BookDragon Bloomsbury Review Tag

The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim [in Bloomsbury Review]

13 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

From two of the most successful names in contemporary graphic novels – Gene Luen Yang, whose multi-award-winning American Born Chinese was the first-ever graphic novel to be a finalist for the National Book Award, and Derek Kirk Kim, the equally multi-award-winning author of groundbreaking Same Difference and...

Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Agarwal [in Bloomsbury Review]

13 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Pinky Mittal, a 13-year-old schoolgirl in 1960s Bombay, lives with her extended family in a sprawling family bungalow in one of the city's more fashionable neighborhoods. Her grandmother, who rescued her after her mother's death as an toddler, dotes on her. Her aunt-by-marriage barely puts...

A Party in Ramadan by Asma Mobin-Udden, illustrated by Laura Jacobsen [in Bloomsbury Review]

09 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American

When young Leena is invited to Julia's pony party which happens to fall on the first Friday of Ramadan, she decides she will go anyway and just not eat or drink. During the month of Ramadan, observant Muslims fast during the day as a sign...

Almost Single by Advaita Kala [in Bloomsbury Review]

24 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

Much to her mother's chagrin, Aisha has almost reached the big 3-0 and (gasp!) and is still single – but she's smart, independent, and definitely fun-loving. Working as the guest relations manager of a swanky Delhi hotel, she knows all about fast-paced city life. One...

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin [in Bloomsbury Review]

09 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Pakistani, Pakistani American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

What can I say? This debut collection is a gift. In eight intertwined stories using spare, perfectly measured language, hapa Pakistani American Daniyal Mueenuddin captures the lives of the haves and have-nots – money, position, power – with both precision and grace. Each of the collection's characters...

Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Seventeen-year-old Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, aka "Maybe," escapes the clutches of her slimy stepfather-to-be, for whom her ex-beauty queen alcoholic mother insists she'll walk down the aisle a seventh time. Maybe decides it's high time to go find her real father, the one...

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Australian, Australian Asian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

From the genius mind that brought you the wordlessly breathtaking bestseller, The Arrival, comes a collection of 15 short stories for all ages, uniquely illustrated in Tan's signature enigmatic style. The second story, "Eric," about the visit by a foreign exchange student like no one has...

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee [in Christian Science Monitor] [in Bloomsbury Review]

31 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Chinese, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hong Kongese, Korean American, Repost

Something about Janice Y.K. Lee’s debut novel, The Piano Teacher, whispers, “Watch me.” Populated with a cast of “wandering global voyagers,” Lee unfurls her story, set in Hong Kong during and after World War II, layer by layer and in cinematic snippets. Captured in clipped, almost abbreviated...

Erika-san by Allen Say [in Bloomsbury Review]

26 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Japanese, Japanese American, Repost

The prolific, Caldecott Medal-winning Allen Say debuts his latest picture book, as gorgeous as all the others. As a child, Erika falls in love with Japan through a framed picture her grandfather bought as a young man. "I want to go there when I grow...

Tan to Tamarind: Poems about the Color Brown by Malathi Michelle Iyengar, illustrated by Jamel Akib [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Latina/o/x, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Poetry, Repost, South Asian American

A joyful celebration of all sorts of brown-tinted skin colors, reflected in the tan of a spicy masala chai to the cocoa of a frothy hot chocolate to the ochre of  a bridal mehendi hand design to the coffee brown of café con leche to the adobe...

Little Rock Nine by Marshall Poe, illustrated by Ellen Lindner [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In graphic novel format just right for younger readers, Little Rock Nine deftly captures one of the most important moments in U.S. history when nine brave African American teens integrated all-white Central High School in...

Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost

Although published over a decade ago in Guo's native China – and since reworked in English by the author – Guo's story set in a new China rushing toward modernization will surely have a long 21st-century...

Steer Toward Rock by Fae Myenne Ng [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Some 15 years after her award-wining literary debut with her bestselling novel, Bone, Ng finally returns with a gorgeous, yet heartbreaking story of unrequited love in 1960s San Francisco. Jack Moon Szeto arrives as...

Evening Is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Malaysian, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

The wealthy Rajesekharan family of Ipoh, Malaysia is suddenly in shambles. Chellam, one of the family servants, has been mysteriously dismissed and leaves in utter disgrace. The bitter, difficult family matriarch is dead. Her son is...

Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire by David Mura [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost

Already an established nonfiction writer and poet, David Mura presents his debut novel, about a not-so-young Japanese American self-proclaimed itinerant historian who must delve into his own family's past – populated by both a...

Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan American

In Yalini's globe-scattered Sri Lankan family are two kinds of marriage: the Arranged Marriage that the obedient adhere to and Love Marriage which Yalini's newly immigrant parents fell into shortly after arrival in their adopted country....

A Good Indian Wife by Anne Cherian [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Neel is a handsome young doctor arriving at the family home in India to visit his ill grandfather. Back in his chosen home of San Francisco, he's got a gorgeous white girlfriend and his anesthesiologist career...

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

As horrible as some of the images are in this 2008 Booker Prize-winning debut novel, you can't help but chuckle just a little bit at some of the impossible shenanigans of its self-made unapologetic...

AIDS Sutra: Hidden Stories from India edited by Negar Akhavi [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Indian, Indian American, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

A harrowing anthology, comprised of 16 essays by some of the best writers of the international Indian diaspora, vividly explores the ravages of a too-fast growing AIDS community across India. Nikita Lalwani writes about a kind,...

I Live Here by Mia Kirschner, J.B. MacKinnon, Paul Shoebridge, and Michael Simons [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Myanmarese (Burmese), Nonfiction, Repost, Thai, Young Adult Readers

A genre-defying four-book documentary that captures the raw lives of refugees surviving war in Chechnya, the deadly sex-trade along the Burma/Thai border, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi. Sometimes, the jaw just drops in utterly...