Booklist Online Archives - Page 4 of 9

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman [in Booklist]

13 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

SIXTY-EIGHT narrators get credited with creating the aural spectacle of Neil Gaiman’s legendary graphic epic. Debuting officially in 1989, the original comic series concluded in 1996, although reprints, compilations, adaptations, and spin-offs have as never ceased. Among the vast cast – quite possibly the largest...

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar [in Booklist]

28 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Syrian American

*STARRED REVIEW “Exceptional” is the only word for such a confluence of multiple #OwnVoices as the trifecta of trans Arab artists (author, character, and narrator) gathered to create this audible literary feast. In alternating epistolary chapters set decades apart, trans activist Samy Figaredo (making their audio...

The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung [in Booklist]

15 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Newbie narrator Keong Sim – who, although born in Vietnam, shares Korean American heritage with Mike Jung – has less than a handful of audio credits, but his effervescent energy is a perfect match for Jung’s rollicking, heartwarming MG buddy epic. Matt and Eric are...

Moriarty the Patriot (vol. 1) by Ryosuke Takeuchi, illustrated by Hikaru Miyoshi [in Booklist]

11 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930, his Sherlock Holmes legacy comprised four novels and 56 stories. Sherlock has since become an unstoppable literary institution, proliferating across mediums; although his archnemesis, Professor James Moriarty, only appeared in six of Doyle’s original works, his own...

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories by Laura Van den Berg [in Booklist]

08 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

Measured and controlled, Amy Landon expertly ciphers this 11-story collection with a sense of purposeful detachment, as if these women’s stories are too difficult, too harrowing to risk becoming too involved. Three stories, each highlighting erasure, emerge as standouts: in “Lizards,” an angry Floridian transplant...

What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez [in Booklist]

07 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Always approachable, immediately engaged, Hillary Huber returns as Sigrid Nunez’s cipher after voicing her 2018 National Book Awarded, The Friend. Once more, suicide looms, this time as a future intention rather than in response to a foregone event. In this is spare, sharp, simultaneously both daunting...

The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini, translated by Richard Dixon [in Booklist]

06 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost, Translation, Verse Novel/Nonfiction

*STARRED REVIEW On September 11, 1844, Heyum Lehmann from Rimpar, Germany disembarked from a ship in New York harbor to become Henry Lehman. Brothers Emmanuel and Mayer soon followed. From immigrant store owners turned cotton traders in pre-Civil War Alabama, the brothers moved to banking in...

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed [in Booklist]

22 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Jewish, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Friends from infancy, Jamie and Maya haven’t seen each other in almost 10 years – until food-related fiascos (runaway tangelos, tipped-over soggy pastries) lead to an awkward reunion. Both now 17, white Jewish Jamie has grown up shy, clumsy, and especially wary of public speaking....

True Story by Kate Reed Petty [in Booklist]

13 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In a story of “they said, she heard, he believed, she can’t remember,” whom do you trust? Even the title misleads – True Story: A Novel – while the final words confirm little: “But I’m trusting you to see this is true ...

His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie [in Booklist]

12 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Prodigious Soneela Nankani – who reigns as the South Asian/South Asian American voice-of-choice – ventures onto onto a new continent, landing in Ghana to cipher debut novelist/gender scholar Peace Adzo Medie’s not-quite-Cinderella tale with energetic aplomb. Once upon a time, Afi was a poor village seamstress-in-training,...

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart [in Booklist]

27 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

Seventeen-and-a-half-hours is a long, lonnnnnng commitment, and Scottish actor Angus King takes on his fellow Glaswegian Douglas Stuart’s resonating debut with meticulous devotion. While the title belongs to young Shuggie Bain, who comes of age in the poorest neighborhoods around Glasgow in the 1980s, the narrative...

A Girl Is a Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi [in Booklist]

20 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Uncategorized

At almost 15 hours, Uganda-born, UK-domiciled Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s (Kintu) Ganda folklore-infused sophomore title is a sprawling epic with a vast cast that challenges, even occasionally derails, a seasoned narrator like Tovah Ott (Ott’s credits seem few, but under two additional aliases, she’s commanded hundreds...

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor [The Carls, Book 2] by Hank Green [in Booklist]

15 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Chinese American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Yes, indubitably, you’ll need to first read/listen to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (2018) to fully appreciate April’s resurrection, why/how we’re not alone, the need to save humanity despite, well, humans. While Kristen Sieh helmed Hank Green’s bestselling debut almost solo – Green himself did a...

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby [in Booklist]

11 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW S.A. Cosby and Blacktop Wasteland were featured in Booklist’s 2020 Spotlight on Crime Fiction, and his editorial proved to be thought-provoking and memorable. For readers seeking further Cosby-talk, choose the audiobook, because, while actor Adam Lazarre-White is absolutely convincing, the recording’s highlight just might be Cosby’s 10-minute...

Parachutes by Kelly Yang [in Booklist]

10 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

After a minute of unnecessary, ill-suited music, this recording opens with a chilling content warning: “This book contains scenes depicting sexual harassment and rape.” Kelly Yang’s highly anticipated follow-up to her award-winning middle-grade debut, Front Desk (2018), is markedly different from that book, as she...

Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan [in Booklist]

08 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

Readers might need the opening sentence repeated here: “Somewhere in the Américas, many years after once-upon-a-time and long before happily-ever-after, a boy climbed the cobbled steps of an arched bridge in the tiny village of Santa Maria in the country of the same name.” The...

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner [in Booklist]

04 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

If the narrator sounds immediately familiar, here’s why: Danielle Macdonald played Willowdean Dickson in the popular Netflix adaptation of Julie Murphy’s bestselling Dumplin'. Making her narrator debut in Jennifer Weiner’s plus-size empowering latest, Macdonald is so convincing that once listeners have begun the story, stopping...

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata [in Booklist]

16 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

Besides sharing a Dominican background with titular Adana Moreau, Coral Peña seems rather miscast for first-time novelist Michael Zapata’s predominantly male cast. Having made her notable aural debut (serendipitously!) with Angie Cruz’s lauded Dominicana (2019), Peña’s sophomore performance feels more determined than inspired. Zapata’s novel flows through...

Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang and Adrien Gombeaud, illustrated by Ameziane, translated by Edward Gauvin [in Booklist]

31 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Lun Zhang was there during “the largest spontaneous gathering in all of Chinese history,” surrounded by “the joys and smiles of Beijing’s youth” hoping to achieve freedom and democracy. At 26, he was older than his student counterparts; he had “lived through the regime’s most...

Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham [in Booklist]

29 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

Nigerian-born, Iowa Writers’ Workshop-MFA-ed Tola Rotimi Abraham’s devastating debut covers almost two decades of a Lagos family navigating dysfunction and trauma. The comfortable lives of twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike and younger brothers Andrew and Peter disintegrate when their father falls victim to a financial...

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