BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader

Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri

08 Dec, by SIBookDragon in European, Jewish, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Eva Mozes Kor survived the Holocaust because she was an identical twin. After a grueling journey from her native Romania which eventually ended at the infamous Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, Eva and her twin Miriam were immediately separated from their parents and two older sisters....

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers (vol. 2) by Fumi Yoshinaga, translated by Akemi Wegmüller

07 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation

Although the second volume of Ōoku, a recently introduced (in translation) gender-bender series, this latest could definitely read as a stand-alone love story. And quite a unique and memorable one at that! The series' premise is that in an alternative history of premodern Edo Japan, the mysterious...

Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang, foreword by Frank Rich

02 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Chinese American, Drama/Theater

Surely, I have never been part of a more raucous audience than when I saw David Henry Hwang's latest play, Yellow Face, at New York's Public Theater in December 2007. The man at the end of the row in front of us LITERALLY FELL OUT...

Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne

01 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Here's the assertion: "Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals." In a 2006 poll given to adults in 32 countries, the resulting U.S. statistics were just plain staggering to me ...

GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto, translated by Camellia Nieh

30 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Yuki Tachibana (whose first name means 'snow,' and last name means 'standing flower') is not your average first-grader. He draws strange pictures on his desk that unnerve his other classmates. He can see things no one else can. He talks to the invisible Super Star,...

Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen

27 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

At first impression, the story is very familiar: two American-born sisters of Vietnamese American immigrants  – one the high-achieving 'good' daughter with her law degree, the other the 'lost' daughter with fast friends and temporary jobs that never last long. But in Bich Minh Nguyen's heart-string-pulling...

Gracias | Thanks by Pat Mora, illustrated by John Parra, translation by Adriana Domínguez

26 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Latina/o/x

One of my dearest friends in all the world starts making gratitude lists when all the STUFF that needs to get done starts keeping her up at night  ...

Mahtab’s Story by Libby Gleeson

25 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Afghan, Australian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

When 12-year-old Mahtab's father returns home with obvious signs of torture, and her grandfather is forever lost, her family knows it can no longer live in Taliban-controlled Herat, Afghanistan. Her best friend has already left without saying goodbye, hoping to find refuge somewhere in Iran....

Up the Learning Tree by Marcia Vaughan, illustrated by Derek Blanks

25 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction

Young Henry Bell's master insists that "he'll take an ax to the finger of any slave who touches a book." But before his father was sold away, he told his son that "book learning" would provide the way out of slavery. When Master Simon starts school,...

How We Are Smart by W. Nikola-Lisa, illustrated by Sean Qualls

24 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Japanese American, Latina/o/x, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Poetry

Using research originally developed by Harvard psychologist Dr. Howard Gardner about multiple intelligences which was made popular by Dr. Thomas Armstrong, author Nikola-Lisa chooses 12 achievers to show how they were each 'smart' in different, important ways. "Here are eight basic ways people can be...

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka 006 by Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka, co-authored by Takashi Nagasaki, with the cooperation of Tezuka Productions

24 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Europol's greatest robot, Inspector Gesicht, arrives in Persia on a "hunch" – can robots have hunches? – that he's finally figured out who's behind all the gruesome murders of the world's greatest robots. The trail takes him to Amsterdam where he follows the mysterious Sahad,...

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror (vol. 1) by Junji Ito, translated and adapted by Yuji Oniki

23 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

If you liked Koji Suzuki's freakishly scary Ring/Spiral/Loop trilogy, you'll definitely appreciate this fairly recent (I just discovered it at our local library!) horror series. Uzumaki means whirlpool, swirl, vortex ...

NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

22 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

For the past week, I've been talking nonstop about this book to friends, even those who don't have children. This is one of those titles that should be on every bookshelf, regardless of breeding status. Really. Because it's as much about relationships with all people,...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vol. 3) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

21 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

To teach the value of life, the National Welfare Act places a timed nanocapsule in one out of every 1,000 first graders' immunization syringes. On a predetermined date between the ages of 18 to 24 – with just 24 hours notice to the moment to...

Leaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview

20 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

On Old-Timers, Boxing, and Lots of Sex (mostly off the page ...

Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed-Race America, photographs and interviews by Mike Tauber, co-produced by Pamela Singh, foreword by Ann Curry, introduction by Rebecca Walker

19 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Stupendous and spectacular come immediately to mind when you look at this book. Not to mention a bit of "oof!" over its hefty size and weight – it's full of gravitas, after all! Mike Tauber's photographs are breathtaking, laid out simply to let the gorgeous...

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

18 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

If you haven't heard of Randy Pausch and experienced his delightful, heartbreaking, inspiring Last Lecture, surely you must: Click here for a comprehensive summary page created by Carnegie Mellon University where he was a professor before he passed away on July 25, 2008 of pancreatic...

Horizon Is Calling by Taro Yashima

15 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Japanese, Japanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

The remarkable story begun in The New Sun continues in this second volume of Taro Yashima's graphic memoir, a strikingly simple combination of pictures and brief text that capture a man's journey away from his homeland. Long out of print since its 1947 first printing, Horizon...

Kartography by Kamila Shamsie

11 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Pakistani, South Asian

Oh, how sad to think this is the very last book by Kamila Shamsie I had left to read ...

Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story by Ari Folman and David Polonsky

10 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Israeli, Jewish, Lebanese, Memoir, Palestinian, Young Adult Readers

No, I have not seen the film version of this title. The book is brutal enough on flat pages. I think moving pictures just might send me over the edge. That said, this riveting, nightmarish title should be required reading for anyone contemplating going to...