Welcome to our our AAPI-themed Cannon Book Club discussion of Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club! In this National Book Award-winner, Malinda Lo challenges popular perceptions of the 1950s, including stereotypes about Chinese Americans, the invisibility of the lesbian and gay community, and the role of women in the space program, particularly as computers. For those of you returning or who might be joining in for #CannonBookClub for the first time (hello new friends!) all are welcome, you don’t have to be registered […]
Who are you going to be, Lily Hu?
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Very happy that I’m getting my review in just under the wire! This is not a book that I probably would have picked up on my own, but I’m very glad that I read it. Lily Hu is a good Chinese daughter, living in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954 with her parents and two younger brothers. Lily studies hard, has a Chinese best friend, Shirley, and dreams of working at the Jet Propulsion Lab with her Aunt Judy. But Lily doesn’t quite seem to fit […]
Lily was struck by how duplicitous a song could be, as if multiple languages were hidden within the lyrics.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
What struck me the most about Last Night at the Telegraph Club was how separate Lily Hu is from the world around her. She is a watcher. She pays attention to the details of what happens around her as she tries to understand who she is in relation to the world. Only when she is with Kath do the details become fuzzy and she fully engages. Towards the end of the book, I thought a lot about a conversation I had with my mother when […]
“If she closed her eyes she might fix this in her memory always: the pulse in Kath’s throat; the warmth of her body; the scent of her skin.”
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
In Last Night at the Telegraph Club Malinda Lo created National Book Award for Young People’s Literature winner which aims to challenge pervasive perceptions of the 1950s in the United States, including stereotypes about Chinese Americans, the invisibility of the lesbian and gay community, and the role of women in the space program, and the reach of Red Scare paranoia on people’s day to day lives. It is also the story of two young women falling in love during their senior year of high school […]
Where Little Cable Cars Climb Halfway to the Stars
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
In 1954 San Francisco, high school senior Lily Hu has a lot on her plate. Her busy parents, a doctor and a nurse, rely on her to look after her younger brothers until they get home from work. Her best friend Shirley is still trying to run Lily’s life, wrangling her onto dance committees and trying to set her up on dates with boys. Lily herself is more focused on doing well in her advanced mathematics class so she can get into college and get […]
Beautiful story of sexual identity awakening and first love
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
And then she asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a beautiful glimpse into a moment in time of a sexual identity awareness and first love, amidst the Red Scare of McCarthyism in 1950’s San Francisco. Sexual feelings awaken for the first time within Lily Hu but everything she has been taught says it […]