February 2014 - BookDragon

Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Rift (Part One) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

28 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

Although our son incessantly watched various versions of the Avatar series on television and even more often on DVD, I had little knowledge for years of who's who or what's what. The casting controversy of the 2010 film version disastrously directed by M. Night Shyamalan is what...

We Are Water by Wally Lamb

27 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Nonethnic-specific

Over the past couple weeks, I've been a bit of an ethnic voyeur, picking up bestselling 'mainstream' titles in search of their APAness. I confess I picked up Wally Lamb's latest purely because I somehow learned the protagonist is named Annie Oh – Oh usually being a Korean...

Hidden Girl: The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave by Shyima Hall with Lisa Wysocky

26 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Egyptian, Egyptian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

"If this book leads to even a single rescue, then my time in bondage was worth it," Shyima Hall writes in the penultimate paragraph in the final chapter of her new memoir. That "time in bondage" she refers to is four long years during which...

Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons by Jon J. Muth

25 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

What is it about panda bears that makes them soooo utterly irresistible? Click here to see if you could possibly be immune to those "chubbly-wubbly." Curmudgeon that I usually am, even I succumbed to "beary love." Jon Muth personally knows their inevitably undeniable appeal: his giant panda, Stillwater,...

Flight by Sherman Alexie

24 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Young Adult Readers

I spent my last birthday with Sherman Alexie ...

Review: “joyful use of the usually unsung heroes of the academic world”

21 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in BookDragon Book Club

Socks! by Tania Sohn

19 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean

Who doesn't love the unlimited possibility of socks? Polka dotted, striped, green, yellow, even holey socks add just the right flash of whimsy to perfect any outfit. If you're thinking of changing your look, choose either baby socks and daddy socks. Add holiday cheer to your...

Schroder by Amity Gaige

18 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

This is an immigration story. But not the sort of immigration I've become accustomed to ...

Norman, Speak! by Caroline Adderson, illustrated by Qin Leng

17 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction

When a young boy and his parents go to the animal shelter, they return home with a brown-and-white dog with a stump for a tail because he's the "saddest." "'No one knows his real name,'" the shelter employee explains, "'Norman is what we call him.'"...

The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff

14 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Young Adult Readers

Before Danica Novgorodoff’s story even begins, her dedication page offers crucial tidbits: in paying homage to her grandparents, she reveals both her Chinese heritage and inspiration ["To my grandparents, Eugene and Ellen Chen Novgorodoff"]; in quoting a July 2007 article from The Economist (we're talking pretty...

Interview: “Bich Minh Nguyen on ‘Pioneer Girl’ and her fascination with Laura Ingalls Wilder”

14 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in BookDragon Book Club

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

13 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Fiction, Malaysian, Malaysian American, Southeast Asian

Hauntings, posthumous marriage proposals, addictions, not-quite-human heroes, in-between spirits growing old, burnt offerings that are actually real in another world. Interest piqued? Get ready for this absolutely ingenious debut novel! And (there's more!), as an exponentially satisfying bonus, the crisply-voiced author herself – Yangsze Choo, a fourth-generation Malaysian...

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

12 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction

When Oprah reinvented her book club in 2012, she elevated Cheryl Strayed's Wild to near mythic status (I found Wild so tedious, I didn't have the energy to write a post). Oprah's 2013 choice was a first novel that hasn't found quite that Wild level of ubiquitous...

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

10 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

Confession first: I took almost two years to finish this debut novel. Not until an interview deadline loomed (stay tuned!) could I force myself to keep turning the pages until I reached the end. Because I just couldn't let the book go. As wrenching and...

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

08 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

If Gillian Flynn isn't already a household name, she will be sure enough. The film version of her mega-bestselling 2012 novel Gone Girl is due to hit screens in October with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike starring as the troubled couple. Since Flynn herself wrote the...

Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano, translated by Matt Thorn

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation

Long before the latest translated-into-English title from award-winning transgender manga creator Inio Asano is due to hit shelves (fabulous Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics lists an unspecified February pub date; Amazon lists March 19, 2014 and B&N March 5 for available shipping), the internet has been abuzz...

Review: “powerful, intimate novel”

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in BookDragon Book Club

Review: “a powerful and wholly original American saga”

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in BookDragon Book Club

The Little Hut of Leaping Fishes by Chiew-Siah Tei

06 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, British Asian, Chinese, Fiction, Malaysian, Southeast Asian

For all the power and wealth of the Chai clan, discontent and tragedy haunts its three generations. With the challenges facing China at the turn of the 20th century as the last imperial dynasty crumbles and western colonialism looms, patriarch Master Chai's once ironclad rule...

Review: “nuanced, affecting, and, ultimately, satisfying”

05 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in BookDragon Book Club

BookDragon February 2014