BookDragon Nonfiction

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb

05 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Australian, British, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Neal Bascomb is a consummate storyteller: he can unravel a tale with an ending you already know, set it at a heart-thumping pace, and never let you rest until you hit that final page. Unless you've been in total seclusion your entire life, you probably know...

Horrible Hauntings: An Augmented Reality Collection of Ghosts and Ghouls by Shirin Yim Bridges, illustrated by William Maughan

31 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction

With post-Frankenstorm horrors looming for large portions of the East Coast (my baby brother and his wife's downtown NYC building was submerged in 20 feet of water, and they've been told they can't get back in for at least three weeks ...

I Have the Right to Be a Child by Alain Serres, illustrated by Aurélia Fronty, translated by Helen Mixter

30 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, European, Nonfiction, Translation

"I am a child / with eyes, hands, / a voice, a heart, and rights," opens this vibrant, translated import that provides a crucial reminder that even the smallest beings in the world have basic needs that deserve and demand to be addressed and met. Across...

The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Dastardly Dames | Njinga: “The Warrior Queen” by Janie Havemeyer, illustrated by Peter Malone

21 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Biography, Children/Picture Books, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction

Those Dastardly Dames are increasing their fold (yippeee!), this time to welcome a 16th-century West African queen named Njinga, meaning "twist," because she was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck! She certainly found her fighting spirit early on: as the eldest daughter...

The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Real Princesses | Sacajawea of the Shoshone by Natasha Yim, illustrated by Albert Nguyen

20 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Middle Grade Readers, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonfiction

Girl-powered Goosebottom Books expands both their Thinking Girl's Treasuries of Real Princesses and Dastardly Dames this month. After nearly paralyzing herself writing the first six royal titles, Head Goose Shirin Yim Bridges swore she would get some help as the series grew. True to her...

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale

16 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

I'm a little hesitant to tell you about this ingenious book ...

Soul Calling: A Photographic Journey through the Hmong Diaspora by Joel Pickford, foreword by Kao Kalia Yang

26 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hmong, Hmong American, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Joel Pickford's titular journey took him through an 8,000-mile trek to some of the most remote villages in Laos, five years of interviewing Hmong refugees, and five years of reading Hmong history and ethnography. The result is a gorgeous, startling, intimate portrait of an ethnic...

The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad, translated by Ingrid Christophersen

16 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, European, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Okay, here we go again (see Kabul Beauty School below). We have a (fascinating, allegedly true) story, and then the (disturbing) story about the (now accuracy-challenged) story. Just after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, an award-winning Norwegian journalist emerges from six weeks of following...

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson

14 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Writing a memoir these days is dangerous business: you can be outed on Oprah as the worst liar, along with your publisher (James Frey, A Million Little Pieces), you can become infamous overnight for breaking the hearts of millions who not only trusted you but even gave...

My First Book of Korean Words: An ABC Rhyming Book by Henry J. Amen IV and Kyubyong Park, illustrated by Aya Padrón

10 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Korean, Korean American, Nonfiction

No matter where you've been hiding, someone has been able to infiltrate your defenses and made you watch the freakishly popular "Gangnam Style" by PSY (in Korean, 싸이, although apparently it's short for 'psycho'). The South Korean singer (educated at Boston University and Berklee College of Music, I must add)...

Zoya’s Story: An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom by Zoya with John Follain and Rita Cristofari

09 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Zoya was just a year old when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. By age 4, she made a Russian woman soldier cry when she refused to accept her proffered chocolate. She was raised mostly by her devout grandmother, while both parents worked to...

Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely through a Never-Ending War by Deborah Ellis

07 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Canadian, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Mega-award-winning author Deborah Ellis’s active interest in Afghanistan began in 1996 when she heard about the Taliban takeover of that country "and the crimes they perpetrated against women and girls." She became involved with the Afghan communities in her native Canada, then traveled to meet...

Ten-Minute Bento by Megumi Fujii, translated by Maya Rosewood

23 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Japanese, Nonfiction, Translation

Ready for the frenzy of going back to school? So long, summer … hello, morning rush! I shudder ...

Food and Faith by Susan Reuben and Sophie Pelham

13 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in British, British Asian, Children/Picture Books, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Six children, six different faiths … while their holy days and festivals vary, the one thing they share – that we all share, regardless of the specifics of our backgrounds – are special foods we share with family and friends to celebrate memorable occasions. Francesca is...

NonNonBa by Shigeru Mizuki, translated by Jocelyne Allen, afterword by Kimie Imura

03 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The work of Shigeru Mizuki, a legendary 90-year-old manga artist in his native Japan, arrived Stateside last year with the first-ever English translation of the award-winning Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, which draws on Mizuki's own experiences during World War II when he was drafted into Japan’s...

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

08 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

I debated for a couple of weeks over posting about this book (no, I really don't post every title I read) ...

Kodoku by Wililam Emery, illustrated by Hanae Rivera

05 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Kodoku is one of those rare titles that immediately makes you want to learn more about what you just read. The slim kiddie book chronicles the extraordinary voyage of a young man – "Kenichi the brace, Kenichi the adventurer" for whom "the wind blows forever / across...

Faith: Five Religions and What They Share by Richard Steckel and Michele Steckel

01 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

With everyday declarations of about how different we are (bipartisan struggles, ongoing wars, shifting borders, even playground scuffles), sometimes we need reminders of how alike we are to connect us back together. As founders of the Milestones Project which champions mutual respect, understanding, and acceptance...

Baby Flo by Alan Schroeder, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu

24 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Nonfiction

In a short introductory paragraph on the copyright page, author Alan Schroeder begins with a summary of what’s real and what’s been embellished “for storytelling purposes” in this vibrant title, because “[r]eliable information about [Baby Flo's] early years is limited.” Schroeder is definitely speaking to...

Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me by Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman, with an epilogue by Joyce Brabner

21 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Jewish, Memoir, Nonfiction

I don't know if this is linguistically correct, but I'm going with it: my recent discovery of indie comic-book legend Harvey Pekar is posthumous – that is, Pekar passed away two years ago (although I'm still kicking), and I'm just reading his work for the first...