Manga addict that I’ve become in my old age, I tend to start books-with-pictures from the back cover. This, I’ve learned, often yields insightful rewards. [And no, I am not one of those skippers with novels, ahem!] Going backwards worked well here: author Joan Schoettler, who...
Here's how I finally came to read The History of Love ...
The announcement is over a week old, but better late than never, especially when it's such well-deserved fabulous news: ...
Clearly, Unbroken falls into the 'you can't make this stuff up'-category. Within the almost 500 pages of print (or 14 hours of listening – narrated with such dignity by award-winning actor Edward Herrman!), you'll experience just about every human emotion ...
In the six months since Mama passed away, Chanda's life has changed completely. As the sole provider for her sister Lily and brother Soly, Chanda is unable to continue her own education and instead substitutes at the primary school. With Mama gone, Chanda's best friend...
If it hasn't happened already, soon enough Chanda's Secrets will be coming to a theater near you ...
In spite of the fierce, wrenching content of her books, Tahmima Anam in real life is a gentle, warm, incredibly youthful presence. We met in livetime a few years ago in Washington, DC, as her debut novel, A Golden Age, was winning major international awards,...
With a long list that spans over four decades of critically lauded, award-winning novels, plays, and children's titles, Nigerian-born Buchi Emecheta is undoubtedly one of the pioneering women's voices in African literature. She writes with simple strength, without embellishments; her uncomplicated, accessible prose is quiet,...
Charlotte, 18, bored with her life in Denmark, hitchhikes into her chosen Italian city: destination – language school. Her thrill of "I'm finally in Italia," is instantly dashed by her realization that she's left her bag with all her valuables in the now long-gone truck. Wandering...
This was my last of the Julia Glass novels, having read them out of published order. Glass' first title, Three Junes, and her latest, The Widower's Tale, undoubtedly make up the better half of her oeuvre. I See You Everywhere and Whole World land on...
Here's the most remarkable detail about this debut novel: Nigerian-born, London-raised Helen Oyeyemi wrote this book in seven weeks (!) just before she turned 19, in the midst of studying for her A-level exams (Britain's upper level, pre-university standardized tests). Both endeavors proved highly successful:...
Tahmima Anam continues her outstanding Bengal Trilogy, which began with A Golden Age, her glowing 2008 debut that propelled Anam into a privileged literary circle filled with international accolades. From Rehana Haque, the protagonist mother in Age, Anam shifts her focus to the grown Haque...
Just sigh with me a moment. Deep breath in, deep breath out ...
Set in postwar South Korea, where tradition is challenged by the eye-blinking changes erupting from a rapidly evolving modernity, Park’s (Shakespeare’s Sonnets) novel is essentially a triangulated love story involving wealthy and stunning Soo-Ja who dreams of becoming a diplomat in a brave new world,...
Hattie Kong's email inbox is full of desperate pleas from various relatives to please send back her parents' bones to the family plot in Qufu, China. Because her American missionary mother and her Confucius-descended Chinese father found their final rest in Iowa, the remaining Kong...
Since 2002 Newbery winner Linda Sue Park’s latest title was published in November 2010, borders shifted (again) and the world recognized the birth of the newest nation, the Republic of South Sudan, on July 9 at midnight. The weekend announcement makes A Long Walk to Water almost...
The final installment of Canadian activist/author Deborah Ellis' award-winning Breadwinner Trilogy follows Shauzia, Parvana's best friend from The Breadwinner, in which both girls survived by cross-dressing as young boys, working to provide for their shuttered-in families in Taliban-controlled Kabul. While Parvana's desperate odyssey to reunite with her family...
The second part of Canadian anti-war activist Deborah Ellis' lauded Breadwinner Trilogy continues with Parvana's odyssey to reunite with her surviving family. Parvana and her recently released father leave Kabul at the end of The Breadwinner, determined to find Parvana's mother, older sister, younger sister, and toddler...
The quickly growing I See the Sun series continues with the third installment (following I See the Sun in China and I See the Sun in Nepal), this time heading to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. Young Habiba begins her day in the dark as her mother gently wakes her to...
