BookDragon

Turning Japanese: A Graphic Memoir by MariNaomi

24 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Japanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

In 1995 at age 22, MariNaomi leaves her boyfriend of five years, her job, her San Francisco home and transplants herself 50 miles south in San Jose, where she almost immediately "move[s] into an idyllic, century-old one bedroom cottage that rested on a large plot of untamed...

The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey by Dawn Anahid MacKeen [in Library Journal]

23 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

"[A]s a reporter, I was spending my life telling other people's stories and ignoring my own family's incredible one," Dawn Anahid MacKeen realized at 35. Her 78-year-old Armenian mother was aging, and MacKeen could no longer ignore her calls to "come home." In 2006, MacKeen left...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Marilyn Nelson’s American Ace

22 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, European, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Irish American, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016, Young Adult Readers

Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medial Pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Hooks, illustrated by Colin Bootman

21 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Biography, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction

From the age of 13, Vivien Thomas worked with his master carpenter father and began growing a bank account that might someday take him to college and eventually medical school. The stock market crash of 1928 wiped out Thomas' savings, but nothing could touch his determination...

Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart

19 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

Six days before eighth grade starts, Lily and Dunkin meet for the first time. Lily is still known mostly as Timothy, the boy name he was given at birth – but he's practicing being his true self: a girl named Lily. Dressed in her mother's dress and sandals,...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Marilyn Nelson’s My Seneca Village

16 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016, Young Adult Readers

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl

15 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016, Young Adult Readers

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz [in Library Journal]

12 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific

*STARRED REVIEW Tanya Dubois, as she's initially introduced, is not the woman her husband believed her to be. He's dead – she didn't do it – but Tanya runs anyway, shedding her name and recent past yet again and taking on another identity. In another town, another...

After Disasters by Viet Dinh [in Booklist]

10 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian, Vietnamese American

*STARRED REVIEW O. Henry Prize winner (2009) and first-time novelist Dinh drops four fictional characters into the tragic aftermath of the real-life January 2001 cataclysmic earthquake in Gujarat, India, as they travel from New York, London, and Delhi to attempt to save lives, including their own. The...

The Past by Tessa Hadley [in Library Journal]

09 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, British Asian, Fiction, Repost

Four siblings gather in their childhood home to determine its future. The oldest is the most distant, unsure she'll even stay the full three weeks they've planned to be there. The middle sister arrives with two children, complaining about her missing husband. The youngest sister...

Where Do We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu [in Booklist]

08 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Japanese American, Repost, Short Stories

Wacky and weird, writing and literature professor Sequoia Nagamatsu’s fiction debut is a 12-piece collection that defies easy categorization as an amalgam of sci-fi/fantasy, horror, and black comedy overlaid with ancient-to-contemporary Japanese myth and culture. Nagamatsu’s atypical characters include the “Margaret Mead of the Kaiju [strange...

Author Interview: Lynne Kutsukake [in Bloom]

07 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Japanese, Japanese American, Repost

“Enemy aliens” is an all too familiar label, although just who gets thusly labeled seems to change with the political winds. With such an aggravated election year, these two words won’t be disappearing from the media anytime soon. Beyond our northern border, our Canadian neighbors did...

One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong [in Library Journal]

06 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Malaysian, Nonfiction, Repost

China's infamous one-child policy lasted just 35 years. Forced sterilizations, gruesome late-term abortions, an overseas adoption boom, and baby trafficking emerged as by-products of the draconian law. What was touted as a "necessary step in [China's] Herculean efforts to lift the population…from abject poverty" resulted in...

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd [in School Library Journal]

05 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Emma Casey, her brother Topher, and their Granny Blue call the Boneyard Café home. On weekends, Emma conducts tours of the haunted graveyard next door, while Topher warms visitors with his irresistible peach-lavender muffins and famous Boneyard Brew (aka hot chocolate). When their cozy haven...

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Jun, by SIBookDragon in British, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

While his 8-year-old classmates wrote about wanting to be an actress, prime minister or even Harry Potter, David Piper had a six-word wish for his future: "I want to be a girl." At 14, David's wish has only become more fervent, as his traitorous body...

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo [in School Library Journal]

02 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Before they became the Three Rancheros, the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition brought Raymie Clarke, Louisiana Elefante, and Beverly Tapinski together – each for wildly different reasons. Raymie is convinced that when her philandering father, who's run off with the dental hygienist, sees a...

The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly [in School Library Journal]

01 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Once upon a time, Soledad had two sisters and two loving parents. But tragedy can happen to anyone at any time, and suddenly, Sol and her younger sister, Ming, are transplanted to the other side of the world in a run-down apartment in Louisiana,...

Princess Li | La Princesa Li by Luis Amavisca, illustrated by Elena Rendeiro, translated by Robin Sinclair

26 May, by SIBookDragon in Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Spanish, Translation

Here's a "Once upon a time"-sort of tale most of us old folks didn't grow up with! Brave new world indeed! Meet Princess Li who lives somewhere "far away in the East" in a gorgeous palace with her King-ly father. Being admired for her great beauty...

Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit

25 May, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Anna is 7 when her father disappears. In 1939 Krakow, Poland, being Jewish is enough to condemn people to death. When the Swallow Man appears – so named for his ability to conjure and communicate with birds – the unlikely pair reluctantly recognize in each other not...

Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni + Author Interview

24 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

Spanning 17 titles over a quarter century, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has published books for every possible type of reader, including Grandma and the Great Gourd for the youngest, the three-volume Brotherhood of the Conch trilogy for middle grade/young adults, Black Candle for poetry lovers, Arranged Marriage for short story enthusiasts, and eight...

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