Adult Readers Archives - Page 35 of 154

The Farm by Joanne Ramos + Author Interview [in Bloom]

19 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost, Southeast Asian American

“I cared more about making the reader uncomfortable than happy, because … discomfort makes you question and think” She began her American life as a six-year-old immigrant from the Philippines. She entered adulthood with a Princeton pedigree which well-served her lofty finance career. She was a...

Older Brother by Mahir Guven, translated by Tina Kover [in Shelf Awareness]

18 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Syrian, Translation

Two brothers. Two narrators. Two type fonts: serif for "The Older Brother" chapters; sans serif for "The Younger Brother." Their family has shrunk as Mahir Guven's debut, Older Brother, begins: "...

My Asian Kitchen: Bao * Salad * Noodle * Curry * Sushi * Dumpling by Jennifer Joyce [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian, Repost

When London-based, U.S.-raised food writer Jennifer Joyce began traveling in Asia in the 1990s, she "discovered the staggering deliciousness of authentic Asian cooking," she writes in the introduction to My Asian Kitchen. She presents an antidote to the "limited ...

Small Days and Night by Tishani Doshi [in Booklist]

13 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

Grace was unaware of her sister’s existence until their mother’s death revealed the family’s three-decades-plus secret. Grace returns to her native Madras from America, where she’s been living since college, working in customer service and watching her marriage implode over progeny disagreements. She’s jet-lagged but...

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris [in Booklist]

10 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Australian, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost

“Choosing to live is an act of defiance, a form of heroism,” Lale assures his lover Gita. The pair are both Slovakian Jews, trapped in the hell of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As the death camp’s Tätowierer – the tattooist who scars prisoners with everlasting numbers – Lale...

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne [in Booklist]

08 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW The son of a Yorkshire pig farmer, Maurice Swift is his family’s black sheep, and will do whatever it takes to succeed. That “whatever” means escaping rural England for West Berlin where he meets visiting writer Erich Ackermann, who provides Maurice his first authorial...

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett [in Booklist]

07 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Tom Hanks couldn’t be a more affable, ‘let’s-enjoy-this-together’ narrator for Ann Patchett’s (Commonwealth) marvelous latest. From the title all the way through to the ending credits, Hanks never ever falters, always performing his charming, ever-so-likable self: “Chapter threeee” lilts up to mimic ‘wheeeeee!; you...

Trans Mission: My Quest to a Beard by Alex Bertie [in Booklist]

06 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

YouTube star Alex Bertie readily admits “that as far as trans people go, I’m very privileged. I’m a white educated male with family support, a roof over my head, and a job.” Being British also guaranteed access to a national health system that paid for...

Land of the Rising Cat: Japan’s Feline Fascination by Manami Okazaki [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Japanese, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

According to a 2014 shocking reveal by creator Sanrio Japan, Hello Kitty isn't actually feline, she's a British child. Nevertheless, "this culture of anthropomorphic kitties is one of the reasons feline fever has taken so many forms," including – a Japanese historical first! – cat-owners...

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali [in Booklist]

04 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American, Persian, Persian American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Adroitly adapting her deep, mellifluous voice across continents, decades, ages, and genders, Mozhan Marnò flawlessly embodies Marjan Kamali’s (Together Tea, 2013) stupendous sophomore title about young lovers torn apart by class, politics, and history during the violent tumult of 1950s Iran. A Tehran stationery...

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung [in Booklist]

01 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean American, Repost

“I suppose I should warn you that I tell a story like a woman: looping into myself, interrupting,” announces Catherine Chung’s protagonist Katherine. “Things have never seemed straightforward to me; the path has never been clear.” As the child of a WWII veteran father and...

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell [in Booklist]

31 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Not far from the Zambezi River’s Victoria Falls, a fin-de-siècle colonial settlement called the Old Drift was the site of a loosely described “hotel,” where a colliding incident in 1904 combines the fates of three families originally Italian, British, would-be-Zambian – for a century-plus...

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead [in Booklist]

30 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Pulitzer Prized, National Book Awarded for The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead moves a century-plus forward to 1960s Florida, where having darker skin remains crime enough (the contemporary irony looms). J.D. Jackson proceeds deliberately, his narration measured and nuanced, avoiding over-performing through even the most...

Beijing Payback by Daniel Nieh [in Booklist]

29 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW With a mere handful of solo credits, Ewan Chung is a relative newbie to audiobooks, but his remarkable versatility proves the ideal fit to showcase Daniel Nieh’s outstanding thriller. The DC-born Chung is a talented polyglot, fluent in Mandarin (he translated the DVD audio...

Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated by Janet Hong [in Booklist]

25 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Biography, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Few historical tragedies compare to the hell-on-earth endured by the Japanese military’s so-called “comfort women,” a grossly abused term for mostly young girls kidnapped during WWII into sexual slavery. For Lee Ok-sun, one of Korea’s few survivors, her “service” included 30–40 men daily in...

Knowing a Young Brown Person Might Listen and Feel Less Alone: The Narrative Life of Priya Ayyar [in The Booklist Reader]

24 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Although audiobooks are just part of Priya Ayyar’s acting career, demand for her narrative talents shows no signs of slowing down. Recent highlights from Ayyar’s audio career are the focus of the “Now Hear This” column in the November 1 issue of Booklist, but Ayyar...

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi [in Booklist]

23 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW “I used to be a racist most of the time,” insists Ibram X. Kendi, a surprising revelation from 2016’s winner for the National Book Award for Nonfiction (Stamped from the Beginning). “The opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist,’” he explains. “It is ‘antiracist’...

Queen of Bones by Teresa Dovalpage [in Shelf Awareness]

22 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

The retired-detective-turned-Santería-priest Padrino gets a second chance to play savior in Teresa Dovalpage's continuing Havana Mystery series. She mines familiar territory from book one, Death Comes in Through the Kitchen (2018), using another bathroom murder to intertwine the lives of U.S. visitors with Cuban locals. Two decades...

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino, translated by Sam Bett [in Booklist]

21 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Best known for his brainy death-and-destruction mystery series featuring Detective Galileo and Detective Kaga, who have successfully arrived Stateside from Japan, Keigo Higashino reveals a softer side to his prolific imagination here. The Namiya General Store has been closed for decades, but three delinquent young men...

Kitchen Curse: Stories by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker, Tiffany Tsao, Maggie Tiojakin, and Benedict Anderson [in Library Journal]

18 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indonesian, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

Eka Kurniawan, the first Man Booker International Prize-nominated Indonesian writer (he was long-listed in 2016 for Man Tiger), makes his collection-in-English debut, with the majority of the 16 stories translated by Annie Tucker, his PEN/Heim Translation Fund-awarded Beauty Is a Wound translator; three of the...

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