If you're needing a Myron Bolitar fix – Harlan Coben, the first author to win an Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony (three of the top awards for mystery writers), seems to be taking a break from his most persistent protagonist after 10 volumes – then this new series...
If you knew nothing about manga history before picking up Atomcat, you would find an entertaining story of a young boy, Tsugio, who shares a love of comic books with his father. Bullied by neighborhood classmates, Tsugio longs for a friend who might have the...
Give me a story with two narratives interwoven through nonlinear timelines and, usually, I'll be one committed reader. The House Girl opens in 1852 rural Virginia with a teenage slave girl named Josephine, then fast forwards in the next chapter to Lina, an ambitious attorney...
Meet irresistible, rambunctious, adorable Bella ...
Warning: This harrowing memoir is the most difficult book I've read this year. Since I actually started it in 2012 (highly recommended by one of my editors), it's actually the most difficult book I've read over two years (and more). To get to the final...
"I was born in an impoverished backwater, and could easily have lived out my days as an insignificant country girl," a young woman modestly professes on stage as she receives the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's highest literary honor for a debut author. Barely out of her...
Somehow, over the last millennium-plus, the life story of Wu Daozi (689-759), possibly China's greatest painter, went mostly missing. Chinese American author Lenore Look (best known for her entertaining double series about growing up bicultural, Alvin Ho and Ruby Lu), together with British Asian illustrator Meilo So, whimsically...
Confession: I started Wave stuck in the ears, but didn't get very far because the narrator seems to have a lisp – which is not a judgment about the reader herself, but my little ears had too challenging a time comprehending each sentence. This is a...
"Moongates dotted the landscape of Old China," the second of artist Elizabeth Quan's two-part childhood memoir begins. "Stepping through one of these doorways was to enter a world of peace and happiness ...
If I had not stuck Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad thrillers in my ears, I might never have discovered Australian journalist-turned-bestselling novelist Michael Robotham – French's The Likeness (I think) ended with the 'if you liked x, then try y'-recommendation that led me to Night Ferry. Contrarian that I am, however,...
Internationally renowned for her two bestselling novels, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger is also a splendiforous artist with double the graphic titles to her lauded name. Her fourth and latest is "a new fairy tale" with origins that begin with movement: "Awhile ago, Wayne...
Well, goodness ...
Poisoned and hallucinating, a Canadian doctor lies in a hospital in the remote town of Kilwa in Tanzania. A stranger happens to hear a few brief details of the man's outrageous story, and decides to introduce himself to this doctor with an Indian name – Kamal...
With Broken Harbor finished, my Tana French days are over ...
First things first: click here to catch up. You'll be well-rewarded for sure! This latest volume opens with an intriguing graphic of characters captured in a two-page spread of bubbles and dots, labelled "The Wandering Son Board Game": "Don't be so fresh. 1 space back," a...
"Every Sunday my two aunts and my uncle come to visit." This isn't exactly a joyous occasion for the three children who watch from the front window as the old Lincoln arrives in the driveway. They know only too well what to expect: "Oy," sighs...
Wow, I sort of wondered ...
* STARRED REVIEW After surviving the Korean War, Yohan spends another year in a prisoner-of-war camp south of the new border that splits the country in two. Rather than return north, where no one awaits him, Yohan begins life anew in a faraway coastal Brazilian village as...
* STARRED REVIEW As in Ru Freeman’s absorbing 2009 debut, A Disobedient Girl, the intricate lives of young children also take center stage in this latest work. In 1979, the titular Sal Mal Lane is a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s largest city and former...
Welcome to Hollow Ridge High School ...
