South Asian American Archives - Page 5 of 17

White Dancing Elephants by Chaya Bhuvaneswar [in Booklist]

11 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

Loss – by disappearance, destruction, or death – looms throughout Chaya Bhuvaneswar’s award-winning debut collection. Priya Ayyar’s shared Indian heritage with both Bhuvaneswar and many of her characters adds a comfortable fluency, as Ayyar gives distinct characterizations to parents and children, siblings and lovers, friends and...

Five More to Go: Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women [in The Booklist Reader]

06 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indian American, Japanese, Korean, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Translation

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See Known for her Chinese and Chinese American sagas, mega-bestselling author Lisa See (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, 2017) travels across the Yellow Sea to the tiny southern Korean island of Jeju to create a stupendous multi-generational family saga...

American Like Me: Reflections on Life between Cultures by America Ferrera [in Booklist]

04 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Black/African American, Chinese American, Filipina/o American, Haitian American, Hawaiian, Indian African, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Puerto Rican, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW “I believe that culture shapes identity and defines possibility; that it teaches us who we are, what to believe, and how to dream.” Actor-activist America Ferrera in her editorial and authorial debut, highlights her distinct Honduran American identity and invites 31 others she “deeply...

The Windfall [audio] by Diksha Basu [in Booklist]

09 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Mr. Jha, who not so long ago comfortably supported his family on a monthly salary equivalent to $200, sells his website for $20 million. That titular windfall transforms his life, along with those of his family and friends. Money – who has it, how it’s...

I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brodi [in Library Journal]

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pakistani, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

When she was 25, Forbes named Khalida Brohi to its 2014 "30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs" list for founding Sughar Foundation, which trains and empowers rural Pakistani women. Brohi makes both her authorial and performance debuts as she chronicles her journey from a rural Pakistani...

The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW Chameleonic narrator Sneha Mathan amplifies Thrity Umrigar’s already spectacular new novel, the long-awaited sequel to the best-selling The Space Between Us (2005). While Umrigar focused on the complicated relationship between employer Sera and servant Bhima in Space, Secrets Between Us shifts from Mumbai’s haves...

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani [in School Library Journal]

22 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW On her 12th birthday, Nisha receives her first diary from Kazi, the family’s cook, presented with prescient words: “he said it was time to start writing things down … someone needs to make a record of the things that will happen because the grown-ups...

Option Now, Film Soon! [in East Wind ezine]

20 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian, Indian American, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, South Asian American, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

While texting with a (much younger) Korean American friend the other day about meeting at the movies, I gave her two choices: CRA or Searching. I was all giddy on my end, thinking how phenomenally lucky we were to have TWO APA choices, but my...

Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar [in Library Journal]

23 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, Vassar English professor/journalist Amitava Kumar’s (Husband of a Fanatic) second novel is a hybrid text that moves seamlessly between his partially autobiographically-inspired Indian immigrant graduate student Kailash and numerous real-life figures and events. Kailash arrived in New York as...

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday [in Library Journal]

05 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Iraqi American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, South Asian American

Be warned: this three-parter, four-narrator delight requires utmost attention. But be assured: rewards aplenty await. With crisp, almost staccato delivery, Candace Thaxton affectingly presents Part 1, "Folly," in which editor Alice and author Ezra share 97 years between them. Hint: Alice is 27, but the age...

The Widows of Malabar Hill [A Mystery of 1920s India, Book 1] by Sujata Massey [in Library Journal]

04 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Versatile, charming, culturally well-matched Soneela Nankani auspiciously voices Sujata Massey’s ("Rei Shimura" mysteries) promising new series set in early 20th-century colonial India. Here the author introduces feisty Perveen Mistry, India's first female solicitor in 1921. Perveen's debut dovetails her challenging career journey – from facing...

From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon [in Shelf Awareness]

16 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

At 16, Twinkle Mehra is the youngest junior at her Colorado Springs charter high school. She doesn't have a cell phone and she can't drive because she doesn't have her license (nor a car). Twinkle knows "[s]ome might call people like [her] losers," but Twinkle...

The Boat People by Sharon Bala [in Library Journal]

09 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

*STARRED REVIEW In Canadian novelist Sharon Bala’s debut, a 60-meter freighter reaches British Columbia in 2009, carrying 500 survivors of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war. The arrivals are herded into detention centers by a government fearful of terrorists hidden among these "boat people." Mahindran and his six-year-old...

Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao [in Library Journal]

30 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Difficult life circumstances bring together two Indian village girls: Poornima meets Savitha because Poornima's recently widowed father needs help weaving saris; clever, kind Savitha must help support her impoverished family. The pair are soon inseparable, nurturing each other in a society in which their...

Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindhu [in Library Journal]

16 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, South Asian American, Sri Lankan American

From outright untruths to complex subterfuge, the titular lies proliferate throughout SJ Sindhu’s debut novel, especially targeting the institution of marriage among three generations of a conservative Sri Lankan American family. Lucky and Kris are both gay, but their convenient matrimonial union finally satisfies parental...

Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao + Author Interview [in The Booklist Reader]

07 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

“I can’t think of a happier story”: Shobha Rao talks GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER After 15 years of writing and 15 years being rejected, Shobha Rao made her fiction debut two years ago with An Unrestored Woman, a collection of a dozen impeccable stories – savage and...

A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma [in Library Journal]

26 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian American

Badly behaved Indian and Indian American men claim the spotlight in Sharma's first story collection, yet moments of unexpected humor and pathos save at least some of the men from utter disdain. In "Cosmopolitan," a recently single older man studies women's magazines to become a...

A Transracial Adoption Reader [in The Booklist Reader]

10 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Indian American, Korean, Korean American, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Now-adult adoptees who arrived in the United States from other countries are learning that their U.S. citizenship can’t be assumed. Two recent tragedies have highlighted the shocking realization: the May 2017 suicide of Phillip Clay, adopted at eight by a Philadelphia family and deported to Seoul 29...

How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul [in Library Journal]

08 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American

With raw honesty (the memoir opens with suicide ideation), debilitating angst (the unrelenting hold of mental illness), and humor when least expected (the terrors of securing a prom date), Haroon Moghul’s memoir becomes an illuminating antidote to contemporary Islamophobia. As the U.S.-born son of immigrant Pakistani...

10 Diverse Debut Story Collections [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Black/African American, British, British Asian, Caribbean, Chinese American, Fiction, Korean, Latina/o/x, Lists, North Korean, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American, Translation

Short-story collection The Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri’s first published book, won the Pulitzer Prize. Phil Klay’s debut collection, Redeployment, got him the National Book Award. Even Tom Hanks got in on the short story game with his debut book, Uncommon Type, out last month. Right now, eyes are...

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