Banafsheh, a blue-eyed little girl aged 5, is traveling with her grandmother one night on a train, and notices a young woman sitting across from them reading a book. "If my mother were alive, she would be reading a book, too," she thinks longingly to...
Since Brian Selznick’s remarkable Wonderstruck has been out for almost a year, this may be rather old news for you. However, if, like me, you're crawling out from that comfy rock and need an unforgettable fix to take back under, here's your perfect next choice. Oh,...
Every once in a while, being formulaic can produce splendid results. Take Grace Lin's 2010 Newbery Honor book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – what made it so successful? Spunky, independent-minded young characters, intricately layered storytelling within the story, and, of course, Lin's signature whimsical, illuminating illustrations. Lin's latest has all...
Of course, a child named Zephyr is predestined to love planes, always ready to ride the gentle winds in the limitless sky. [I should also mention that "Zephyr" is the name of the (unmanned, solar-powered) plane that holds the world record for being continuously airborne...
For one reason or another, I've taken many years to finally finish a Gail Tsukiyama novel. I've started a few, gotten distracted and put each aside, but this time, after noticing that she was one of the few APA authors at this year's National Book...
Just like last year's The Devotion of Suspect X, mega-award winning Keigo Higashino will expertly manipulate you, making you constantly rethink your suspicions. While the final exposition might not be as drop-jaw shocking as Devotion, Salvation is still unquestionably an addictive page-turner, enticingly paced to keep you reading...
Once again, I start from book's end, with the "About the Author" page which introduces war-child Zeina Abirached, whose first 10 years of life were spent surviving Beirut's civil war (1975-1990). As an adult, she happened upon a 1984 documentary that included "[a] woman whose...
Yan Lianke’s latest (Dream of Ding Village, Serve the People!) arrives superbly translated by Duke professor Carlos Rojas and auspiciously stamped with China’s Lao She Literary Award. Welcome to Liven, a mountainous haven populated by the disabled who enjoy bountiful lives, so remote as to have avoided governmental...
When's the last time you competed with one of your kids to read a book? Especially when said child is usually not so interested in anything without a screen? Good thing my bedtime is a little later than his, or else I'd never have gotten...
Although spoken word artist Sarah Kay's TED debut was over a year-and-a-half-ago, her video seems to be in the midst of re-discovery. Via email, listservs, and (dreaded) Facebook, her poetry kept appearing in my daily life this last week, which (of course) prompted me to...
I think I must have been a Boricua in a former life. I can't seem to stay away too long from La Isla del Encanto (especially my favorite Isla Culebrita), and I get the fiercest cravings for Bebo's and mofongo (it's all about a full...
Confession first: even though I'm posting after the fact, reading this was a little birthday present to myself. The older I get, oh how I loooovvvvve the manga that much more! Must be an age-escapist thing! The Friend has shockingly confessed that he's the mastermind behind...
"I look at the sky, I close my eyes, / and my imagination begins to soar ...
Joel Pickford's titular journey took him through an 8,000-mile trek to some of the most remote villages in Laos, five years of interviewing Hmong refugees, and five years of reading Hmong history and ethnography. The result is a gorgeous, startling, intimate portrait of an ethnic...
As this debut novel is all of 125 pages (in hardcover), you have little excuse not to read it in a single sitting ...
I can't remember the last time I was this freaked out by a manga. The fear factor has certainly been high with various horror fantasy series (Ikigami and The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service being two favorites), but those were more guilty entertainment. Limit oozes such chilling...
Not to confuse anyone, but I have to start with p. 177 because that's where you'll find a reference to "that cool new show Sesame Street" (which debuted 1969), because first-time novelist Sonia Manzano has been playing Sesame Street's Maria for the last 30+ years! While the title...
What delighted anticipation I felt when I heard that Deborah Ellis' multi-award-winning Breadwinner Trilogy (The Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey, and Mud City), after almost a decade since its completion, was becoming a tetrology! I adamantly hoped for such at the end of my Mud City post:...
Having somehow stumbled randomly on Elizabeth Wein's very recent "meta-review" on reviewing (complete with crossed-out phrases about "tasteless morons"), I'll try to not break her seven "observations" here. Just allow me a moment to digress (and comment): 1. I wasn't aware of any Verity hype, although surely such...
* STARRED REVIEW Like his debut, The Gift of Rain (2007), Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng's second novel is exquisite and, like Gift, arrives stateside with Booker Prize longlist approval. Recently retired judge Teoh Yun Ling has at most a year before she will lose all language...
