Since Lisa See's latest has been sitting high on all the best bestseller lists for many weeks, presumably many have already read the story of two sisters and their odyssey from China to LA's Chinatown. I probably should have done the same – read the...
And since I was reviewing that latest Delhi Noir (see below post for Brooklyn Noir) for a San Francisco paper, I figured I ought to check out the local entry to the series, too. I'm all about procrastinating! So the Fog City version, compared to the...
Can't start without a little backstory: I was recently assigned to review Delhi Noir (link forthcoming if and when the review is published – one never makes absolute assumptions when freelancing!). Delhi is the latest in the "Akashic Noir Series" which offers specific city-based collections filled...
In her reader's guide at book's end, Naseem Rakha explains how in 1996 she was assigned to cover Oregon's first excecution in over three decades. Once finished with the assignment, she continued to ask questions and "by far the most compelling [stories] were those told...
Seven stories capture the disconnected restless wanderings of modern urban youth. The eponymous opening story is a moody reflection on the loneliness of every day life personified by a stranger named Mijeong [the back cover notes, "In Chinese, 'Mijeong' means 'pure beauty,'" which is true, but...
Two seemingly disparate stories open this engrossing debut novel. Latha, who enjoys the smaller luxuries of life – bathing with a stolen bar of pink Lux soap – is both servant and best friend to Thara, the only child of the Vithanages with whom the young...
If you don't think you've got the time to read this whole book, turn at least to the very end (don't expect to hear me say that again anytime soon!) and read Yunus' inspiring lecture he gave when he and his remarkable Grameen Bank together deservedly won the...
Excessive behavior has always provided seemingly unlimited literary fodder, but few writers have succeeded in creating great books from such source material. Alas, while Trinh's debut effort has a few brow-raising hairpin page-turns, her characters' bender-binges (drinking, drugs, bad relationships) soon grow too tedious to sustain a reader's interest. Eydie...
The eponymous Housekeeper's birthdate is February 20, or written out, 220. The said Professor wears a prize watch inscribed with "President's Prize No. 284." Together, 220 and 284 are amicable numbers. And with that coincidence, the Housekeeper and the Professor begin their amicable relationship ...
Despite his prestigious college degree which should have guaranteed him a bright future, Azel is unable to find meaningful work in his native Tangier, a city in northern Morocco. Mired in self-absorbed disappointment, he spends his days and nights lost in women, wine, and song,...
Not only will you be unable to put this down, you'll have to be careful to remember to breathe while reading this unforgettable debut novel written entirely in free verse. By age 10, Matt Pin has already had a harrowing life as a child of...
Just to see what I might find, I went through the books I've included thus far and among almost 400 entries, I couldn't find more than a handful of titles that have an older protagonist. As the over-65 population in the U.S. has been the...
Lac Su is a survivor of things so harrowing that just recounting some of those experiences, even from the distance of a keyboard tapping out a review of his memoir, I Love Yous Are for White People, makes the heart wince. As a 5-year-old immigrant to...
I'm getting on the Shamsie-bandwagon a little late ...
Renée, a 54-year-old widow, serves as the overlooked concierge of a luxurious Parisian apartment building. She lives with a cat named after Tolstoy, weeps over Bonnie Butler's death in Gone With the Wind, has no patience for errant commas even as she dismisses the finer...
Welcome to a chilling debut series, which introduces readers to a strange new world in which the government knows exactly when you're going to die. As children are immunized upon entering school, a random sampling of the immunization syringes contain exploding capsules which will prove fatal on...
HOLY MOLY! And I was worried that things couldn't get better after Volume 001. Can we say WOW together? Even if you're not a manga fan, go get this series. I grabbed the original Tezuka Astro Boy series to read again, too, while I'm waiting for...
Every time I read a Yoko Tawada title, I almost want to go finish my almost-ABD PhD (in post-war German and Japanese literatures). Sadly, I recently got the news that my advisor/mentor passed away, so going back would be impossible without him; even though I didn't...
I've gotten so spoiled that I have to have Malcolm Gladwell read his books to me [in true groupie mode, we not only have the audible.com download, turns out we also own two copies of Tipping, including one that's actually been signed by Gladwell!]. As this is the...
Even prison did not stop William Smith from his tenacious decades-long journey to create a map that clearly captured in one colorful creation what was buried under England's rolling hills and valleys. Prison is where Simon Winchester, a remarkable chronicler of obscure and near-forgotten but terribly important lives...
