BookDragon

Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas [in Library Journal]

11 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Filipina/o American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American

"After twenty-five years of living illegally in a county that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom." When Pulitzer Prize-winning Jose Antonio Vargas declared his undocumented status in 2011, Bill O'Reilly labeled him "the...

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram [in Booklist]

08 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Iranian, Iranian American, Persian, Persian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Sixteen-year-old loner Darius Kellner is an easy target at his Portland, Oregon, high school. He’s clinically depressed, a diagnosis he shares with his “Teutonic Übermensch” father. His nurturing comes mostly from his Iranian immigrant mother, and he’s close to his 8-year-old sister. For all that,...

Dream Country by Shannon Gibney [in Booklist]

07 Feb, by SIBookDragon in African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Undoubtedly, Bahni Turpin is one of few narrators able to convincingly crisscross the gender spectrum with consistent agility. Here she begins as untethered Kollie, a Liberian immigrant teen in 2008, alternately dismissed and provoked by both white and African American peers at his Minnesota high school, until rage, violence,...

This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga [in Booklist]

06 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Repost

Of Dangarembga’s award-winning, semi-autobiographical Tambudzai Sigauke trilogy, only this finale gets an audio adaptation. Tambu struggled to be educated amid Zimbabwe’s decades-long civil war in Nervous Conditions (winner of the 1989 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) and survived a convent education in The Book of Not (2006). Here, Tambu is a not-so-young...

First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story by Huda Al-Marashi [in Booklist]

05 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Arab, Arab American, Audio, Iraqi, Iraqi American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Writer Huda Al-Marashi and narrator Jeed Saddy make their respective debuts in a captivating memoir about a marriage that’s not so much arranged but destined. Al-Marashi is 6 when she meets Hadi, the son of family friends. She’s 9 as she watches him pretend-wed her 4-year-old...

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

04 Feb, by SIBookDragon 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...

Piero by Edmond Baudoin, translated by Matt Madden [in Booklist]

01 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Twenty years since its original French publication, Edmond Baudoin’s autobiographical homage to his older brother, Piero, and their shared childhood makes its English-language debut, admiringly translated by cartoonist Matt Madden. Growing up between Nice, where their father worked, and Villars-sur-Var (“our Mom’s village, our village”),...

Now Hear This: Soneela Nankani [in Booklist]

31 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Palestinian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

She can sound like a frightened little girl on the run or a gruff old man who’s seen it all. She can talk financial crises, offer self-help guidance, embody fantasy worlds, and channel her inner Gisele Bündchen. She narrates in multiple tongues, donning accents and...

When Spring Comes to the DMZ by Uk-Bae Lee, translated by Chungyon Won and Aileen Won [in Shelf Awareness]

30 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

When the Korean peninsula was divided into North and South in 1953, the consequences were especially tragic for separated families. In the six-plus decades since the ceasefire, reunion – politically and personally – has proven virtually impossible. On either side of the Military Demarcation Line,...

That Time I Loved You: Stories by Carrianne Leung [in Library Journal]

29 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Toronto’s suburban Scarborough becomes home to diverse families ready to build a neighborhood together. Initially, everyone invited everyone else to “planned things like fireworks and barbecues,” observes 11-year-old June – the only daughter of Hong Kong Chinese immigrants – until “people decided who their...

Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by Shane W. Evans [in Shelf Awareness]

28 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW "Greet the sun, bold and bright! Tiny hands up!" In star-studded sleeves, two raised brown arms exuberantly face the golden, warming rays, ready to start a new day filled with discovery, growth and, of course, much fun. Mommy and Daddy join the radiant...

Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution by Helen Zia [in Christian Science Monitor]

24 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Nonfiction, Repost

Last Boat Out of Shanghai has four stories at once personal and universal As the child of two refugees, Helen Zia can speak to the effects of displacement, separation, and the personal costs of survival, adaptation, and reinvention. As an advocate for Asian American and other minority communities,...

Blame This on the Boogie by Rina Ayuyang [in Booklist]

23 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Filipina/o American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

"Beyond this door,” Rina Ayuyang warns as she guides readers to her suburban Pittsburgh childhood home, “lies a story of dread and woe, despair and sadness.” But no, turn the page, and amid technicolor walls, carpets, and toys strewn everywhere, she admits, “I’m kidding. It’s...

Zenobia by Morten Dürr, illustrated by Lars Horneman [in Booklist]

22 Jan, by SIBookDragon in European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Vast open water. An overcrowded boat. A horrific storm. A girl plunges backwards into the violent waves. Wishing, dreaming of rescue, Amina conjures happier moments playing hide-and-seek. “I am right here, Mama,” she thinks. She remembers making dolmas, salty like seawater – and tears. She...

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel [in Booklist]

21 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW For those of us in need of a few hours of joyful catharsis, listen up. Despite a narrative driven by impending separation, the gratifying delight is well worth the tears. Narrator George Blagden effortlessly embodies this charming man-and-beast love story, so guilelessly gentle as...

Librarians Unite! 12 Tales of Librarian Badassery [in The Booklist Reader]

18 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab, British, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Korean, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

In just over a week, Seattle’s population will temporarily expand with tens of thousands of librarians (and other literary obsessives). Talk about a convergence of brains, guts, dedication, faith – and unconditional love of knowledge! Because that’s what it takes to be a librarian in...

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi [in Booklist]

17 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Iranian American, Persian, Persian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Already a best-selling fantasy YA author (the Shatter Me series), Tahereh Mafi firmly roots herself in familiar reality with her latest, a can’t-turn-away timely story about teens falling in love despite intolerant peer pressure, difficult family situations, and vast cultural divides. Sixteen-year-old Shirin has switched...

The Chancellor and the Citadel by Maria Capelle Frantz [in Booklist]

16 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

“The world’s falling apart,” young Olive sighs under a starry sky. “Some think it’s coming together,” the chancellor reminds her as she guides Olive home through the forest, subduing an angry beast midway. Cloaked in layers, her face obscured in hooded darkness, the chancellor protects...

I Am God by Giacomo Sartori, translated by Frederika Randall [in Booklist]

15 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Italian, Repost, Translation

“I myself am astonished at what’s happening to me,” God – yes, that God – confesses. “I’m the same ...

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Korean, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW They meet at age 7. Young-sook and her mother are working their garden; Mi-ja crouches among the sweet-potato plants, desperate to eat. They are on Korea’s Jeju Island, “known for its Three Abundances of wind, stones, and women, it was also acknowledged for lacking...

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