BookDragon

We’re Better Than This: Young Readers’ Edition: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy by Elijah Cummings and Hilary Beard [in School Library Journal]

07 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The adults got (mostly) Laurence Fishburne, but Adam Lazarre-White is distinctly the softer, better choice for younger listeners to get to know the late congressman in his own words. Elijah Cummings was born to South Carolina sharecroppers who moved to Baltimore “looking for a better life.”...

The Pass by Espé, translated by J.T. Mahany [in Booklist]

06 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

French comics creator Espé made his spectacular translated debut with The Parakeet (2021), inspired by his childhood with a mother battling mental illness. He continues his autobiographical exploration via his stand-in, Bastien, who’s now the parent of two. Louis’ birth should have been joyous for Camille and...

Tomorrow in Shanghai by May-lee Chai [in Booklist]

05 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

In her newest story collection, May-lee Chai (Useful Phrases for Immigrants, 2018) shifts dexterously between the personal and the fantastical. Four of the eight stories feature autobiographical stand-ins who are, like Chai, the daughter of a Chinese father and white mother whose formative years are defined...

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson [in School Library Journal]

04 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction, Repost

Nikole Hannah-Jones’s seminal The 1619 Project becomes a 24-minute lyrical gift for youngest readers, rendered with Newbery Honoree Renée Watson. Hannah-Jones voices the affecting verses: gentle through the horror, solemn to encourage empowerment, inviting to share the joy. A Black girl’s school assignment to “trace your...

The Selfless Act of Breathing by JJ Bola [in Booklist]

01 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

JJ Bola opens with a shocking promise: “I quit my job; I am taking my life savings, $9,021, and when it runs out, I am going to kill myself.” Nigerian British actor Oseloka Obi commands immediate attention in his debut narration in a solo adult...

A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Meron Hadero [in Christian Science Monitor]

30 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Ethiopian, Ethiopian American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

From the particular to the universal: Cross-cultural stories A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Ethiopian American writer Meron Hadero highlights immigrant stories of dislocation and identity. Displacement – often by outside force, rarely by personal choice – haunts Meron Hadero’s superb debut short story...

Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff [in Booklist]

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

Prolific, perennially youthful-voiced Cassandra Morris channels her infectious energy for Kyle Lukoff’s (Too Bright to See) newest vivacious protagonist, Annabelle, of Tahoma Falls, a small town just 40 minutes (but distinctly far) from Seattle. As a sixth grader, she’s about to start her final year at...

Self-Portrait with Ghost by Meng Jin [in Booklist]

28 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Following her extraordinary novel Little Gods (2020), Meng Jin presents a fascinating 10-story collection divided into four sections. One-line drawings of profiles interrupt, switching directions as if cleverly reminding readers to shift perspectives. Death haunts the first three titles. In “Philip Is Dead,” the narrator insistently...

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist]

27 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Once more, internationally bestselling Sayaka Murata confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories, translated again by her chosen, Japanese-to-English enabler, Ginny Tapley Takemori. Death is no longer an ending, full stop, in “A First-Rate Material,”...

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW Emily St. John Mandel groupies will be especially tickled to discover Glass Hotel’s narrator Dylan Moore and Station Eleven’s Kirsten Potter are half the quartet that cipher her latest, in which four narrative strands connect almost five centuries. In 1912, the youngest son of a wealthy...

The Carnegie Medal Interview: Hanif Abdurraqib [in Booklist]

23 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Terry Hong, Booklist Contributing Reviewer and chair of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence selection committee, had questions for Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Here is their exchange: A Little Devil...

The Carnegie Medal Interview: Tom Lin [in Booklist]

22 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Terry Hong, Booklist Contributing Reviewer and chair of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence selection committee, had questions for Tom Lin, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for his first novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. Here is their conversation: So as a debut novelist in your...

Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang [in Booklist]

21 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Taiwanese American

*STARRED REVIEW Relationships between women – familial, beloved, strange, imagined – dominate queer Taiwanese American K-Ming Chang’s (Bestiary, 2020) explosive and bizarre first story collection. Three single-word, deftly exacting descriptors define three sections – “Mothers,” “Myths,” “Moths” – which organize 16 tales that challenge immigration and...

Flip the Script by Lyla Lee [in Shelf Awareness]

20 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Readers familiar with Lyla Lee's exuberant YA debut, I'll Be the One, will be tickled to see that singer/dancer Skye Shin is "topping the charts" in Lee's equally ebullient sophomore YA novel, Flip the Script. Like Skye, Lee's new protagonist, Hana Jin, is a Korean American...

French Braid by Anne Tyler [in Booklist]

17 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Okay, Anne Tyler devotees and newbies (are there any?): settle in for another utterly engrossing multi-generational saga of Baltimoreans (who scatter), gently, absorbingly read by versatile Kimberly Farr. In her third iteration as Tyler’s cipher, Farr effortlessly adapts to Tyler’s distinct phrasings and rhythms,...

Body Language: Writers on Identity, Physicality, and Making Space for Ourselves edited by Nicole Chung and Matt Ortile [in Booklist]

16 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Chinese American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonfiction, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Editors Nicole Chung (All You Can Ever Know, 2018) and Matt Ortile (The Groom Will Keep His Name, 2020) present 30 essays that reveal how diverse bodies “move within (and against) expectations of race, gender, health, and ability.” Gabrielle Bellot, a Black trans woman,...

Nana, Nenek & Nina by Liza Ferneyhough [in Shelf Awareness]

15 Jun, by SIBookDragon in British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Malaysian American, Repost

Liza Ferneyhough makes her delightfully clever author/illustrator debut with Nana, Nenek & Nina. The picture book opens with a double-page spread introducing a three-person family, with the Golden Gate Bridge visible through their window. Photos hang on either side of the window, two of which...

The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian [in Booklist]

14 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Iranian American, Persian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Vikas Adam, who was one-third of the terrific trio that voiced Abdi Nazemian’s Like a Love Story (2019), returns solo to adroitly cipher the diverse boarding-school cast here (Nazemian closes the recording with his own author’s-note narration). Chandler Academy is tiny enough, but to be...

Tokyo Dreaming [Tokyo Ever After, Book 2] by Emiko Jean [in Shelf Awareness]

13 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Japanese American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The empowering delight of Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Ever After continues in Tokyo Dreaming as Her Imperial Highness Princess Izumi tries to fit into an ancient hierarchy. When the second book opens, Izumi and her mother are ensconced in Tokyo's Tōgū Palace with their somewhat malodorous pup, Tamagotchi, who's been...

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho [in Booklist]

10 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

Listeners familiar with Natalie Naudus’s performances – she’s amassed almost 200 narrating credits – will surely have begun to notice that she has two narrative modes for girlfriends: one with aural gravitas, the other (usually deemed “the pretty one”) pitched a few notes higher, reminiscent...

BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader