BookDragon Chinese American

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

05 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, African, Cambodian, Chinese American, Indian, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian

Half the Sky is a remarkable, life-changing book. It should be required reading for all adults (and more mature young adults), but especially for us overprivileged, lucky-solely-by-chance-of-birth citizens of the West. If there is ONE book you read this new year, let it be this...

Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang, foreword by Frank Rich

02 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Chinese American, Drama/Theater

Surely, I have never been part of a more raucous audience than when I saw David Henry Hwang's latest play, Yellow Face, at New York's Public Theater in December 2007. The man at the end of the row in front of us LITERALLY FELL OUT...

How We Are Smart by W. Nikola-Lisa, illustrated by Sean Qualls

24 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Japanese American, Latina/o/x, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Poetry

Using research originally developed by Harvard psychologist Dr. Howard Gardner about multiple intelligences which was made popular by Dr. Thomas Armstrong, author Nikola-Lisa chooses 12 achievers to show how they were each 'smart' in different, important ways. "Here are eight basic ways people can be...

The Year of the Tiger: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chin, illustrated by Justin Roth

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction

Is is already time to start thinking about the new year? Come 2010, we'll all be celebrating the year of my son ...

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts by Ying Chang Compestine

04 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

Even though the back of the galley says Compestine's latest title is for "Ages 12 and up," I'd definitely recommend saving it for much older readers. These are some of the most realistically gruesome tales outside of Halloween, not to mention dealing with more adult...

A Good Fall by Ha Jin [in Library Journal]

15 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

With an enviable literary reputation built on award-winning titles set in China, poet/novelist/short story writer Jin recently debuted his first U.S.-based novel, A Free Life, about the Americanization of a Chinese immigrant family. While the 12 stories in his latest release continue to explore familiar...

All That Work and Still No Boys by Kathryn Ma

05 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Short Stories

Winner of the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Award, Ma's debut collection is made up of 10 stories that each explores the nature of power – from subtle to blatant – in various types of relationships. The strongest is undoubtedly the title story, taken from an off-hand...

The Heart’s Traffic by Ching-In Chen

24 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Poetry

The "traffic" in Chen's collection revolves around broken love, made even more jarring by a literal jaggedness on the page with the layout of her words. The protagonist, Xiaomei, loses love too many times. In childhood, her first loss is her father who "disappeared into...

Boy Dumplings by Ying Chang Compestine, illustrated by James Yamasaki

23 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Japanese American

Missing his usual buckets of left-out food (garbage, unbeknownst to him), a hungry Beijing ghost happens upon a plump little boy out too late with his lantern. The ghost traps his tasty morsel, hurries home, thinking he's going to have a special feast. But the...

Tofu Quilt by Ching Yeung Russell

16 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese, Chinese American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Based on the Ching Yeung Russell's own path toward becoming a writer, Tofu Quilt is one delicious free-verse memoir. In the summer before she starts kindergarten, Yeung Ying is a rambunctious young child who cannot sit still, but can effortlessly recite the difficult classical poems...

The Writer as Migrant by Ha Jin

08 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Nonfiction

In spite of a spare not-quite 100 pages, Ha Jin's first nonfiction – and must-read – title is filled with fascinating, challenging ideas about writers living in countries and creating in languages not originally their own. Best known for his 1999 National Book Award winning novel, Waiting,...

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe

28 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Nonfiction

That the book opens with a three-page list of characters seems a bit daunting ...

Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) by Lisa Yee, illustrated by Dan Santat

27 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian American, Thai American

Just in time for back-to-school, Lisa Yee (of the fabulous Millicent/Stanford/Emily trilogy) debuts her latest middle grade novel about two best friends who suddenly find each other on opposing sides ...

Moonlight Memoirs: Remembering that Family and Friends are Forever by Maggie Mei Lewis, illustrated by Melody Lea Lamb

26 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Two young mice, out "on a cold, lonely night," meet a mysterious older mouse who leads them to a magical place where "departed loves ones" appear to remind the two adventurers that they will never be alone. "They're not truly gone, but watch over you...

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

14 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Young Adult Readers

I have to confess that had my teenaged daughter not handed me the book and said, "it's great, I loved it," I probably wouldn't have finished this latest title from Justina Chen Headley whose debut, Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies), remains...

Beautiful as Yesterday by Fan Wu

25 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction

Told in the three alternating voices of a Chinese mother and her two Chinese American daughters, Fan Wu's second novel weaves a family tapestry filled with the multiple layers of intermixed cultures and generations. Mary, once Guo-Mei, now lives comfortably in Silicon Valley with her American-born...

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

23 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction

Since Lisa See's latest has been sitting high on all the best bestseller lists for many weeks, presumably many have already read the  story of two sisters and their odyssey from China to LA's Chinatown. I probably should have done the same – read the...

Paris Pan Takes the Dare by Cynthea Liu

09 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

At 12, Paris Pan is the youngest of three in the peripatetic Pan family. Their latest address has them domiciled in teeny-tiny small town Sugar Lake, Oklahoma, where Paris has to start all over again at a new school. Unlike her older sister who has...

Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

06 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

With a father in jail and a mother trying hard to keep her family together, San Lee's peripatetic home life is anything but zen. He's entering yet another new school as an outside eighth-grader – and moving from big town Houston to small-town Pennsylvania isn't...

A Gift by Yong Chen

02 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction

Every Chinese New Year, Amy’s mother feels particularly homesick for her family living on the other side of the world in China. This year, a package arrives with a letter that tells the story of a remarkable stone found in Uncle Zhong’s fields, that was...