BookDragon Adult Readers

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Gene Luen Yang’s Shadow Hero

08 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Malaysian, Middle Grade Readers, Singaporean, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2014, Young Adult Readers

what did you eat yesterday? (vols. 2-3) by Fumi Yoshinaga, translated by Maya Rosewood

01 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Hungry? Then don't read this ...

We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

30 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

"Once upon a time, there was a family with two daughters, and a mother and father who promised to love them both exactly the same." "She was my twin, my fun-house mirror, my whirlwind other half. It's important to note that I was also all those...

The News: A User’s Manual by Alain de Botton

22 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British, Nonfiction, Repost

Alain de Botton has a book I might never ever read – the one that happens to have a little note inscribed to me from de Botton himself, courtesy of a dear friend who met him in London and shipped the volume across the Pond. Truth be told, that...

The Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr

18 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Open this penultimate volume, and the belly begins flip-flopping over how it might – must? – end. Creator Shuzo Oshimi has clearly shown himself to be one scary manipulator, so already I'm trying to prepare for the inevitably shattering shock this October when that final installment comes out. Oh, but the agony of...

Our Happy Time by Gong Ji-young, translated by Sora Kim-Russell

17 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Translation

Not to discourage anyone, but feel free to stop reading any further and just go to your favorite bookstore, walk to your nearest library, click online, or visit your most literary buddy's shelves, and open to the first page of Our Happy Time as soon...

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

14 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race

So here I sit facing a familiar conundrum ...

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (vols. 1-2) by Tohru Fujisawa, translated by Ko Ransom

11 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Apparently, I've jumped way ahead and will need to go backwards sooner than later: GTO: 14 Days in Shonan is the sequel to the wildly successful original GTO which debuted in 1997 and quickly thereafter became a TV drama, live-action film, anime, and more. And the...

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

09 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction

See the entwined pair of hands? Although the girl and woman never meet, they remain forever bound by both blood and experience over a tumultuous century in Afghanistan. The woman is Shekiba, the only daughter in a family of sons, whose gender alone makes her a target of abuse...

The Last Werewolf Trilogy: The Last Werewolf, Talulla Rising, By Blood We Live by Glen Duncan

07 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, British Asian, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race

In a roundabout way I can't quite recall, I ended up at this 2007 New York Times article, "Young Man Behaving Badly," and learned that bestselling author Glen Duncan is hapa British Asian. I found his latest title, By Blood We Live, magically waiting on my shelves, only...

Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth by Adharanand Finn

06 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, British, Memoir, Nonfiction

"In 1975 ...

Sidewalk Dancing: A Novel in Stories by Letitia Moffitt

02 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hawaiian, Short Stories

Two genres set my reading heart aflutter: novels in verse (highly ironic as I am an utter poetry dullard) and interlinked short storied novels. Hapa Hawaiian native Letitia Moffit’s Sidewalk Dancing falls in the latter category ...

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

23 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

I can't believe we're already in the last full week of LGBT Pride Month! I confess that my June literary goal was to read as many David Levithan titles as possible (without guilt even, given what month this is). Alas, I didn't make much progress in any...

Bingo’s Run by James A. Levine

19 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

If, like me, you have trouble with accents, dialects, or unfamiliar vernacular, choose audible here. Narrator Peter Macon couldn't be smoother and clearer: I couldn't figure out "meejit" on the page, but in Macon's voice, no problem (turns out I'm just the "eejit" who can't understand 'midget,'...

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel [in Library Journal]

16 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW In high school, Tsukuru Tazaki was part of a "perfect community" of five best friends. Each had a color attached to their family names – red, blue, white, black –except for Tsukuru, rendering him "colorless." After Tsukuru begins college in Tokyo, he's brutally excised...

Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew

13 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Malaysian, Middle Grade Readers, Singaporean, Young Adult Readers

You can go two ways here: 1. Just read this as is, without context or background, and you would enjoy it immensely because it's just so much fun; 2. Invest a little research time before you open the book and reach the final page satisfied and...

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

10 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Canadian, Fiction

Let's start with the bottom line: read this. [Or listen – narrator Adenrele Ojo is superb.] I guarantee this stupendously epic, unforgettably affecting story of Aminata Diallo will haunt you long after you finish. Born in 1745, Aminata is 11 when she's violently abducted from her...

The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham

08 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Claire Danes, interestingly enough, narrates 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning Michael Cunningham’s latest novel. The choice seems a bit odd as most of the narrative is from the point of view of two brothers. Still, Danes is good enough, if a little on the flat side. Perhaps...

The Flowers of Evil (vols. 8-9) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr

06 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

While he's not exactly Mr. Popularity at his new school, Takao Kasuga is gingerly settling into his uprooted life far from the small town of Gunma where he was involved in so many shameful, difficult, frustrating, violent experiences. His favorite book, Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil,...

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

05 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Without a doubt, Kimberly McCreight's bestselling debut contains every parent's every nightmare, beginning with the absolute worst at the end of the first full chapter: "I'm sorry, Mrs. Baron. But your daughter, Amelia, is dead." Her 15-year-old body lies broken on the grounds of her posh private school...