Booklist Archives - Page 13 of 39

Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen [in Booklist]

28 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

*STARRED REVIEW While the story arc might sound familiar – other-side-of-the-world refugees who endure challenging lives in the U.S. – Nguyen’s gentle precision nevertheless produces an extraordinary debut with undeniable resonance. As the MFA-ed, prestigiously fellowshipped (Lambda, Tin House) editor-in-chief of diaCRITICS, Nguyen ciphers all that...

What Could Be Saved by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz [in Booklist]

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

Here’s where veteran narrator Lisa Flanagan excels: unflaggingly individualizing myriad varied characters. Here’s where she disappoints: stumbling over non-English words and using a grating French accent. Quibbles aside, Flanagan consistently, remarkably maintains distinct voices for the peripatetic Preston family in Liese O'Halloran Schwarz’s (The Possible...

Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho [in Booklist]

26 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW “In my lifetime, I’ve had at least three mothers,” Grace M. Cho writes. After surviving the Korean War, Cho’s mother worked as a bar girl at a U.S. naval base during the U.S. occupation of South Korea. In 1971, she married Cho’s father, a...

Here We Are by Graham Swift [in Booklist]

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

British actor Phil Davis makes his solo narrating debut, his voice controlled and resonant, softened just slightly for the single female among Swift’s elusive trio. Here We Are, the title proclaims, and yet – well, the threesome is more fleeting illusion than solid presence. In 1959...

City of a Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks [in Booklist]

22 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Israeli, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Palestinian, Repost

Lameece Issaq reads languidly, her voice an ongoing invitation to Rebecca Sacks’ debut in which so much happens, but by book’s end might feel narratively stagnant – not because of Sacks’ writing, but because Israel and Palestine remain relentlessly enshrouded in conflict. The opening credits wisely...

Lies We Bury by Elle Marr [in Booklist]

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

Claire Lou is restarting her life in Portland, Oregon, where she’s managed to find a new apartment (never mind the money she still owes on the security deposit) and she’s even gotten herself hired as the Portland Post’s photographer. Her mother is just two hours...

Seven Years of Darkness by You-Jeong Jeong, translated by Chi-Young Kim [in Booklist]

20 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

Seven years ago, 11-year-old Sowon was left a virtual orphan: his father, Hyonsu was convicted of killing Sowon’s mother and a father and young daughter, then opening the Seryong Village dam’s floodgates, which wiped out half the town, drowning four policemen. While Hyonsu landed on...

Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole [in Booklist]

18 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Nigerian, Repost

“I wake up late the morning I’m meant to go to the consulate,” Teju Cole’s spare novel opens. As if in mid-confession, Peter Jay Fernandez’s tone is immediately familiar. In mere seconds, he’s drawing audiences into his confidence, sharing experiences, disclosing comments, and divulging secrets...

19 Love Songs by David Levithan [in Booklist]

17 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

David Levithan’s latest compilation mixes it up with one graphic and two verse entries among the familiar prose. Three tracks feature returning characters, including Every Day series’ main character A in “Day 2934,” reprised by Alex McKenna, who presents a heart-melting Valentine’s Day morning for an...

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez [in Booklist]

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

“Respected professor emeritus, writer, widow of a beloved doctor,” Antonia is trying to make the best of what should have been a pastoral Vermont retirement had her kind, grounding Sam not suddenly died. To her three sisters – “the Dominican Greek chorus,” she calls them...

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick [in Booklist]

15 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Tibetan

Let’s just agree that Casandra Campbell is not fluent in any Asian languages – which makes her an odd (mis)casting choice for a title set mostly in Tibet, populated by mostly Tibetan characters. That said, lauded journalist Barbara Demick’s extraordinary latest is a book to...

Clues to the Universe by Christina Li [in Booklist]

14 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

Relative newbie Mimi Chang and seasoned Josh Hurley prove well-paired narrating two 12-year-old seventh-graders in 1980s Sacramento who initially seem to share little more than loneliness – and the specter of missing fathers. Ro’s father is dead, killed by a drunk driver. She hasn’t moved houses,...

These Women by Ivy Pochoda [in Booklist]

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

Bahni Turpin opens and ends Pochoda’s thriller with electrifying energy as Feelia, the sole survivor of a serial killer who claimed 13 victims 15 years ago. All – including Feelia – had their throats slit, their heads covered in plastic bags, their bodies dumped. All...

The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood [in Booklist]

12 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Pakistani, Pakistani American, Repost

YA novelist Syed M. Masood (More than Just a Pretty Face, 2019) makes his adult debut with a seemingly disparate dual narrative headed for collision. Self-described “lapsed lawyer” Anvar is drifting – he’s lost his love-of-his-life-since-childhood Zuha; he consistently embarrasses his devout Muslim Pakistani American family;...

The Secret Talker by Geling Yan, translated by Jeremy Tiang [in Booklist]

11 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

Conflate “secret” and “talker” and you’ll land on “stalker” – which is what “this stranger on the internet” proves to be in author and screenwriter Geling Yan’s latest Anglophoned novel, English-enabled by award-winning Singaporean writer and translator Jeremy Tiang. Originally published in Chinese in 2004...

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell [in Booklist]

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

At 25-plus hours, we’re talking serious commitment – and enthusiastic accomplishment – for veteran narrator Ralph Lister, whose energetic performance never, ever lags. That said, clear distinctions between characters aren’t always reliable – the women, especially, sound too affectedly similar, the musical clips between sections...

Onion Skin by Edgar Camacho, translated by the author [in Booklist]

09 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Mexican, Repost, Translation

Rolando’s been fired from a marketing gig he hates, which was actually an act of corporate kindness, because he gets severance pay, allowing him to be a screen hermit in his man cave. When his roommates finally drag him out, he ends up abandoning them...

The Parted Earth by Anjali Enjeti [in Booklist]

08 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Before partition, the bloody 1947 cleaving that established India and Pakistan, Deepa was a happy teen in Delhi, loved by two parents who ran a medical clinic serving all in need. But hatred, politics, and fire destroyed her life. She left India, seemingly if not...

One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite [in Booklist]

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

Ma likes to think her family is like Job’s, so much so that she and Dad named their daughters accordingly: Jemima Genesis, Keziah Leah, Keren Happuch. Generations on both sides have known tortuous tragedy, but no one is prepared when Kezi – a YouTube activist...

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters [in Booklist]

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

As the anointed February 2021 title of literary überstar Roxane Gay’s “Audacious Book Club,” Peters’ debut novel is surely facing demand in multiple formats. Renata Friedman, with just over a dozen solo credits, immediately embodies the provocative narrative, effortlessly adapting her flexible voice to a...

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