Southeast Asian Archives - Page 4 of 8

Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

21 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Biography, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is one of those mega-award-winning Canadian authors (with more than a dozen titles) who hasn't crossed over our shared border (just yet!) with the same success. She's best known for her historical novels for younger readers about what must be one of...

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker, translated by Kevin Wiliarty

30 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Myanmarese (Burmese), Myanmarese (Burmese) American, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Translation

I think I will forever remember this book, perhaps not so much for the story, but for a single word: a blind young man sitting in the dark with hands running across the pages answers when asked what he's doing ...

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhhà Lại

19 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Half-way through reading this debut autobiographical novel-in-verse, I had a lively conversation about the cover with a delightful new friend who happens to be a bonafide kiddie-book expert. We had just finished sharing our shock over the recent fiasco surrounding the one-too-many finalists for the 2011 National Book...

The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine by Somaly Mam

12 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

Before you open Somaly Mam's astonishing memoir, you need to be prepared to bear witness to some of the most horrific acts a human being can commit against another, especially helpless young girls. Once you begin, the frank, unmitigated writing will not allow you to...

Toxicology by Jessica Hagedorn + Author Interview [in Our Own Voice]

27 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

Eight years have passed (far too quickly) since I last saw the inimitable Jessica Hagedorn. Her 2003 novel, Dream Jungle, was about to come out and we were in desperate search of boba tea in New York’s East Village. Faced with a closed tea salon...

World and Town by Gish Jen

14 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

Hattie Kong's email inbox is full of desperate pleas from various relatives to please send back her parents' bones to the family plot in Qufu, China. Because her American missionary mother and her Confucius-descended Chinese father found their final rest in Iowa, the remaining Kong...

The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho

05 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Cambodian, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian

Twelve-year-old Dara, her older brother, and their mother are the only ones left of their once-large family. Although the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975, neighboring Cambodia – decimated by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime – is still plagued with uncontrolled violence. Dara’s diminished family flees...

Roots and Wings by Many Ly

15 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Born and raised in a small Pennsylvania town, the only connection 14-year-old Grace has to her Cambodian heritage are her mother and her grandmother. While these three generations of women clearly need and love one another, they are uncertain as to how to truly know each...

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

27 May, by SIBookDragon in British, Fiction, Filipina/o, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian

As we head into the holiday weekend, here's a debut novel to help you celebrate ...

Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell

15 May, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

Vassar Spore is every Tiger Mother's dream come true. At 16, she's got her entire overachieving life perfectly planned out with the unwavering support of two control-driven-but-nurturing parents. The three seamlessly work together toward Vassar's goals: a 5.3 GPA – the new 4.0; a degree with...

Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide by Nawuth Keat with Martha E. Kendall

22 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

'Collateral damage' is such a detached, sanitized phrase for the innocent people who pay the highest price for the tragic folly of war; and surely the youngest and the eldest suffer the greatest. "I want people to know the truth about what happened," Nawuth Keat told...

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung + Author Interview

10 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

For someone who has experienced hell, Loung Ung is a bright, welcoming voice filled with inviting laughter. She’s warm: “I just had dinner with my writing group last night. They’re my PenGals. I just love them! I don’t know what I would do without them.” She’s practical:...

A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

06 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonfiction, Singaporean American, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

A toothsome distraction from the recent Tiger Mother hunt, journalist Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan offers A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family, which takes readers from Carnegie Hall into fragrant kitchens, trading threatened stuffed animals for pineapple tarts, Prokofiev for pandan. Tan's strong-willed...

Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide by Icy Smith, illustrated by Sopaul Nhem

09 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Cambodian, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian

Tragically, death and destruction are very much a part of human reality ...

This Is All I Choose to Tell: History and Hybridity in Vietnamese American Literature by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud [in San Francisco Chronicle]

26 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

What's wrong with this scenario? Robert Olen Butler's A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain wins the Pulitzer Prize despite "his portrayal of sweet and off-beat Vietnamese American caricatures,"...

Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home by Youme

07 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Laotian, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

As thin as this title might seem, it actually embodies three important sections. The main focus is clearly the story of young Mali, which begins with her carefree life in her native Laos...

Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins

09 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Myanmarese (Burmese), Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

Inspired by three years of living in Thailand with her family and visiting refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, Mitali Perkins’ latest novel follows the lives of two boys on...

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath by Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman

08 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Filipina/o, Japanese, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian

In the book’s opening pages, the “Authors’ Note,” explains the title – ‘tears in the darkness’ is a literal translation of the Japanese kanji for anrui, “the kind of pain and sorrow...

The Things They Carried (20th Anniversary Edition) by Tim O’Brien

01 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Southeast Asian, Vietnamese, Young Adult Readers

In spite of the "A Work of Fiction" disclaimer on one of the front pages of Tim O'Brien's Vietnam War classic, you'll probably close the book believing every word contained between the covers to be true. That O'Brien the author names his narrator Tim O'Brien...

Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw [in Bloomsbury Review]

24 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Malaysian, Repost, Southeast Asian

Five years ago, Taipei-born Malaysian British Tash Aw landed in the media spotlight with The Harmony Silk Factory, complete with public speculations about an allegedly enormous debut advance. Decorated with multiple important prizes, including Commonwealth and Whitbread first novel awards, Aw’s Factory earned him both...

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