BookDragon Archives - Page 43 of 230

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar [in Booklist]

03 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Australian, Australian Asian, Fiction, Iranian, Persian, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Although the page facing the title of Azar’s first novel to be translated into English clearly states, “Translated from the Farsi,” the linguistic enabler remains anonymous; the publisher’s official line is, “the translator of this book has asked not to be named out of...

Best World Literature 2019 [in Library Journal]

02 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Chinese, European, Fiction, French, Japanese, Korean, Lists, Repost, South American, Syrian, Translation

For the second year, I got to read along with two fabulously erudite co-horts – my Library Journal editor Barbara Hoffert and fellow LJ reviewer Lawrence Olszewski – to compile this 10-title list of remarkable, unforgettable, best-of translated world literature. We all read voraciously throughout the year,...

How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper [in Booklist]

01 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

At 42, Andrew knows too much about death – personally and professionally. He’s lost his father, mother, sister; his bully brother-in-law is hardly family. He works in London’s Death Administration department, where he deals with what’s left of those who died alone, inspecting their homes,...

Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine [in Booklist]

30 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW A half-dozen Latinx readers voice Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s superb 11-story debut collection, which features mostly Colorado-domiciled Latinx/Indigenous characters hoping, demanding to be seen and acknowledged by a society in which women are routinely dismissed, threatened, and destroyed. Aural aficionados will especially thrill at the “read...

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys [in Booklist]

29 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

L.A.-born, Madrid-raised Maite Jáuregui makes her audiobook debut with one of the year’s most anticipated/lauded/likely to be awarded titles. Jáuregui dominates a sizable cast (Joshua Kane, Robert Petkoff, Oliver Wyman, Richard Ferrone, Neil Hellegers, Liza Kaplan), while her co-stars take turns momentarily interrupting chapters with...

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu [in Booklist]

28 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Although the cover claims Yu’s (Sorry Please Thank You, 2012) latest is “A Novel” – the description insistently written out in both Chinese and English lettering – his fiction, as always, defies easy labels. This hybrid conflates history, sociology, and ethnography with the timeless...

The Magic Hour by Ian Beck [in Shelf Awareness]

27 Nov, by SIBookDragon in British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

As British artist and author Ian Beck explains in his afterword, he first visited London's Tate Gallery "as a callow art student." He discovered then his favorite painting in the collection: Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent. In a verdant Cotswolds garden, two...

Black Forest by Valérie Mréjen, translated by Katie Shireen Assef [in Library Journal]

26 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Translation

This English-language debut from French writer/filmmaker Valérie Mréjen opens with a nameless suicide: a man “decides he’s old enough” and replaces the disco ball with rope. The story, however, begins with a divorced father who determines that his children are lacking suitable New Year’s Eve...

Africaville by Jeffrey Colvin [in Shelf Awareness]

25 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Canadian, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

The town of Africville exists, designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996. The small coastal community on the edge of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was home to black residents since the early 1800s, the majority with southern U.S. and Caribbean origins. Narrative magazine assistant editor Jeffrey...

The Sweet Indifference of the World by Peter Stamm, translated by Michael Hofmann [in Booklist]

24 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Repost, Translation

Enigma? Wormhole? Mere coincidence? Once upon a time, writer Christophe and actor Magdalena shared a life together. Their relationship falls prey to art – “I had believed I had to decide between her and my writing” – and then Christophe pens a successful novel inspired...

Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman [in Booklist]

23 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Perhaps because her single mother was an adamantly independent, relentlessly peripatetic news photographer, Nina Hill prefers to stay still. Mostly raised in L.A. by a wonderful nanny, by high school she was better read than all of her teachers. She finished a UCLA Art History...

Lottie & Walter by Anna Walker [in Shelf Awareness]

22 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

No one else but Lottie knows a shark is "hiding in the swimming pool." The teacher and other kids don't notice because the shark wants to eat only Lottie – which means every Saturday, Lottie spends her swimming class safely on deck. And then Walter...

Birthday by Meredith Russo [in Shelf Awareness]

21 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Born on the same day during a freak September blizzard in Tennessee, Eric and Morgan – and their families – "became friends for life." The shared birthday anchors them through life's most dramatic changes: Morgan's mother dies and Morgan's father shuts down, while Eric's once-perfect...

The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan, translated by N Kalyan Raman [in Booklist]

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

Success nearly killed Perumal Murugan. Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Translated Literature, his cult novel, One Part Woman, was viciously condemned and publicly burnt in his native India for revealing the culture of his remote village to the outside world. Murugan declared...

The Farm by Joanne Ramos + Author Interview [in Bloom]

19 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost, Southeast Asian American

“I cared more about making the reader uncomfortable than happy, because … discomfort makes you question and think” She began her American life as a six-year-old immigrant from the Philippines. She entered adulthood with a Princeton pedigree which well-served her lofty finance career. She was a...

Older Brother by Mahir Guven, translated by Tina Kover [in Shelf Awareness]

18 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Syrian, Translation

Two brothers. Two narrators. Two type fonts: serif for "The Older Brother" chapters; sans serif for "The Younger Brother." Their family has shrunk as Mahir Guven's debut, Older Brother, begins: "...

The Year We Fell from Space by Amy Sarig King [in Shelf Awareness]

15 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Amy Sarig King’s (Me and Marvin Gardens) second middle-grade title explores especially mature subjects – infidelity, parental missteps, mental illness, genetic inheritance, violent triggers – with effective, age-appropriate awareness. On January 18, 2019, "everything changed" in the Johanson home. While 12-year-old Liberty and her nine-year-old...

My Asian Kitchen: Bao * Salad * Noodle * Curry * Sushi * Dumpling by Jennifer Joyce [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian, Repost

When London-based, U.S.-raised food writer Jennifer Joyce began traveling in Asia in the 1990s, she "discovered the staggering deliciousness of authentic Asian cooking," she writes in the introduction to My Asian Kitchen. She presents an antidote to the "limited ...

Small Days and Night by Tishani Doshi [in Booklist]

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

Grace was unaware of her sister’s existence until their mother’s death revealed the family’s three-decades-plus secret. Grace returns to her native Madras from America, where she’s been living since college, working in customer service and watching her marriage implode over progeny disagreements. She’s jet-lagged but...

Now Hear This: Priya Ayyar [in Booklist]

12 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Arab American, Audio, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Persian American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

“Bringing these diverse books to life” is why Priya Ayyar does what she does. She narrates the books she didn’t have when she was growing up – books that resonate with her experiences as a California-born Indian American. “To think that someone who’s Muslim American...

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