BookDragon Cultural exploration Tag

The Times of Botchan (first volume) by Jiro Taniguchi and Natsuo Sekikawa, translated by Shizuka Shimoyama and Elizabeth Tiernan

28 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Not quite a year ago, my highly revered, most beloved advisor (of my second unfinished almost-ABD-PhD) passed away. As well as being one of the most important (and groundbreaking) Japanese scholars working in English, he was – and remains – the definitive western authority on Natsume Sōseki...

Joe and Azat by Jesse Lonergan

08 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Central Asian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Turkmen, Young Adult Readers

"Turkmenistan! It was a strange place," begins Jesse Lonergan's graphic travelogue based on his own experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in the central Asian former republic of the Soviet Union. Lonergan's alter-ego is "Joe" – as in average Joe Schmoe? – a bewildered American...

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin [in Christian Science Monitor]

07 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

Before I even finished the book, I had already preordered multiple copies of Gretchen Rubin’s latest title, The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. Which...

In the Convent of Little Flowers: Stories by Indu Sundaresan

02 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

First things first: Indu Sundaresan’s only (thus far) short story collection (she’s best known for her lengthy historical novels, The Twentieth Wife and Feast of Roses) is definitely an effective read. Many of the stories make you think beyond your immediate world as they temporarily...

The Disappeared by Kim Echlin

31 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Canadian, Fiction, Southeast Asian

One Halloween night when Anne Greves is 16, she goes with older friends to a jazz club and falls in love for the first time in her young life. Serey is an older man, already in his 20s, a musician, who has already lived too...

Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka by Adele Barker [in Christian Science Monitor]

30 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Sri Lankan

Three weeks after 9/11, University of Arizona professor Adele Barker arrived in Sri Lanka as a senior Fulbright Scholar to teach Russian literature, feminist literary theory, and American literature to select students at the University of Peradeniya. But her own education about the history and...

Noodle Pie by Ruth Starke

23 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Australian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian, Vietnamese, Young Adult Readers

Andy Nguyen is most definitely Australian, not Vietnamese. And yet his father insists they're going "home" to Vietnam, somewhere Andy has never been. Andy's Dad is Viet Kieu, a name given to Vietnamese-born immigrants who live in other countries around the world. Returning Viet Kieu...

What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

10 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Confession: This is not my favorite Malcolm Gladwell title. But that's not to say that I didn't enjoy parts of it more than probably 75% of the titles collected in this whole blog. Really. Gladwell is one phenomenal, erudite entertainer ...

Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang, foreword by Frank Rich

02 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Chinese American, Drama/Theater

Surely, I have never been part of a more raucous audience than when I saw David Henry Hwang's latest play, Yellow Face, at New York's Public Theater in December 2007. The man at the end of the row in front of us LITERALLY FELL OUT...

Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed-Race America, photographs and interviews by Mike Tauber, co-produced by Pamela Singh, foreword by Ann Curry, introduction by Rebecca Walker

19 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Stupendous and spectacular come immediately to mind when you look at this book. Not to mention a bit of "oof!" over its hefty size and weight – it's full of gravitas, after all! Mike Tauber's photographs are breathtaking, laid out simply to let the gorgeous...

The Year of the Tiger: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chin, illustrated by Justin Roth

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

Is is already time to start thinking about the new year? Come 2010, we'll all be celebrating the year of my son ...

Animals Marco Polo Saw: An Adventure on the Silk Road by Sandra Markle, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini

29 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Children/Picture Books, Chinese, European, Middle Grade Readers, Mongolian, Nonfiction

Marco Polo sure got around in his time, way back in the 13th century! And what a great way to show our instant-access, Web-addicted kids just how incredible the Polo family's adventures were – for any generation! The latest in Chronicle Books' (that great indie San...

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

28 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, Fiction, Turkish

Even before this book hit U.S. shelves, French-born Turkish author Elif Shafak was charged with insulting "Turkishness" in violation of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code because one of her characters refers to the large-scale massacre of Armenians that began in 1915 in Turkey as...

The Silence of God and Other Plays by Catherine Filloux

23 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Drama/Theater, Jewish, Nonethnic-specific, Southeast Asian, Turkish

Playwright Catherine (pronounced Ka-treen) Filloux has built her dramatic reputation on giving voice to lost, overlooked souls. In Lemkin's House, Filloux presents the struggle of Raphael Lemkin, a Polish American lawyer whom she refers to as her "historical soulmate," a man who coined the term "genocide"...

The Seeing Stick by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini

20 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Without a doubt, the most remarkable part of this striking new edition of Jane Yolen's 1977 title are the pictures. The story is simple: a Chinese emperor's daughter, blind since birth, learns to "see" with the help of a wise old man and his mysteriously...

Humankind: An emotional journey by Yoshio Komatsu and Eiko Komatsu

19 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

The chapter titles of this splendiferous collection of images of people around the globe read like a poem: Touch / Feel / Love / Hope / Laugh / Hurt / Fear / Believe / Try / Play / Rest / Need ...

A Good Fall by Ha Jin [in Library Journal]

15 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

With an enviable literary reputation built on award-winning titles set in China, poet/novelist/short story writer Jin recently debuted his first U.S.-based novel, A Free Life, about the Americanization of a Chinese immigrant family. While the 12 stories in his latest release continue to explore familiar...

The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook: Home Cooking from Asian American Kitchens by Patricia Tanumihardja

12 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian, Pan-Asian Pacific American

The holiday season is fast approaching (already!) so take note now ...

Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts

04 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Australian, Fiction, Indian, South Asian

Forty-three (yes, 43!) hours is a major commitment to a single book. And in spite of the most eye-rolling, not-so-nicely-talking back to a continuously babbling (for 43 hours, 3 minutes to be exact!) iPod that I have ever done, I will actually admit that Shantaram is...

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton

12 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

"At first I was afraid, I was petrified ...