Coming-of-age Archives - Page 12 of 55

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney [in School Library Journal]

03 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Jordanian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

For Allie Abraham, "hiding is easy: reddish-blond hair, pale skin, hazel eyes," in other words – white. That she looks "textbook Circassian…from the Caucasus region. (Hey, they don't call it Caucasian for nothing)," is her ethnic inheritance from her immigrant Circassian Jordanian history professor father....

Frankly in Love by David Yoon [in Booklist]

25 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Frank Li witnessed his older sister be perfect: she got into Harvard, then Harvard Law, then graduated into an enviably lucrative career. For their Korean immigrant parents, Hanna could do no wrong – until she did: She fell in love with a non-Korean ...

Three Brothers: Memories of My Family by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Memoir, Repost, Translation

After decades of glimpsing autobiographical hints in his always intriguing, often surreal novels and short stories, Anglophone audiences get access to Yan Lianke's real life. Haunted by the passing of the men in his father's generation, Yan – one of China's most awarded, lauded authors...

Reproduction by Ian Williams [in Booklist]

21 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Canadian, Caribbean American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

Everything here sounds off-kilter – on purpose. Discomfort pervades the reading, whether conversations are awkwardly not-quite-synched between speakers, or sentences spoken in an (unnamed) Caribbean island patois are made purposefully wooden and German words and phrases become virtually unintelligible. That jagged performance, however, seems integral...

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby [in Booklist]

20 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Laura Ruby’s (Bone Gap, 2015) narrator – her name eventually revealed as Pearl – is dead. Pearl’s primary object of attention is not: Frankie, who’s 14 in 1941, is a “half orphan” relegated to a Chicago orphanage with her siblings by their living Italian immigrant father,...

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated by Jamie Chang [in Booklist]

17 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Already an international bestseller, television scriptwriter Cho Nam-Joo’s debut novel has been credited with helping to “launch Korea’s new feminist movement.” The fact that gender inequity is insidiously pervasive throughout the world will guarantee that this tale has immediate resonance, and its smoothly accessible,...

The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Fiction, Repost

Already an internationally recognized, award-winning art historian and filmmaker, Nana Oforiatta Ayim makes her literary debut with The God Child, a compelling and ambitious novel. Through narrative jumps in time and place, as well as jarring disruptions in multiple languages (most notably, untranslated Twi and...

Five More to Go: Kim Sagwa’s b, Book, and Me [in The Booklist Reader]

12 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Japanese, Korean, Lists, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

b, Book, and Me by Kim Sagwa and translated by Sunhee Jeong Although this book is set in a coastal suburb outside Seoul, the cycle of neglect by stressed or careless adults can and does happen anywhere. In such an all-too-familiarly indifferent environment, lauded Korean writer...

A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian [in Booklist]

03 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

What began as a family affair – Jeed Saddy made her aural debut with her sister-in-law’s memoir, First Comes Marriage – has turned into a promising bookish career: in just a few months, Saddy’s already onto her third narrating credit. Her versatile characterizations highlight the intertwined...

Five More to Go: Paul Yoon’s Run Me to Earth [in The Booklist Reader]

29 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Audio, British, Cambodian, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, European, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Sri Lankan American, Translation, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon Traversing countries and continents during a half-century, Paul Yoon’s (The Mountain, 2017) second novel unfolds decades of unrelenting loss and meaningless brutality, balanced – somehow – by exquisite kindness and unbreakable bonds. In war-torn Laos, a country brutalized by...

Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares [in Booklist]

26 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

With Spanish names, phrases, and whole sentences appearing every few pages, bilingual narrator Yaeli Arizmendi (the voice of Laura Esquivel’s Spanish editions) instinctively settles into Oscar Cásares’s (Amigoland) latest, in which he returns to his Tex-Mex border hometown of Brownsville. Almost-septuagenarian Nina’s life is not her...

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim [in Booklist]

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

For those looking for alternate therapies, the Miracle Submarine in Miracle Creek, Virginia, provides HBOT – hyperbaric oxygen therapy – believed to treat such conditions as autism and infertility. Despite the many ‘miracles,’ the venture is anything but: a mysterious explosion kills two patients and...

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen [in Shelf Awareness]

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

"This novel is a romp," Abigail Hing Wen promises (and delivers!) about Loveboat, Taipei. The Loveboat, she explains in her opening note to readers, is the popular name for Chien Tan, a real-life Taiwanese summer language program aimed at diasporic teens, with a reputation for...

Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez [in Booklist]

19 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Brown lives get overlooked, trampled, dismissed, and destroyed in Matt Mendez’s searing YA debut, set in his El Paso, Texas hometown. Timothy Andrés Pabon – his voice aptly mimicking a teen who’s not quite fully mature – opens in “Chapter Juan” as should-be high school...

99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Central Asian, Fiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

During summer 2005, when “the American war was sort of dozing,” 12-year-old Marwand, his brother, and mother arrived in Logar, Afghanistan to visit extended family. The six years since Marwand’s last visit from the U.S. isn’t enough for Budabash – more wolf than dog –...

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara [in Library Journal]

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

Life in India’s basti (slums) has rules all its own – about toilets, water, hierarchies, privileges. The police either ignore the inhabitants, making crime reporting meaningless, or threaten to raze their ramshackle homes. Meanwhile, some 180 children go missing in India every day, reports British-based...

North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah [in Booklist]

08 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, European, Fiction, Repost

Originally from Somalia, Mugdi and Gacalo have now spent the majority of their lives in Norway, where they’ve been productive citizens, raising two children. Their quiet, middle-aged calm is shattered when their son Dhaqaneh commits a suicide bombing in Somalia. Gacalo’s only way forward after the...

The Prom: A Novel Based on the Hit Broadway Musical by Saundra Mitchell with Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin, and Matthew Sklar [in Booklist]

31 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Drama/Theater, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Two star-crossed seniors just want to dance together at prom. Emma lives with her grandmother since her parents rejected her when she came out, but the bullying at school has never stopped. She and student council president Alyssa are in love, but Alyssa’s fear of...

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia [in Booklist]

28 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Being born on the wrong side of the wall means Dani’s parents took impossible risks to give her every opportunity for a better life. Despite her indigent origins, well-forged documents granted Dani access to the elite Medio School for Girls; as top graduate, Dani’s...

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka [in Booklist]

26 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Sure, the book is great. But the audio? It’s some sort of spectacular. In October 2018, bestselling Jarrett J. Krosoczka debuted his graphic memoir – about being raised by his grandparents when his single mother’s heroin addiction made her an unreliable parent; it was...

BookDragon Coming-of-age Tag