BookDragon

Girls on the Edge: Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan, Gabi: A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero, I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister by Amélie Sarn, and Falling into Place by Amy Zhang [in American Book Review]

05 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, European, Fiction, Iranian American, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Girls on the Edge Adolescence without instant uploads, 140-character confessions, and constant connectivity was just so last century – survival in the 21st means a whole new set of unfamiliar, unpredictable challenges. In four recent, better-not-miss novels for young adults, four diverse women writers amplify the modern...

Noggin by John Corey Whaley

04 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

John Corey Whaley, who was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, shares the same first name with the ever-popular, mega-bestselling author John Green. Perhaps I might be delusional here, but Noggin feels like it could be some alternate-universe sequel to Green's The Fault...

Master Keaton (vol. 1) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by Pookie Rolf

02 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Goodbye to 2014. Whew! 2015 can only be better, thank you! What makes me so sure? Because among the many things to look forward to throughout the new year is a brand new Naoki Urasawa series-in-translation! How bereft was I when the 24-volume 20th-into-21st Century Boys ended almost two years ago. And...

Ninja! by Arree Chung

31 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction

The text here is all about serious preparation ("a thick ninja stick"), effective tactics ("must master the element of ...

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

30 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction

The Great War is over, but tragedy and hunger still haunt 1922 London. On Champion Hill, the Wray family's once-upon-a-posh life has vanished; most notably, all the men are gone. The brothers became casualties of war, the father died leaving substantial debts, and the servants have been...

A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev

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

Leaning toward something light, frothy, and just a little steamy for your next holiday season read? While the printed page is always grand, going audible here is also highly recommended: I'm thinking Priya Ayyar is quickly becoming one of my favorite crisp voices to stick in...

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (vols. 3-9) by Tohru/Toru Fujisawa, translated by Ko Ransom

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

Okay, so don't be too confused: the two slightly different phoneticized spellings of creator Tohru/Toru Fujisawa’s name both appear on the various volume covers seen here. That 'o'-sound is a long vowel – as in Tōru (it's とおる in Japanese) – but diacriticals can often get lost in translation,...

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

24 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction

If I were to choose the one book that affected me most this year – the one that ran the entire spectrum from giddiest to maddest, from eye-opening in wonder to eye-scrunching in horror – this is it. Bad Feminist has forever changed the way I read,...

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, translated by Henning Koch

23 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Swedish, Translation

His name might be Ove, but those who know him are more likely to call him "antisocial" and "grumpy old sod." For most of his life, "[h]e was a man of black and white." But for over three decades, he found warmth and joy with a...

‘Twas Nochebuena: A Christmas Story in English and Spanish by Roseanne Greenfield Thong, illustrated by Sara Palacios

22 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Poetry

Originally titled "A Visit from St. Nicholas," Clement Clarke Moore first shared his iconic poem with his children on Christmas Eve of 1822. Better known by the first line, "’Twas the night before Christmas ...

The Lake Shore Limited by Sue Miller

21 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Gus – beloved brother, favorite teacher, a vibrant, sunny young man in love – is a victim of 9-11. His presence looms on every page, although his actual words can only be filtered through someone else's memory throughout the novel. Still, he proves to be the pivotal character who brings together...

The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai, illustrated by Midori Motohashi, translated by Maya Rosewood

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

Rainy mornings give first-year high school student Takao permission to skip class and head to a park pavilion to work on his shoe sketches. Someday, he wants to be a shoe designer. Two months into the new school year, he sees a young woman is already...

The City Son by Samrat Upadhyay

18 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nepali, Nepali American

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." "Frailty, thy name is woman." "Women always have the last word." All manner of pithy, less-than-admirable aphorisms about women come to mind after reading Samrat Upadhyay’s recent novel; such words as shocking, disturbing, wrenching, shattering also seem quite appropriate. And in case you...

Hope Springs by Eric Walters, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

17 Dec, by SIBookDragon in African, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction

"As the biggest, [Boniface] had to care for the littlest." He's one of the older boys living in a Kenyan orphanage, known for his gentleness and patience. "[A]ll the children in the orphanage were like a family." On one of their outings to fetch water at...

Frog by Mo Yan, translated by Howard Goldblatt [in Library Journal]

16 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Wan Xin, aka Gugu, is a revered obstetrician who has delivered generations of Gaomi Township citizens over the last half century. Yet for every live birth, she's aborted at least as many pregnancies, proving her patriotism by fervently upholding China's one-child policy; even relatives...

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, translated by Ted Goossen [in Library Journal]

15 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Debuting mere months after his latest instant bestseller, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, this fable is a surprise addition to Murakami’s addictive oeuvre. After returning his library books, a boy is sent to Room 107 in search of other titles. There...

Wall by Tom Clohosy Cole

14 Dec, by SIBookDragon in British, Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction

"My mom said that while the wall was being made, our dad got stuck on the other side." The story is specific to Germany where the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, dividing a single city into two, cleaving family members from one another –...

The Flowers of Evil (vol. 11) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr

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

Ten volumes of Flowers of Evil have already shocked, scared, titillated, challenged readers (in translation) over the last two years. The series comes to a close with this, the final volume ...

Redeployment by Phil Klay

10 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Fiction, Iraqi, Nonethnic-specific, Short Stories

This year, the venerable National Book Foundation has clearly favorited Phil Klay. First he was bestowed the youthful "5 Under 35" mantel, and then finished out with the coveted National Book Award for Fiction. Over the summer, he also made the shortlist for the 2014 Frank O’Connor...

The Year of the Sheep: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chin, illustrated by Alina Chau

09 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction

What? 2014 is almost over? I never caught up with everything I shoulda done in 2013. Oh well ...

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