Nonfiction Archives - Page 12 of 56

Ask a North Korean: Defectors Talk about Their Lives Inside the World’s Most Secretive Nation by Daniel Tudor [in Booklist]

08 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Korean, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation

For Western readers, most North Korea-focused titles cover two categories, writes Daniel Tudor, former Korea correspondent for The Economist: politics and “testimony-style books written by defectors who tell horror stories.” What’s missing are “the real daily experiences of the vast majority of the North Koreans”...

Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History by Camille T. Dungy [in Library Journal]

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

In writing about new motherhood, changing dynamics in her closest relationships, navigating a demanding career requiring extensive travel, and witnessing her tiny child grow into her own person, Camille T. Dungy (Tropic Cascade) is unabashedly forthright and perceptive. Her observations are made especially piercing when...

We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman [in Library Journal]

06 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Audio, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Repost

As she did for Palestinians in Occupied Voices, Wendy Pearlman (political science, Northwestern Univ.) again gives agency to a population under siege, this time to Syrians. Fluency in Arabic provides Pearlman direct access to “hundreds of Syrian men, women, and children” of all backgrounds –...

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehesi Coates [in Library Journal]

05 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost

If you were among the millions who discovered 2015 MacArthur “Genius” Ta-Nehesi Coates in his mega-bestseller, Between the World and Me, in his own voice, or you were an earlier pioneer who heard The Beautiful Struggle (2008) elegantly read by J.D. Jackson, consider choosing the...

The Secret Kingdom: Nek Chand, a Changing India, and a Hidden World of Art by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Claire A. Nivola [in Shelf Awareness]

29 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Indian, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Pakistani, Repost, South Asian

As a boy, Nek Chand "played and planted, laughed and listened ...

Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind by Cynthia Grady, illustrated by Amiko Hirao

23 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Japanese American, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Beyond the barrage of soul-depleting headlines is this much-needed reminder of utter goodness, when one brave woman affected the lives of dozens of young children. And books – that very best antidote for all '-isms' – were, of course involved. Among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent who...

Charlie Takes His Shot: How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by John Joven [in Shelf Awarenss]

12 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction, Repost

African American legends like Serena Williams and Michael Jordan are household names, but not long ago, professional sports were strictly segregated. Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947; the National Basketball Association allowed Earl Lloyd to play in 1950; Brown v. Board of...

The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat [in Library Journal]

11 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Compassion goes a long way when writing about death – especially the death of loved ones. Narrating such a book requires a gentleness, a soothing rhythm. That Danticat reads her latest nonfiction – a thoughtful meditation bookended by her mother's fatal cancer diagnosis and Danticat's...

A Transracial Adoption Reader [in The Booklist Reader]

10 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Indian American, Korean, Korean American, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Now-adult adoptees who arrived in the United States from other countries are learning that their U.S. citizenship can’t be assumed. Two recent tragedies have highlighted the shocking realization: the May 2017 suicide of Phillip Clay, adopted at eight by a Philadelphia family and deported to Seoul 29...

How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul [in Library Journal]

08 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American

With raw honesty (the memoir opens with suicide ideation), debilitating angst (the unrelenting hold of mental illness), and humor when least expected (the terrors of securing a prom date), Haroon Moghul’s memoir becomes an illuminating antidote to contemporary Islamophobia. As the U.S.-born son of immigrant Pakistani...

Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai, illustrated by Kerascoët

28 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in British Asian, Children/Picture Books, European, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pakistani, South Asian, Translation

As the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize – in 2014 at age 17 – Malala Yousafzai is an internationally recognized icon for girls' education and empowerment. Her story here speaks to the youngest readers, instilling potential and hope, rather than highlighting the fear and...

Where Will I Live by Rosemary McCarney

27 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Arab, Children/Picture Books, European, Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Myanmarese (Burmese), Nonfiction

Those eyes. Those piercing, don't-turn-away-from-me eyes. In horrific times of conflict and war, turning children into collateral damage seems to be the worst crime of all. Rosemary McCarney, Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations, gathers the faces of children made into refugees in too many countries...

Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil-Rights Activist Nina Simone by Alice Brière-Haquet, illustrated by Bruno Liance, translated by Julie Cormier [in Shelf Awareness]

08 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, European, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

A young daughter is "having a hard time falling asleep tonight." To lull her to "dream," her mother offers a story about "a baby wrapped in a white sheet and her mother smiling at her." That baby is the titular jazz legend Nina Simone. Her...

Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation edited by by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman [in Library Journal]

20 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Israeli, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Repost

"We didn't want to edit this book," married Jewish authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman confess. "We didn't want to write or even think…about Israel and Palestine, about the nature and meaning of occupation." But Waldman's 2014 visit to her birthplace forced both to "pay...

Inheriting the War: Poetry & Prose by Descendants of Vietnam Veterans and Refugees edited by Laren McClung [in Booklist]

14 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Poetry, Repost, Short Stories, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

"The language of war turns the other into an object – the language of literature humanizes,” writes Laren McClung in her introduction to a collection featuring 61 contributors (and five translators) – 62 counting Yusef Komunyakaa’s resonating preface – each intimately affected by the Vietnam...

Margarita Engle’s Cuba for Young Readers [in The Booklist Reader]

13 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Jewish, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

President Obama’s historic December 17, 2014 order to “normalize relations” between the United States and Cuba began the restoration of diplomacy after more than half a century of hostile restrictions. His 72-hour visit to Havana in March 2016 – the first made by a sitting...

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater [in Shelf Awareness]

10 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW On November 4, 2013, two students on their way home overlap by eight minutes while riding the 57 bus across Oakland, Calif. Sasha, a private school senior, has Asperger's syndrome, was assigned male at birth, identifies as agender (neither male nor female), uses the...

Silent Days, Silent Dreams by Allen Say [in Shelf Awareness]

31 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Boise, Idaho, is home to the James Castle Collection and Archive, commemorating an internationally renowned local artist who lived most of his 78 years in isolation. The sleek building stands in sharp contrast to the artist's actual lifetime studios: an attic, an abandoned chicken...

Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung by Min Kym [in Library Journal]

23 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British Asian, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Kym’s first violin was a paper cutout copied from an encyclopedia; her first actual instrument was a “harsh, factory-made thing” on which she immediately taught herself “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” By her first or second lesson, Kym knew playing the violin "was not simply for...

Miguel’s Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Raul Colón [in Shelf Awareness]

17 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Cuban American, European, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction, Poetry, Puerto Rican, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Miguel de Cervantes survived his onerous childhood – his gambler father's imprisonments, his family's constant fleeing from debtors – by losing himself in stories. Inspired by his mother's tales, "dazzling plays," and "storytellers on street corners," Miguel imagines he will someday conjure his own...

BookDragon Nonfiction