Boutique press Satya House Publications continues their around-the-world cultural tour in their bilingual I See the Sun series with a first Latin American stop. Young Luis excitedly prepares to join his Papa on the tourist excursion boat on which his father works as the cook. On his way to...
Arthur Flowers, a "blues-based" performance poet, musician, and professor, introduces himself as "Rickydoc Trickmaster," to render the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. into a biography for younger readers, as traditional Patua Indian scroll painter Manu Chitrakar brings Flowers' recitation to vibrant life. Their combined...
Winner of China's National Children's Literature Award, Black Flame is an engrossing, often heartstring-pulling adventure told from the point of view of a majestic, lion-like, blue-black Tibetan Mastiff. Two things kept going through my head as the pages turned swiftly: 1. the novel reads like an older...
What began as gorgeous elegiac memory about misplaced courage and final hope as World War II comes to an end in the Pacific, devolves into a middle-aged man's tedious reflections about his search for meaningful connections, especially with women, as he recalls his privileged life...
"When Kenta heard the warning siren, he ran to school ...
When I recently caught up with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, she was in one of her rare lull periods at home in Houston, Texas, having finished almost three solid months of book touring for her latest novel, Oleander Girl. Like her latest protagonist, Korobi Roy, a...
Alas, this was the last Maggie O'Farrell I had left. Ever since discovering The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (my first and still favorite, I admit), I've moved her books to the top of the top of the To-Be-Read piles with regularity. Now that I've...
On a summer afternoon in mid-1950s rural England on the border between Devon and Cornwall, journalist Innes Kent, already 34, happens upon angry Alexandra Sinclair, not yet 22. During their brief exchange in her parents' yard after he hits car trouble, he manages to inadvertently...
In order to fully enjoy this manga, you first need to read its prequel, Princess Knight (in two volumes in English translation). Come back when you're finished ...
So I've been mulling over this book for a month-plus, and still remain rather conflicted. The one solid conclusion I can offer is this – if I were to rank Susan Choi's titles, my list would read thusly: American Woman, based loosely on the Patty Hearst...
Without intending any disrespect to narrator Robertson Dean (in fact, his deep, rich voice makes for a memorable listen), this is a book you must see on the page. If you only go audible, you'll miss you too much from the very first sentence onward:...
The offer of a new job in a small resort town on the coast of Normandy allows the recently widowed Simone Sauvelle the chance for her and her two children to escape a poverty-stricken life in Paris. As the assistant to brilliant toymaker Lazarus Jann,...
Ready for some literal fun? This book is so ingenious, I can hardly stand it! Talk about different ways of seeing ...
The morning began with an early birthday in our house before going off to another swim meet. Always the swim meet! Egads, the time passes so quickly, I can't keep up. That the kids are getting older only means I'm getting more ancient. Someone, please...
A biography, a travel memoir, and a piece of art landed on my desk ...
Before you begin The Watch, allow me to offer a few details about Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya's writerly preparations you won't find in the book. Although his ending "Acknowledgements" includes candid gratitude to numerous members of the U.S. military, the interview attached to the press materials sent with his title...
At 15, Faten is uprooted from her village life to become a live-in servant to a wealthy family in Beirut, where violence from the ongoing Lebanese Civil War seems neverending. Her father's decision to pull her out of school, to indenture her away from all...
Parents, listen up: here's a heart-fluttering game to play with your kiddies, especially perfect just before bedtime to send the little ones off to slumberland. It's as simple as asking the question that is this title, 'How far do you love me?" and then let...
Just in case you're pressed for time, let me offer this short-cut alternative up front: if you're looking for a fabulous foodie book that takes you to unexpected corners of the world, bypass Noodle Road and try Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles instead. If...
