BookDragon Adult Readers

Heroes for My Daughter by Brad Meltzer

17 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Biography, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

What an ideal post for today ...

The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen [in Library Journal]

15 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

The 2,500-page, 18th-century classic, Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, is regarded as China’s most important work of fiction. Pauline A. Chen (Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas, for middle-grade readers) tackles the daunting task of adapting the revered original text, and her literary...

Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City by Dung Kai-cheung, translated by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall [in Library Journal]

15 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

First published in 1997 – as an indirect response to the Hong Kong handover – Atlas marks Hong Kong native Dung’s English debut in translation. A self-described “verbal collection of maps” imagines the reclamation of a future city of Victoria (Hong Kong) through maps, memories,...

Getting Married and Other Mistakes by Barbara Slate

12 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific

I’ve been sitting on this fabulously fun title (which pubs today) for a while because I was afraid of even remotely jinxing a recent wedding (and what a gorgeous event it was for the perfectly matched couple, the young groom being one of my favorite...

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

10 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction

Two-thirds of the way through Julian Barnes' novel, which won the latest coveted Man Booker Prize, the protagonist's ex-wife quietly tells him, "'Tony, you're on your own now.'" Indeed, Tony Webster – middle-aged, retired, divorced (albeit rather amicably), his only child immersed with her own family – is seemingly...

Jinchalo by Matthew Forsythe

08 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Canadian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Young Adult Readers

By no means is Jinchalo your conventional manga/manwha/graphic work. Not to be going around in circles, but its title – which, in Korean, means something akin to 'really?' 'is that for real?' – works rather appropriately as a response to experiencing this adventure ...

Reel Cuisine: Blockbuster Dishes from the Silver Screen by Nami Iijima, photography by Elina Yamasaki

06 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Japanese, Nonethnic-specific, Translation

This cookbook is probably the most unusual little collection I've ever come across ...

between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys

05 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Russian, Young Adult Readers

First of all, please do not confuse this spectacular title with that OTHER Shades of Grey. Not that any comparison is even merited, but gray – notice spelling difference – hit shelves more than a year before Grey (March 2011 vs. April 2012), and gray is indisputably...

Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness by Loung Ung + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

04 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

When I recently met Loung Ung in person at one of her Washington, DC readings, we were the lone Asian women in the room. Yes, get ready with your "uh-oh." Within minutes, a random stranger asked if Ung and I were sisters. Surprisingly, I behaved...

The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays edited by Tara L. Masih, with an introduction by David Mura [in Bookslut]

04 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

As much as I enjoy collections populated by multiple contributors, I have yet to finish a multi-writer title in which every chapter from cover to cover is of memorable quality. That said, The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays, edited by Tara L. Masih, featuring 20...

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

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

For a couple of days, I went back and forth with The Snow Child stuck in my ears (which the inimitable Debra Monk  – one of my favorite stage actors ever! – happens to narrate, oh wow!) and reading Ruta Sepetys' between shades of gray on the page...

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

31 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Peter Hessler and I started out in the wrong voice – literally. I stuck River Town (the first of Hessler's "China Trilogy," made up of River Town, Oracle Bones, and Country Driving) in my ears and nearly threw the iPod off the cliffs in the first half...

The Drops of God (vols. 1-3) by Tadashi Agi, illustrated by Shu Okimoto, translated by Kate Robinson

26 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation

I'm the first to admit that I'm no oenophile, in spite of the years we lived in Northern California when we wandered the wineries of Napa, Sonoma, and even the tiny boutique arbors scattered through the Santa Cruz Mountains (the Loma Prieta earthquake on October...

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel

24 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Short Stories, Translation

Another confession: While recently listening to Rupert Degas narrate parts of Hari Kunzru's Gods without Men, I got such a nostalgic pang to hear Degas read Haruki Murakami (after experiencing A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and select stories from The Elephant Vanishes thus far in Degas'...

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher

22 May, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Arab, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Israeli, Memoir, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Guy Delisle is a graphic genius who draws what he sees – simply and unadornedly – with droll, minimal commentary, and creates some of the most poignant, effective, resonating memoirs ever. French Canadian Delisle has undoubtedly found international fame as a traveling artist: he recreated his temporary assignments...

Gods without Men by Hari Kunzru

21 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

Most of the time, I love stories that require fitting together seemingly disjointed pieces; my brain feels delightfully tickled with the challenge. And, of Hari Kunzru's novels – Gods being his fourth and latest – I much appreciated both The Impressionist and Transmission [no, I've not yet read My...

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar

18 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Translation, Turkish

Mixed in with the many death-and-destruction titles I've been reading the last few months, my most recent choices inadvertently seem to have an added layer of death-and-destruction-in-the-name-of-God. Too many books, regardless of genre or target audience, seem to offer irrefutable proof that the rules and...

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

14 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Pakistani American, South Asian American

In a sentence, American Dervish is about a young boy's indoctrination into Islam – the religion he was born into, but from the practice of which his parents have lapsed (by choice) – and his eventual withdrawal from his fervent childhood devotion. By extension, the novel...

The Devotion of Suspect X [Detective Galileo 1] by Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander

11 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Translation

I had quite the challenging training day on Tuesday – five hours of driving to the mountains and back, with 5.5 hours running up and down two summits in the rain, rain, rain – but the miles couldn't have gone faster thanks to Suspect X stuck in my...

Simple Asian Meals: Irresistibly Satisfying and Healthy Dishes for the Busy Cook by Nina Simonds

09 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian

At 19, Nina Simonds more or less became Asian. The New Englander dropped out of college in the 1970s and headed far east to Taiwan "to study food, language, and culture." She was taken in by a surrogate Chinese family, in which the mother happened...