Friendship Archives - Page 11 of 113

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue [in Booklist]

26 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Imbolo Mbue’s PEN/Faulkner-winning Behold the Dreamers unveiled immigrants chasing the American Dream; her searing sophomore title exposes U.S. destruction beyond its borders. In an unnamed African nation, oil giant Pexton has been poisoning the farming village of Kosawa – water, land, air, and people....

Both Sides Now by Peyton Thomas [in Shelf Awareness]

25 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Peyton Thomas's auspicious YA debut, Both Sides Now, invites readers into the complicated transition year between parental reliance and university independence. Seniors Finch and Jonah are their Olympia, Wash., debate team headliners. Although they lose the state competition to their private school archnemeses, the pair still...

The Human Zoo by Sabina Murray [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

Sabina Murray (The Caprices) has built a lofty career on her ability to craft intricately layered, thought-provoking fiction: what she initially presents as straightforward storytelling is intensified with piercing cultural, sociopolitical and historical nuances that encourage greater interaction for deeper satisfaction. The Human Zoo is yet...

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...

Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell [in Booklist]

14 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Argentinian, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, South American, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Mariana Enriquez’s second collection, after 2017’s Things We Lost in the Fire, is insatiably addicting even as the dozen stories are gruesome, lurid, and utterly weird. As a Buenos Aires journalist, she witnessed true horror, the consequences of dictatorship, corruption, 30,000 disappeared; her literary...

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...

A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti [in Shelf Awareness]

12 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Eastern European, European, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Time, geographies, and backgrounds all seem to flow effortlessly through Jai Chakrabarti's exquisite debut novel, A Play for the End of the World. At its core is the provenance of a possible love story between two strangers in New York City. Interwoven into this uncertain...

Songs for the Flames by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean [in Booklist]

11 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Colombian, Fiction, Short Stories, South American, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Prodigious author, journalist, and translator Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Reputations, 2016), one of South America’s most important writers, is once again deftly translated by award-winning Canadian Anne McLean. Four stories provokingly manipulate time. In “Woman on the Riverbank,” a war photographer briefly encounters a politician’s assistant...

Skinship by Yoon Choi [in Booklist]

09 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW The characters in Yoon Choi’s stories are caught in-between cultures, families, generations, even life and death. Especially stupendous are her Korean immigrant women-in-flux. In “The Church of Abundant Life,” a childless woman recalls how she met her husband through her English tutor in Korea...

It’s Not What You Thought It Would Be by Lizzy Stewart [in Shelf Awareness]

07 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Award-winning British children's author/illustrator Lizzy Stewart makes an impressive adult graphic debut with interlinked short episodes observing, analyzing and celebrating women's friendships. The nine chapters in It's Not What You Thought It Would Be could each stand alone, but Stewart cleverly relies on shades of orange to...

Better Place by Duane Murray, illustrated by Shawn Daley [in Booklist]

05 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Duane Murray, an actor, writer, and producer in film, makes his on-the-page graphic debut, nimbly realized by Canadian artist Shawn Daley. In a rallying example of the axiom “It takes a village,” a half-dozen graphic greats – including Jeff Lemire and Nate Powell – contribute...

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...

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist]

02 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Cambodian American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Southeast Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Nine electrifying stories comprise Anthony Veasna So’s debut, and while many were previously published, when read together their magnificence is enhanced as they create an interconnected Cambodian American community. Most autobiographical is “Human Development,” in which the narrator is also Anthony, a gay, Stanford-degreed...

All Kinds of Other by James Sie [in Booklist]

01 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

James Sie (Still Life Las Vegas) multitasks as author and partial narrator in his first YA novel: the theme might seem common – a high school love story complicated by parents and friends – but the narrative’s specifics elevate the familiar into memorable. Sie gamely...

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga [in Booklist]

31 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Lebanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Next-door neighbors Cora Hamed and Quinn McCauley’s best-friendship began in toddlerhood, but they’ve spent the last 10 months in silence. Cora’s sister Mabel is dead. Quinn’s brother Parker murdered her; he took a gun to school and killed four people, including himself. Mourning defines the Hamed...

When We Say Black Lives Matter by Maxine Beneba Clarke [in Shelf Awareness]

26 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Australian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost

"Little one," two Black parents address the baby in their arms, "when we say Black Lives Matter, we're saying Black people are wonderful-strong." Award-winning Australian author/illustrator Maxine Beneba Clarke's opening sentence visually accentuates the phrase "wonderful-strong," distinguishing the lettering with yellow-orange color and gradually increasing...

A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen [in School Library Journal]

25 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

Her model – yep, as in runway – older sister Jeannie couldn’t be more perfect, leaving Liza all too familiar with their Taiwanese immigrant mother’s disappointment and frustration. Despite Mom’s “no dating while you’re in school” rule, she ironically can’t get over Liza’s lack of...

Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson [in School Library Journal]

24 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction

*STARRED REVIEW The “Before” was when ZJ’s football-playing father was “everybody’s … next great hero,” but to ZJ, world-famous “Zachariah 44!” was “just my dad … which means / he’s my every single thing.” For most of 12-year-old ZJ’s life, Daddy was the very best parent,...

If I Tell You the Truth by Jasmin Kaur [in School Library Journal]

22 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Indian American, Poetry, Repost, South Asian American, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Introduced in Jasmin Kaur’s debut, When You Ask Me Where I’m Going, mother Kiran and daughter Sahaara return in this timely hybrid prose/verse novel that deftly addresses the perils of being undocumented and surviving sexual assault. Kiran enters Canada from India on a student visa, already...

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan [in School Library Journal]

21 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Making her solo audiobook debut, Richa Moorjani affectingly channels Zara Hossain, a Corpus Christi, TX, high school senior who stands up to Tyler Benson, the school’s football star who’s also a racist bully. After Zara refuses to stay silent while Tyler and his cronies hassle...

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