#73: Yu & Me Books

A cozy home for immigrant stories

The Shop: Yu & Me Books

Chinatown, Manhattan: 44 Mulberry Street

This tucked away bookstore on Mulberry street serves up the coziest vibes alongside the tastiest beverages. This shop reminds me of my favorite parts of downtown Manhattan: eclectic and authentic without the gatekeeping exclusivity. The shop welcomes you to relax at the bar or some upholstered reading chairs tucked away in the back room. Handwritten notes invite you to try out staff favorites with surprisingly detailed descriptions. The shop has new and used books, but even the used books feel cool and contemporary (think Rushdie, not Tolstoy). The selection is curated to highlight immigrant stories. There are many Asian and Asian American writers featured here alongside folks from diaspora communities across the globe. The shop also hosts plenty of readings and other book related events that I’ll be sure to return for.

What I got:

Severance

This book has graced many lists since it’s 2018, and the premise intrigued me. The description struck me as a much mellower take on one of my all time fave books Oryx and Crake— a bleak alt history speculative sci-fi pandemic tale that trades the blood and bile of Atwood’s apocalypse for weaponized nostalgia. The sufferers of this imagined pandemic become trapped in loops of old patterns and behavior, slowly dragging down the world with their zombified routines. I was hooked on this from just sampling Ma’s nimble prose— just from reading the first page I knew this is a book to be reckoned with.