BookDragon Fiction

The Drops of God (vol. 4) by Tadashi Agi, illustrated by Shu Okimoto, translated by Maya Rosewood

19 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation

No oenophile am I, but I sure am addicted to this delicious new series. To catch up to this latest volume which hits shelves today, be sure to click here. The elusive chase continues between faux-siblings, Shizuku Kanzaki and his just-recently-adopted brother Issei Tomine, to identify...

People Are Strange: Stories by Eric Gamalinda

18 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o, Filipina/o American, Short Stories, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

Eric Gamalinda and I overlapped in New York City in the 1990s, when I knew (of) him more as a poet. I should know better (blame it on youth!) than to label him by genre, because clearly Gamalinda is a multi-faceted writer (as well as a playwright,...

The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen [in Library Journal]

15 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

The 2,500-page, 18th-century classic, Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, is regarded as China’s most important work of fiction. Pauline A. Chen (Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas, for middle-grade readers) tackles the daunting task of adapting the revered original text, and her literary...

Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City by Dung Kai-cheung, translated by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall [in Library Journal]

15 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

First published in 1997 – as an indirect response to the Hong Kong handover – Atlas marks Hong Kong native Dung’s English debut in translation. A self-described “verbal collection of maps” imagines the reclamation of a future city of Victoria (Hong Kong) through maps, memories,...

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

10 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction

Two-thirds of the way through Julian Barnes' novel, which won the latest coveted Man Booker Prize, the protagonist's ex-wife quietly tells him, "'Tony, you're on your own now.'" Indeed, Tony Webster – middle-aged, retired, divorced (albeit rather amicably), his only child immersed with her own family – is seemingly...

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

09 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Well, of course, Wendelin Van Draanen is a runner ...

Jinchalo by Matthew Forsythe

08 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Young Adult Readers

By no means is Jinchalo your conventional manga/manwha/graphic work. Not to be going around in circles, but its title – which, in Korean, means something akin to 'really?' 'is that for real?' – works rather appropriately as a response to experiencing this adventure ...

Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti by Frances Temple

07 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Caribbean, Fiction, Haitian, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

If Youme's Sélavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope is a picture book for the youngest readers, then Taste of Salt is surely its companion title for older children and parents alike. The real-life Lanfami Sélavi – Jean-Bertrand Aristide's refuge for homeless children founded in 1986 – is...

between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys

05 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Russian, Young Adult Readers

First of all, please do not confuse this spectacular title with that OTHER Shades of Grey. Not that any comparison is even merited, but gray – notice spelling difference – hit shelves more than a year before Grey (March 2011 vs. April 2012), and gray is indisputably...

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

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

For a couple of days, I went back and forth with The Snow Child stuck in my ears (which the inimitable Debra Monk  – one of my favorite stage actors ever! – happens to narrate, oh wow!) and reading Ruta Sepetys' between shades of gray on the page...

Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Promise (Parts One and Two) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

01 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

Reacting to the final page with 'oh, crud' is actually a good thing, especially if it's something like 'OH, CRUD ...

The Drops of God (vols. 1-3) by Tadashi Agi, illustrated by Shu Okimoto, translated by Kate Robinson

26 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation

I'm the first to admit that I'm no oenophile, in spite of the years we lived in Northern California when we wandered the wineries of Napa, Sonoma, and even the tiny boutique arbors scattered through the Santa Cruz Mountains (the Loma Prieta earthquake on October...

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel

24 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Short Stories, Translation

Another confession: While recently listening to Rupert Degas narrate parts of Hari Kunzru's Gods without Men, I got such a nostalgic pang to hear Degas read Haruki Murakami (after experiencing A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and select stories from The Elephant Vanishes thus far in Degas'...

Gods without Men by Hari Kunzru

21 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

Most of the time, I love stories that require fitting together seemingly disjointed pieces; my brain feels delightfully tickled with the challenge. And, of Hari Kunzru's novels – Gods being his fourth and latest – I much appreciated both The Impressionist and Transmission [no, I've not yet read My...

One Day I Went Rambling by Kelly Bennett, illustrated by Terri Murphy

19 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Ready for some Saturday fun? Turn off all those screens and power up with your ever-more powerful imagination instead! Come join Zane as he turns things ordinary into magical adventures! What Zane sees as a flying saucer's crest, Lamar mistakenly calls a hubcap. No, Zane's...

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar

18 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Translation, Turkish

Mixed in with the many death-and-destruction titles I've been reading the last few months, my most recent choices inadvertently seem to have an added layer of death-and-destruction-in-the-name-of-God. Too many books, regardless of genre or target audience, seem to offer irrefutable proof that the rules and...

The Wooden Sword: A Jewish Tale from Afghanistan by Ann Redisch Stampler, illustrated by Carol Liddiment

16 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Jewish

"One starry night in old Kabul ...

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

14 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Pakistani American, South Asian American

In a sentence, American Dervish is about a young boy's indoctrination into Islam – the religion he was born into, but from the practice of which his parents have lapsed (by choice) – and his eventual withdrawal from his fervent childhood devotion. By extension, the novel...

The Devotion of Suspect X [Detective Galileo 1] by Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander

11 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Translation

I had quite the challenging training day on Tuesday – five hours of driving to the mountains and back, with 5.5 hours running up and down two summits in the rain, rain, rain – but the miles couldn't have gone faster thanks to Suspect X stuck in my...

One Red Bastard by Ed Lin + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

07 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Ed Lin is not Robert Chow, his fictional alter ego who has starred in three of Lin's four books. If nothing else, Lin is just too young, too happy, and too funny to resemble the Vietnam War veteran-turned Chinatown, New York City cop. The other...