Once upon a time, two Bosnian girls arrived at kindergarten with paper-doll selfies. Sara’s mother made hers, garbed in pink and glittery. Lejla’s was blank. “[I]t’s not like I wear the same clothes every day,” she insisted, as if already aware that future incarnations –...
*STARRED REVIEW That the protagonist's name is Francisco Goldberg – an amalgam of maternal Guatemalan immigrant and paternal Jewish parentage – presents an irresistible invitation to explore autobiographical overlaps with award-winning creator Francisco Goldman. The parallels are immediate: both are peripatetic journalist/writers with connections to Boston,...
On June 19, 1982, 27-year-old Chinese American Vincent Chin was bludgeoned with a baseball bat by Ronald Ebens and stepson Michael Nitz. The two white men, like too many others, were driven by anti-Asian resentment over Detroit's declining auto industry due to Japanese competition. "It's...
*STARRED REVIEW Kyle Lukoff has already received acclaim for his picture books, including his #OwnVoices 2020 Stonewall Award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother. Lukoff's middle-grade debut, Too Bright to See, is another illuminating story that explores gender identity, featuring a trans tween who's finally ready to...
Warning: the number of corpses could actually exceed the page count in Tom Lin's addictively gruesome debut, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. Set between the Utah Territories and California in the late 1800s, Lin's novel manages to enhance a wild, wild western with Odyssean devotion, magic...
British actor Phil Davis makes his solo narrating debut, his voice controlled and resonant, softened just slightly for the single female among Swift’s elusive trio. Here We Are, the title proclaims, and yet – well, the threesome is more fleeting illusion than solid presence. In 1959...
Seven years ago, 11-year-old Sowon was left a virtual orphan: his father, Hyonsu was convicted of killing Sowon’s mother and a father and young daughter, then opening the Seryong Village dam’s floodgates, which wiped out half the town, drowning four policemen. While Hyonsu landed on...
David Levithan’s latest compilation mixes it up with one graphic and two verse entries among the familiar prose. Three tracks feature returning characters, including Every Day series’ main character A in “Day 2934,” reprised by Alex McKenna, who presents a heart-melting Valentine’s Day morning for an...
Let’s just agree that Casandra Campbell is not fluent in any Asian languages – which makes her an odd (mis)casting choice for a title set mostly in Tibet, populated by mostly Tibetan characters. That said, lauded journalist Barbara Demick’s extraordinary latest is a book to...
Relative newbie Mimi Chang and seasoned Josh Hurley prove well-paired narrating two 12-year-old seventh-graders in 1980s Sacramento who initially seem to share little more than loneliness – and the specter of missing fathers. Ro’s father is dead, killed by a drunk driver. She hasn’t moved houses,...
YA novelist Syed M. Masood (More than Just a Pretty Face, 2019) makes his adult debut with a seemingly disparate dual narrative headed for collision. Self-described “lapsed lawyer” Anvar is drifting – he’s lost his love-of-his-life-since-childhood Zuha; he consistently embarrasses his devout Muslim Pakistani American family;...
At 25-plus hours, we’re talking serious commitment – and enthusiastic accomplishment – for veteran narrator Ralph Lister, whose energetic performance never, ever lags. That said, clear distinctions between characters aren’t always reliable – the women, especially, sound too affectedly similar, the musical clips between sections...
Rolando’s been fired from a marketing gig he hates, which was actually an act of corporate kindness, because he gets severance pay, allowing him to be a screen hermit in his man cave. When his roommates finally drag him out, he ends up abandoning them...
Ma likes to think her family is like Job’s, so much so that she and Dad named their daughters accordingly: Jemima Genesis, Keziah Leah, Keren Happuch. Generations on both sides have known tortuous tragedy, but no one is prepared when Kezi – a YouTube activist...
To portray Jesus Christ in fiction is not new – some would agree he was always a novel creation. From Nikos Kazantzakis's classic The Last Temptation of Christ to the ongoing bestselling manga series Saint Young Men, Jesus moves copies. Prolific writer Amélie Nothomb (Tokyo Fiancée; Pétronille), who's...
April is National Poetry Month. Of course, reading, writing, and performing poetry can and should be done any time of the year, but April encourages newbies and doubters to give verses a try. Audiobooks are a particularly effective medium for poetry, with well-chosen narrators enhancing and...
As the anointed February 2021 title of literary überstar Roxane Gay’s “Audacious Book Club,” Peters’ debut novel is surely facing demand in multiple formats. Renata Friedman, with just over a dozen solo credits, immediately embodies the provocative narrative, effortlessly adapting her flexible voice to a...
Kikuko Tsumura has already won major Japanese literary prizes – most often writing about women in the workplace. Her U.S. fiction debut, There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job, smoothly translated by award-winning Polly Barton, features a 36-year-old unnamed working woman, her anonymity convincingly...
*STARRED REVIEW "Serendipity" perhaps best describes Richard Ho's (Red Rover) second picture book, The Lost Package, enhanced by writer/artist Jessica Lanan's (The Fisherman & the Whale) superbly expressive watercolors. Together, the creative pair present a wondrous story about separation and near-magical reunion. Under the watchful eye of a...
Actor/dancer Ulka Simone Mohanty confidently makes her solo debut and is clearly poised to become a chosen voice for contemporary South Asian American protagonists. Her versatility is immediately clear as she effortlessly ciphers Sonya Lalli’s (Grown-Up Pose, 2020) diverse cast: beyond career-driven exec Serena Singh,...
