BookDragon

Five More to Go: Alice Stephens’ Famous Adopted People [in The Booklist Reader]

02 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens “Everyone, it seems, is telling our story but us,” observes Lisa Pearl, the Korean-born, Bethesda, Maryland-raised transracial adoptee protagonist in Alice Stephens’ recent October debut. The author, who describes herself as being “among the first generation of transnational, interracial adoptees,”...

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung [in Christian Science Monitor]

01 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Korean, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

'All You Can Ever Know' is a sensitive examination of transracial adoption Here’s a memoir by a transracial adoptee about being a transracial adoptee – and unless you're a transracial adoptee yourself, you're probably thinking, “eh, I'll pass.” And that would surely be a mistake. Because...

Patient X: The Case-Book of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa by David Peace [in Library Journal]

31 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Biography, British, Fiction, Japanese, Repost

In one of the most inexcusable examples of careless casting or lazy producing or both, David Peace (Red or Dead) gets utterly short-changed by Ric Jerrom's exasperating performance, from grievous mispronunciations of the majority of the Japanese names and words – including even Peace's protagonist...

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston [in Library Journal]

30 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Biography, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Versatile, seasoned narrator Robin Miles is as comfortable narrating literary historic context as she is effortlessly adopting the vernacular patois of an octogenarian former slave. Published almost 90 years after its completion, Zora Neale Hurston’s (Their Eyes Were Watching God) presentation of Oluale Kossula,...

The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar [in Booklist]

29 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Chameleonic narrator Sneha Mathan amplifies Thrity Umrigar’s already spectacular new novel, the long-awaited sequel to the best-selling The Space Between Us (2005). While Umrigar focused on the complicated relationship between employer Sera and servant Bhima in Space, Secrets Between Us shifts from Mumbai’s haves...

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld [in Booklist]

26 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

That Curtis Sittenfeld bookends her first short story collection with references to Trump seems to signal that bad behavior – dishonesty, betrayal, resentment, even hatred – will be plentiful in between. The agitation she immediately incites with the opening story, “Gender Studies,” about a recently...

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi [in School Library Journal]

25 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Repost, Uncategorized, Young Adult Readers

Narrators Joy Osmanski and Jacques Roy prove to be convincing partners in propelling two awkward misfits toward each other. Osmanski’s Penny Lee is slightly detached. UT-Austin might be less than 80 miles away, but 18-year-old Penny imagines she’s headed for a whole new world –...

Less by Andrew Sean Greer [in Library Journal]

24 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Arthur Less is, well … considerably less, now that he's middle-aged, alone, and pretty much broke. The pinnacle of his novel-writing career might have been his first New York Times review, which while "good," assigned him an epithet that would haunt (taunt?) him in the...

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim [in Booklist]

23 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Repost, Singaporean, Singaporean American

In 1981, Frank is about to fall victim to a deadly worldwide flu pandemic. In exchange for Frank’s recovery, girlfriend Polly time-travels 12 years into the future and commits to 32 months of bonded servitude. Their 1993 reunion plan goes awry when Polly lands in...

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani [in School Library Journal]

22 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW On her 12th birthday, Nisha receives her first diary from Kazi, the family’s cook, presented with prescient words: “he said it was time to start writing things down … someone needs to make a record of the things that will happen because the grown-ups...

Mandela and the General by John Carlin, illustrated by Oriol Malet [in Booklist]

19 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, British, European, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonfiction, Repost, South African, Young Adult Readers

As South Africa correspondent for London’s The Independent (1989–95), John Carlin draws on his personal trove of interviews and reportage to highlight the pivotal moment of world-affecting history when Nelson Mandela and General Constand Viljoen saved their newly apartheid-free country from bloody collapse. Mandela’s 1990 release...

Insurrecto by Gina Apostol [in Booklist]

18 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o, Filipina/o American, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Adjectives like humorous, playful, and ingenious seem almost disrespectful when describing a book anchored by “the worst massacre of [U.S.] Army soldiers in the decades after Custer’s defeat.” The little-known 1901 Balangiga massacre in Samar, Philippines, during the Philippine-American War resulted in the deaths...

City of Ash and Red by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

17 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

The first collaboration between Hye-Young Pyun and translator Sora Kim-Russell, The Hole (2017), introduced one of Korea’s most lauded writers to Anglophone readers. Kim-Russell’s ability to replicate Pyun’s stifling terror repeats here as he presents a nameless anti-hero, known only as “the man.” Leaving behind envious...

Printed in Beirut by Jabbour Douaihy, translated by Paula Haydar [in Booklist]

15 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Repost, Translation

Farid Abu Shaar, a young man earnestly convinced of his own (unproven) literary genius, seeks a publisher for his red-notebook manuscript, The Book to Come. His publication attempts with Beirut’s publishing houses prove futile: “No one reads,” one publisher insists. Although his Karam Brothers Press...

Che: A Revolutionary Life | A Graphic Biography by Jon Lee Anderson, illustrated by José Hernández [in Booklist]

12 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Biography, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Latin American, Repost, South American, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Jon Lee Anderson’s Che: A Revolutionary Life (1997) is superbly realized in graphic form by Mexican artist José Hernández, who distills Anderson’s lauded, 812-page original into just more than 400 pages of spectacularly illustrated narrative. Since his 1967 death at 39, Che “has become the most...

Not of This Fold [A Linda Wallheim Mystery, Book 4] by Mette Ivie Harrison [in Booklist]

11 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

The fourth of Mette Ivie Harrison’s 11 planned books for her Linda Wallheim mystery series takes the outspoken Mormon-bishop’s wife from her comfortable Draper, Utah, home into the Spanish community, a few miles in distance but a world away culturally, ethnically, and socioeconomically. Linda accompanies her...

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen [in Christian Science Monitor]

09 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

'Killing Commendatore' is the latest evasive, magical, utterly unique novel by Murakami A famous painter succumbing to dementia living out his final days in a posh care facility. A wealthy, middle-aged white-haired man who lives alone in a mountainside white mansion. A motherless schoolgirl whose father...

Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon [in Library Journal]

01 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

"I'll tell you how it started," Rachel Lyon’s extraordinary debut promises. "With a simple, tragic accident … and a photograph." A boy is dead after tumbling off the roof of his Brooklyn apartment building. His descent is unintentionally caught on film by the artist living...

Tales from la Vida: A Latinx Comics Anthology edited by Frederick Luis Aldama [in Booklist]

30 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction, Repost, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

The latest title in Mad Creek’s impressive Latinographix series showcases 80-plus contributions from the flourishing Latinx graphic community. Creators were prompted “to reflect upon the most significant moments of their lives,” rendering seven sections that explore language, coming-of-age, mythology, identity, heritage, self-image, and pop culture. The...

Time for Bed, Miyuki by Roxane Marie Galliez, illustrated by Seng Soun Ratanavanh [in Shelf Awareness]

28 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Japanese, Repost

"As the sun slowly hides to watch the moon rise," the nightingale, the ants, the toad all anticipate the approaching "hour of rest." Only Miyuki is still "busy playing and trying to push back time." Resisting her grandfather's gentle reminders, Miyuki insists, "I still have...

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