Audience Archives - Page 33 of 233

Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh [in Library Journal]

26 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Arya Sagar, who has dozens of Indian/South Asian audio credits, enhances Amitav Ghosh’s ("Ibis" trilogy) already penetrating around-the-world mythic quest with his mellifluous narration, especially heightened with (mostly) agile adjustments for regional accents. Ghosh’s peripatetic hero, Deen Dutta, is an earnest Brooklyn-based rare books dealer,...

A World Between by Emily Hashimoto [in Booklist]

25 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian American, Japanese American, Repost

Eleanor and Leena meet in 2004 in a Boston college-dorm elevator. Eleanor is a hapa Californian – her mother is white, her father Japanese American. Leena’s traditionally immigrant Indian American family is a few towns over in Lowell. That fall semester is spent intensely falling,...

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine [in Booklist]

24 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW As early as age 8, Adrian Tomine (Killing and Dying) publicly announced exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up: “A famous cartoonist,” he told his Fresno class in 1982. He confused his teacher, who thought perhaps he aspired to be Walt...

Happiness Will Follow by Mike Hawthorne [in Booklist]

23 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Puerto Rican, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Born Michael Anthony Hawthorne, his last name was “swiftly pilfered from [his] father” by his Puerto Rican mother “to keep [him] safe in ways she never was.” Yet surviving into adulthood was a near-superhuman feat: his single mother’s fierce love came with horrific stipulations...

My Favorite Memories by Sepideh Sarihi, illustrated by Julie Völk, translated by Elisabeth Lauffer [in Shelf Awareness]

21 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Iranian, Repost, Translation

A globally collaborative trio – Iranian German author Sepideh Sarihi, Austrian artist Julie Völk, and U.S. translator Elisabeth Lauffer – present lucky audiences My Favorite Memories, a poignant, hopeful journey of transition and relocation. "I was brushing my hair when Papa came in and told...

Sweet Time by Weng Pixin [in Shelf Awareness]

20 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost, Singaporean, Singaporean American, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

In Singaporean artist Weng Pixin’s striking debut graphic collection, Sweet Time, the connecting theme throughout is clarified in the fourth story, "Ballad," using the commonly repeated "he loves me, he loves me not" refrain. As anonymous fingers peel a bloom's petals, the panels flip between...

Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho [in Shelf Awareness]

19 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Ultimately, Inferno is a love story: raw, unfiltered, wrenching, lifesaving. Catherine Cho, a Korean American literary agent living in London, makes her debut with a scorching memoir about the postpartum psychosis that nearly destroyed her – but didn't. On November 4, 2017, Cho and husband, James,...

That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump [in Shelf Awareness]

18 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Translation

At a little more than 100 pages, That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye (Ladivine) might initially seem spare. The intriguing complexity, however, contained in her superb novel underscores again why she is one of France's most lauded contemporary writers, having received her country's highest...

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen [in Booklist]

17 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian American, Southeast Asian, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW The magic happens here on every page, the perfection personified by debut author/artist Trung Le Nguyen’s autobiographical homage to the infinite power of storytelling. The opening page ingeniously distinguishes three interwoven narratives with three color palettes: red is the urgent now, about young Tiến...

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata [in Booklist]

16 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

Besides sharing a Dominican background with titular Adana Moreau, Coral Peña seems rather miscast for first-time novelist Michael Zapata’s predominantly male cast. Having made her notable aural debut (serendipitously!) with Angie Cruz’s lauded Dominicana (2019), Peña’s sophomore performance feels more determined than inspired. Zapata’s novel flows through...

Luci Soars by Lulu Delacre [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

With more than three dozen publishing credits, bilingual author/illustrator Lulu Delacre (Us, in Progress) knows how to balance text and art to achieve memorable literary results. In Luci Soars, Delacre introduces a girl whose noticeable difference – she doesn't have a shadow – draws out...

Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

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

Kamoda can’t stop making detrimental decisions: dodging taxes results in losing the family’s sandals business, agreeing to mass-manufacture caricature masks of a U.S. presidential candidate (who looks surprisingly like Trump) takes everything else. Kamoda’s wife has already fled, leaving their daughter, Kasumi, as the only voice...

The Case of the Reincarnated Client: A Vish Puri Mystery by Tarquin Hall [in Booklist]

12 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

*STARRED REVIEW Nearly seven long, long years have passed since the eminent Vish Puri, India’s most private investigator, has had a high-profile case. Utmost gratitude gushes, not only for his return, but for Sam Dastor’s in the fifth title in Tarquin Hall’s delectable Delhi-based mystery series. This time,...

Addis Ababa Noir edited by Maaza Mengiste [in Shelf Awareness]

11 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

Born in Addis Ababa, NEA fellow Maaza Mengiste (The Shadow King) takes readers home to "a growing city taking shape beneath the fraught weight of history, myth, and memory." As one of the editors for Akashic Books' ongoing Noir series, Mengiste gathers "some of Ethiopia's...

Moms by Yeong-shin Ma, translated by Janet Hong [in Booklist]

10 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Experiencing the tedious difficulty of household chores, Yeong-shin Ma writes in his must-not-skip author’s note, is what made him “think more deeply about [his mother] and her life.” That empathic appreciation inspired him to present her with an expensive notebook, requesting, “If you want...

Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir by Bishakh Som [in Booklist]

07 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American

Earlier this year, Bishakh Som debuted her dazzling graphic collection, Apsara Engine, the genesis of which is found here – inseparably entwined with Som’s own unique origin story. Som introduces herself in a narrative frame, bordering the memoir’s beginning and end: “I wanted to clue...

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi [in Booklist]

06 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

Following her spectacularly lauded, bestselling historical and ancestral debut, Homegoing (2016), Yaa Gyasi turns to the contemporary, tracing the dissolution of a Ghanaian immigrant family. By the time Gifty leaves Alabama for Harvard, she’s resolved to “build a new Gifty from scratch” by shedding the...

The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, translated by Arunava Sinha [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

As spare as it might initially seem, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay's wickedly entertaining novel, The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die, manages smoothly to illuminate gender inequity, cultural biases, socioeconomic disparity, and familial dysfunction through a three-generational ghost story. At 18, Somlata is wed to her 32-year-old husband, the "blissfully...

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa [in Shelf Awareness]

04 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost

Returning to the Palestinian multi-generational epic format that made her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin (2010), an international bestseller, Susan Abulhawa's haunting Against the Loveless World features another extended Palestinian clan enduring exile, surviving persecution, and (sometimes) cheating death. Abulhawa's compelling cipher is a woman with...

Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran [in Booklist]

03 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW What you might miss if you opt for the audiobook is a rather unexpected table of contents page, on which every chapter title is a (western) literary classic, from The Picture of Dorian Gray to The Iliad. Books, indeed, guide debut author Phuc Tran’s life, especially as...

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