BookDragon Fiction

Steer Toward Rock by Fae Myenne Ng [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Some 15 years after her award-wining literary debut with her bestselling novel, Bone, Ng finally returns with a gorgeous, yet heartbreaking story of unrequited love in 1960s San Francisco. Jack Moon Szeto arrives as...

Evening Is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Malaysian, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

The wealthy Rajesekharan family of Ipoh, Malaysia is suddenly in shambles. Chellam, one of the family servants, has been mysteriously dismissed and leaves in utter disgrace. The bitter, difficult family matriarch is dead. Her son is...

Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire by David Mura [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost

Already an established nonfiction writer and poet, David Mura presents his debut novel, about a not-so-young Japanese American self-proclaimed itinerant historian who must delve into his own family's past – populated by both a...

Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan American

In Yalini's globe-scattered Sri Lankan family are two kinds of marriage: the Arranged Marriage that the obedient adhere to and Love Marriage which Yalini's newly immigrant parents fell into shortly after arrival in their adopted country....

A Good Indian Wife by Anne Cherian [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Neel is a handsome young doctor arriving at the family home in India to visit his ill grandfather. Back in his chosen home of San Francisco, he's got a gorgeous white girlfriend and his anesthesiologist career...

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

As horrible as some of the images are in this 2008 Booker Prize-winning debut novel, you can't help but chuckle just a little bit at some of the impossible shenanigans of its self-made unapologetic...

The White Nights of Ramadan by Maha Addasi, illustrated by Ned Gannon [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost

A Muslim family prepares for the fasting holiday of the month of Ramadan. Noor and her two brothers especially look forward to Girgian, a three-day festival that marks the half-way point of the holy month....

Grandfather’s Story Cloth by Linda Gerdner and Sarah Langford, illustrated by Stuart Loughridge [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Hmong, Hmong American, Repost

Chersheng, a young Hmong American boy, feels helpless and frustrated as his Alzheimer’s-challenged grandfather begins to forget more and more. His mother shows him his grandfather's story cloth, a traditional Hmong art form that captures...

Bird by Zetta Elliot, illustrated by Shadra Strickland [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost

An artistically gifted young boy realizes too early in his short life that fixing what he doesn't like in his pictures is much easier than trying to change what he doesn't understand about real life. He...

Minn & Jake’s Almost Terrible Summer by Janet S. Wong, illustrated by Geneviève Côté [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction

Written in sparse free verse, Janet Wong perceptively captures the elliptical communication of two best friends – caught in that nebulous zone of preteen angst – whose summer starts off...

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look, illustrated by LeUyen Pham [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

When Alvin Ho gets scared, he can’t seem to talk ...

Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, art by Ed Young [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Japanese, Repost

Little Wabi Sabi, a lovely kitty living in Kyoto, Japan, has a very special name ...

Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

Based on the real-life experiences of author Guo, this beautifully illustrated thin volume captures the seven-year-old life of Little Leap Forward in 1966 Beijing. Playing by the riverbank one day, Little Leap Forward's best friend Little...

I Wanna Be Your Shoebox by Cristina García [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Cuban American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Eighth-grader Yumi Ruíz-Hirsch, a Japanese/Cuban/Jewish American hapa, has a life as complicated as her heritage. Her no-nonsense mother's got a new boyfriend. Her rock-'n-roll songwriter father hasn't outgrown adolescence. Her friends all seem to be going...

Dragon Road by Laurence Yep [in Bloomsbury Review]

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

In the latest of Laurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicles, longtime buddies Cal and Barney are looking for a way out of San Francisco's Chinatown in 1939. An invitation to join an all-Chinese American basketball...

Outside Beauty by Cynthia Kadohata [in Bloomsbury Review]

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

Helen Kimura has survived and thrived by using her irresistable beauty to get exactly what she wants. Steely and independent, she's never succumbed to anyone else's expectations but her own. Her four daughters by four different...

Indie Girl by Kavita Daswani [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Ethnic chick-lit favorite Kavita Daswani makes her young adult debut with a fun, breezy read starring one Indie Konkipuddi, a 15-year-old style-queen-in-the-making. While her neurosurgeon father can't understand why she would take a weekend...

Slant by Laura E. Williams [in Bloomsbury Review]

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

For years, 13-year-old Korean adoptee Lauren has endured the usual racial taunts for looking so different amidst her homogeneous fellow students in suburban Connecticut. Her popular and fearless best friend has done a far better job...

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before by David Yoo [in Bloomsbury Review]

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

After he swears off girls forever, loner – some might even call him a loser – Albert Kim finds first love over the summer after sophomore year ...

Good Enough by Paula Yoo [in Bloomsbury Review]

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

High school senior Patti Yoon, the perfect Korean American daughter studying for her perfect SAT scores, perfectly playing the violin, aiming for HYP (KorEnglish for HarvardYalePrinceton), and (of course!) never talking to boys, discovers her feisty...