*STARRED REVIEW CIA agent Gary Shang was convicted of spying for China yet called himself "a patriot of both the United States and China." Decades after Gary's death, Lilian, his only child with his American wife, unexpectedly inherits his diary from his longtime mistress and discovers...
Oh, what delight ...
Debut novelist Justin Go had me riveted until page 447 (or some 16 hours stuck in the ears). With less than 20 pages to go, how did that utter devotion morph into annoyance, disappointment, dare I say, even a sense of betrayal? I thought – hoped? –...
For all the challenges he survived in Better Nate than Ever, Nate Foster is now just five weeks from making his Broadway debut. So he'll be going on as Alien Number Seven in a single-word part, but he's also the second understudy for the titular...
While her classmates are book reporting on Dr. Seuss, Portia chooses more precocious fare: "Reason and Emotion: Classical and Romantic Philosophies in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia"! So maybe exploring "contrast between logic and emotion" doesn't exactly endear her to the other 10-year-old kids. And even if the teacher recognizes...
To better understand this elliptical, exceptional novel, allow me to elucidate a growing cultural phenomena trapping Japanese young people. According to a glossary entry at novel's end, some 100,000 to 320,000 hikikomori exist in Japan. They are self-made prisoners in their parents' home, usually hidden...
Not to play favorites, but since the 2014 National Book Awards Longlist For Young People’s Literature was announced earlier this week, I'm putting my bet on Jacqueline Woodson’s childhood memoir-in-verse, brown girl dreaming, to not only to make the shortlist (announced October 15), but go all the...
"Irfan had a story inside his head," the around-the-world adventure begins. "He wrote it on soft white sand so he would remember. A silent wave came and carried the story into the sea" – on the outstretched wings of a mythical golden bird. On another...
Aaarrrggghhh! These days, I seem to be in the wrong place all the time. Lucky DC-area folks: Do NOT NOT NOT miss Canadian Korean graphic artist Michael Cho at SPX 2014: Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, tomorrow and Sunday, September 13 and 14, 2014. Make your...
Fall is upon us once again, and Lion is out in his garden, raking leaves, turning soil, getting ready for the winter ahead. "Oh! Poor little thing!" he notices: Bird has fallen from the sky, his wing broken. Bandaged and revived, Bird watches as his flock...
Ellen Oh, author of the acclaimed Prophecy trilogy – starring a third-century, yellow-eyed, teenage supergirl demon slayer – is channeling her own colorful fighting spirit. Two-thirds of her series, Prophecy and Warrior, are available now. King hits shelves this coming December. In the meantime, Oh herself has gone...
"Today is Mei-Mei's birthday. She is turning six years old," the first double-page spread announces. Well ...
Ellen Oh’s Prophecy Trilogy and Why #WeNeedDiverseBooks For Ellen Oh, good things seem to happen in threes. She’s the proud mother of three daughters. She’s had three careers – lawyer, professor, and finally a published writer (after 40!). The third book she wrote got her a three-book...
Here's another title you might consider choosing to stick in your ears: 1. because this, Chris Bohjalian’s latest, is read by his own daughter, Grace Experience Blewer, who he credits as "instrumental in the creation of [his protagonist's] voice," who taught him "a lot – I...
Happy, happy to Larry who's celebrating his birthday. He's not so thrilled about having "to work like a dog" – even though that's exactly what he is – to prepare for his natal fest, but he's so "very excited" that all his friends are coming. Being a native...
Let me begin with the reasons to go aural on this one: co-author Stephen J. Dubner narrates (his near-breathless energy is downright contagious), plus you get additional bonus selections (including commitment devices, banning tipping, and not-men women) at book's end from the authors' Freakonomics Radio archives during which...
Patty Takeda moves in with her mother for the two weeks before her wedding. On the third day in her old room, she's woken by the sound of the doorbell, and is alarmed to hear her mother Lucy use the word "Inspector." Just a few blocks...
It's subtitled "An ALPHABEAST of a book!" which should give you some indication that letters will be involved. Ah, but there's a catch – a simply ingenious, uniquely entertaining one at that. Ready to wordplay? "Without the A the BEAST is the BEST." I can vouch for...
Anne Frank, the world's most famous hidden child during the Holocaust, was one of 28,000 Jews in the Netherlands alone who went into hiding. She was one of 12,000 who were betrayed and didn't survive. Among the 16,000 who lived, was award-winning filmmaker and cameraman...
