Fiction Archives - Page 102 of 172

Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns by John Green and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

08 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Runners/walkers/movers: in case you ever wondered – yes, a gluttonous John Green-binge stuck in the ears really makes the miles fly by (public displays of sudden, extreme emotion notwithstanding). I began backwards with the latest of the JG-oeuvre, the incomparable, luminous The Fault in Our...

I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 by Lauren Tashis, illustrated by Scott Dawson

07 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Hawaiian, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

Today – December 7, 2012 – is the 71st anniversary of the "date which will live in infamy," as named by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in describing the assault on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base and launching the United States into World War II. That the attackers...

Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta, illustrated by Ed Young

06 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

The draw here (couldn't resist, ahem!) is the ever-spectacular art of Caldecott Medal-winner Ed Young, this time using "cut paper, textured cloth, string, and colored pencil" to give dramatic motion to Barbara DaCosta's debut kiddie title. As the clock strikes midnight and everyone sleeps, the nighttime ninja climbs,...

The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

05 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Bangladeshi, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Here's my 'why-I-read-this-book-scenario': a 21st-century equivalent to the mail-order bride from Bangladesh, her middle-class white American engineer sponsor hubby, the suburban New York life they attempt to share ...

Publisher Interview: Sunyoung Lee and Kaya Press [in Bookslut]

03 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Japanese American, Korean American, Pan-Asian, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Poetry, Repost, Translation

Early this year, at almost 18 years old, Kaya Press flew the nest. Leaving behind the comfort and familiarity of New York's publishing world, the non-profit indie specializing in "books from the Asian diaspora," moved offices across the country to Los Angeles. Now comfortably ensconced...

Captain Long Ears by Diana Thung

02 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Australian, Australian Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indonesian, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

So enthralled by Diana Thung's August Moon earlier this week, I immediately ordered Captain (her first and only other title thus far), and was delightfully tickled to find a blurb on the back cover from Gene Luen Yang (of first-ever National Book Award graphic novel finalist-fame for American Born Chinese): "Goofy and endearing...

Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America by David H.T. Wong

30 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian Asian Pacific American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Canadian eco-architect David H.T. Wong's debut defies simple categorization: while clearly a graphic work for younger readers (much of the language is soooo totally tweenage vernacular), Escape covers some 200 years of history through the fictional story of a Chinese Canadian American family, also named Wong, whose experiences...

The Rose Hotel: A True-Life Novel by Rahimeh Andalibian

29 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American, Memoir

In the genre of memoirs (which includes based-on-a-true-story, autobiographical novels), I've noticed two distinct categories: the titles you read for the importance of the story, and the memoirs that also turn out to be fabulous examples of great literature. Psychologist Rahimeh Andalibian's writing debut represents the former;...

August Moon by Diana Thung

28 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Australian, Australian Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indonesian, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

Get ready for surreal delight. When a mysterious creature with an imbedded bullet turns up, Fi and her scientist father head to the town of Calico – linked "to the rest of the country! and the world!" by a single bridge. They'll be staying with Fi's Uncle...

The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam

26 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Chinese, Fiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese

Although Vincent Lam's first novel hit shelves months ago, I waited (and waited) to read it because I was afraid – seems to be my modus operandi for follow-up titles to books I've cherished, unable to move on for fear of grave disappointment. Lam's interconnected story...

A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson

25 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Chinese, Fiction, Middle Eastern

If you feel a vague sense of déjà vu reading this novel, that may be because, like me, you're strongly reminded of another dual-timed story featuring a bold Englishwoman trekking through faraway lands whose expectations-be-damned!-uncommon-life-back-then is pieced together through left-behind words and pictures by a descendant living...

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

22 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Perhaps you might label me odd (true) or contrary (no way!) or even disrespectful (dohhh!) to post about cancer and death today of all days, but let me just assure you that this really does make sense. Books like this are the best reminders to...

Good Night, Commander by Ahmad Akbarpour, illustrated by Morteza Zahedi, translated by Shadi Eskandani and Helen Mixter

17 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Iranian, Translation

Award-winning Iranian writer Ahmad Akbarpour uses the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988, claiming 1.5 million lives) as the backdrop for this indelible, meaningful story about a young boy who lost his mother – and his leg. "The story is set in Iran," Akbarpour explains in his author's...

The Word Collector by Sonja Wimmer, translated by Jon Brokenbrow

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Admiring Ana A. de Eulate's The Sky of Afghanistan earlier this fall led me to Sonja Wimmer's spectacular art. Allow me a moment of WOW. I admit that finding only Wimmer's name on the cover of this title was the initial reason I opened these pages, and...

Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

In our hyper-connected world of constant chatter, quiet is a difficult-to-access, precious commodity. Take a sweeping look around you, take a few minutes to turn everything off, and grab a copy of this spectacular, wordless book. That's right – no words, beyond the author's dedication (to a...

Gilead and Home by Marilynne Robinson

03 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Gilead and Home are parallel stories – that is, one is not a sequel or prequel of the other, but what happens in one, happens contemporaneously in the other. As satisfying as each novel can be alone, to read both one after the other will be...

A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison

02 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Nonethnic-specific, South Asian

Of the debut novels by non-Asian men writing about Asia and Asian characters that I've read thus far this year, three stand out: Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master’s Son, Brandon Jones' All Woman and Springtime, and most recently this title by Virginia attorney Corban Addison. The one...

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui, translated by David Karashima

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Déjà vu: If the title seems at all familiar to you even though the book's U.S. pub date happened this fall, don't be surprised because you've probably, already seen various iterations of the story on other multiple platforms. While this is the original 1967 bestselling...

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

29 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, British Asian, Fiction, Short Stories

How wrenchingly ironic that this was the book I happened to be reading when I learned of a sudden death in our family. On the flight, in the car, during the rare moments of aloneness over the last four days, Kazuo Ishiguro's stories that spoke...

Stories 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 by Eugène Ionesco, illustrated and translated by Etienne Delessert

24 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Short Stories, Translation

How strange to admit that Dave Eggers taught me Eugène Ionesco – Mr. Theatre of the Absurd himself – wrote kiddie stories in addition to his dozens of plays (Rhinoceros, The Chairs, The Bald Soprano, being some of his signature pieces). Eggers founded McSweeney's which recently debuted McMullens,...

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