* STARRED REVIEW Krys Lee, whose peregrinations originated and are currently paused in Korea with formative stopovers in the U.S. and England, infuses the nine stories of her breathtaking debut with the consequences of dislocation – whether forced because of war, or chosen by virtue of...
Today's theme, I've decided, is families that come together in unexpected ways. I have good reason – I'm moderating an event at the Library of Congress on transracial adoption at noon (eek!) – and I have a gorgeous debut novel I must share (it's always about a...
Melissa Fay Greene first arrived last spring in my mailbox via her latest book, No Biking in the House Without a Helmet, and made me cry. But she also left me tickled with joyous laughter at the antics of her sprawling, multiplying, multi-ethnic family. While Biking made me...
*STARRED REVIEW At the core of 1Q84 is a spectacular love story about a girl and boy who briefly held hands when they were both 10. That said, with the fiercely imaginative Murakami as author, the story’s exposition is gloriously labyrinthine: Welcome “into this enigma-filled world...
The village of Hargigo in the tiny African country of Eritrea was once a landscape of dust and deprivation ...
Daytripper is a gift of unexpected brilliance. That's all you really need to know. And just as I soooooo appreciated knowing almost nothing about this title before I opened its enticing pages, I will try not to spoil a moment for you. If you're not ready to...
People, even complete strangers, feel compelled to tell Xinran their personal stories, from the simple happiness of sweet everyday lives to the most horrific memories of shocking abuse. Something in her soothing voice, the wordless encouragement to keep talking, exudes a sense of undeniable comfort...
'Global village' is one of those overused phrases we hear so often we don't actively think about the meaning anymore ...
From the age of 16 when she took a biology class at a community college (making up for a failed high school freshman year because "she never showed up"), award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot has seemingly spent the majority of her life preparing to write...
*STARRED REVIEW
The Korean title of this indelible novel, Omma rul put’ak hae, contains a sense of commanding trust that is missing in its English translation: “I entrust Mommy [to you].” That trust...
I fully admit that had Mockingbird not won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature last week, I probably wouldn't have read it. I'll also tell you that by page 9, I...
The simplicity of Australian author/artist Jeannie Baker's latest title makes it simply stupendous. Open the book and you have two halves on either side, the left which begins in English, and right which...
Delighted guffawing is inevitable as soon as you open the pages. And most especially fitting if you are a proud, obstinate Luddite like me! Move over Kindles, Nooks, iPads, Vooks, and whatever other...
First off, Spork is one of the cutest, most clever books on mixed-race issues to land on my desk in a long time. Both story and illustrations create a perfect package of ticklish, delightful fun ...
*STARRED REVIEW Comprising 10 novellas that took 10 years to craft, this is Yamashita’s (Circle K Cycles) magnum opus. Year by year, the novellas mark a decade’s worth of tumultuous Asian Pacific American (APA) history, from 1968, when ethnic studies was painfully birthed in San Francisco,...
Certain writers – Chang-rae Lee and Khaled Hosseini immediately come to mind – paralyze my reading capability. I say that with the utmost respect. I become so attached to an author's previous book (in the rare case, books), that I find myself unable to even...
If, at the end of reading (or, as in my case, listening to Fred Sanders read addictively out loud) this book, you are not completely and utterly convinced that human beings were born to run, I want to hear about it for sure. If you're...
*STARRED REVIEW The title of Sonya Chung’s exquisite novel, Long for This World, seems to be missing a word: “not long for this world” would be the easy, expected phrase. But little is ‘easy’ or ‘expected’ in this multilayered story of two brothers – one Korean,...
By the time I got to college, the Michael Dorris/Louise Erdrich union was already legendary. Dorris was the founder of Dartmouth's Native American Studies department – might I add, how ironic that took 200+ years after the school was created in 1769 "for the education and...
Half the Sky is a remarkable, life-changing book. It should be required reading for all adults (and more mature young adults), but especially for us overprivileged, lucky-solely-by-chance-of-birth citizens of the West. If there is ONE book you read this new year, let it be this...
