BookDragon Archives - Page 104 of 230

Legend Trilogy: Legend, Prodigy, and Champion by Marie Lu

13 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

While production doesn't seem to have started just yet, news that Marie Lu's bestselling dystopic trilogy is coming to a theater near you keeps resurfacing since CBS Films bought rights to Legend in 2011. That Lu has a much-hyped new series, The Young Elites, hitting shelves this fall, will surely add pressure to...

Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

12 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

Regardless of how many more books I might read this year, Bich Minh Nguyen's second novel (and third title) will undoubtedly remain one of my top three for 2014. So engrossing is this Girl, that even Bernadette Dunne's occasionally faltering narration (oh, those fake Asian accents!) couldn't put me...

The Shadow Mother by Seán Virgo, illustrated by Javier Serrano Pérez

11 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Confession: this post appears today only because of the word "Mother" in the title. In the U.S. and many countries around the world, the second Sunday in May is designated "Mother's Day" [check out this comprehensive chart for a Mother's Day near you!]. So here's the warning: if you're...

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Edith Grossman

10 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, South American, Translation

Okay, so let's start with the first line (which, I admit, was almost the last line for me): "The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." Given my other life involved...

what did you eat yesterday? (vol. 1) by Fumi Yoshinaga, translated by Maya Rosewood

09 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Before you open this tasty title, ask your stomach if it's full. Any hint of hunger and you just might embarrass yourself salivating. The cover is already a toothsome teaser: salmon-and-burdock seasoned mixed rice, boiled bamboo shoots with konjac and wakame seaweed, eggplants and tomatoes with Chinese-style...

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

08 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Latina/o/x, Nonfiction

In 1947, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education desegregated all public schools throughout the United States, the Mendez family of Westminster, California, finally won a three-year fight for an equitable education for their children – and all children like them. In an era...

Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang

07 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Taiwanese American

Sometimes my timing is so serendipitous, I wonder if I have a book angel whispering to me in my sleep. Somehow, I hit 'play' on this irreverent, potty-mouthed, guffaw-inducing, jaw-dropping memoir last week, only to see it pop up this week in my virtual world...

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

06 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction

As much as he likes to paint, do puzzles, and sing the loudest during circle time, Morris' favorite part of going to school is the dress-up center. There he dons the tangerine dress, marvels at its swish and crinkle, and loves that the bright color...

No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay, illustrations by Sophia Janowitz

02 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Poetry, Young Adult Readers

Goodness gracious! I have so much to tell you about this book! Allow me to lay out some pre-reading, preparatory directions: First, go meet Sarah Kay through her 2011 TED debut. She is so expressive and impressive both, that watching her once will give you the magical ability to...

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng [in Library Journal]

01 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Celeste Ng’s debut is one of those aching stories about which the reader knows so much more than any of the characters, even as each yearns for the unknowable truth. “Lydia is dead,” the novel opens – blunt, unnerving, devastating. She’s only 16, the middle of three...

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver

30 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

The timing is horrifyingly surreal: capital punishment emerged as a major topic this week, from the tragically innocent, to the mistreated guilty – and somehow, unrelatedly, I managed to choose this title. Once begun, I couldn't stop until the final page. "In this world, you are either good...

Crazy Rich Asians [Crazy Rich Asians 1] by Kevin Kwan

29 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Singaporean, Singaporean American, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

You might consider duct-taping your jaw shut because Manhattan-based Singaporean author Kevin Kwan insists on the veracity of the excesses in his outrageous, hilarious, train-wreck tragic debut novel: "So many aspects of and stories in the book I actually had to tone down!" he told...

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan

28 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Australian, Australian Asian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction

Argh! Here where I'm stuck for another month, three or four inches of snow greeted me this morning (so much for almost May!). But if anyone can convince me summer is coming, that would be the inimitable Shaun Tan. This, his latest title, immediately pulls...

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

27 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, Fiction

The title here is your first warning: Oxford Dictionaries describes 'double bind' as "[a] situation in which a person is confronted with two irreconcilable demands or a choice between two undesirable courses of action." Think on that, then brace yourself as you open the cover...

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

25 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Young Adult Readers

Canadian cousins Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki’s first collaboration, Skim, won enough major awards to make their second title an eagerly anticipated publishing event. Get ready because This One Summer hits shelves May 6. And here's the bottom line: Summer is spectacular without a chance of sophomoric slump in sight. "Okay. Awago Beach is...

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

24 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Australian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

As I feel I know so little about the literature of our Down Under friends, I admit I'm surprised to find I've posted almost 30 titles with Australian origins here on BookDragon thus far. If you were to pop-quiz me on Aussie authors, my instant...

Migrant by José Manuel Mateo, illustrated by Javier Martínez Pedro, translated by Emmy Smith Ready

22 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Translation

Imagine a long scroll, that unfolds like a fan or an accordion. Each panel, when finally open, reveals a single, elongated picture, with sparse text to illuminate the densely populated illustration filled with mountains, animals, plants, people, that give way to trains, police cars, fences, highways, and...

Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis

21 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Fiction, Iranian, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

At 15, Farrin is the privileged only child in a tense, unhappy, albeit very wealthy family. Her father runs a construction company that takes advantage of illegal, desperate Afghan workers to make big profits. As successful as he might be, Farrin's mother continuously laments that she has...

Insufficient Direction by Moyoco Anno, translated by Satsuki Yamashita

18 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

If you can get over the initially disturbing caricatures of a toddler and bearded man as the two married-to-each-other protagonists, you're in for some ingenious, goofy fun. [Having had a parent at our kids' school be convicted as one of the country's worst child pornographers...

Bird by Crystal Chan

17 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

In the small town of Caledonia, Iowa, Jewel stands out: she's "'half-Jamaican, a quarter white, and a quarter Mexican.'" As if to provide a physical embodiment of Jewel's hapa background, the audible producers cast Amandla Stenberg, who played the heartbreaking role of young Rue in the film version of The...

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