Cultural exploration Archives - Page 2 of 35

You’ve Changed: Fake Accents, Feminism, and Other Comedies from Myanmar by Pyae Moe Thet War [in Booklist]

*STARRED REVIEW She has two names, Moe Thet War and Pyae Pyae (pronounced “puh-yay, puh-yay”). Both were carefully chosen by her parents. As a Myanmar-born, U.S.- and British-educated, Myanmar-returned resident with a perfect American accent, Pyae Pyae unabashedly explores her “liminality ...

Love Marriage by Monica Ali [in Shelf Awareness]

04 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Repost

Even at 400-plus pages, by book's end, readers will miss the Ghorami and Sangster clans of Monica Ali's addictively readable, shrewdly insightful, subversively humorous novel Love Marriage. Yasmin Ghorami and Joe Sangster are in love, engaged to be married in the months ahead. They're both physicians,...

Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick [in Booklist]

25 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

Artist Emma Fick’s illustrated travelogue combines intricate art and intimate observations – vibrantly colored and distinctly hand-lettered – of a Beijing-to-Moscow expedition on the Trans-Siberian Railway. In May 2015, while in Finland with her then-boyfriend-now-husband, the pair found a used book, Trans-Siberian Handbook, that had...

Homicide and Halo-Halo [Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery 2] by Mia P. Manansala [in Shelf Awareness]

17 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost

Cozy mystery label aside, Mia P. Manansala's enticing second installment of her toothsome Tita Rosie's Kitchen series opens with a warning: "I wrote Homicide and Halo-Halo while both me and my protagonist, Lila, were in rather dark places in our lives." Introduced – and nearly...

Thank You, Mr. Nixon by Gish Jen [in Shelf Awareness]

08 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW In Thank You, Mr. Nixon, her second irresistible collection of short fiction, Gish Jen (The Resisters) showcases 11 intricately linked stories spanning the East and West over a half-century. The titular opening story is a letter recalling the U.S. president's 1972 visit to China that...

Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias, illustrated by Tracy Subisak [in Shelf Awareness]

01 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

*STARRED REVIEW Margaret Chiu Greanias's inviting Amah Faraway is a heartfelt homage to her Taiwanese heritage that binds multiple generations on either side of the globe. Tracy Subisak (illustrator of Shawn Loves Sharks) elevates the familiar bicultural narrative with vivacious multimedia illustrations. Kylie of San Francisco and Amah of...

Seoulmates by Jen Frederick [in Shelf Awareness]

26 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost

Since Hara Wilson and Choi Yujun didn't quite get their happily-ever-after in Heart & Seoul, author Jen Frederick – a transracial Korean adoptee – returns with its addictive sequel, Seoulmates. In the first book, Korea-born, Iowa-raised adoptee Hara's loss of her estranged father prompted a...

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo [in Booklist]

18 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center 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...

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu [in Booklist]

03 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center 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...

Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow [in Booklist]

10 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center 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...

African Artists: From 1882 to Now by Chika Okeke-Agulu and Joseph L. Underwood, conceived and edited by Phaidon editors [in Shelf Awareness]

04 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Biography, Nonfiction, Repost

Make room for African Artists: From 1882 to Now, a stunning coffee-table title that is itself a substantial, gorgeous display. Conceived by internationally renowned art publisher Phaidon, this impressive compilation showcases 316 modern and contemporary artists who "were either born within the continent or have...

Author and Illustrator Interview: Eva Chen and Sophie Diao [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Author Interview/Profile, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Eva Chen and Sophie Diao: A Collaboration of Joy and Empowerment Eva Chen and Sophie Diao have yet to meet in real life, but they already share important commonalities: both are American daughters of Chinese immigrants, both have multiple book credits, and both are multi-tasking multi-talents. Chen is a...

I Am Golden by Eva Chen, illustrated by Sophie Diao [in Shelf Awareness]

02 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

An Instagram executive and Google Doodler might not seem to be a literary match, but author Eva Chen (Juno Valentine series) and illustrator Sophie Diao (I Am the Wind) prove to be an ideal pairing in their fabulous first picture book collaboration, I Am Golden. "We...

Himawari House by Harmony Becker [in Booklist]

23 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Japanese American, Korean, Repost, Singaporean, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Harmony Becker, who brilliantly created the artwork for George Takei’s Eisner-winning They Called Us Enemy (2019), makes her stupendous solo debut in what will prove to one of the best graphic titles of the year. The narrative might initially seem simple: a mixed-race U.S. teen...

Perpetual West by Mesha Maren [in Shelf Awareness]

09 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Mexican, Repost

To compress Mesha Maren's exhilarating second novel, Perpetual West, into a quick description would be an injustice to her intricately plotted, unsettling narrative about two 21-year-olds unsure of who they really are. Whereas her debut, Sugar Run, had its characters return to Maren's home landscape of rural...

Once Upon a Quinceañera by Monica Gomez-Hira [in Booklist]

21 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

Not to be confused with bestselling Julia Alvarez’s book of the same title – hers, a nonfiction examination of Latina coming-of-age quinceañera traditions – Monica Gomez-Hira makes her YA debut with a rollicking fable of quinceañeras lost and found. Eighteen-year-old Carmen never got her party: her...

Child of the Flower-Song People: Luz Jiménez, Daughter of the Nahua by Gloria Amescua, illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh [in Shelf Awareness]

20 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Latina/o/x, Mexican, Repost

Educator and poet Gloria Amescua makes her picture-book debut with the inspiring Child of the Flower-Song People, spectacularly illustrated by award-winning Mexican American author/artist Duncan Tonatiuh (Undocumented). Amescua poignantly uses her own experiences of "almost losing my Spanish language and culture" as a Latina in Texas...

So We Meet Again by Suzanne Park [in Shelf Awareness]

13 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

Suzanne Park (Loathe at First Sight) crafts another engaging enemies-to-lovers romance in So We Meet Again. Back in junior high, Jessie Kim and Daniel Choi were pitted against each other by their competitive Korean American parents as beacons of near-perfection. Both eventually escaped: Jess landed on...

American Estrangement by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh [in Booklist]

10 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Iranian American, Persian American, Repost, Short Stories

The men, mostly young, in memoirist and playwright Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s provoking second story collection lack fulfillment. “Workplace lassitude” is suffocating a 19-year-old wannabe actor stuck at his father’s construction company in “Audition,” while an art-gallery employee fights nine hours of daily tedium in “A, S,...

I Am the Subway by Kim Hyo-eun, translated by Deborah Smith [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW The Seoul subway system's line #2 is a circular route that's also the city's busiest; it happens to include Gangnam – as in "Gangnam Style" – among its dozens of popular stations. Author/illustrator Kim Hyo-eun's magnificent I Am the Subway highlights a train traveling...

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