Friendship Archives - Page 24 of 113

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick [in Booklist]

25 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

So you’re gonna find some conventional tropes here: mousy librarian, selfless sister/selfish sister, domineering father/submissive mother, free-spirited granny, mysterious guardian angel. But before your rolling eyeballs get stuck, two words on why you need to listen: Imogen Church! Perhaps best known for voicing clever thrillers...

Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei, translated by Jeremy Tiang [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Repost, Translation

Yes, it's almost two inches thick and more than 400 pages, but that shouldn't deter readers from procuring this book promptly. Chan Ho-Kei's second thriller available in the U.S., Second Sister, is virtually irresistible, with twisty-turny, didn't-see-that-coming manipulations guaranteed to keep readers wide awake into...

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen [in Shelf Awareness]

22 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

"This novel is a romp," Abigail Hing Wen promises (and delivers!) about Loveboat, Taipei. The Loveboat, she explains in her opening note to readers, is the popular name for Chien Tan, a real-life Taiwanese summer language program aimed at diasporic teens, with a reputation for...

Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao, translated by Mike Fu [in Christian Science Monitor]

21 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, European, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Translation

Stories of the Sahara celebrates a singular voice in travel writing Sanmao electrified Chinese readers when her travelogue “Stories of the Sahara” was published in 1976 – now it has been translated into English. She had three names; traveled to more than 55 countries; studied in Germany,...

Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez [in Booklist]

19 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Brown lives get overlooked, trampled, dismissed, and destroyed in Matt Mendez’s searing YA debut, set in his El Paso, Texas hometown. Timothy Andrés Pabon – his voice aptly mimicking a teen who’s not quite fully mature – opens in “Chapter Juan” as should-be high school...

When You Read This by Mary Adkins [in Booklist]

18 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker – both masterful epistolary novelists – couldn’t have imagined how today’s virtual communication would become an ideal medium to tell a story about ...

Five More to Go: Shokoofeh Azar’s The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American, Persian, Repost, Translation

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar Although the page facing the title of Azar’s first novel to be translated into English clearly states, “Translated from the Farsi,” the linguistic enabler remains anonymous; the publisher’s official line is, “the translator of this book has asked...

99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Central Asian, Fiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

During summer 2005, when “the American war was sort of dozing,” 12-year-old Marwand, his brother, and mother arrived in Logar, Afghanistan to visit extended family. The six years since Marwand’s last visit from the U.S. isn’t enough for Budabash – more wolf than dog –...

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara [in Library Journal]

13 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

Life in India’s basti (slums) has rules all its own – about toilets, water, hierarchies, privileges. The police either ignore the inhabitants, making crime reporting meaningless, or threaten to raze their ramshackle homes. Meanwhile, some 180 children go missing in India every day, reports British-based...

Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley [in Booklist]

12 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

With the right posh British accent, even lying, cheating, and all sorts of promiscuity somehow don’t seem as unforgivable. Life, death, and plenty of bed-swapping happen in Tessa Hadley’s latest, elucidated by English actor Abigail Thaw, who reads with such perfect enunciation and elegant control...

The Suspect by Fiona Barton [in Booklist]

11 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

In Fiona Barton’s third “Kate Waters” full-audio-cast thriller, Susan Duerden assumes tenacious journalist Kate Waters from Mandy Williams who previously voiced Kate in The Widow and The Child. This time the mystery gets personal – and far-flung. Two British teens traveling in Thailand turn up as victims in...

North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah [in Booklist]

08 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, European, Fiction, Repost

Originally from Somalia, Mugdi and Gacalo have now spent the majority of their lives in Norway, where they’ve been productive citizens, raising two children. Their quiet, middle-aged calm is shattered when their son Dhaqaneh commits a suicide bombing in Somalia. Gacalo’s only way forward after the...

Labyrinth by Burhan Sönmez, translated by Ümit Hussein [in Shelf Awareness]

07 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Translation, Turkish American

Boratin is "back at zero" since his unsuccessful suicide has landed him in a hospital bed instead of Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait. He's broken a rib but lost his memory. Strangers – even though they aren't – assure him he's "a brilliant singer and songwriter" for...

Those Who Knew by Idra Novey [in Booklist]

05 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

“In the aging port city of an island nation near the start of the new millennium,” Idra Novey (Ways to Disappear) introduces her taut, haunting novel, giving it a foreboding sense of taking place anywhere close, anytime near. Student activist Maria P. has been dead...

The Man Without Talent by Yoshiharu Tsuge, translated by Ryan Holmberg [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation

Readers have an easy choice here: to read this resonating six-chapter collection as an entertaining, albeit sobering, manga about the middle-aged life of a seeming slacker, or approach it as a prominent, pivotal example of 20th-century graphic literary history. Originally published as a magazine serial...

The Prom: A Novel Based on the Hit Broadway Musical by Saundra Mitchell with Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin, and Matthew Sklar [in Booklist]

31 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Drama/Theater, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Two star-crossed seniors just want to dance together at prom. Emma lives with her grandmother since her parents rejected her when she came out, but the bullying at school has never stopped. She and student council president Alyssa are in love, but Alyssa’s fear of...

Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana [in Booklist]

30 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Thai, Translation

One of Thailand’s most prominent writers, Pimjai Juklin – who publishes as Duanwad Pimwana – presents 13 resonating stories featuring the everyday lives of Thai citizens of diverse backgrounds, each confronting entrapment physically, emotionally, and socially. In “The Attendant,” an elevator operator enclosed daily in a...

Big Familia by Tomas Moniz [in Shelf Awareness]

29 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

For readers in search of a tautly streamlined, deeply resonating, contemporary family story, Big Familia by Tomas Moniz (Bellies and Buffalos) won't disappoint. In this short novel, Juan Gutiérrez is a longtime Berkeley resident, the amicably divorced father to high school senior Stella and a self-described Chicano...

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia [in Booklist]

28 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Being born on the wrong side of the wall means Dani’s parents took impossible risks to give her every opportunity for a better life. Despite her indigent origins, well-forged documents granted Dani access to the elite Medio School for Girls; as top graduate, Dani’s...

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo [in Booklist]

27 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Malaysian, Repost

After making her author and narrator debut with The Ghost Bride (2014), Yangsze Choo reprises her double-duty with this equally intriguing sophomore title. With her crisp, British colonial inflections, Choo is her own ideal reader, knowing exactly how her characters should sound. Set in 1930s British...

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