BookDragon Adult Readers

Author Interview: Ava Chin [in Bloom]

26 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audience, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Genre, Memoir, Nonfiction, Origin/Ethnic Background, Repost

Thanksgiving approach-eth! Don’t you want to know what will be on the Urban Forager’s table? Read on! Ava Chin, author of recently published Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal, chats about family, motherhood, writing, and the art of foraging – complete with...

Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal by Ava Chin + Author Profile [in Bloom]

24 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Eating Wildly for the Belly and Soul with Ava Chin These days, Ava Chin is living her happy beginnings: she’s the mother to an energetic toddler, wife to the man of her dreams, professor of creative nonfiction and journalism at her undergrad alma mater, and – whenever...

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

19 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Confession: I've actually never seen The Mindy Project; I've never watched an episode of The Office (for which Kaling was a writer and star for some eight seasons). Yes, I live under a rock (surrounded by a lot of books). But I have ventured out enough to have seen Kaling in...

Attack on Titan (vols. 11-14) by Hajime Isayama, translated by Ko Ransom

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

If this is the first time you're hearing about this worldwide phenomenon that is Attack on Titan, please pause and take the time to catch up. Trust me when I warn you that this is not a series that you can pick up midway; you’ll need and want to follow...

Attack on Titan (vols. 5-10) by Hajime Isayama, translated by Sheldon Drzka (vols. 5-8) and Ko Ransom (vols. 9-10)

14 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Publishers Weekly credits Attack on Titan with the recent manga rebound in the publishing industry. PW calls it "one of the best selling comics series in North America – yes, not just bestselling manga, best selling comic series, period." School Library Journal says Titan has "become one of the most...

Heritage by Sean Brock, photographs by Peter Frank Edwards

13 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Thanksgiving is just two weeks away ...

In the Body of the World by Eve Ensler

11 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

To not stick this one in your ears would be such the missed opportunity. At just over four hours, this is undoubtedly longer than your usual theater performance, but with Eve Ensler herself so passionately narrating, her memoir transforms into a spectacular aural extravaganza. At 57, the woman...

A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

10 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Chinese American, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

A fatally injured 9-year-old girl, a third-grade boy labelled by teachers as "‘mentally retarded,’" a restless doctor burnt out from overwork in refugee camps, are saving the world. Rachel Beckwith didn't survive a highway collision, but her ninth birthday wish to raise $300 to build a faraway...

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

In 2004, Gilead gave voice to the aging Reverend John Ames, who recognizes he will not live to see his 7-year-old son grow up and so creates an epistolary record of all that he will never be able to share with his boy. Four years later, Home featured...

She Weeps Each Time You’re Born by Quan Barry [in Library Journal]

04 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

*STARRED REVIEW In 2001, on an evening with a full moon –when Asian folklore says a rabbit appears on the lunar surface – Amy Quan searches for a woman in Vietnam, "where I was born in the same year as her, our lives diametrically opposite." The...

Deer Hunting in Paris: A Memoir of God, Guns, and Game Meat by Paula Young Lee + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

03 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

The title of Paula Young Lee's latest book (her fifth) is Deer Hunting in Paris. The subtitle, which announces it's a memoir (her first), includes two very loaded words, "God" and "Guns." The sub-subtitle explains further: "How a preacher's daughter refuses to get married, travels...

Vintage by Susan Gloss

27 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Nonethnic-specific, South Asian American

A divorcée with her baby clock ticking, a teenage-math-prodigy-mother-to-be who no longer needs that wedding dress, and an immigrant Indian woman who's just found out her husband has spent the better part of their three-decade marriage lying to her, gather in a vintage clothing shop...

Attack on Titan (vols. 1-4) by Hajime Isayama, translated by Sheldon Drzka

24 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Check out this headline from last week: "'Attack on Titan' Drives Manga Rebound at New York Comic Con." With over 1.5 million copies in print in the U.S. (which actually seems a bit paltry compared to the 40 – not a typo! – million worldwide as of...

The Secret Place [Dublin Murder Squad 5] by Tana French

22 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Irish

"One road and two extra-high walls" separate St. Kilda's and St. Colm's, two privileged, private schools for girls and boys, respectively. Christopher Harper, 16, of St. Colm's is found dead on the grounds of St. Kilda's. Over the next year, his murder remains unsolved ...

The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings

20 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hawaiian, Nonethnic-specific

So as not to prolong the disappointment and annoyance, I'm going to try to keep this short. I actually skip posting about duds more often than not because the energy feels so wasted, but this title has history: it was attached to a 'how-many-of-these-have-you-read?"-query from a...

The Seventh Day by Yu Hua, translated by Allan H. Barr [in Library Journal]

15 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Yang Fei is dead. Arriving at the funeral parlor as directed, he's denied eternal rest because he has "neither urn nor grave"; over the next seven days, he revisits his short 41 years. Yang Fei was temporarily famous as "the boy a train gave birth...

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

13 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

As National Hispanic Heritage Month draws to a close this week, the audible rendition of this empowering memoir is an ideal celebration of two of the most legendary contemporary Latina heroes: Rita Moreno, the only actress ever to have taken Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and two Emmys...

Even More Bad Parenting Advice by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher

10 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Translation

Even when we old folks have only the noblest intentions, our parenting skills don't always live up to the 'skill' part, ahem. Canadian French comic master Guy Delisle humorously mines his own follies, and gives us the perfect opportunity to keep laughing with him, and even more...

The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande

08 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

She was left at age 2 by her father, then at 4 watched her mother go; both parents braved the border into "El Otro Lado" (The Other Side) to make enough American dollars to reunite the family in their dream house someday. The youngest of three children, Reyna...

Author Interview: Manjushree Thapa [in Bookslut]

06 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Nepali, Nepali American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

Blame it on family, on the country-of-residence-at-the-moment, on the tumultuous politics of her motherland of Nepal, but certainly Manjushree Thapa has lived a life in flux, repeatedly adjusting to unpredictability. Born in Kathmandu, she moved as a toddler to Canada (young enough to acquire English...