Karin Tanabe

Karin Tanabe’s Followers (712)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
Donna F...
1,685 books | 4,868 friends

Melissa
2,818 books | 2,414 friends


Barry B...
152 books | 571 friends

Michele
28,451 books | 5,073 friends

Suzy
1,335 books | 742 friends

Kristin...
373 books | 946 friends

Rebecca
911 books | 102 friends

More friends…

Karin Tanabe

Goodreads Author


Born
Washington, DC, The United States
Website

Twitter

Genre

Member Since
April 2012


KARIN TANABE is the author of six novels, including A Hundred Suns and The Gilded Years (soon to be a major motion picture starring Zendaya, who will produce alongside Reese Witherspoon/Hello Sunshine). A former Politico reporter, she has also written for The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the Chicago Tribune, and Newsday. She has appeared as a celebrity and politics expert on Entertainment Tonight, CNN, and CBS Early Show. A graduate of Vassar College, Karin lives in Washington, D.C.

To ask Karin Tanabe questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Karin Tanabe Hi May,

Thanks for your question and I'm so glad you enjoyed the book. Anita's story is such a fascinating one. I wasn't familiar with it when I was at…more
Hi May,

Thanks for your question and I'm so glad you enjoyed the book. Anita's story is such a fascinating one. I wasn't familiar with it when I was at Vassar, but when I learned about it in adulthood, I immediately thought it had to be told.

Quotes! I definitely have some favorites. On page 24, the following still sticks out in my mind:

"She could not protest. So she sat, nodded again, and went through the motions she had perfected through so many years of practice. And inside her thin shirtwaist, her heartbeat took off like a deer in the woods."

I like this particular line because it shows early on how practiced Anita is when facing racism. Part of passing was certainly being a great pretender, which she is, but it also shows how much she is impacted by the words of her peers, hence her heart taking off. I also still remember sitting in a library writing this phrase and wanting to find the perfect way to describe Anita's heartbeat. It took a few revisions, but that jolt of a startled deer I think describes it pretty well.

On page 173:

"Negro or not, you've been top of your class again and again. So no, you are not a coward. That school, those people, they are the cowards."

I like this line said by Bessie because it really reminds Anita that she is the brave one, the smart one, and that it's the policies that she has to get around by passing that are wrong.

On page 209, it's a short line, but I like it because it really reminds me of Edith Wharton, whose writing was a big inspiration for me for the New York scenes of the book.

"The faces in New York change, but the last names seldom do."

Thank you for posting!

(less)
Karin Tanabe Hi Mariia, many thanks for the question! I think when writing becomes something you do a lot of, maybe weekly, maybe daily, and you really enjoy it, t…moreHi Mariia, many thanks for the question! I think when writing becomes something you do a lot of, maybe weekly, maybe daily, and you really enjoy it, then you're a writer. Getting published is of course lovely, but it doesn't make you a writer. I think I was a writer way before I was published, because I did it every day and enjoyed what can be a very lonely process. As Rilke said so well, "Works of art are of an infinite loneliness." But one writers find energy and fulfillment in. Take care. (less)
Average rating: 3.75 · 20,303 ratings · 2,894 reviews · 7 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Gilded Years

3.87 avg rating — 7,915 ratings — published 2016 — 13 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
A Woman of Intelligence

3.59 avg rating — 5,196 ratings — published 2021 — 11 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Diplomat's Daughter

3.86 avg rating — 3,167 ratings — published 2017 — 7 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
A Hundred Suns

3.82 avg rating — 2,070 ratings — published 2020 — 12 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The List

3.33 avg rating — 1,224 ratings — published 2013 — 5 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Price of Inheritance

3.68 avg rating — 666 ratings — published 2014 — 9 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Sunset Crowd

3.66 avg rating — 65 ratings — expected publication 2023 — 5 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Karin Tanabe…

The Price of Inheritance Out Today!

I am so, so excited that The Price of Inheritance is finally out! I hope you fall in love with the art mystery at the center of this book, and with my main characters Carolyn Everett and Tyler Ford.

Thank you for your support and happy reading! I hope there is a beach with your name on it to read this on.

xo Karin
2 likes ·   •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 05, 2014 07:37
Carol
Karin is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
The Poisonwood Bible
Karin is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
Bastard Out of Ca...
Karin is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 

Karin’s Recent Updates

Karin wants to read
The Sunset Crowd by Karin Tanabe
The Sunset Crowd
by Karin Tanabe (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Karin answered B Warne's question: Karin Tanabe
Thank you for flagging! This is the second time this has come up. My publisher tried to get it removed, but clearly we need to try again. Appreciate it! -Karin
A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe
" Odette wrote: "Thanks for sharing this Karin, this plot line resonated with me a lot. Appreciate your honesty and writing a book to help know we are n ...more "
Karin voted for Yellow Wife as Best Historical Fiction in the Final Round of the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards.
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
Karin has read
The Show Girl by Nicola  Harrison
The Show Girl
by Nicola Harrison (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
More of Karin's books…
Quotes by Karin Tanabe  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“A man who was not my husband, and would never be my husband, because he had no prospects or common sense. That was the best kind of man to have attached to you in a subway.”
Karin Tanabe, A Woman of Intelligence

“Brains are more effective than beauty. Only the world tries to make women forget it. They don't want us to be too smart ... They're scared that if they encourage it, we'll end up more intelligent than the men. With the secret being ... that we already are.”
Karin Tanabe, A Hundred Suns

“I want to sleep next to you and listen to you exist.”
Karin Tanabe, The Gilded Years
tags: love

Polls

More...
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be
The candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
Edith Wharton

“Life is always either a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.”
Edith Wharton

“It's not what the world holds for you. It's what you bring to it.”
Kevin Sullivan

“You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams.”
Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Road to Yesterday

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

220 Goodreads Librarians Group — 191281 members — last activity 11 minutes ago
A place where all Goodreads members can work together to improve the Goodreads book catalog. Non-librarians are welcome to join the group as well, to ...more



Comments (showing 1-1)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

Kristine (Trying to Get Back to Reading) Karin, thank you so much for accepting my friend request. ☺️ Love meeting new book lovers 💕 I just got your book, A Woman of Intelligence today and my library had the audio 🎧. I can’t wait to read it.


back to top