BookDragon BookDragon Tag

Revenge by Taslima Nasrin, translated by Honor Moore, with Taslima Nasrin

27 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi American, Fiction, Translation

Author/physician/women's rights activist Taslima Nasrin's literary career is perhaps more famous for her detractors' reactions – bannings, book burnings, effigy burnings, fatwas, protests, personal assaults, exile from her home country of Bangladesh – than for the actual words on the page. One always wonders in all...

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

26 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Truly, one of the best ways to keep the kids happily quiet in the car is to share a story ...

The Hidden Girl: A True Story of the Holocaust by Lola Rein Kaufman with Lois Metzger

25 Aug, by SIBookDragon in European, Jewish, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Lola Rein Kaufman's "'memory button'" got turned on on September 17, 1939, when Russian tanks, trucks, and soldiers entered her small hometown of Czortków in what was then Poland. She was not yet 5 years old. Before she reached her 10th birthday, she lost her...

Joha Makes a Wish: A Middle Eastern Tale adapted by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Omar Rayyan

23 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Middle Eastern, Nonethnic-specific

Sometimes the simplest things are beyond understanding … exactly because of their simplicity. While resting against a crumbling old wall, Joha happens upon a wishing stick … but everything he wishes for has exactly the opposite results. He gets himself in trouble again and again, eventually...

Water Ghosts: A Novel by Shawna Yang Ryan

20 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction

How ironically fitting that Shawna Yang Ryan’s debut novel – about, yes, ghosts! – has already had multiple lives. First published in 2007 as Locke 1928 by a tiny non-profit California press, El León Literary Arts, it returned to bookshelves two years later in a new incarnation with...

Runaway: Stories by Alice Munro

19 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Fiction, Short Stories

Sometimes, only a good story can keep me adding the miles out there, one foot in front of the other, just to find out what happens next. How fitting to choose a collection called Runaway while I'm trying to make sure I do my training...

A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb by Amitava Kumar [in Christian Science Monitor]

17 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Indian, Indian American, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

If Rip Van Winkle were to read A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb upon waking, he would most likely shake his head and dismiss it as farce. Alas, you’ll only find this title in the “non-fiction” section of bookstores and...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vol. 6) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

14 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Federal employee Fujimoto delivers ikigami – death notices from the National Welfare Program, which insists that its arbitrary system of randomly killing one in every 1,000 citizens will teach people to value life. Fujimoto has been in doubtful turmoil about the death-system, although he knows...

The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Xu Ruiyan [in Library Journal]

14 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

While Xu crafts breathtaking prose in her debut, her storytelling doesn't yet match her formidable writing prowess. The book opens with a tantalizing premise: Li Jing – 32-year-old Shanghai finance wizard, devoted son, husband, and father – emerges from a horrific accident with Broca's aphasia, which leaves...

Raindrops: A Shower of Colors by Chiêu Anh Urban, illustrated by Viviana Garofoli

13 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Vietnamese American

Since we’ve been greeted the last few mornings with showers, I figure Raindrops was the most appropriate title to post today … This chunky book for little fingers proves to be a most clever adventure in learning colors … not just the basics, but how certain...

From North to South | Del Norte al Sur by René Colato Laínez, illustrated by Joe Cepeda

12 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Bilingual, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Latina/o/x

José and his Papá live in San Diego. Mamá used to live with them until the factory where she works was raided, and Mamá was sent away to Tijuana, Mexico. Two weeks since her sudden disappearance, José and Papá will finally be able to see...

In Celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage: A Survey of New & Notable Books [in Bloomsbury Review]

10 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

I've been doing an annual New & Notable roundup of APA titles for The Bloomsbury Review for more than a few years now. This year's installment is running a little later than usual. I know you can't see it here, but the roundup is referenced...

Author Interview: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni [in Bloomsbury Review]

10 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Sharing Humanity: A Talk with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni about Her Latest Novel, One Amazing Thing Over the last decades, tragedies – both human-made and those wrought by an ever-angry Mother Nature – seem to be coming at humankind with fast and furious regularity. The latest oil...

heartbeat by Sharon Creech

09 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction

I fully admit to being poetically challenged (damaged?). I don't get musicals either. But something about free verse is sooo gloriously addictive – when the rhythm is just right and you can't seem to put the pages down ...

The Tooth by Avi Slodovnick, illustrated by Manon Gauthier

07 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Young Marissa wakes one morning with a toothache – too much candy does have painful consequences! So it's off to the dentist instead of school. She experiences the morning hustle bustle of a busy city, careful to hold her mother's hand tightly. The most "unusual"...

Maneki Neko: the Tale of the Beckoning Cat by Susan Lendroth, illustrated by Kathryn Otoshi

05 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Japanese, Japanese American

We've all been greeted by the seated, squat kitty with one paw raised as if saluting her 'come-on-in-hello' to anyone and everyone either entering or just passing by in front of Asian shops and restaurants. Her name, in Japanese, is more of a description: she's...

Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language by Deborah Fallows [in Christian Science Monitor]

04 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

In the book of Exodus in the King James Version of the Bible, Moses first called himself a “stranger in a strange land.” From then on up through Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 novel of the same phrase, the “stranger in a strange land”-genre has been...

Author Interview: Grace Lin [in Bookslut]

02 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Author Interview/Profile, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

I really should have taken a picture: my too-fast growing tween son, cuddled in bed reading to his little cousin (my not-quite-5-year-old nephew with the most amazing eyes you’ll ever gaze into), hearing the very familiar words of Grace Lin’s delicious Dim Sum for Everyone. “Do...

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax

30 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

If you're a parent, go get this book and start reading NOW. Even if you don't have a son. While you're ordering, make sure to also include Leonard Sax's latest, Girls on the Edge, another life-changing read. If you're a parent, truly, you owe it...

Kobato (vol. 1) presented by CLAMP

29 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

I think this is my introduction to CLAMP, an all-woman collective of manga artists that began in the mid-1980s with varying members through the years, but consistently cranking out high-sales series that often get turned into anime. Go, girls, go! That said, I probably need to...