Audience Archives - Page 6 of 233

The Lost Ryū by Emi Watanabe Cohen [in School Library Journal]

09 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW A sigh of relief is almost immediate as Kurt Kanazawa effortlessly pronounces “ryū” – with exacting attention to that diacritical – then “Hiroshima” just so. The Julliard-trained actor displays his Japanese fluency, adroitly enhancing Emi Watanabe Cohen’s poignant first novel in which dragons –...

Tamarind and the Star of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan [in School Library Journal]

08 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian

British actor Seema Bowri makes her narrating debut, her crisp, youthful voice an ideal match for 11-year-old Tamarind, a Bristol, England-raised girl meeting her late mother’s family for the first time. Her father, recently remarried and on his way to his honeymoon, arranges to leave...

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo [in Booklist]

07 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

Nghi Vo’s stupendous debut, The Chosen and the Beautiful, alchemized (and improved) The Great Gatsby by shifting narrative control to supporting character Jordan Baker. Vo dramatically gifts similarly transformative autonomy to her latest protagonist, Luli Wei, who is clearly a revisionist stand-in for legendary Asian American film...

The Age of Doubt by Pak Kyongni, translated by Sophie Bowman and others [in Booklist]

06 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Considered one of Korea’s greatest novelists, Pak Kyongni (1926-2008) is revered for her multi-volume epic Toji (The Land, 1969-1994), designated among the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. She began publishing autobiographical short stories, inspired by tragic post-Korean War experiences, exposing the high cost of survival,...

Broken Summer by J. M. Lee, translated by An Seon Jae [in Booklist]

05 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

Bestselling Korean author J.M. Lee (The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, 2016) deftly unwinds another intricately plotted narrative, his third English translation available Stateside, this time ciphered by An Seon Jae, the British-born, naturalized Korean octogenarian scholar-teacher better known as Brother Anthony. At 43, artist Hanjo has...

Kapaemahu [audio] by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson [in School Library Journal]

04 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Hawaiian, Nonfiction, Pacific Islander, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW A solemn drumbeat welcomes listeners to discover the Kapaemahu, four ancient Tahitian healers of Hawaii. Neither male nor female, “they were mahu—a mixture of both in mind, heart, and spirit.” The people built a monument in gratitude, but the “four great boulders” were eventually...

Princess Charming by Zibby Owens [in School Library Journal]

03 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Zibby Owens’s third book is also her third narrator credit, as well as her debut for children. She relies on a delightfully playful twist channeling one of the world’s most familiar fairy tales, cleverly revealed in the final three words (no spoilers). “Being a princess isn’t...

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin [in Booklist]

02 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Jewish, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In her fifth adult title, Gabrielle Zevin (Young Jane Young, 2017) impressively interweaves multiple threads that twist and tangle around what is essentially a decades-long love story. Jennifer Kim ciphers most of the narration, deftly distinguishing the main three players, with a brief interlude voiced...

Which Side Are You On by Ryan Lee Wong [in Booklist]

01 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In the short opening paragraph introducing a young man watching his mother approach the LAX curb in her new Prius, debut novelist Ryan Lee Wong manages to pack in generation gaps, climate change, brutal colonialism, and “let[ting] go of that ancestral sh*t sooner or later.” Columbia...

What We Fed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri [in Booklist]

31 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW While novels told from an animal’s point of view are that unusual, an entire story collection with non-human narrators seems rare. Even more striking is the stupendous quality of Talia Lakshmi Kolluri’s breathtaking debut. Deep bonds define Kolluri’s heart-pulling protagonists, who too often face...

The Family Izquierdo by Rubén Degollado [in Booklist]

30 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

Their collective story begins in McAllen, Texas, just seven miles from the U.S./Mexico border. For generations before, Octavio Izquierdo’s predecessors “used to come and go, crossing freely, still in their own country,” before an “imaginary line” delineated nations and separated families. In 1958, Octavio is claiming “a...

Concerning My Daughter by Kim Hye-jin, translated by Jamie Chang [in Booklist]

29 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Already a prestigious bestseller in Korea, Kim Hye-jin’s impassioned novel about the meaning of family – by blood, by choice – marks her English-language debut, seamlessly translated by National Book Award longlister Jamie Chang. A mother is desperate to help her thirtysomething daughter, an...

Planes by Peter Baker [in Booklist]

26 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Italian, Moroccan, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Palestinian American Lameece Issaq expertly ciphers debut-novelist Peter C. Baker’s quartet with equal conviction beyond geographies, genders, and backgrounds. In Rome, Amira – born Maria, now a convert to Islam – works in a shop and returns to an empty apartment because her immigrant husband...

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li [in Booklist]

25 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, European, Fiction, French, Repost

Yiyun Li’s fiction since her son’s tragic suicide seems to have catapulted her away from the Asian roots that define her earlier award-winning fiction. Her latest begins on a pastoral farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where Agnès, known as the “French bride,” lives with her husband...

The Fervor by Alma Katsu [in Booklist]

24 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost

Historical horror master Alma Katsu augments an already terrifying occurrence – the U.S. imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during WWII – by crafting this intricately plotted supernatural-tinged thriller. To underscore the reality, Katsu’s dedication points to her mother “for her stories of childhood...

Cicatrix by Elle [in Booklist]

23 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost

Cicatrix, or scar, encompasses multilayered meanings in queer, Manila-based artist Elle’s U.S. debut. They begin with “a firm bump … just below [their] left ear, about the diameter of a five-peso coin” – and a confession that “every time I get sick, I always think...

Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki, translated by Ryan Holmberg [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW Initially serialized in Japan between 1981 and 1984, this is considered the late Yamada Murasaki’s most famous work; it’s also her first to arrive in the U.S., translated by notable manga historian Ryan Holmberg. Decades since its introduction, the slice-of-home-life bildungsroman remains hauntingly relevant...

After Lambana: Myth and Magic in Manila by Eliza Victoria, illustrated by Mervin Malonzo [in Booklist]

19 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o, Filipina/o American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost

Conrad needs help. He’s suffering from a fatal disease, and mitigating the excruciating agony is all he can do. Ignacio seems to be his only hope, navigating him through the Manila streets where humans – and other beings – pass between worlds. Beyond the last...

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity by Erika Kobayashi, translated by Brian Bergstrom [in Booklist]

18 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

Tokyo-based author/artist Erika Kobayashi makes an intriguing, albeit uneven, translated-into-English debut, enabled by Canadian Brian Bergstrom. The consequences of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are manifest in three generations of an all-female Tokyo family. Kobayashi’s novel takes place on a single day, following the schedule...

My Nest of Silence by Matt Faulkner [in Booklist]

17 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW After learning of Europe’s Nazi concentration camps as a child, Matt Faulkner also discovered how Americans of Japanese descent were unjustly imprisoned during WWII, a revelation made more urgent because of family connections: his great-aunt Adeline; her daughter, Mary; and Mary’s children were held...

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