Nonfiction Archives - BookDragon

The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape from North Korea by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, translated by Sarah Baldwin-Beneich [in Booklist]

24 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation

Jihyun Park is a twice-escaped defector. Seh-lynn Chai is initially her hired English translator, then her friend, even sister. “Jihyun is from the North and I am from the South,” Chai writes, “but we share a single identity: we’re both Korean.” At their 2014 first...

Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm by David Mas Masumoto, illustrated by Patricia Miye Wakida [in Shelf Awareness]

19 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Japanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

David Mas Masumoto has built a remarkable career as a third-generation organic peach and grape farmer, which has inspired his award-winning books, including Epitaph for a Peach (1995). What began as "bad poetry" in college after a difficult breakup eventually led to writing a dozen books. Secret...

Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars by Rick Louis, illustrated by Lara Antal [in Shelf Awareness]

07 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

"I knew there was something I needed to understand, and perhaps share, about my brief, intense, joyful, devastating parenting experience," writes Rick Louis in the author's note to Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars. Louis's heartbreaking experience of crushing loss is poignantly, lovingly illustrated by...

Top 10 Audiobooks of 2022 [in School Library Journal]

29 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, European, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Iranian American, Lists, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Persian American, Repost, Thai American, Young Adult Readers

Culled from the 200-plus titles with November 2021 to October 2022 publication dates I’ve reviewed or judged, this is SLJ’s list of top 10 audiobooks. Two picture books, a family history in verse, remade fairy tales, an intertwined podcast, and a haven’t-ever-heard-that-before double recording are...

Woven of the World by Katey Howes, illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova [in Shelf Awareness]

27 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

Woven of the World is a splendid mosaic of a picture book, lyrically written by Katey Howes (Rissy No Kissies) and lushly illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova (Russian Tales). "I listen, as I'm weaving, / to the rhythm of the loom," Howes writes. "I imagine skeins of...

Why Didn’t You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong [in Booklist]

14 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

“‘Your life is like a telenovela!’” Carmen Rita Wong’s daughter tells her after another complication in Wong’s labyrinthine search for her biological father. Born to Dominican immigrant mother Lupe, Wong and older brother Alex called Lupe’s estranged Chinese immigrant husband, Peter Wong, “Papi.” Lupe was a...

The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey by Jason Chin [in Shelf Awareness]

13 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost

Size matters in 2022 Caldecott Medalist Jason Chin’s The Universe in You, a brilliant companion to his 2020 picture book, Your Place in the Universe. While the latter encouraged young readers to expand their perspectives outward, Chin turns inward here, drawing attention to the microscopic. Welcome to the...

Esther’s Notebooks by Riad Sattouf, translated by Sam Taylor [in Booklist]

11 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Riad Sattouf, renowned for his Arab of the Future autobiographical series, is just as famous in France for Esther’s Notebooks, which began as a weekly newspaper comic spotlighting the observations and experiences of a friend’s daughter. The comics’ popularity inspired best-selling books and an...

A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings by Will Betke-Brunswick [in Booklist]

09 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Will Betke-Brunswick alchemizes their beloved mother’s death into an affecting tribute to emotional resilience and everlasting love. For reasons not quite clear, Betke-Brunswick transforms their immediate quartet (two parents, two kids) into an adorable waddle of penguins, with extended family, friends, and acquaintances presented as...

Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki [in Booklist]

08 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Biography, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, he authorized the removal and imprisonment of over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. Three photographers – two white and free; one Japanese and imprisoned, relying on contraband...

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee, translated by Anton Hur [in Booklist]

07 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

The cover boasts a recommendation from global phenom BTS’s leader RM. The PR materials tout its “runaway best-seller” status in its native South Korea, where mental illness remains stigmatized in a country with one of the world’s highest suicide rates. As a twentysomething social media director...

Hakim’s Odyssey, Book 3: From Macedonia to France by Fabien Toulmé, translated by Hannah Chute [in Booklist]

29 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Syrian, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW French comics creator Fabien Toulmé’s stupendous trilogy concludes Hakim’s epic three-year odyssey from war-torn Syria to finally reaching safety in France. Hannah Chute returns to deftly translate the third volume. To remind audiences of previous events – though reading in order is a gratifying must...

Let Me Be Frank: A Book about Women Who Dressed like Men to Do Shit They Weren’t Supposed to Do by Tracy Dawson [in Booklist]

19 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Both debut author Tracy Dawson and Kendra Hoffman, a narrator we need to hear more from, share notable improv experience, making them a superb pairing to inform and delight. Dawson highlights dozens of trailblazing women who dressed as men to gain access and opportunity. She...

The Joy of Quitting by Keiler Roberts [in Shelf Awareness]

12 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

Ignatz Award-winner Keiler Roberts (My Begging Chart) collates a decade of work from five previous titles – Powdered Milk (2012), Miseryland (2015), Sunburning (2017), Chlorine Gardens (2018), and Rat Time (2019) – in The Joy of Quitting, a summary of much of her life thus far....

Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook by Illyanna Maisonet, photographs by Dan Liberti and Erika P. Rodriguez [in Shelf Awareness]

11 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction, Puerto Rican, Repost

Diasporican by Illyanna Maisonet, the country's first Puerto Rican food columnist for a major newspaper (San Francisco Chronicle), is an exquisite collection of recipes for a host of mouthwatering dishes. Despite its subtitle, Maisonet insists "this is not a Puerto Rican cookbook. This book is for...

A Fade of Light by Nate Fakes [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

"Ron was a part of almost every major event in my life, whether I liked it or not," writes Nate Fakes – syndicated cartoonist and creator of Break of Day – in A Fade of Light, his tender, intimate graphic memoir about his stepfather. Fakes's mother married...

Author Interview: Kate Beaton [in Shelf Awareness]

02 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Kate Beaton: 'I Stopped Drawing ...

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton [in Shelf Awareness]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Kate Beaton’s many devotees revere her for the award-winning series Hark! A Vagrant. Perhaps lesser known is the provenance of those erudite, playful histories: they began as a webcomic while Beaton worked in the oil fields of Alberta, Canada. In Ducks: Two Years in the...

Kapaemahu [audio] by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson [in School Library Journal]

04 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Hawaiian, Nonfiction, Pacific Islander, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW A solemn drumbeat welcomes listeners to discover the Kapaemahu, four ancient Tahitian healers of Hawaii. Neither male nor female, “they were mahu—a mixture of both in mind, heart, and spirit.” The people built a monument in gratitude, but the “four great boulders” were eventually...

Notes from a Young Black Chef (Adapted for Young Adults) by Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein [in School Library Journal]

06 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nigerian American, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Narrator Malik Rashad isn’t quite Kwame Onwuachi, who ideally narrated his original 2019 memoir – but here, that’s not necessarily a liability for younger audiences who might need a smidge more animation. Rashad affectingly channels Onwuachi, the self-described “black kid from the Bronx ...

BookDragon Nonfiction