Booklist Archives - Page 8 of 39

Ish by Adam de Souza [in Booklist]

04 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Canadian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

Canadian cartoonist/illustrator Adam de Souza gathers three previously published zines – ish (2017), and so you write it down (2018), and coda (2021) – to forge a loose journey confronting devastating loss and subsequent attempts at moving forward. In a narrative divided into brief vignettes, de Souza initially presents...

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto [in Booklist]

31 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Indonesian American, Repost, Singaporean American

As the photographer for the extended Chan clan’s wedding business, Meddelin (a well-intentioned approximation of Madeleine) is intimately familiar with all manner of nuptial celebrations, even when they include accidental murder, as witnessed in Dial A for Aunties (2021), Jesse Q. Sutanto’s rollicking debut, which introduced Big...

Crushing by Sophie Burrows [in Booklist]

27 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW From just the cover, the color red immediately suggests a strangers-to-not narrative; that floating heart in the title underscores what’s to come. But knowing what happens doesn’t diminish in any way Sophie Burrows’ poignant, timely, mostly wordless graphic debut. Set in London, where Burrows also...

How to Find What You’re Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani [in Booklist]

25 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian American, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian American

The second of Veera Hiranandani’s novels with geneses in the award-winning author’s Indian Jewish family history is ideally paired with versatile Priya Ayyar. For Hiranandani’s The Night Diary, Ayyar persuasively drew on her own South Asian heritage. Here Ayyar ciphers Hiranandani’s maternally-inspired latest, channeling her...

Bibliolepsy by Gina Apostol [in Booklist]

21 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o, Filipina/o American, Repost

Philippines-born Gina Apostol has earned significant recognition for Insurrecto (2018) and The Gun Dealers’ Daughter (2012). Such success often inspires resurrection of older works, in this case, Apostol’s debut, which she began writing in 1983 at 19 and which won the 1997 Philippine National Book Award. “I changed nothing...

Uncle Rico’s Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle by Peter Bacho [in Booklist]

20 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Filipina/o American, Memoir, Repost, Short Stories

“Each morning when I rise, I pause to remember the preciousness of what I have lost, and I cherish it.” Septuagenarian Peter Bacho, whose first novel, Cebu (1991), won the American Book Award, commits those memories to the page in poignant, affecting “mostly true stories.” Bacho’s...

Red Thread of Fate by Lyn Liao Butler [in Booklist]

19 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

Tam’s marriage to Tony is finally weaving back together as they prepare for the adoption of their son from China. After their lunchtime phone call suddenly disconnects, Tam learns that Tony and his cousin Mia were killed. The unraveling is immediate. Tony wasn’t supposed to...

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo [in Booklist]

18 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Eight distantly connected stories, mostly centering isolated women, comprise Sindya Bhanoo’s exquisite debut. In the opening O. Henry Prize-winner, “Malliga Homes 3,” a recent widow in Chennai is relocated to a retirement home by her rarely visiting Georgia-based daughter. “Nature Exchange” focuses on the...

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu [in Booklist]

17 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Lauded Vancouver-born, Seattle-domiciled poet-novelist Kim Fu (The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, 2018) presents a dozen sly, provocative, fabulous short stories sure to delight and shock. From doll parts to winged ankles to stockpiled gold bars, Fu flaunts an inimitable imagination. She deftly parses...

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW In her fifth self-narration, acclaimed Indigenous author Louise Erdrich’s latest is delightfully enhanced with personal meta-references, insightfully balancing the narrative’s heavier events. Louise, the owner of Minneapolis’ Birchbark Books (as is the author herself), goes on a just-before-pandemic-shutdown book tour – clearly a nod...

Reprieve by James Han Mattson [in Booklist]

13 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW A multi-generational family home of horrors looms throughout James Han Mattson’s (The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves) spellbinding latest. Ever-versatile narrator JD Jackson chills and thrills, underscoring the slyly literary, intensifying the social commentary, enhancing the utterly gory. John Forrester began his house of frights...

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward [in Booklist]

04 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Catriona Ward’s latest is quite the creepfest addition to psychological thrillers in which houses or buildings star as characters. Veteran Christopher Ragland sounds so appropriately trusting, even as listeners should be well aware: believe no one. The book’s characters couldn’t be more different, but Ragland proves...

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu [in Booklist]

03 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Cambodian American, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Casting an Asian American narrator for Asian American characters created by an Asian American author initially seems to be a promising decision, but Taiwanese American Natalie Naudus, though pleasant overall for Julie Tieu’s debut, isn’t consistently convincing with the multiple Asian languages in play. One...

Thirty Talks Weird Love by Alessandra Narváez Varela [in Booklist]

29 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

At 13, Anamaria is a beloved daughter, a top-performing student at an elite academy. But she lives in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico on the Texas border in 1999, threatened by looming femicide. And then Anamaria meets Thirty, who insists she’s Anamaria’s 17-years-in-the-future self. Thirty indeed talks...

The Bennet Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi [in Booklist]

28 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

Among countless Pride and Prejudice adaptations, Eden Appiah-Kubi’s debut might be the only with a transgender co-lead; it certainly has one of the most non-traditional Jane Austen-inspired casts ever. Welcome to Bennet House, Longbourn College’s first and only female residence. Appiah-Kubi’s Bennet sisters here are Black engineering...

Incense and Sensibility [The Rajes series, Book 3] by Sonali Dev [in Booklist]

27 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

Sonali Dev continues to channel Jane Austen via the Raje family with her third in the series, familiarly, gratefully voiced by Indian American favorite Soneela Nankani. Dev opens with a literal bang: California gubernatorial candidate Yash Raje is shot during a rally. His physical recovery...

Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang [in Booklist]

23 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Complicated intergenerational relationships have long fueled fiction, with immigration notably adding further challenges to parent-child understanding and bonding. Weike Wang’s provocative sophomore novel (after Chemistry, 2017) again centers on an accomplished Chinese American Harvard graduate with uneasy social, professional, and familial connections. Here Wang dissects the...

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka [in Booklist]

20 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Award-winning, bestselling Julie Otsuka is averaging one book per decade, making each exquisite title exponentially more precious. Here she creates a stupendous collage of small moments that results in an extraordinary examination of the fragility of quotidian human relationships. Initially set in an underground pool, it voices...

Pyre by Perumal Murugan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan [in Booklist]

13 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Repost, Translation

Perumal Murugan and Aniruddhan Vasudevan reunite after the infamous “success” of Murugan’s translated-into-English debut, One Part Woman, longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Murugan declared himself dead on Facebook after the cult novel was viciously condemned in India, his homeland, and...

Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow [in Booklist]

10 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Making her dual print and audio debut, journalist Kat Chow relies on words to resurrect her late mother – and lost family, by extension – who died of cancer in 2004. Not yet 50, her mother seemed to fulfill the superstition that the women in...

BookDragon Booklist Tag