Friendship Archives - Page 3 of 113

Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala [Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery 3] [in Shelf Awareness]

08 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost

Get ready for more delectable death. After the "rather dark places" both Mia P. Manansala and her protagonist, Lila Macapagal, endured in Homicide and Halo-Halo – the second novel in the Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series – Manansala (Arsenic and Adobo) opens Blackmail and Bibingka with reassurance, writing...

They Call Her Fregona: A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles [in Shelf Awareness]

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Mexican American, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

David Bowles continues his eloquent, autobiographical narration of the "border kid" experience in They Call Her Fregona, a captivating novel-in-verse companion to his 2019 Pura Belpré Honor book, They Call Me Güero. Joanna Padilla, the titular fregona, is a "tough girl," first introduced in Güero. After Joanna saved Güero from...

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Six of the eight stories in Ling Ma's debut short story collection, Bliss Montage, have already appeared in the usual prestigious publications (the New Yorker, Granta, the Atlantic). "They can just read them for free somewhere else?" a skeptical mother remarks to her about-to-be-published daughter over lunch in...

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton [in Shelf Awareness]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Kate Beaton’s many devotees revere her for the award-winning series Hark! A Vagrant. Perhaps lesser known is the provenance of those erudite, playful histories: they began as a webcomic while Beaton worked in the oil fields of Alberta, Canada. In Ducks: Two Years in the...

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW Opinionated, peanut gallery-esque ghosts soothsay from Maple Street Cemetery in Evanston, New Hampshire. Former professor Clive’s feline hallucinations had him permanently removed from his classroom in the middle of a term; these days, Clive spends most of this time with (dead) Ernest Harold Baynes...

Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer [in Booklist]

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

At 43, Lia is dying, likely to leave behind her adoring husband Harry, precious 12-year-old daughter Iris, best friend Connie, (finally) no-longer-estranged mother, and career as a children’s book illustrator. Fighting for a future means that Lia must confront the consequences of her past. She grew...

And They Lived … by Steven Salvatore [in School Library Journal]

28 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW From Steven Salvatore’s warm dedication onward, Kirt Graves ignites the pages with kaleidoscopic talent and charm, fulfilling his self-described “passion ...

So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens [in School Library Journal]

27 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Inimitable Kevin R. Free returns for another happily ever after match with bestselling author F.T. Lukens. As the story begins, the hardest part is over – right? Arek and his BFFs have beheaded the Vile One, saving the realm of Chickpea. Until the rightful...

Ballad & Dagger [Outlaw Saints, Book 1] by Daniel José Older [in School Library Journal]

26 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Lee Osorio bestows Daniel José Older’s newest series with an outstanding first volume – hopefully signaling further perfectly tuned duets. Once upon a time, the Caribbean island of San Madrigal was home to “that particularly wonderful mix of humanity ...

The Loophole by Naz Kutub [in School Library Journal]

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

Naz Kutub commingles the preposterous and poignant, heightened with myths of lost love. Shawn K. Jain is a sensitive cipher, opening with Kutub’s author’s note that includes content warnings about abuse and expulsion, both of which happen to Sy, the 17-year-old Muslim Indian gay son...

Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend [Winnie Zeng, Book 1] by Katie Zhao [in School Library Journal]

17 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

“Middle school. Is there a scarier place on the planet?” 11-year-old Winnie laments. “In books and movies, everything bad happens in middle school.” She’s not wrong, alas. Plenty of scary and worse are about to happen in sixth grade, but good will conquer a lot. Hoping...

Lunch from Home by Joshua David Stein with Niki Russ Federman, Ray Garcia, Preeti Mistry, Mina Park, illustrated by Jing Li [in Shelf Awareness]

14 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Indian American, Jewish, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Repost, South Asian American

Journalist/author Joshua David Stein (Notes from a Young Black Chef) goes back to school in Lunch from Home, a delectable celebration of comfort foods with origins from all over the world that converge in a single classroom. "This story [is] based on the lives of four...

Sojourn by Amit Chaudhuri [in Shelf Awareness]

12 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

*STARRED REVIEW Amit Chaudhuri – novelist, poet, essayist, musician – dexterously expands the quotidian into philosophical, sociopolitical, and existential ruminations in Sojourn, a sparse narrative with undeniably dense resonance. An unnamed Indian writer arrives in Berlin for a four-month university residency. He's befriended, then abandoned, by a...

Thornwood [Sisters Ever After, Book 1] [in School Library Journal]

10 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Leah Cypess debuted her middle grade “Sisters Ever After” series in 2021 with this enchanting retelling of Sleeping Beauty with maybe a bit of Rumpelstiltskin mixed in. The audiobook follows a year later, releasing simultaneously with the series’ second installment, Glass Slippers. Prolific, versatile Jessica Almasy...

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo [in Booklist]

07 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

Nghi Vo’s stupendous debut, The Chosen and the Beautiful, alchemized (and improved) The Great Gatsby by shifting narrative control to supporting character Jordan Baker. Vo dramatically gifts similarly transformative autonomy to her latest protagonist, Luli Wei, who is clearly a revisionist stand-in for legendary Asian American film...

The Age of Doubt by Pak Kyongni, translated by Sophie Bowman and others [in Booklist]

06 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Considered one of Korea’s greatest novelists, Pak Kyongni (1926-2008) is revered for her multi-volume epic Toji (The Land, 1969-1994), designated among the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. She began publishing autobiographical short stories, inspired by tragic post-Korean War experiences, exposing the high cost of survival,...

Princess Charming by Zibby Owens [in School Library Journal]

03 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Zibby Owens’s third book is also her third narrator credit, as well as her debut for children. She relies on a delightfully playful twist channeling one of the world’s most familiar fairy tales, cleverly revealed in the final three words (no spoilers). “Being a princess isn’t...

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin [in Booklist]

02 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Jewish, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In her fifth adult title, Gabrielle Zevin (Young Jane Young, 2017) impressively interweaves multiple threads that twist and tangle around what is essentially a decades-long love story. Jennifer Kim ciphers most of the narration, deftly distinguishing the main three players, with a brief interlude voiced...

Which Side Are You On by Ryan Lee Wong [in Booklist]

01 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In the short opening paragraph introducing a young man watching his mother approach the LAX curb in her new Prius, debut novelist Ryan Lee Wong manages to pack in generation gaps, climate change, brutal colonialism, and “let[ting] go of that ancestral sh*t sooner or later.” Columbia...

What We Fed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri [in Booklist]

31 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW While novels told from an animal’s point of view are that unusual, an entire story collection with non-human narrators seems rare. Even more striking is the stupendous quality of Talia Lakshmi Kolluri’s breathtaking debut. Deep bonds define Kolluri’s heart-pulling protagonists, who too often face...

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