Origin/Ethnic Background Archives - Page 113 of 232

Wandering Son (vol. 5) by Shimura Takako, translated by Matt Thorn

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

If you don't like spoilers, might I suggest you click here to catch up. This series is so uniquely delightful, you really shouldn't miss a volume; trust me, they do need to be read in order. This latest installment officially hits shelves tomorrow. Welcome to junior high school...

Upside Down: A Vampire Tale by Jess Smart Smiley

31 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

Since I temporarily seem to find myself in Utah – although I admit it's not quite as frightening here as I thought it might be, ahem! – I figured this spookfest would not be complete without a Utahn Halloween manga, right? Jess Smart Smiley, who "lives in the bewitching mountains of Utah,"...

Author Interview: Julie Wu [in Bloom]

30 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American

At 22, Julie Wu had a “vision” about a sad young boy that she immediately rushed to capture in words. From those initial notes, she would take almost a quarter century to bring him to the page: at age 46, she “bloomed” as a first-time novelist....

The Case of the Love Commandos: A Vish Puri Mystery by Tarquin Hall

29 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Indian, South Asian

Mysteries don't get any more substantially delicious than this: Vish Puri voiced by Sam Dastor as written by Tarquin Hall, with just the right balance of page-turning entertainment and sociopolitical insight. Before you partake, however, you should know that this is #4 in a series;...

The Third Son by Julie Wu + Author Profile [in Bloom]

28 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American

Vision and Reinvention: Julie Wu’s The Third Son So how many detours can a writer make before becoming that writer? If you’re newbie novelist Julie Wu – who knew as a Harvard undergraduate in the 1980s that writing was what she wanted to do – the answer might include a Master’s program...

My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz, illustrated by Eva Eriksson, translated by Julia Marshall

27 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Swedish, Translation

When Dani can't sleep, she doesn't count sheep, she "counted all the times she'd been happy." Now she's also excited, as well as happy: "She'd waited her whole life to start school." Her first day is "'[m]aybe a little bit scary, but lots of fun,'"...

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride

26 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Biography, Black/African American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Memoir, Nonfiction

What writer and musician James McBride initially thought might take just six months to write required 14 long years to produce his now-almost-20-year-old debut title, The Color of Water. "Mommy" – McBride never calls her anything else – was never a cooperative subject: she shared her memories in her...

The Flowers of Evil (vols. 5-7) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr

25 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

First, to catch up: click here for previous volumes (all of which, of course, you need to read for yourself). If these covers placed next to each other above are a bit jarring, I think I might have unintentionally, wrongly grouped the latest volumes together. Let me...

The Sleeping Dictionary by Sujata Massey

24 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian, Indian African, South Asian, South Asian American

After 10 installments of her award-winning Rei Shimura mysteries, DC-area-based Sujata Massey goes historical with her latest Dictionary, published this summer after six years in the making. Dictionary marks the debut of a new series Massey intends, The Daughters of Bengal, each set in India. Given a choice...

Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng

23 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Chinese American, Fiction

Let's start with this fascinating article: "The One Thing White Writers Get Away With, But Authors of Color Don't" by PolicyMic’s Gracie Jin – go ahead, take a few minutes to read it. You'll see from that giant close-up photo that author Bill Cheng is indeed of...

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

22 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

I admit I had a few false starts before I finally settled into Patricia McCormick's latest, which was a 2012 National Book Award finalist for Young People's Literature. Based on the horrifying experiences of Cambodian activist/humanitarian Arn Chorn-Pond’s childhood survival during the brutal Khmer Rouge control...

Nasreddine by Odile Weulersse, illustrated by Rébecca Dautremer

21 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Translation, Turkish

Here's the perfect companion to Mar Pavón and Nívola Uyá's A Very, Very Noisy Tractor which posted Saturday. Young Nasreddine's answers his father Mustafa's request to ready the donkey for their journey to the market. Mustafa and their large sack of dates sit atop the donkey, while a...

A Very, Very Noisy Tractor by Mar Pavón, illustrated by Nívola Uyá, translated by Jon Brokenbrow

19 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Translation

An unnamed lady with "an enormous beehive hairdo" – in glorious auburn, no less! – chugs down the road ...

07-Ghost (vols. 1-4) by Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara, translated by Satsuki Yamashita

18 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Since we're talking four volumes here, allow me attempt to offer a set-up without too many spoilers. "One thousand years ago," a boy named Teito Klein (not sure of the kanji for 'Teito,' but his last name means "small" auf Deutsch – you'll find many German-inspired references throughout)...

Boy in the Twilight: Stories of the Hidden China by Yu Hua, translated by Allan H. Barr

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

* STARRED REVIEW Recipient of the James Joyce, Prix Courrier International, and Premio Grinzane Cavour awards for novels such as To Live (adapted to film by director Zhang Yimou) and Brothers, shortlisted for the 2008 Man Asian Prize, Yu Hua is an international sensation. His latest...

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

13 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

So here's the last of my recent unintentional assemblage of end-of-World-War-II novels that began with Elizabeth Wein’s wrenching Rose Under Fire, and progressed with Chris Bohjalian's desperate Skeletons at the Feast and continued with his latest, the vengeful The Light in the Ruins. Of this week's quartet, Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins (how about that...

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

10 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, European, Fiction

This, Chris Bohjalian's latest, is one to stick in the ears ...

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

09 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish

Every so often, I seem to get on a specific reading spree on a topic not exactly of my choosing – that is, the books seem to serendipitously line up on their own. The latest batch of they-chose-me-titles have been set during the final brutal months...

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

08 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, European, Fiction

Confession: If I didn't have to read Elizabeth Wein's follow-up to her breath-wringing adventure, Code Name Verity, I would have kept Rose Under Fire under wraps, hidden somewhere amidst my must-read pile, and just be content with basking in the potential promise of a satisfying 'gawwww' sometime...

A Handbook to Luck by Cristina García

07 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Iranian, Latin American, Latina/o/x

Tell me if you've heard this one before: a Cuban, an El Salvadorean, and an Iranian land on the page and spend decades trying to find their place in the world. Yes? Then, you must have read Cristina García’s A Handbook to Luck. No? Then read...

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