"'Who is Malala?'" the gunman demanded on that fateful day, October 9, 2012, before he shot three bullets into a bus carrying teenage girls to school. Unable to answer then, Malala answers now in her new memoir for all the world to read: "I am...
"Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person," Anne Tyler's oldie-but-goodie begins, especially enhanced with the inimitable Blair Brown as welcome, familiar narrator. "How on earth did I get like this? How? How did I ever...
Determined to become a clinical psychologist, young Futaba arrives in an unnamed city to begin college. Before he even gets to his lodgings – arranged through a friend of his father's – he helps a young woman who collapses in a crowded plaza. While he can't deny...
Before discussing content, I must start with a warning about presentation – think of it as a public service announcement: Choose the page, choose the page, choose the page! Although narrator Sumalee Montano (an American actress of Filipina and Thai/Chinese descent with a Harvard degree) lists...
Here's what a fairly recent (pubbed September 2013) bestseller looks like. It hasn't gotten any major nominations or awards (perhaps I should add 'yet,' as author Jamie Ford's debut, Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, garnered a few nods); nevertheless, it's certainly sold plenty of...
Every once in a while, only the very best schmaltz will do. Earnest and endearing, this just-arriving-in-translation sequel to the international mega-bestseller, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, is a through-the-night read that will leave you sighing and swooning. Okay, so we're not talking Nobel-quality: "'I speak of a...
An 85-year-old grandmother makes a special birthday trip from the U.S. to Tanzania where three generations celebrate with a surprise safari through Serengeti National Park. The story is special enough ...
Our daughter, now a senior at one of the most progressive of progressive schools where she's been a 'lifer,' was recently trying to explain the specifics of what 'gender-fluid' means using a classmate's evolving, changing behavior as descriptive examples. We old folks were still a...
*STARRED REVIEW What is most haunting in Kupersmith's nine multi-layered pieces are not the specters, whose tales are revealed as stories within stories, but the lingering loss and disconnect endured by the still living. With an American father and a Vietnamese "former boat refugee" mother, the...
*STARRED REVIEW In her first title since she received a 2010 MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, Yiyun Li again explores the far-reaching repercussions of a single person's death. While her mesmerizing The Vagrants (2009) revolved around the execution of a young political victim, here, three childhood friends take...
With the arrival of the spring festival in Lahore, Pakistan, no one is more excited than Malik who is ready for the upcoming kite-flying battles armed with Falcon. "'How can you be king of Basant with only one kite?'" his sister teases. "'Insha Allah, it...
Above all else, Janie is a survivor. She escaped the horrifying deaths that took her entire family in her native Cambodia. She's outlived her adoptive Canadian mother who passed away just last year. She's built a fulfilling career as a scientist specializing in brain research. She's...
According to a recent article, "The Book(s) of the Year" in PublishersLunch, "the clear consensus for the 2013 'book of the year' has ended in ...
Co-authors Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore, whose last project à deux was the glorious The Mangrove Tree set in the tiny African country of Eritrea, travel south to the Caribbean to present another memorable story of preservation and conservation. Welcome to Puerto Rico, home of the Puerto Rican parrot, also...
Following is Part 2 of an extensive interview with author Nina Schuyler. Click here to read Part 1. Click here for the Schuyler feature. As a writer who is a woman, who also happens to be a mother of two small young kids – do you feel...
With all the vastness of the internet, I had quite a difficult time finding answers to the sorts of questions I had about Nina Schuyler and her relationship to her fiction – most especially regarding race and identity. (I know, so loaded!) In both of her lauded novels...
At 13, Se-young is on the brink of manhood, but the person who should be his primary role model – his father – left some five years ago. Se-young’s seamstress mother works hard to support the abandoned pair in their small, remote village. Their constricted...
"Like most writers, I work at the edges of the day" Wife, mother, teacher, poet, writer – Nina Schuyler wears many labels. Her youngest is still a toddler, she balances multiple part-time jobs, keeps up with the daily-life expectations of cooking and laundry, soccer and basketball mom-ing, not...
When I say 'brought to you by popular demand,' I have indisputable proof here: 715 supporters put up almost 150% more than the requested funds in answer to Digital Manga's 2012 Kickstarter campaign to bring Triton of the Sea (along with two additional Tezuka titles, Unico and...
This new year couldn't start off with a better title. At a mere 134 pages, it's perfect to read in a single sitting, although the story's loving spirit is sure to linger. It's also the ideal gift to share with anyone and everyone who holds...
