Big Library Read Begins May 3, 2023

Calling all eBook and audiobook lovers! Starting May 3, you can borrow Grace M. Cho’s evocative memoir, Tastes Like War, from OverDrive for free without waiting on the Libby app or by visiting https://flls.overdrive.com/. This National Book Award Finalist novel is the featured title for this Spring’s Big Library Read, the world’s largest digital book club. You can be part of the online discussion at https://biglibraryread.com/join-the-discussion/.

Tastes Like War tells the story of Grace M. Cho who grew up as the daughter of a white American merchant marine and the Korean bar hostess he met abroad. They were one of few immigrants in a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, where identity was politicized by everyday details—language, cultural references, memories, and food. When Grace was fifteen, her dynamic mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, a condition that would continue and evolve for the rest of her life. Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia.