Fiction Archives - Page 41 of 172

German Calendar No December by Sylvia Ofili, illustrated by Birgit Weyhe [in Booklist]

21 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Young Adult Readers

As the oldest daughter of a German mother and Nigerian father in a small Nigerian town where everybody knows everybody, Olivia has valued books as windows to a life beyond. While anticipating boarding school in big-city Lagos, Olivia dreams of “all kinds of adventures,” Enid...

Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat [in Booklist]

19 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Following The Art of Death (2017), a reflection on her mother’s passing and writing, Edwidge Danticat focuses this haunting eight-story collection on, well, death. Looming death becomes a bargaining chip in “Dosas,” when an ex-husband begs his ex-wife to help save her kidnapped replacement, and in “In the Old...

At Dusk by Sok-yong Hwang, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

17 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW In just over a year, three Sok-yong Hwang titles – Familiar Things (2018), Princess Bari (2019), and this novel – have arrived Stateside, each indelibly, adroitly anglophoned by Seoul-based Sora Kim-Russell. Lauded by Nobelist Kenzaburō Ōe as “undoubtedly the most powerful voice of the...

Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Just about everything is new for Zenobia: she's moved to a new state (from Arizona to Maine) and is starting at a new middle school. She recently lost her widowed father, and is getting used to her new guardians, Aunt Lucy and her wife, Aunt...

Immigrant Heritage Month by the Book(s)! [in The Booklist Reader]

13 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab American, Black/African American, Chinese American, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Indian, Indian American, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Memoir, Moroccan American, Nonfiction, Repost, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

June is #ImmigrantHeritageMonth, which began in 2014 and has been recognized and celebrated by the (Obama) White House as “a time to celebrate diversity and immigrants’ shared American heritage” since 2015. “Immigration,” the White House declares, “is part of the DNA of this great nation.” Perhaps now more than ever...

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder [in Booklist]

12 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Without names, these people, this island, could be anyone, anywhere. As fantastical as the premise of her latest Anglophoned novel seems, Yoko Ogawa (The Housekeeper and the Professor, 2009) intends exactly that universality. Initially, small things disappeared – “Ribbon, bell, emerald, stamp.” What didn’t just...

Penguin Classics Adds Four Books by Asian Americans to the Canon [in Christian Science Monitor]

06 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Japanese American, Korean American, Lists, Memoir, Repost, Young Adult Readers

With four books by Asian American authors, Penguin Classics finally recognizes a long-overlooked genre of American literary and cultural tradition. During the first week that the film adaptation of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club hit screens across the United States in 1993, I sat in...

The Parrot and the Merchant by Marjan Vafaeian, translated by Azita Rassi [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Persian, Repost, Translation

An avid collector, Persian merchant Mah Jahan's most precious possessions are her birds. Despite her devotion, "she kept them in cages or chains so that they couldn't fly away and leave her." Most beloved is "a beautiful bright parrot," favored because "the parrot had learned...

Electrifying Reads from the Other Side of the World: Seven Korean Thrillers in Translation [in The Booklist Reader]

30 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Lists, Repost, Translation

Despite my Korean heritage, I don’t read the language well enough to enjoy Korea’s latest, greatest titles. Thankfully, notable Korean-to-English translators, especially Sora Kim-Russell, Deborah Smith, and Chi-Young Kim, enable all Anglophone audiences to discover – and for many of us, become ardent fans of...

The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade by Viken Berberian, illustrated by Yann Kebbi [in Booklist]

23 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Professor Frunz isn’t much of a teacher – nor are his students particularly engaged. While he rushes through an architectural tour of Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, one student repeatedly asks which details will be on the midterm while another plots how she’ll become the next, Pritzker...

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim + Author Interview [in Bloom]

21 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

“I’m still getting used to the idea of being a writer”: Q&A with Angie Kim True confession: A few years ago, our mutual friend, the writer Marie Myung-Ok Lee (not a Bloomer – Marie had a first-ever YA fiction multi-book deal with a major publisher in...

Travelers by Helon Habila [in Booklist]

20 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, European, Fiction, Repost

Reminiscent of Arthur Schnitzler’s late-19th-century play La Ronde (and the dozens of multi-genre adaptations since), Helon Habila’s (Oil on Water, 2011) fourth novel is a round-the-world journey that links disparate, desperate strangers. An unnamed African history scholar (his PhD pending) and his American wife, Gina, relocate from Arlington,...

14 #OwnVoices Mysteries for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month [in The Booklist Reader]

17 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Japanese American, Korean American, Lists, Pan-Asian Pacific American, South Asian American, Taiwanese American, Vietnamese American

Ready for some double duty? As you may know, May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (woo-hoo! happy me!). Additionally, May is also #MysteryMonth at Booklist. To celebrate, here’s a list that hasn’t been done before on The Booklist Reader: mysteries and thrillers by #OwnVoices APA writers. I know, such...

Internment by Samira Ahmed [in Booklist]

15 May, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Much like the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent imprisoned during WWII by FDR’s Executive Order 9066, Muslim Americans are rounded up and incarcerated in an alternate, albeit all-too-familiar U.S. following the 2016 presidential election. Seventeen-year-old Layla and her parents are forcibly removed from their Los...

Audio Picks for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month [in School Library Journal]

08 May, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Filipina/o, Filipina/o American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian, Indian American, Iranian, Iranian American, Korean American, Lists, Middle Grade Readers, Persian, Persian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month. Why May? The first Japanese people immigrated to the United States on May 7, 1843, and the transcontinental railroad – built mostly with immigrant Chinese labor – was completed on May 10, 1869. In 1977, Congressional legislation...

Newcomer [Detective Kaga series] by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray [in Booklist]

03 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Translation

P.J. Ochlan returns to voice the internationally bestselling Japanese author’s latest to arrive Stateside. Previously the voice of Detective Galileo in another series by Keigo Higashino, Ochlan assumes the second of the Detective Kyoichiro Kaga series following Malice in 2014. With Higashino’s signature vast casts, Ochlan’s...

The Last Word: Audios of Posthumously Published Books [in Booklist]

01 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, British, European, Fiction, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American

The one thing in life that’s guaranteed is, well, death. But books are certainly a lasting legacy. And sometimes, when we get the books after their creator has passed on, an audiobook can breathe life into the text, animating from beyond. Here, we have a handful...

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh [in Booklist]

26 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

The eerie chill factor proves unrelenting throughout Sophie Mackintosh’s 2018 debut, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and is further intensified by three formidable narrators who take turns revealing the dissolution of an isolated, splintered family. Grace, Lia, and Sky are three daughters – their...

Diverse Novels in Verse for National Poetry Month [in School Library Journal]

25 Apr, by SIBookDragon in African, Biography, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Japanese American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Organized by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month, in April, has been celebrated annually since 1996. While reading, writing, even performing poetry should be a year-round activity, National Poetry Month is a welcome catalyst to get verse newbies and doubters interested and involved. In...

Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez, illustrated by Jaime Kim [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Repost, South American

The emphatic "Where are you from?," often aggressively repeated with "Where are you really from?" is an all-too-familiar scenario for many people of color who call the United States "home." On the playground, at ballet class, at a playdate, one little girl attempts to answer simply: "I'm...

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