Going Home, Coming Home | Ve Nha, Tham Que Huong by Truong Tran, illustrated by Ann Phong [in AsianWeek]
A poignant, lovely bilingual tale about a little girl who visits her ancestral home in Vietnam and realizes that she can be both Vietnamese and American, with a home here...
A rootin', tootin', foot-stompin' porcine party to tickle your dancing feet.
Review:
The third thriller from See to feature Liu Hulan, an agent for China’s Ministry of Public Security, and her husband, American lawyer David Stark. This time, they’re investigating a potential murder and archeological theft...
From one of the world’s most famous – and favorite – ex-pats living in Japan comes a shrewd though appreciative look at Japan’s craze for fads, fashions, and style, from manga, pachinko, cell phones,...
Drawing upon the experiences of over 60 multiracial families – including her own, made up of a Japanese American husband and two hapa children – Nakazawa...
A disturbing collection of essays that explores the inextricable link between sex and consumerism in art in Japan. It is one of those “you just can’t take your eyes away” sort of voyeuristic books...
An anthology of works from Mark Twain to Langston Hughes, from Saul Bellow to David Sedaris that captures America’s love affair with the legendary city, which, according to M.F.K. Fisher, “should only...
Don’t know how this one fell through the cracks as I devoured it months ago and it was one of my favorites this whole year –...
Move over, Harry Potter – here’s a totally different kind of fantasy series. While this is the first available installment in English, the Japanese version has up to 89 titles! [Publisher Vertical, Inc. has...
A fabulous collection of prose and poetry from a new generation of Korean American authors. Grouped into three sets of pairings – arrival/return, dwelling/crossing, descent/flight, all with multiple layers of meaning –...
Oh, if only all fast food was this toothsome. Even though I’m oh-so-worthless in the kitchen, this one made me believe I could actually make a dish or two. And the pictures alone are...
A wacky first novel about Korean American Ginger Lee, an English PhD dropout working in the fashion industry and trying to avoid her well-intentioned mother’s attempts to marry her off before she...
An anthology that takes a combined look at two rapidly growing fields of study – globalization of sexual cultures together with the study of “new media.” At its core is the internet, which has...
An entertaining, quirky, somewhat sad love story of sorts about a troubled young woman who marries a gay doctor and creates a new kind of family of her own.
Review:
A poetic first novel with some amazing images (“ … try to remember the wisdoms you unpacked that life scattered around your living room,” the author’s prologue begins) by an...
A collection of 23 traditional Chinese myths and legends, uniquely illustrated with rare advertising posters from the 1920s and ’30s.
Review:
A young Korean girl experiences her first day of school where the children do not look like her or speak her language. But with a kind...
A perfect introduction for older children about the culture and arts of the ancient land of Korea. The book is especially timely now, if nothing else but to dispel some...
An adorable skunk goes to school for the first time, only to be ostracized by the other animal children because of her pungent odor. But watch out for...
In alternating voices, this lyrical novel captures the relationship between two stepsisters – one a Japanese American, the other a blond Jewish-Catholic – who are so different and yet so alike, proving that some...