BookDragon Nonfiction

The Kimchi Chronicles: Korean Cooking for an American Kitchen by Marja Vongerichten with Julia Turshen, photography by Andrew Baranowski, foreword by Jean-Georges Vongerichten

18 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean, Korean American, Nonfiction

Confession: in spite of every good intention, I haven't yet seen the eponymous show for which this book is billed as a "Companion to the Public Television Series." That said, this gorgeous volume clearly stands alone ...

Author/Artist Interview: CYJO + “KYOPO”

08 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Korean, Korean American, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

CYJO + “KYOPO” = MARVEL Come one, come all! Get ready for the upcoming Asian Pacific American invasion at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. “Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter” opens this Thursday, August 12 and runs through October 14, 2012. Presented in conjunction with the...

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

03 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Japanese, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Clearly, Unbroken falls into the 'you can't make this stuff up'-category. Within the almost 500 pages of print (or 14 hours of listening – narrated with such dignity by award-winning actor Edward Herrman!), you'll experience just about every human emotion ...

I Am Different! Can You Find Me? by Manjula Padmanabhan

19 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Indian American, Nonfiction, South Asian American

Leave it to the Global Fund for Children (and the always innovative small press Charlesbridge) to offer a colorful new book that uses a clever game of hide-and-seek to celebrate our differences, while sharing our universal sameness. And, of course, novelist/playwright/cartoonist Manjula Padmanabhan also deserves...

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

11 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Since 2002 Newbery winner Linda Sue Park’s latest title was published in November 2010, borders shifted (again) and the world recognized the birth of the newest nation, the Republic of South Sudan, on July 9 at midnight. The weekend announcement makes A Long Walk to Water almost...

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

10 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Read this, just as soon as possible. You may not immediately recognize Dr. Paul Edward Farmer's name, but you will recognize his miraculous story. Pulitzer-winning Tracy Kidder enters the good doctor's expansive orbit long enough to produce a resonating portrait of a phenomenal human being whose life purpose is to...

Cry of the Giraffe by Judie Oron

27 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Canadian, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

In her small native village, young Wuditu – and the rest of her family – are called falasha, a derogatory term reserved for Jewish people. Their own name for themselves is Beta Israel, meaning 'the house of Israel.' In spite of a centuries-long history grounded in Ethiopia,...

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui, translated by Linda Coverdale

21 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

"In Khardji [Yemen], the village where I was born, women are not taught how to make choices," Nujood Ali explains. Her mother married her father at age 16 without protest, and said nothing when her husband brought home another wife four years later. "It was...

The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Save Families by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore, collages by Susan L. Roth

16 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, African, Children/Picture Books, Japanese American, Nonfiction

The village of Hargigo in the tiny African country of Eritrea was once a landscape of dust and deprivation ...

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

09 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Biography, Indian American, Nonfiction, South Asian American

I won't lie: at almost 600 pages (or almost 21 hours if you choose the audible option), Siddhartha Mukherjee's 2011 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction is a Commitment (yes, capitalization intended!). But commitment can come with vast rewards and, in this case, get ready for a massive infusion of...

A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan by Nelofer Pazira

30 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Canadian, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

In September 1978, three months before her fifth birthday, Nelofer Pazira went to visit her father on the third day of what would become a five-month unjust imprisonment; his alleged crime, like thousands of other Afghans at the time, was not supporting the Communist government....

Vatos | poem by Luis Alberto Urrea, photographs by José Galvez

22 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction, Poetry, Young Adult Readers

Luis Alberto Urrea's "hymn to vatos who will never be in a poem" provides the lyrical frame onto which Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer José Galvez showcases the everyday challenges and celebrations of the Latino experience. This slightly sepia-ed homage to masculinity-on-the-fringe was a 2002 Quick Pick...

Dear Zari: Hidden Stories from Women of Afghanistan by Zarghuna Kargar

17 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, British, Memoir, Nonfiction

"'I hope other people – particularly women – listen to these stories and become kinder to their own sex,'" a woman laments, her life made unbearable by her female in-laws who condemn her because she literally flushed away the evidence of her virginal blood. "'I don't understand...

No Biking in the House Without a Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene [in Christian Science Monitor]

04 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, European, Jewish, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

As her children grow, author Melissa Fay Greene decides to extend parenthood by adopting five more You just know that a book’s going to be good if you’ve already guffawed and the type has started to blur (even though you’re trying not to get overly emotional)...

Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher

03 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Chinese, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation

The year is 1997 when Guy Delisle journeyed to Shenzhen, an industrial city in southern China, to oversee a production project for his French animation employer. His China gig would follow with another outsourced animation project that would lead to his Pyongyang: A Journey in North...

Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz

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

Even if you're not a dog-lover, you'll pause and sigh over these pages, especially to look more closely as these expressive, trusting faces. And if you've been waffling about adopting that four-legged addition your two-legged offspring keep begging for, you just might be convinced ...

Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide by Nawuth Keat with Martha E. Kendall

22 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

'Collateral damage' is such a detached, sanitized phrase for the innocent people who pay the highest price for the tragic folly of war; and surely the youngest and the eldest suffer the greatest. "I want people to know the truth about what happened," Nawuth Keat told...

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

20 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

I picked up Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's already-bestselling debut title with a mission: after reading too many death-and-destruction books one after another, I needed some inspiration to reverse me out of a downward spiral. Our mutual involvement in a fabulous project which puts us on the same web...

Cozy Winter Reads [in Bloomsbury Review]

28 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Since we had SNOW yesterday in DC, I guess we still have some leftover winter. Brrrr ...

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher

17 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Translation, Young Adult Readers

In another century, travelers wrote a few postcards. Today's modern wanderer might send group emails or abbreviated texts; the more techno-savvy might start a blog and instantly upload the pictures from those tiny devices. The really ambitious write essays and even books. Guy Delisle (thank goodness!)...