Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Ning, a former boxer, owns a nail salon where she employs four other women. She requires them to all have black hair cut to the same length and go by the name Susan while they are working. Pick a Color recounts a day at the salon through Ning's eyes as customers come and go. All the women speak the same foreign language, so they are able to converse and joke without the customers knowing what they are saying. The novel explores what's its like to be an Asian woman and the owner of a small service industry business.