Audience Archives - Page 39 of 233

Year of the Rabbit by Tian Veasna, translated by Helge Dascher [in Booklist]

26 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Cambodian, European, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Translation, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW The U.S.’s April, 1975, withdrawal from Vietnam enabled the so-called Vietnam War to spread into Laos and Cambodia, where Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime stormed Phnom Penh and dispersed its inhabitants – mostly to brutal labor camps – eliminating 1.7 to 2 million Cambodians....

Braised Pork by An Yu [in Booklist]

25 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Chen Hang is facedown in the bathtub when his wife, Jia Jia, discovers his naked corpse. Married for four years, their intended “lifelong partnership” didn’t include love, at least not for each other. After vomiting her “insuppressible resentment and disgust,” Jia Jia finds a pencil...

We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia [in Booklist]

24 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Finishing what she so affectingly began, Kyla García returns to conclude Tehlor Kay Mejia’s high-octane duology in which the privileged world of Medio and the rebellious encampments of La Voz implode, with the inevitable showdown of Medio’s heir-apparent Mateo Garcia and his two wives –...

Little Family by Ishmael Beah [in Booklist]

23 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Ishmael Beah, who recounted his brutal experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone in his bestselling memoir, A Long Way Gone (2007), understands all too well the horrors that can befall children. Here his fictional “little family” numbers five, the two oldest still...

This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II by Andrew Fukuda [in School Library Journal]

20 Mar, by SIBookDragon in European, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In 1935, two unlikely tweens are connected across the Atlantic as assigned – albeit initially unwilling – pen pals. Made to write a full page to Charlie after dismissing her because she's a girl, Alex soon succumbs to her epistolary charms; their letters continue for...

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha [in Booklist]

18 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW As former travel and culture editor for CNN in Seoul, U.S.-Hong Kong-South Korea-raised and Brooklyn-domiciled Frances Cha writes exactingly of what she knows in her first novel. With unblinking focus, she confronts some of the darkest consequences of contemporary gender inequity by targeting the...

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang [in Booklist]

17 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Beijing-born, globally-trotted, San Francisco-domiciled C. Pam Zhang “is still looking for home,” her author bio shouts. That search for home – uncertain, elusive, just-out-of-reach – looms throughout Zhang’s mesmerizing debut novel in which a family of four (which should have been five) never quite arrives....

Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park + Author Interview [in Shelf Awareness]

16 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Fan Fiction, 50 Years Later Almost two decades have passed since Linda Sue Park became the first Korean American – and only the second Asian American – to win the Newbery Medal, in 2002 for A Single Shard. She's since published dozens of titles (Gondra's Treasure; Forest of...

Frankissstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson [in Library Journal]

13 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Lake Geneva in 1816 is home (in two rented properties) to five English travelers, three made eternal through their writing, one among that trio renowned for creating (inhuman) life, literally. Mary Shelley conceived Frankenstein there, accompanied by her poet husband Percy Shelley, fellow poet Lord Byron,...

A Story about Afiya by James Berry, illustrated by Anna Cunha [in Shelf Awareness]

12 Mar, by SIBookDragon in British, Caribbean, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost, South American

In 1991, prolific Jamaican poet and Coretta Scott King Honor author James Berry (A Thief in the Village) wrote "A Story About Afiya," an exquisite celebration of the simple magic of childhood. Lantana Publishing, founded "because all children deserve to see themselves in the books...

Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia + Author Interview [in Bloom]

10 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Nonfiction, Repost

“We have to learn from history and stop repeating its mistakes” As the child of two Chinese refugees, Helen Zia can personally speak to the effects of displacement, separation, adaptation, and reinvention. In her memorable career as activist/journalist/writer/Asian American icon, Zia turns inward for the first time in...

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha [in Library Journal]

09 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW The story might sound familiar – the 1991 L.A. riots – but Steph Cha ("Juniper Song" series) alchemizes headlines into a riveting thriller about two families colliding over injustice, while narrators Glenn Davis and Greta Jung transform the written word into mesmerizing performances. Shawn Matthews...

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn [in Booklist]

06 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

After successfully reporting on global hot spots, mostly in Asia, the Pulitzer Prized, bestselling power couple Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Half the Sky, 2008) turn westward to Kristof’s hometown, Yamhill, Oregon, a rural community where a quarter of Kristof’s Number 6 school bus...

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd [in Booklist]

05 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

Japan’s literary superstar Mieko Kawakami (Ms Ice Sandwich, 2018) significantly expands her 2008 Akutagawa Prize novella, notably translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd. Her writer-wannabe protagonist’s names are prescient homages: Natsuko (summer child) references poet Ichiyō Higuchi, aka Natsuko Higuchi, who appears on the...

The Only Child by Mi-Ae Seo, translated by Yewon Jung [in Shelf Awareness]

04 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

Bestselling Korean author Mi-ae Seo uses her screenwriting chops in The Only Child, a tautly plotted creepfest that already feels celluloid-ready. Making her English-language debut, Seo delves into the minds of those on opposite sides of the law. The incarcerated serial killer Yi Byeongdo, who...

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney [in School Library Journal]

03 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Jordanian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

For Allie Abraham, "hiding is easy: reddish-blond hair, pale skin, hazel eyes," in other words – white. That she looks "textbook Circassian…from the Caucasus region. (Hey, they don't call it Caucasian for nothing)," is her ethnic inheritance from her immigrant Circassian Jordanian history professor father....

Friend by Nam-nyong Paek, translated by Immanuel Kim [in Booklist]

02 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, North Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW As a Superior Court judge, among Jeong Jin Wu’s most difficult tasks is to resolve divorce petitions and face “the burden of having to deal with another family’s misery.” His latest case involves an opera celebrity and factory worker desperate to terminate their almost-10-year...

Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry [in Booklist]

28 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, European, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW British TV-film-stage-even-video-games-actor/comedian/novelist Stephen Fry is a consummate storyteller. Yes, he’s got multiple bestsellers on the page, including this latest: choosing from the godly Greek pantheon certainly provided divine inspiration, replete with the utmost in family dysfunction including bed-hopping (although, who needs beds?!), Sisyphean feats...

Garden by the Sea by Mercè Rodoreda, translated by Maruxa Relaño [in Booklist]

27 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Spanish, Translation

Set in 1920s Catalonia, the permeability of social classes – upstairs/downstairs style – gets played out in a Spanish seaside villa. The gardener, who has outlasted multiple “masters” over decades, narrates “six summers and one terrible winter” from when Barcelona almost-newlyweds take possession until the...

A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home edited by Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary [in Shelf Awareness]

26 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab American, Australian, Black/African American, Canadian, Caribbean American, Chinese American, European, Indian American, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Persian American, Repost, Southeast Asian American

The title originates in poet Jamila Osman's essay, "A Map of Lost Things": "A map is only one story," writes the Canadian-born daughter of Somali immigrants who now lives in Portland, Ore. "It is not the most important story. The most important story is the...

BookDragon Audience