any questions please contact Marta Wiggins at mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov.
Join us as we discuss Banyan Moon by Thao Thai in honor of Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Banyan Moon is a stunning debut novel by Thao Thai that alternates the stories of 3 generations of Vietnamese American women. Minh the matriarch of the family flees Vietnam with her two children during the height of the Vietnam War as a refugee. Husbandless and trying to make ends meet, her two children Huang and Phuoc grow up as latchkey children trying with varying degrees of success to assimilate into American culture. Ann, Huang's only daughter is able to capture her grandmother's affection in a way that Huang was never able to thus fracturing their relationship. Minh has died and left her sprawling mansion The Banyan House to Huang and Ann who now need to decide how they will move forward without Minh. Banyan Moon is an excellent book about the complicated relationships that families have and how we can hurt the people we love most. Our histories can shape us in ways that we never expected and those that we have raised up on a pedestal may not be able to remain so elevated once we realize that they are human, too. Which secrets do we keep because their knowledge may widen the chasm and which ones do we reveal to heal the rifts between the ones we love? A 5 star read and perhaps best book I have read this year. --Marta Wiggins, La Crescenta Community Library Manager. I hope you will join us as we discuss Banyan Moon on Tuesday, May 28, 2024 in the Meeting Room at La Crescenta Library. Ask for your copy of Banyan Moon at the Customer Service desk.
AGE GROUP: | Older Adults | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Books, Poetry, & Writing |
TAGS: | Book Club | Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month |
La Crescenta Library first opened in November 1914 as the 78th branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library. The collection was first housed in a local church building, and subsequently moved several times; once into a school house, later into a local store front, and into the Sears building in 1926.
By 1932, the library had settled into a building at 3930 La Crescenta Avenue. As the population of La Crescenta grew, so to did the demand for a new building. The library found an appropriate site on the corner of Foothill Blvd and La Crescenta Ave, and opened in March of 1963.
By 2005 the population had once again outgrown the library's space, so the La Crescenta community sought a new building. Thanks to funding from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, and Congressman David Dreier, the County of Los Angeles was able to construct an updated facility in its current location.
The building broke ground in 2007, and reopened in January 2010. The new 14,000 square foot facility, built in the style of the arts and crafts movement, features modern technology and meeting space open to the public.
