Once I opened this second volume in Luis Alberto Urrea's Border Trilogy, I simply couldn't stop. So here's the best thing I can say about Lake after reading his first border title, Across the Wire: Lake is more of the same ...
The award-winning team that brought you the fascinating bite-sized statistics of If America Were a Village and If the World Were a Village delves into the lives of children all around the world. The statistics here might surprise you ("children make up about one-third of the...
Thanks to a sudden snowstorm and ensuing power outage, I had every excuse to strap on my headband flashlight and read the first of Luis Alberto Urrea's Border Trilogy without pause. Given the sheer gawk-factor of these pages, any excuses were negligible: This is definitely...
From the age of 16 when she took a biology class at a community college (making up for a failed high school freshman year because "she never showed up"), award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot has seemingly spent the majority of her life preparing to write...
Since all of earth has been declared a nature preserve, mankind now inhabits a "giant apartment complex," which orbits 35,000 meters above the deserted planet. Society is literally stratified, with the upper level residents afforded greater privileges while the basement dwellers live with limited resources. Five...
I admit that when one of my favorite friends told me she voluntarily gave up enjoying the blooming delights on a family trip through Death Valley in order to finish The Help, I picked up the book for a second time, determined to find out...
Censored in China, the latest novel in English translation from Yan Lianke (Serve the People!) is a brutal morality tale of a country undergoing transition; the citizens are mere “dogs, or chickens, or ants crushed underfoot” in a larger-than-life tragedy. China’s plan to fill its...
I'm not so sure about my tween son reading this sooner than later (it's part of his English curriculum this school year) ...
Natsume Ono is one versatile manga artist. She can go from contemporary lost souls (not simple) to an estranged mother/daughter relationship (Ristorante Paradiso) to a cozy Italian restaurant (Gente) and then effortlessly tackle feudal Japan's wandering warriors. Welcome to the uncertain world of Akitsu Masanosuke who...
I rarely ever say this: skip the book, and go see the film version of The Blind Side (which got Sandra Bullock her much-deserved Oscar win). The story of Michael Oher – a massive young man estranged from his addict mother, his dysfunctional siblings, and lost to...
True stories about kids with tragic endings are undoubtedly effective in fueling parents' worst nightmares. This one proves especially haunting. Six years ago today, "Yummy" Sandifer made the cover of Time magazine. Along with his mugshot were the words, "The Short, Violent Life of Robert 'Yummy'...
María Luz's family is in trouble. Their land in the hills of Honduras, which provides them with the corn and beans they need to live, has "lost its goodness." In order for the family to survive, María Luz's father must leave home and find work....
On this eve of 9/11, I'm in a frustrated funk. Regardless of political, religious, cultural, or ethnic affiliations, I think most Americans are shaking their heads at the state of the world, and definitely not shaking enough hands; not enough of us have been able...
Writer/playwright/activist/psychiatrist Nawal El Saadawi is one of those women who seem to scare men – especially those who purport to have something called 'authority.' She's been fired, banned, accused, threatened, imprisoned because of what is ultimately her simple belief that all women are worthy human beings...
If Rip Van Winkle were to read A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb upon waking, he would most likely shake his head and dismiss it as farce. Alas, you’ll only find this title in the “non-fiction” section of bookstores and...
José and his Papá live in San Diego. Mamá used to live with them until the factory where she works was raided, and Mamá was sent away to Tijuana, Mexico. Two weeks since her sudden disappearance, José and Papá will finally be able to see...
Young Marissa wakes one morning with a toothache – too much candy does have painful consequences! So it's off to the dentist instead of school. She experiences the morning hustle bustle of a busy city, careful to hold her mother's hand tightly. The most "unusual"...
Although at first glance, this might look like a children's title – it is essentially a picture book – the sometimes difficult contents make it much more suitable for middle grade readers and older. Even adults will certainly find deeply resonating moments to appreciate throughout. Ntozake...
In a tony New Jersey suburb, artistic Jaya, outspoken Lola, and shy Maria find an instant bond with each other, recognizing their outsider experiences of being the daughters of immigrant mothers who work as housekeepers and nannies for the wealthy families of their eighth-grade classmates. Jaya...
Barbara Demick, currently the Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, spent five years as Seoul's bureau chief where she had unprecedented access to North Koreans. Her interviews, which began in 2001, eventually became Nothing to Envy, a mind-boggling, heartbreaking, surreal-ly humanizing portrait of six...
