Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See [in AsianWeek]
08 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost
Two interesting facts emerge: 1. young girls are bonded together to become laotongs (literally, “old sames”) for life and 2. women communicate using nu shu, a secret women-only written language. In the novel, 80-year-old...
A must-read novel about a Filipino Native American hapa Vietnam War veteran whose disturbing journal “entrys” are juxtaposed with more reliable, objective narration. How the story plays out keeps you on the edge of your seat,...
The inaugural title of an entertaining new series introduces five 17th-century Chinese young monks, each with special powers, who must save their world from destruction by one of their fellow brethren gone...
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Nineteen years after her twin’s unsolved disappearance, Mara Dunn finds her sister’s camera in a junk sale. Its final roll of film – of rare orchids – offers a definitive path of clues. With...
Here the connecting thread is that of place: a changing, bustling Bangalore at the core of fabulous stories about a man who falls in love too late with the wrong woman, an old man...
This slim volume of short stories by Nobel Prize Winner Gao, does not offer linear tales with pithy morals. Instead, it’s an elliptical collection...
A pseudonymously penned mystery thriller from the chronicler of the early Filipino American experience, this "lost" work ironically follows the lives of three non-Filipinos. Nevertheless, Hau and Anderson establish the work as...
Innocence lost: 17-year-old Ami is both schoolgirl and prostitute, pregnant by her mentally challenged older brother, brutally gang raped by a rock star and his groupies, but capable of restoring the dormant virility of...
If this 120-page novel rife with sex and violence were any longer, reading it would be unbearable. That it won Japan’s highest literary honor, the Akutagawa Prize, for its then 20-year-old author,...
All in the Name of Love in Xinran’s ‘Sky Burial’
Here’s the story: two lovers, marriage, and cruel separation by war shortly thereafter. The husband dies mysteriously, but the wife remains skeptical and embarks on...
Sweet Briar Skunk remembers how she felt when the other animals were not very welcoming on her first day of school. So at camp, she comes to the...
The first two installments of a new trilogy from YA master Yep. Tiger’s Apprentice opens with the untimely death of Mistress Lee, the current Guardian of the mysterious rose which holds the future hope...
I can only hope that the majority of APA adolescent boys are nothing like Nick Park – the lone Asian American in a Connecticut suburb, convinced that his Korean American-ness is what...
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Based on a real-life incident from the author’s childhood in Korea, this beautifully rendered book captures one stormy day when the skies seem to rain the most delicious peaches. The thoughtful young Choi worries...
A heartbreakingly inspirational book about a young girl in a tiny rural Chinese village who desperately wants an education, and the love and gratitude she feels for her parents –...
Confession time: I was ready to hate these – those names, for heaven’s sake! But how entertaining – and empowering – to have a hapa Chinese American girl, Agatha Wong, and her...
Local Bay Area author recounts the inspiring life stories of 21 South Asian American women scattered around the country.
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A long-overdue first biography of the life of extraordinary activist Yuri Kochiyama. Major plus: It’s extensively researched by a fellow activist.
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