Nonfiction Archives - Page 8 of 56

Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems by Margarita Engle [in Booklist]

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Biography, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Repost, Young Adult Readers

These United States are not quite a quarter-millennium old, but “Hispanic history in regions that are now called the United States spans more than five centuries,” Margarita Engle reminds in her essential opening historical note. With the island’s 15th-century colonization, “the history of the modern...

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong [in Booklist]

30 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Korean American, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Title aside, nothing is minor about Cathy Park Hong’s taut, sharp collection. The award-winning poet’s prose debut will elicit comparisons to contemporary race-conscious luminaries – think Claudine Rankine, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Roxane Gay – but Hong’s singular voice expresses both reclamation and declaration: “For...

Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao, translated by Mike Fu [in Christian Science Monitor]

21 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, European, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Translation

Stories of the Sahara celebrates a singular voice in travel writing Sanmao electrified Chinese readers when her travelogue “Stories of the Sahara” was published in 1976 – now it has been translated into English. She had three names; traveled to more than 55 countries; studied in Germany,...

Love for Imperfect Things: How to Be Kind and Forgiving Toward Yourself and Others by Haemin Sunim, translated by Deborah Smith and Haemin Sunim [in Booklist]

09 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Korean, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

He’s been called “Twitter Monk” and “mega-Monk” for his million-plus followers. That his Berkeley/Harvard Divinity Master’s/Princeton PhD-pedigree plus seven years professor-ing at Hampshire College led him to become a world-famous Buddhist monk seems an unlikely path. Yet his success only spreads with Imperfect, his follow-up to...

Banned Book Club by Hyun Sook Kim with Ryan Estrada, illustrated by Hyung-Ju Ko [in Booklist]

06 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Busan-based wife-and-husband team Hyun Sook Kim and Ryan Estrada mine Kim’s young adult experiences to expose a chilling period of recent Korean history so antithetical to the globally addictive entertainment of K-dramas and K-pop currently synonymous with South Korea. In 1983, Hyun Sook is a...

My Asian Kitchen: Bao * Salad * Noodle * Curry * Sushi * Dumpling by Jennifer Joyce [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian, Repost

When London-based, U.S.-raised food writer Jennifer Joyce began traveling in Asia in the 1990s, she "discovered the staggering deliciousness of authentic Asian cooking," she writes in the introduction to My Asian Kitchen. She presents an antidote to the "limited ...

Trans Mission: My Quest to a Beard by Alex Bertie [in Booklist]

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

YouTube star Alex Bertie readily admits “that as far as trans people go, I’m very privileged. I’m a white educated male with family support, a roof over my head, and a job.” Being British also guaranteed access to a national health system that paid for...

Land of the Rising Cat: Japan’s Feline Fascination by Manami Okazaki [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Japanese, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

According to a 2014 shocking reveal by creator Sanrio Japan, Hello Kitty isn't actually feline, she's a British child. Nevertheless, "this culture of anthropomorphic kitties is one of the reasons feline fever has taken so many forms," including – a Japanese historical first! – cat-owners...

Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated by Janet Hong [in Booklist]

25 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Biography, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Few historical tragedies compare to the hell-on-earth endured by the Japanese military’s so-called “comfort women,” a grossly abused term for mostly young girls kidnapped during WWII into sexual slavery. For Lee Ok-sun, one of Korea’s few survivors, her “service” included 30–40 men daily in...

Knowing a Young Brown Person Might Listen and Feel Less Alone: The Narrative Life of Priya Ayyar [in The Booklist Reader]

24 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Although audiobooks are just part of Priya Ayyar’s acting career, demand for her narrative talents shows no signs of slowing down. Recent highlights from Ayyar’s audio career are the focus of the “Now Hear This” column in the November 1 issue of Booklist, but Ayyar...

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi [in Booklist]

23 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW “I used to be a racist most of the time,” insists Ibram X. Kendi, a surprising revelation from 2016’s winner for the National Book Award for Nonfiction (Stamped from the Beginning). “The opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist,’” he explains. “It is ‘antiracist’...

Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration by Bryan Caplan, illustrated by Zach Weinersmith [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW Borders, walls, detention camps, caged children ...

Five More to Go: Maaza Mengiste’s The Shadow King [in The Booklist Reader]

26 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Biography, Black/African American, Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste Maaza Mengiste’s indelible debut, Beneath the Lion’s Gate (2010), put Ethiopian historical fiction on countless best-of, must-read, and award lists. Her monumental new novel draws inspiration from her great-grandmother, who as the eldest – and in Mulan-style! – answered Emperor...

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal [in Shelf Awareness]

25 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonfiction, Repost

While Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story is recommended for audiences ages 3 to 6, it's undoubtedly a book that will last on shelves well into readers' double digits. Kevin Noble Maillard – co-editor of Loving v. Virginia in a Post-Racial World, Syracuse University law professor and...

Listen Up: Listen While You Work Out [in Booklist]

20 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Lists, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

Audiobooks hold a distinct place in the sports and fitness book realm – they’re the only ones you can read while exercising. The authors of “Holding The Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym” (Management Science, 2014) cite research proving that listening to audiobooks can actually...

A Walking Life: Reclaiming Our Health and Our Freedom One Step at a Time by Antonia Malchik [in Booklist]

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

C’mon: grab that headset, hit play, get out, and let Antonia Malchik and Eliza Foss convince you why you should be walking. Foss is an ideally persuasive companion to journalist Malchik, whose debut title proves how “walking is essential to our physical health and creativity,...

I Will Never See the World Again: The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer by Ahmet Altan, translated by Yasemin Çongar [in Booklist]

11 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation, Turkish, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW For “speaking a few innocuous words on a television program in the aftermath of the failed 2016 “coup” against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ahmet Altan was sentenced to life imprisonment, recounts his friend and lawyer Philippe Sands in his foreword to this book....

The Last Word: Audios of Posthumously Published Books – Part 2 [in Booklist]

04 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Australian, Black/African American, European, Lebanese American, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Translation, Vietnamese American

The one thing in life that’s guaranteed is, well, death. But books are certainly a lasting legacy. And sometimes, when we get the books after their creator has passed on, an audiobook can breathe new life into the text, animating from beyond. A bittersweet legacy, indeed, but...

Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary: Selected Works of Kathleen Collins by Kathleen Collins [in Booklist]

03 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Drama/Theater, Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW In 2014, a quarter-century after the 1988 death of filmmaker/playwright/writer/activist Kathleen Collins at 46 of breast cancer, indie distributor Milestone Films reintroduced her groundbreaking 1982 movie, Losing Ground, one of the first films written and directed by an African American woman, inspiring new interest in the...

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid [in Booklist]

02 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW When Anthony Shadid’s own nuclear family falls apart – his marriage ends, he’s separated from his only child – he returns to Marjayoun, Lebanon in August, 2007 with “foolish and rash ...

BookDragon Nonfiction