Friendship Archives - Page 42 of 113

The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Library Journal]

07 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Yan Lianke's latest translated-into-English title offers multiple rewarding options. As straightforward narrative, it follows the astounding transformation of Explosion, a rural mountain village, into a "megalopolis" through the entangled lives of the Kong family's four sons – a teacher, a politician, a soldier, and...

Remembering 1942 and Other Chinese Stories by Liu Zhenyun, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin [in Booklist]

03 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

Mao Dun Award–winning novelist Liu Zhenyun (The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon, 2015) adroitly confronts Very Big Topics – family, education, work, bureaucracy, the military, history – in his first translated-into-English story collection. “Tofu” exposes the numbing tribulations of being a poor family...

Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky [in Booklist]

02 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

Tokyo-born, Berlin-domiciled Yoko Tawada (Facing the Bridge, 2007) returns with another fantastical and entertaining novel that combines a broken family saga, socio-political-environmental enlightenment, a treatise on writing, and bitingly well-placed satire. Seamlessly translated from German by the award-winning Susan Bernofsky, Memoirs of a Polar Bear introduces...

The Art of Confidence by Wendy Lee [in Booklist]

01 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American

An ephemeral, atmospheric painting, Elegy, is at the core of Wendy Lee’s third and most ambitious novel (Happy Family, 2008; Across a Green Ocean, 2015). An unknown, 30-year-sojourning Chinese artist is paid a pittance to recreate a missing canvas. A desperate New York gallery owner...

Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz [in Booklist]

31 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost

As explosive growth transforms 1970s South Korea into an international powerhouse, sociopolitical upheaval becomes unavoidable in daily life. Into the maelstrom of such spectacular change, first-novelist Grace Yoojin Wuertz – Seoul-born, U.S.-raised, Yale- and NYU-degreed – drops two women onto the elite campus of Seoul...

How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball [in Library Journal]

20 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Morbid fascination will keep listeners riveted to Jesse Ball’s (A Cure for Suicide) shocking new novel as teenager Lucia Stanton chronicles –with unnerving detachment – her troubled life through a collage of blunt paragraphs, random lists, outrageous predictions, and a "pamphlet" bearing the book's...

Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan [in Library Journal]

19 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Singaporean, Singaporean American, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

Jazzy is still single at almost 27. When her BFF-quartet lost Sher to the dream they all aspire to – marrying an "ang moh," a wealthy Western expat, because local Singaporean men "are a bit fussy" about "older girls" – Jazzy decides she needs a...

Vinegar Girl [Hogarth Shakespeare] by Anne Tyler [in Library Journal]

18 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

The third installment of the Hogarth Shakespeare series transfers the 16th-century comedy The Taming of the Shew, set in Padua, Italy, to a contemporary Baltimore neighborhood, otherwise known as beloved Pulitzer-Prized Anne Tyler-territory. The Bard's obdurate, would-be lovers Katherina and Petruchio become Kate Battista, a...

A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi [in Library Journal]

17 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction, Repost

Accused of brutally murdering her husband, Zeba lands in jail. A mother of four, wife to Kamal, and obedient to Kamal's family, Zeba can't remember what happened. She remains silently resigned, realizing that in contemporary Afghanistan, just being a woman is enough to threaten not...

A Family Is a Family Is a Family by Sara O’Leary, illustrated by Qin Leng

11 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Talking about families can sometimes be daunting for kids, especially when you can't check off those expected, so-called "traditional" boxes on who's who of your bestest loved ones. Sitting in her classroom discussing "what we thought made our family special," one little girl is not...

Kizumonogatari: Wound Tale by Nisioisin, translated by Ko Ransom [in School Library Journal]

06 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

As spring break begins, 17-year-old loner Araragi makes his only friend – and loses his humanity. Araragi is befuddled by class president Hanekawa's sudden attention, and his conversation with her about a vampire sighting doesn't sink in until he helps a dying limbless woman, only...

Author Interview: Pamela Erens [in Bloom]

04 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Jewish, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

While Pamela Erens might not yet be a household-name author, she’s hardly a stranger to literary recognition. Her 2007 debut, The Understory – about a solitary, unemployed lawyer who’s about to lose his home – was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the...

The Pier Falls and Other Stories by Mark Haddon [in Library Journal]

28 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Wildly varying in topics from a seaside disaster in the titular opening story to an unlikely relationship that develops between an older man and the suicide attemptee he rescues in "The Weir," Mark Haddon’s nine stories here are thematically linked through a common sense...

The Silent Dead [Reiko Himekawa, Book 1] by Tetsuya Honda, translated by Giles Murray [in Library Journal]

23 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

Already the star of an ongoing, bestselling series in Japan (on both page and screen), Det. Reiko Himekawa makes her English-translation debut, outsmarting her arrogant male colleagues by listening to the dead. At 29, Reiko is young to be a lieutenant in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's...

Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan [in Libary Journal]

21 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW When a bomb explodes in a Delhi market in May 1996, the 11- and 13-year-old Khurana brothers, who were sent to pick up the family's repaired television, are killed, while their friend Mansoor Ahmed, 12, somehow survives. The senseless tragedy inextricably binds the two...

Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife by Barbara Bradley Hagerty [in Library Journal]

19 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW At the risk of sounding utterly selfish, thank goodness Barbara Bradley Hagerty (Fingerprints of God) recovered from her excruciating throat injury to narrate her latest title. Her conspiratorial, gregarious recitation, a skill that clearly contributed to her two-decade, award-winning NPR career, instantly convinces listeners...

Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami [in Shelf Awareness]

16 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Just after turning 8, Yasmin Kader set a goal "to read one book every day. Every single day, forever." She's already up to more than 400, thanks to after-school detours to Book Uncle's Lending Library, a street-corner pop-up made of planks piled high with books....

Vaseline Budda by Jung Young Moon, translated by Yewon Jung [in Library Journal]

15 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

As narratives go, little happens in Jung Young Moon's latest translated-into-English title: unable to sleep, the protagonist considers writing a story, but not before he prevents a possible robbery. The unknown fate of the fallen thief sparks his imagination to cite memories (a break-up, a...

Local Girl Swept Away by Ellen Wittlinger [in School Library Journal]

14 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Four best friends are on the Cape Cod coast when a storm blows in, and suddenly one of them, Lorna, is gone. Lorna was Jackie's best friend, Finn's girlfriend, and Lucas's dream girl. Her body is never found, but a memorial is organized, and life...

As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds [in School Library Journal]

13 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Jason Reynolds makes his middle-grade debut with a multigenerational story featuring two Brooklyn brothers sent to stay temporarily with grandparents in rural Virginia. While their parents take some time to salvage their fraying relationship, 11-year-old Genie and his almost 14-year-old brother, Ernie, are expected...

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