A baker's dozen of perfect active verbs, measured out sparingly just one at the time, culminating in a final two words together. Twelve dazzlingly expressive illustrations of different birds in various stages of anticipation (the adults) and growth (the chicks) on stark black backgrounds that make the...
Regardless of how many more books I might read this year, Bich Minh Nguyen's second novel (and third title) will undoubtedly remain one of my top three for 2014. So engrossing is this Girl, that even Bernadette Dunne's occasionally faltering narration (oh, those fake Asian accents!) couldn't put me...
Preorder this title now and you can stop reading here ...
This new year couldn't start off with a better title. At a mere 134 pages, it's perfect to read in a single sitting, although the story's loving spirit is sure to linger. It's also the ideal gift to share with anyone and everyone who holds...
What writer and musician James McBride initially thought might take just six months to write required 14 long years to produce his now-almost-20-year-old debut title, The Color of Water. "Mommy" – McBride never calls her anything else – was never a cooperative subject: she shared her memories in her...
Sometimes, it takes a village to create a book this magnificent. Award-winning author and publisher Gabriela Olmos gathered "[s]ome of Mexico's best illustrators" who donated their art to create this stunning prayer for peace. "I dreamt of pistols that shoot butterflies ...
Certain books make me terribly selfish – because once I finish a post, the book gets cleared off my desk and either shelved or shared. British author/artist Grahame Baker-Smith's FArTHER – the many meanings in the title alone, achieved with just the lower-casing of that single 'r' provokes goosebumps...
Kim Thúy is one tough writer to get to, although she declares in our first email exchange when I finally track her down, “I am not at all the kind who plays hard to get :-) .” Attempts to contact her included pleas to both her...
Kim Thúy’s Ru: An Apple for the Reader Ah, well . . . better start with true confessions: my words appear on the back cover of the U.S. edition (at least the first printing) of Vietnamese Canadian author Kim Thúy’s debut novel, Ru. The blurb is...
Counting books seem to be a dime a dozen, and some you wouldn't even pay that much for! How satisfying, then, to discover this priceless One Gorilla. The concept is simple – it's a counting book, after all: each bold, sensational double-page spread features a numeral and...
A dear friend lost her mother this week; even if a parent is granted almost a century of life well lived, the surviving child's loss resonates for always. When a parent dies while the child is still very young, to understand and accept such loss...
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*STARRED REVIEW Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's (The Interpreter of Maladies) unparalleled ability to transform the smallest moments into whole lives pinnacles in this extraordinary story of two brothers – so close that one is "the other side" of the other – coming of age in the political...
Well, goodness ...
* STARRED REVIEW After surviving the Korean War, Yohan spends another year in a prisoner-of-war camp south of the new border that splits the country in two. Rather than return north, where no one awaits him, Yohan begins life anew in a faraway coastal Brazilian village as...
* STARRED REVIEW As in Ru Freeman’s absorbing 2009 debut, A Disobedient Girl, the intricate lives of young children also take center stage in this latest work. In 1979, the titular Sal Mal Lane is a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s largest city and former...
Allow me to start with the simple end: Ru Freeman's On Sal Mal Lane is stupendous. I'll even embellish that verdict and add that it is actually fan-huththa-tastic...
I realize it's only March, but I'm pretty convinced Mohsin Hamid's latest will be one of my top three favorites for 2013. True, such a pronouncement might seem rash in a year that will see new titles from Nadeem Aslam (The Blind Man's Garden next month), Khaled Hosseini...
Here's how this mesmerizing book begins ...
I'm facing a bit of a conundrum with this book: just how little can I tell you and still entice you to check out this astonishing debut novel by emerging-fully-formed-like-Athena, new author Jeff Backhaus? Hmm ...
