Almigal is “absolutely, positively the luckiest girl in the world.” But sometimes, even the luckiest girl wishes all her friends wore hearing aids … or wishes she didn’t feel left out when she can’t hear “every single sound in the whole entire universe!” And who...
Thankfully, 'sophomore slump' is not part of Tania James’ vocabulary. In fact, her second book is even better than her 2009 debut novel Atlas of Unknowns. And as rare as consistency can be in collections, James manages to sustain an unwavering level of resonating quality throughout each of the...
In a short introductory paragraph on the copyright page, author Alan Schroeder begins with a summary of what’s real and what’s been embellished “for storytelling purposes” in this vibrant title, because “[r]eliable information about [Baby Flo's] early years is limited.” Schroeder is definitely speaking to...
Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu shared the same yellow bedroom as young children, just not at the same time. While Aki and her family were imprisoned in Poston, Arizona during World War II for no other reason than their Japanese heritage, Sylvia and her family leased...
I don't know if this is linguistically correct, but I'm going with it: my recent discovery of indie comic-book legend Harvey Pekar is posthumous – that is, Pekar passed away two years ago (although I'm still kicking), and I'm just reading his work for the first...
In mid-April, the literary world reeled with the news that no fiction title was awarded a Pulitzer this year; such an omission from the annual mega-prize list hadn't happened in 35 years, since 1977. Many opinions, articles, shouts, and protests followed, but a May New...
No oenophile am I, but I sure am addicted to this delicious new series. To catch up to this latest volume which hits shelves today, be sure to click here. The elusive chase continues between faux-siblings, Shizuku Kanzaki and his just-recently-adopted brother Issei Tomine, to identify...
Eric Gamalinda and I overlapped in New York City in the 1990s, when I knew (of) him more as a poet. I should know better (blame it on youth!) than to label him by genre, because clearly Gamalinda is a multi-faceted writer (as well as a playwright,...
What an ideal post for today ...
The 2,500-page, 18th-century classic, Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, is regarded as China’s most important work of fiction. Pauline A. Chen (Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas, for middle-grade readers) tackles the daunting task of adapting the revered original text, and her literary...
First published in 1997 – as an indirect response to the Hong Kong handover – Atlas marks Hong Kong native Dung’s English debut in translation. A self-described “verbal collection of maps” imagines the reclamation of a future city of Victoria (Hong Kong) through maps, memories,...
I’ve been sitting on this fabulously fun title (which pubs today) for a while because I was afraid of even remotely jinxing a recent wedding (and what a gorgeous event it was for the perfectly matched couple, the young groom being one of my favorite...
Two-thirds of the way through Julian Barnes' novel, which won the latest coveted Man Booker Prize, the protagonist's ex-wife quietly tells him, "'Tony, you're on your own now.'" Indeed, Tony Webster – middle-aged, retired, divorced (albeit rather amicably), his only child immersed with her own family – is seemingly...
Well, of course, Wendelin Van Draanen is a runner ...
By no means is Jinchalo your conventional manga/manwha/graphic work. Not to be going around in circles, but its title – which, in Korean, means something akin to 'really?' 'is that for real?' – works rather appropriately as a response to experiencing this adventure ...
If Youme's Sélavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope is a picture book for the youngest readers, then Taste of Salt is surely its companion title for older children and parents alike. The real-life Lanfami Sélavi – Jean-Bertrand Aristide's refuge for homeless children founded in 1986 – is...
This cookbook is probably the most unusual little collection I've ever come across ...
First of all, please do not confuse this spectacular title with that OTHER Shades of Grey. Not that any comparison is even merited, but gray – notice spelling difference – hit shelves more than a year before Grey (March 2011 vs. April 2012), and gray is indisputably...
When I recently met Loung Ung in person at one of her Washington, DC readings, we were the lone Asian women in the room. Yes, get ready with your "uh-oh." Within minutes, a random stranger asked if Ung and I were sisters. Surprisingly, I behaved...
For a couple of days, I went back and forth with The Snow Child stuck in my ears (which the inimitable Debra Monk – one of my favorite stage actors ever! – happens to narrate, oh wow!) and reading Ruta Sepetys' between shades of gray on the page...
