Thank you Doubleday Books and NetGalley for this advance readers copy.

I applaud this author for so bravely and vulnerably sharing her life experiences with us. While it was certainly a well written book, I struggled to feel drawn into the story. I think the young child’s perspective kept the reader at arm’s length in a way. I appreciate Wang sharing her important and eye opening story.

I don’t read many memoirs and I don’t know why because I love every one I’ve read. This particular story of a young girl from China, who immigrated to America at age 7, is parts heartbreaking and parts maddening, with humor and great storytelling to bring it all together. This is a timeless book about a history that few “born” Americans know but it is relevant for this time in our country when crimes against Asian Americans are higher than it has been in a long time. I applaud Qian Julie Wang for telling her story.

The first thing I realized about this book is the way it is written. I was drawn into the story and stayed there until the end. This is another one that will stay with me for a very long time. There are times when this reads like a book of fiction because of its lyrical movement and descriptions. A storyteller wrote this book.

The second thing I realized, quite shockingly, is that the things happening aren’t from “back in the day”, or even in the 1960’s. They happened less than 30 years ago. People worked in sweatshops in the United States of America in the 1990’s, where they earned pennies, could barely eat, could barely clothe themselves, and called trash picking “shopping day”. How naive I am…

The third thing I realized is that Qian Julie is from a strong and resilient family, which in turn made her strong and resilient as well. Even in the face of terrible ridicule, xenophobia, and extreme poverty, she never lost hope. She always seemed to find something that gave her joy. Each of these little joys took her through her tragic childhood to the life she lives now. Never giving up but always looking to the future.

My favorite part is the author’s love for the library and books. She took refuge there as a child and taught herself the English language. I, too, took refuge in the library as a child to escape and learn. I felt her joy when she talked about the books she loved to read.

This is such a powerful debut and, moreover, a necessary addition to any library or bookshelf. These stories need to be told and heard and learned from if anything is to ever change.

I gave this book 5 stars and highly recommend it to any fan of the memoir or anyone interested to dig deeper into immigrants and their plight once they arrive in the “Beautiful Country”.

Wow. What a moving memoir. Highly recommend! Qian details her childhood as a first generation immigrant in New York. Wonderfully written.

This is a beautifully written memoir that tells the story of the first few years of the author's life as an immigrant in NYC. There is so much love layered with sorrow and joy and frustration and life lessons. From the simple pleasures of cooking with her mother or finding places to read Babysitters Club books for free to the struggles between her parents or the constant hunger pains, everything was detailed in such a way that you felt like you were there with her counting out change for that Hello Kitty pencil or having to sit with the creepy guy in McDonalds. This is one I read slowly so I could savor all of the moments.

Beautiful Country
Author, Qian Julie Wang
Publisher: Doubleday
Pub date: September 7, 2021

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday publishers for the opportunity to read and review this beautiful e- ARC! This unique memoir allows readers to experience at an emotional and personal level what it was like for Qian Julie to immigrate from China to the Beautiful Country, or Mei Guo in Chinese.

Qian and her mother arrive in NYC when she is just seven years old to reunite with her father who fled to America two years prior. Her proud parents, who were professors in China, were forced to labor in the shadows of Chinatown- her mother in sweatshops and various other jobs and her father doing laundry work- all for barely livable earnings. They struggled to make ends meet, were often hungry, and had an immensely difficult time blending in with society and learning to understand and speak English.

Qian sought solace in the library where she learned to read and to speak English in order to fit in at school- her first friends being the fictional characters in the books that she read. Written from Qian's perspective as a child, the reader is brought back to childhood through the pains of fitting in at school, loving a first pet, being scared to walk alone, arguments between her parents, insecurities and disappointments, field trips and many first experiences.

However, Quia's experiences are quite different than most American childhoods. Qian was pained with living in perpetual fear of being "illegal" and constantly having to worry that they'd be sent back to China. Her father drilled into her to constantly to repeat the mantra that she was born in America and they have always lived here. This became even more necessary when Qian's mother experienced incredible abdominal pain and was admitted into the hospital for several weeks. This experience caused the family to pull farther from each other and was heartbreaking to read the constant trauma that Qian suffered as a result of her very unfortunate and lonely circumstances. Racism, poverty, xenophobia, complex family dynamics, challenges at school, and fear are just a few of the barriers that forced Qian to retreat into books, PBS, and American toys of the time- Polly Pockets and Tamagaotchis.

Selfless, loyal, and resilient, Qian was determined to care for her parents and force the world to see her for all that she is on the inside, rather than just what she looks like on the outside. A powerful, heavy, and emotional debut that was heartbreaking, yet admirable. The author's note brought tears to my eyes- an absolute must read memoir.

4.5 stars!

Does this title refer to the United States of America or Canada? Qian and her family’s life greatly improves after they relocate to Canada…

This memoir of a Chinese girl’s journey to America as seen through her naïve views starts out written by this very scared girl in a youthful dialect and ends with a very mature, well-rounded woman who has absorbed every punch and burst of sunshine that the life she made for herself has given her.

She was just 7 years old when her well-educated parents left China one at a time for the US. They moved to Brooklyn, where her “Baba” taught her “that fun was to be relished, in part, because you never knew when it would end.” As a child living in poverty, Mei Guo (America) was nothing like what she had been promised. She and her mother worked in a sweatshop and “Ma-Ma” made three cents for each piece that she made one cent for. “Ma Ma was not meant to work in a sweatshop. She was the most beautiful person in the world. To me, she was the sun, a mug of steamed milk on a cold winter’s night, everything warm.”

Her story goes on to describe not only her school and family experiences but also her encounters with the cruel people and her heart-wrenching experiences that paved her life story since she was poor and often hungry. A well-documented life story and one that unfortunately probably resonates well with other immigrants.

Slow for me in the beginning, it’s a genuine story worth reading, which shows how the author relied on her family throughout her lonely childhood to help her find the courage within herself and the true meaning of love.

A Chinese immigrant story on the relentless effort to hide and survive when faced with hostility in New York City. This was a heart aching retelling of Wongs early experience being constantly hungry, working in sweatshops with her mom, and terrified of being caught by authorities. It was a difficult book to read but so well done.

I enjoyed this memoir, documenting the struggle of an educated Chinese family adjusting to life in NYC with discrimination and lack of compassion, relevant in today's world. The story ends with a move to Canada while Qian is still in middle school with a very brief synopsis of the family struggles and her successes after that. Hope to see a follow-up.

Beautiful Country is a harrowing book about immigrant experience in the USA told from the perspective of a young Chinese girl. Wang chose an extremely important, current and poignant topic to write about but I didn't think it was executed as well as it could have been. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the memoir, once I realized we were going to remain in a very short period of her life (about 5 years if my calculations are correct) it started to feel like Wang was becoming repetitive for no reason. It wasn't until the end of the book when her family moves to Canada that I realized so much focus was placed on those 5 years because her life in Canada was probably easier and nicer, and that wouldn't make for interesting reading material.

Regardless, I wanted to know more about her life as a student and young adult - what happened once she returned to New York, how she feltabout seeing the same places, experiencing some of the same things but as an adult, what the process of getting documented was like for her, etc.

I'm also unhappy with the portrayal of her parents. Of course, being dislocated from your home and having to work all day and navigate through obstacles in a foreign country, going to sleep and waking up with the same feeling of dread of being found out and deported is difficult, draining and traumatizing. But I still didn't like Wang's parents at all because she spent most of the book telling us about all the awful things they said or did to her and to each other, only to gloss over it all in the end and provide no closure.

I googled Qian Julie Wang after finishing the book and I'm glad to see she has made it in life. She and her parents have worked very hard and they deserve it. I'm also glad to see her using her Chinese name and bringing attention to how depressing and hard it is being an immigrant. I hope she continues writing books about her experiences because I think she has a lot more to share and it's important the rest of us know.

Beautiful Country is a raw, heartbreaking, yet captivating memoir. I was completely immersed as soon as I read the prologue at the beginning. Reading how when things got bad in the author’s life, she would dream she would write her family’s stories down so others like them would know they were not alone and they, too, could be survivors, pulled at my heart and emotions strongly. It is so incredibly sad, scary, and WRONG how Qian’s family, and so many others, were treated so unfairly, unnecessarily, and unjustly. It makes me sick and so angry. To think of the things that this woman and family endured is horrific, and I commend her for sharing her story to the world, for opening our eyes, for educating us. She is amazingly strong and powerful, courageous and resilient. She IS a survivor and I love that she is reaching out to other undocumented people around her to help them survive as well, to not give up, to be able to find and make a home in America.

This was not an easy read yet it was expertly written and captivating. It was easy to fall for Qian, and feel such emotion for her. I loved her naïveté, her energy, her hope. Even when starving and at her lowest, she still had a burning drive and determination and it absolutely carried her through those dark years.

This is such a powerful and important memoir and I highly recommend that everyone read it. I have no doubt this will be a bestseller and will be a memoir that will be talked about for a long, long time. I hope that Qian’s dream comes true and that her work will help others become survivors just like her.

Immigrant stories remain so constant over time that author Qian Julie Wang could have removed the specific references to recent time and BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY could have been written at any time during the last century. She feels enraged over the poverty, hunger and struggle she and her family experienced; but I’m not sure who she blames. China for causing the unjust origins, or the U.S. for not solving everything that her family suffers. I agree her family suffers. And she writes exceptionally well about everything they, and she, experienced.

I wish she offered policy suggestions. She seems uniquely suited to provide suggestions. But she describes worlds my father and his parents experienced but from a different country of origin. They had similar misery getting set up here. That was almost 75 years ago; how can so little change?

Part of me also wonders why this couldn’t be a YA book since the focus is all on her below Middle School. Maybe that could be a change agent in the face of such longstanding problems. The book is good and engrossing. The author is talented and sure to write more. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Beautiful Country is a memoir of a woman whose parents overstayed their visa making the three of them undocumented immigrants, a family living in fear of deportation back to China. She begins her story as a child in China, her recollections are those of a child, her loving grandparents and extended family, her parents with good careers, a world of color, delicious food, and a neighborhood of friendly people doting on her.

But her father’s family had been politically persecuted and he felt at risk as well. He left for the United States (Beautiful Country in Chinese) and then later, her mother and she followed. In New York City they lived in poverty. Her mother was a college professor in China and worked in a sewing sweatshop in America.

Wang’s memoir is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking. It is full of the adorable misunderstandings of being a child that will make you laugh out loud. There is also the pain of poverty and the constant fear of police. Through her eyes, we see how the constant pressure on her parents damaged their marriage and put them all at risk.

Beautiful Country is a fast-paced and enjoyable memoir. The pain and fear of being undocumented are balanced by the several humorous incidents of childhood. These stories have the feeling of often-told family stories. Many were probably recounted to her a hundred times by her parents, “Remember when you…” stories. The stories of her own fears are much fresher, feeling as though they come from intense memories. I enjoyed this book very much. I hope she also writes a memoir of her family’s years in Canada.

Beautiful Country will be released on September 17th. I received an e-galley through NetGalley.

Beautiful Country at Doubleday
Qian Julie Wang on Linked In

Not sure why the review I wrote earlier didn't save. Unfortunately, I no longer remember much about the novel, or not well enough to write another review. Sorry.

Beautiful Country is the story of Qian Julie and her Ma Ma and Ba Ba's immigration from China to the United states told through Julie and the various struggles the family endured: poverty, the longing for their country of origin and trying to succeed while the odds are stacked against you.

This book was relatable in SO MANY WAYS; having come to the United States myself as a child and having to adopt a new language in a classroom where no one else spoke spanish, having to take extra courses to re-learn what I once knew. There was always that looming fear of authority as well being always told to be the best person you can be, say you're American always and staying in your lane while trying to outshine everyone around you but not too much because then you'd garner too much attention; a conflict most immigrant children can relate to.

I absolutely loved the story telling and found myself connected to Julie in her struggles and victories and it was nice to hear that though she came from a completely different country the things we (latino immigrants) went through are not exclusive to us but endured by thousands of people from all walks of life that come to the United States in search for the American dream while quickly realizing the road to get there is harder than it seemed.

It's also been incredibly nice to see Asian authors flourish this year and have so many great stories coming out that are wildly entertaining while offering a different POV from our own.

Do yourself a favor and read this! It was a fun, funny and poignant.

Qian Wang’s family fled China to the U.S. in the 90’s. They left a life of plenty and prestige to find a life of poverty and hatred in New York.

Beautiful Country is her story of her childhood in Chinatown. Her story as an undocumented immigrant is, sadly, all too common. She experienced racism, hunger, and misunderstanding as a small child. The racism and misunderstandings were from both adults and other children she interacted with at school and in the neighborhood.

Her parents had few employment options so they were forced to find work in sweatshops. Their relationship was tested and her mother became sick. This added more financial stress as they had no health insurance.

Despite all these hardships, Qian was able to overcome, receive citizenship, and become an attorney. Her memoir is touching and harrowing at the same time.

Thank you to NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this novel of Qian's American childhood. I felt her want and her hunger so clearly and was very invested in her story. I read this on the heels of Crying in H-mart and I think that made me feel a little less swept away. Not because her story was less, more because it felt familiar.

Thank you to Doubleday Books for my ARC of Beautiful Country!

Pub date: September 7, also a September BOTM main pick

In one sentence: Qian is seven when she and her parents arrive in Mei Guo (the United States, literally translated as Beautiful Country) as undocumented immigrants and begin their struggle to survive in a new land that's not nearly as beautiful as its name suggests.

This book is beautifully and honestly written - I had to read it slowly because I wanted time to process everything I read. I don't think my review will do this one justice, as it's hard to put into words how much emotion is contained in these pages.

Wang's family struggled with deep poverty, constant worry over deportation, and, later in the book, her mother's mysterious illness. But amidst the darkness, there is light. I loved her reflections on how reading at the library helped her escape from her worries, and how a few great teachers helped her on the path to where she is today. If you enjoy memoirs, I bet you will enjoy this book.

Beautiful Country follows seven year old Qian Wang living undocumented in New York City with her parents. The book highlights the difficulties and dangers of living as an undocumented immigrant as her family struggles with poverty, racism, exploitation, and living in constant fear of deportation. The story is raw and has a strong emotional impact and will definitely stay with me for a long time.

Also, in addition to how moving the story was, the author is such a talented writer. The writing was so beautiful and really captured the emotions so well, especially in maintaining the tone from the perspective of a child. I'm so impressed by this debut and I hope to see more from the author!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC.

Beautiful Country is a beautifully written debut by Qian Julie Wang about her childhood as an undocumented Chinese immigrant in New York City. Written from Qian's childhood perspective, this memoir is a raw look at the struggles of being undocumented in America. This book was everything that I wanted The Undocumented Americans to be but wasn't.

Beautiful Country depicts the confusion and strain on a child losing a parent to create a place in a new country and then joining them illegally. It is a story of racism, poverty, exploitation, among the other inherent challenges of being an undocumented person of color in America. For example, Qian's parents are successful professors in China but are not respected in any way by American employers for their worth or past achievements. Instead, they are simply seen as poor, dirty immigrants that can be taken advantage of in exchange for manual labor. Stories like Qian's are important and need to be told, despite the difficulty and implicit trauma in both telling and reading these experiences.

While Beautiful Country was both moving and poignant, it did not feel like a new perspective or even voice. That is where it fell short for me. I have a difficult time critiquing memoirs, because I do not want to seem like I am critiquing the author's story or life, as that is of course not the case. For me, Beautiful Country was not quite emotionally vulnerable enough for me. I found there to be few feelings present in the telling leaving me emotionally disconnected to the story outside of empathy.

Overall, I liked Beautiful Country but did not emotionally connect with the prose. I do think this is an important memoir and these types of stories are needed for understanding and empathy from a wider swath of people. Beautiful Country has so much glowing praise from other readers, so pleased do not let my review keep you from reading this compelling story.

Thank you Doubleday Books for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I’m going to be honest, this one did not quite work for me.

In many ways, this book is exactly what I usually look for. The topic is compelling and impactful in many ways. Qian recounts her first few years as an undocumented immigrant in America, from sweatshop floors to library nooks, as she learns to navigate this “Beautiful Country.”

This story and the writing is GOOD. However, the child’s POV was not my cup of tea. I knew pretty early on that it wasn’t vibing for me, but persisted in hopes that as Qian grew older her voice would mature. However, this story really only documents a few years of her childhood so what you see is what you get from the very start.

A ton of others really loved this book, so I’ll happily concede that it’s “me, not you” for this one.