Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa: Book Review

Pick a Color is the latest release by award-winning Canadian author Souvankham Thammavongsa. With an anticipated release date of September 30, 2025, this book offers readers a glimpse into a nail salon owned and operated by immigrants. Ning owns and operates a nail salon, and is just a nameless woman to the clients they serve. But there is more to Ning and the others than people know.

I want to thank Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of Pick a Color. All opinions presented here are solely mine.

Synopsis from Goodreads

Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer’s day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.
     As the day’s work grinds on, the friction between Ning’s two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.

My Opinions

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect when reading Pick a Color. Yes, I read the synopsis, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect. Especially when you realize the book covers a single day. More accurately, it’s an 8-hour work shift. That’s a lot to squeeze into a book this short.

So what did I find when I started reading Pick a Color? A book that examines the life of someone who others may consider invisible. Ning, like the rest of the Susans, is of South Asian descent. While the book never specifies which country they are from, the author is from Laos. Actually, there’s not much discussion as to where the book is set, other than a big city.

The Susans are a group of women who work with and for Ning at her nail salon called Susan. Why did she do that? Because she thought it was cheaper and easier to have all the employees share a name. Besides, who other than them really cares?

While we spend the whole day with Ning, we never really get to know her. We learn what she did before working in a nail salon. But we know she’s unhappy and untrusting of people. But why? What made her so distrustful of people and her own emotions?

Overall, Pick a Color is an interesting character study. What do we really know about those around us? Are we ever really open and honest, even with those we consider friends?

Are you looking for some more books to read? Check out my bookish lists, book reviews, and monthly reading wrap-ups.