Betrayal Archives - Page 18 of 47

White Dancing Elephants by Chaya Bhuvaneswar [in Booklist]

11 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

Loss – by disappearance, destruction, or death – looms throughout Chaya Bhuvaneswar’s award-winning debut collection. Priya Ayyar’s shared Indian heritage with both Bhuvaneswar and many of her characters adds a comfortable fluency, as Ayyar gives distinct characterizations to parents and children, siblings and lovers, friends and...

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing [The Carls, Book 1] by Hank Green [in Booklist]

20 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Chinese American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Neither Green brother is untouched by fame. The elder is that John Green. Hank, famous already as half of YouTube’s multimillion-subscribed “Vlogbrothers,” ascends the bestsellers’ platform with this novel debut, in which he inarguably writes what he knows: social-media-fueled fame. Audio seems an ideal format for Green’s media-savvy...

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi [in Booklist]

18 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW “That whole thing about fiction not being the truth is a lie,” one character admonishes another in Susan Choi’s fifth, and finest, novel. Returning to the multi-layered teacher-student power struggles seared into My Education (2013), Choi’s Trust Exercise should immediately put readers on alert: it will appear...

Waiting for Eden by Elliot Ackerman [in Library Journal]

12 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Elliot Ackerman’s (2017 National Book Award finalist for Dark at the Crossing) latest might be just three-and-a-half hours long, but the dramatic effects will surely last longer. MacLeod Andrews – his voice slightly growly, controlled enough as if control is necessary – narrates from...

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,...

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...

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...

Five More to Go: Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities [in The Booklist Reader]

08 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Fiction, Lists, Repost, Young Adult Readers

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma With the 2015 debut of The Fisherman, The New York Times rejoiced: “Chigozie Obioma truly is the heir to Chinua Achebe.” Almost four years later, his sophomore title – hitting shelves today – doesn’t disappoint. The story seems familiarly simple: a man...

My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd

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

Venus Black gets straight As, has never gotten drunk, smoked pot, or skipped a class. She’s also a 13-year-old murderer, sent to juvenile lock-up for shooting her stepfather. Within days, her younger half-brother Leo – “[he] has what [their mother] Inez calls ‘developmental issues’” –...

Five More (Audiobooks) to Go: Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black, read by Dion Graham [in The Booklist Reader]

21 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Canadian, Caribbean, Fiction, Repost

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and read by Dion Graham George Washington Black – called "Wash" for short – is an enslaved 10- or 11-year-old (he "cannot say for certain") on Faith Plantation in 1830s Barbados. He is first owned by one brother, then stolen by another....

The Labyrinth of the Spirits [The Cemetery of Forgotten Books finale] by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves [in Booklist]

05 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Repost, Spanish, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Casting a male narrator for a female-protagonist-driven novel might seem initially ill-fitting, but Daniel Weyman, who also narrated Zafón’s Marina (2015), makes sure Alicia Gris gets well heard in the stupendous, well-worth-the-long-wait finale of Zafón’s Cemetery of Forgotten Books tetralogy plus short story. Anglicized by...

The Plotters by Un-su Kim, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

26 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Reseng, 32, has been a professional assassin for 15 years, minus a short factory-worker stint at 22, while playing house with the love of his life. That he’s survived this long – never mind his risky career, he’s also a two-pack-a-day smoker with a...

Transcription by Kate Atkinson [in Booklist]

23 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW So transforming was Fenella Woolgar’s performance of Kate Atkinson’s stupendous Life after Life (2013), the immediate reaction here is joyful relief at hearing Woolgar take aural control of another Atkinson novel. From an inexperienced, untested teenager embarking on her first job, in 1940, to...

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma [in Booklist]

21 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW The story seems familiarly simple. A man and a woman fall in love, but their happy-ever-after is fraught with obstacles. Yet nothing is quite that straightforward in Chigozie Obioma’s (The Fishermen, 2015) latest, starting with his narrator, who happens to be a 700-year-old chi...

Five More to Go: Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto [in The Booklist Reader]

19 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o, Filipina/o American, Lists, Repost, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

Insurrecto by Gina Apostol With shrewd insight, inventive plotting, and stinging history lessons, Gina Apostol, who received the PEN Open Book Award for Gun Dealers’ Daughter (2012), puts the “unremembered” Philippine-American War on literary display. Adjectives such as humorous, playful, and ingenious seem almost disrespectful when describing a book anchored...

The Tale of Cho Ung: A Classic of Vengeance, Loyalty, and Romance translated by Sookja Cho [in Christian Science Monitor]

16 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The Tale of Cho Ung introduces Korean classic tale to English speakers Despite being “the best-selling fictional narrative during the late Chosŏn period” (1392-1910) of pre-modern Korea, little is known about the provenance of The Tale of Cho Ung. The author remains unknown and its initial composition...

Mostly White by Alison Hart [in Booklist]

13 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Repost

Blood ties spanning almost a century connect Emma, an Indian Residential School runaway, to her great-granddaughter, Ella, a struggling actor. In 1890 Maine, Emma – born to a Passamaquoddy Native father and an African American mother, is violently uprooted and trapped in a tortuous school...

Florida by Lauren Groff [in Booklist]

07 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

Lauren Groff (Fates and Furies, 2015) lives in Florida and is married with two sons – not unlike five of the protagonists among the 11 stories here. Unlike with her previous titles, Groff narrates, adding a layer of intimacy to further enhance the first-person perspective...

I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brodi [in Library Journal]

06 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pakistani, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

When she was 25, Forbes named Khalida Brohi to its 2014 "30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs" list for founding Sughar Foundation, which trains and empowers rural Pakistani women. Brohi makes both her authorial and performance debuts as she chronicles her journey from a rural Pakistani...

One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasedevan [in Library Journal]

05 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian, Translation

In many ways, Kali and Ponna's lives couldn't be more fertile. Their fields and their cows keep them well nourished. Their playfulness and passion feed their souls. But after 12 years of marriage, they remain childless, leaving the couple helpless against the disdain disguised as...

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