Heroes for My Daughter by Brad Meltzer
17 Jun, by in Adult Readers, Biography, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers
What an ideal post for today ...
BookDragon Nonfiction
Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness by Loung Ung + Author Interview [in Bookslut]
04 Jun, by in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers
When I recently met Loung Ung in person at one of her Washington, DC readings, we were the lone Asian women in the room. Yes, get ready with your "uh-oh." Within minutes, a random stranger asked if Ung and I were sisters. Surprisingly, I behaved...
The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays edited by Tara L. Masih, with an introduction by David Mura [in Bookslut]
04 Jun, by in Adult Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers
As much as I enjoy collections populated by multiple contributors, I have yet to finish a multi-writer title in which every chapter from cover to cover is of memorable quality. That said, The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays, edited by Tara L. Masih, featuring 20...
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler
31 May, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction
Peter Hessler and I started out in the wrong voice – literally. I stuck River Town (the first of Hessler's "China Trilogy," made up of River Town, Oracle Bones, and Country Driving) in my ears and nearly threw the iPod off the cliffs in the first half...
Sélavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope by Youme, with an essay by Edwidge Danticat
29 May, by in Caribbean, Caribbean American, Children/Picture Books, Haitian, Haitian American, Nonfiction
The first thing you need to know is that this story is real. And although it was first published eight years ago – and six years before the tragic January 12, 2010 Haitian earthquake – Sélavi is an even more urgent call for help for Haiti's children. A...
Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher
22 May, by in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Arab, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Israeli, Memoir, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Translation, Young Adult Readers
Guy Delisle is a graphic genius who draws what he sees – simply and unadornedly – with droll, minimal commentary, and creates some of the most poignant, effective, resonating memoirs ever. French Canadian Delisle has undoubtedly found international fame as a traveling artist: he recreated his temporary assignments...
Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic by Ginnie Lo, illustrated by Beth Lo
10 May, by in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction
"The last part of the trip to Auntie Yang's always took forever," recalls older sister Jinyi as her family drives from small-town Indiana to the outskirts of Chicago. But they made the journey often because Jinyi's mother and Auntie Yang were the only two siblings...
Simple Asian Meals: Irresistibly Satisfying and Healthy Dishes for the Busy Cook by Nina Simonds
09 May, by in Adult Readers, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian
At 19, Nina Simonds more or less became Asian. The New Englander dropped out of college in the 1970s and headed far east to Taiwan "to study food, language, and culture." She was taken in by a surrogate Chinese family, in which the mother happened...
A Wedding in Haiti by Julia Alvarez [in Christian Science Monitor]
26 Apr, by in Adult Readers, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Haitian, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost
Neither Julia Alvarez nor her husband Bill can remember exactly when she fell in love with a Haitian boy named Piti. But both distinctly recall the first meeting, which happened in 2001 on one of their many trips to Alvarez’s native Dominican Republic. “[S]hort and...
Children of Manzanar edited by Heather C. Lindquist
24 Apr, by in Adult Readers, Japanese American, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers
The PR materials that arrived with this remarkable title contains one of the most effective descriptions of the Japanese American imprisonment during World War II I've ever read: " ...
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
18 Apr, by in Adult Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, South American
Being always a dozen or so titles behind, a confluence of certain events seem to need to happen for some posts to finally get from my brain to the ...
Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden [in Christian Science Monitor]
02 Apr, by in Adult Readers, Korean, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost
Escape from Camp 14 is the most devastating book I have ever read. Perhaps the resilience of youth got me through the aftermath of learning about slavery, the Holocaust, even Iris Chang’s now-classic The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust, the title I previously held...
S is for South Africa by Beverley Naidoo, photographs by Prodeepta Das
21 Mar, by in African, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction
"When I was a child, our beautiful land was made ugly by racism," writes longtime author Beverley Naidoo in an introductory note. "Black, brown and white people were forced apart by apartheid (separateness) laws, and children of different colours weren't allowed to go to the same schools...
Sharon and My Mother-In-Law: Ramallah Diaries by Suad Amiry
18 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonfiction, Palestinian
For most of us in the west, our filtered news of the Middle East is, more often than not, rife with contention, violence, and tragedy. Laughter would certainly be a rare reaction to the decades-long Palestinian/Israeli conflict, and yet Palestinian author Suad Amiry manages to...
I is for India and Geeta’s Day: From Dawn to Dusk in an Indian Village by Prodeepta Das
14 Mar, by in Children/Picture Books, Indian African, Nonfiction, South Asian
Although both of these colorful books are fine standalone titles, pairing them makes for a much richer introductory experience to the boundless diversity of India: first read I is for India (part of Frances Lincoln Children's Books' peripatetic "World Alphabet" series) for a country overview, then...
Fatty Legs and A Stranger at Home by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes
07 Mar, by in Canadian, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonfiction
Reading these double memoirs of a native Inuit girlhood during the 1940s in far northern Canada is a searing experience. What was done to children disguised as progress and opportunity (not to mention in the name of a Christian God) is a tragedy that is...
March Was Made of Yarn: Reflections on the Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Meltdown, edited by Elmer Luke and David Karashima [in Christian Science Monitor]
06 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Japanese, Japanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation
March 11, 2011, 14:46 Japan Standard Time: A magnitude-9.0 earthquake lasts six minutes, followed by a 50-foot tsunami that, within 15 minutes, plows inland six miles and causes meltdowns in five nuclear plants. “In one’s wildest imagination, this is beyond conceivable,” write editors Elmer Luke...
Beatrice’s Dream by Karen Lynn Williams, photographs by Wendy Stone
03 Mar, by in African, Biography, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction
At 13, Beatrice is sure of her dreams: " ...
Blankets by Craig Thompson
29 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers
If you missed last year's Habibi by Craig Thompson, stop everything right this second and go order it immediately. I'll wait ...
Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA by Julia Alvarez
28 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers
Somewhere buried in these almost 300 pages (or just over nine hours if you're listening to the husky voice of actress Daphne Rubin-Vega) is a really good book about the quinceañera – the 15th birthday celebration of a Latina which marks her maturity from little girl...