Audience Archives - Page 41 of 233

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong [in Booklist]

30 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Korean American, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Title aside, nothing is minor about Cathy Park Hong’s taut, sharp collection. The award-winning poet’s prose debut will elicit comparisons to contemporary race-conscious luminaries – think Claudine Rankine, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Roxane Gay – but Hong’s singular voice expresses both reclamation and declaration: “For...

Five More to Go: Paul Yoon’s Run Me to Earth [in The Booklist Reader]

29 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Audio, British, Cambodian, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, European, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Sri Lankan American, Translation, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon Traversing countries and continents during a half-century, Paul Yoon’s (The Mountain, 2017) second novel unfolds decades of unrelenting loss and meaningless brutality, balanced – somehow – by exquisite kindness and unbreakable bonds. In war-torn Laos, a country brutalized by...

The Nine Cloud Dream by Kim Man-jung, translated with an introduction and notes by Heinz Insu Fenkl [in Booklist]

28 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

The warning comes early: “New readers are advised that this introduction makes certain details of the plot explicit.” For audiences adamant about discovering narratives autonomously, skipping the first track is recommended – but only with the intention of returning to the beginning upon book’s end. Professor/translator/writer...

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok [in Booklist]

27 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, European, Fiction, Repost

Just before Grandma died in Amsterdam, Sylvie temporarily rejoined the Tan family to say goodbye. Grandma had been living with the Tans: Ma’s cousin Helena, husband Willem, their son Lukas – for decades. For her first nine years, Sylvie, too, had been the Tans’ responsibility,...

Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares [in Booklist]

26 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

With Spanish names, phrases, and whole sentences appearing every few pages, bilingual narrator Yaeli Arizmendi (the voice of Laura Esquivel’s Spanish editions) instinctively settles into Oscar Cásares’s (Amigoland) latest, in which he returns to his Tex-Mex border hometown of Brownsville. Almost-septuagenarian Nina’s life is not her...

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick [in Booklist]

25 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

So you’re gonna find some conventional tropes here: mousy librarian, selfless sister/selfish sister, domineering father/submissive mother, free-spirited granny, mysterious guardian angel. But before your rolling eyeballs get stuck, two words on why you need to listen: Imogen Church! Perhaps best known for voicing clever thrillers...

Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei, translated by Jeremy Tiang [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Repost, Translation

Yes, it's almost two inches thick and more than 400 pages, but that shouldn't deter readers from procuring this book promptly. Chan Ho-Kei's second thriller available in the U.S., Second Sister, is virtually irresistible, with twisty-turny, didn't-see-that-coming manipulations guaranteed to keep readers wide awake into...

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim [in Booklist]

23 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

For those looking for alternate therapies, the Miracle Submarine in Miracle Creek, Virginia, provides HBOT – hyperbaric oxygen therapy – believed to treat such conditions as autism and infertility. Despite the many ‘miracles,’ the venture is anything but: a mysterious explosion kills two patients and...

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen [in Shelf Awareness]

22 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

"This novel is a romp," Abigail Hing Wen promises (and delivers!) about Loveboat, Taipei. The Loveboat, she explains in her opening note to readers, is the popular name for Chien Tan, a real-life Taiwanese summer language program aimed at diasporic teens, with a reputation for...

Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao, translated by Mike Fu [in Christian Science Monitor]

21 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, European, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Translation

Stories of the Sahara celebrates a singular voice in travel writing Sanmao electrified Chinese readers when her travelogue “Stories of the Sahara” was published in 1976 – now it has been translated into English. She had three names; traveled to more than 55 countries; studied in Germany,...

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami [in Booklist]

20 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Fiction, Moroccan American, Repost

Laila Lalami’s stupendous fourth title showcases a chorus of nine Rashomon-esque characters dealing with the hit-and-run death of a Moroccan immigrant diner owner in a California Mojave Desert town. That the novel gets a nine-member full cast (with who’s-who credits at recording’s end!), including some...

Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez [in Booklist]

19 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Brown lives get overlooked, trampled, dismissed, and destroyed in Matt Mendez’s searing YA debut, set in his El Paso, Texas hometown. Timothy Andrés Pabon – his voice aptly mimicking a teen who’s not quite fully mature – opens in “Chapter Juan” as should-be high school...

When You Read This by Mary Adkins [in Booklist]

18 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker – both masterful epistolary novelists – couldn’t have imagined how today’s virtual communication would become an ideal medium to tell a story about ...

The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts [in Shelf Awareness]

17 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Translation

What should have been a serendipitous event – a lavish birthday celebration for three generations in 1973 – turns horrific, leaving 17 family and friends dead. Decades after the tragedy, The Aosawa Murders might be a closed case, but award-winning Japanese novelist Riku Onda has plenty...

Five More to Go: Shokoofeh Azar’s The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American, Persian, Repost, Translation

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar Although the page facing the title of Azar’s first novel to be translated into English clearly states, “Translated from the Farsi,” the linguistic enabler remains anonymous; the publisher’s official line is, “the translator of this book has asked...

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar [in Booklist]

15 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

Author Devi S. Laskar knows what it’s like to have a police gun pointed at her. In 2010, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation raided her home when her professor husband was wrongly accused of misusing university funds. They confiscated her laptop, on which was stored...

99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Central Asian, Fiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

During summer 2005, when “the American war was sort of dozing,” 12-year-old Marwand, his brother, and mother arrived in Logar, Afghanistan to visit extended family. The six years since Marwand’s last visit from the U.S. isn’t enough for Budabash – more wolf than dog –...

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara [in Library Journal]

13 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

Life in India’s basti (slums) has rules all its own – about toilets, water, hierarchies, privileges. The police either ignore the inhabitants, making crime reporting meaningless, or threaten to raze their ramshackle homes. Meanwhile, some 180 children go missing in India every day, reports British-based...

Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley [in Booklist]

12 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

With the right posh British accent, even lying, cheating, and all sorts of promiscuity somehow don’t seem as unforgivable. Life, death, and plenty of bed-swapping happen in Tessa Hadley’s latest, elucidated by English actor Abigail Thaw, who reads with such perfect enunciation and elegant control...

The Suspect by Fiona Barton [in Booklist]

11 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

In Fiona Barton’s third “Kate Waters” full-audio-cast thriller, Susan Duerden assumes tenacious journalist Kate Waters from Mandy Williams who previously voiced Kate in The Widow and The Child. This time the mystery gets personal – and far-flung. Two British teens traveling in Thailand turn up as victims in...

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