Haves vs. have-nots Archives - Page 2 of 22

Honor by Thrity Umrigar [in Booklist]

08 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Sneha Mathan returns for her third outstanding collaboration with Thrity Umrigar, their shared Indian heritage again enhancing their author/narrator symbiosis. Accents, genders, ages, backgrounds, and emotions abound, but Mathan embraces diverse characterizations with effortless ease. In a remote Indian village, a young Hindu widow has...

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty [in Shelf Awareness]

25 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Repost, Short Stories

The dozen stories of Morgan Talty's vivid debut collection, Night of the Living Rez, certainly stand alone – eight of them were previously published in various prestigious journals including the Georgia Review and Narrative magazine, which also awarded him a 2021 Narrative Prize. To discover all 12...

Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser [in Booklist]

30 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Australian, Australian Asian, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW The monsters here are, of course, people, made terrifying by what Michelle de Kretser labels “three scary monsters – racism, misogyny, and ageism.” Subtitled “A Novel in Two Parts,” the notable Sri Lankan-born Australian de Kretser’s (The Life to Come, 2018) latest is indeed...

A Sister’s Story by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, translated by Ann Goldstein [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Italian, Repost, Translation

Award-winning Italian writer Donatella Di Pietrantonio made her English-language debut with the lauded A Girl Returned, deftly translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (revered for her elegant Elena Ferrante translations). Author and translator return to the characters from their earlier collaboration with A Sister’s Story, another...

The Rooftop by Fernanda Trías, translated by Annie McDermott [in Shelf Awareness]

30 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, South American, Translation, Uruguayan

In the chilling, spare-but-oh-so-dense novel The Rooftop, Uruguyan writer Fernanda Trías introduces Clara – her name a sharp contrast to her uncertainty, her unknowing – as she recounts the life that she announces on the opening page "came to an end today." Once upon a time,...

Gordo by Jaime Cortez [in Shelf Awareness]

06 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Short Stories

As a visual artist and performer, Jaime Cortez has always been telling stories. He gets literal in his debut, Gordo, an impressive collection featuring the titular Gordo, a preteen middle child of Mexican American farm workers in California's 1970s Central Coast. Gordo is one of...

The Archer by Shruti Swamy [in Booklist]

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

As in her lauded debut short story collection, A House Is a Body (2020), Shruti Swamy examines women’s ownership of their very selves in her first novel, which is set in a disappeared Bombay. Swamy divides Vidya’s young life into five distinct sections, focusing on pivotal...

Hao: Stories by Ye Chun [in Booklist]

24 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Bilingual Chinese American writer, poet, and translator Ye Chun showcases her linguistic prowess in a prodigious debut collection featuring women on both sides of the globe, many defined and confined by and reliant on motherhood. The titular “hao” recurs, meaning “Good, yes, okay. The most...

The Human Zoo by Sabina Murray [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

Sabina Murray (The Caprices) has built a lofty career on her ability to craft intricately layered, thought-provoking fiction: what she initially presents as straightforward storytelling is intensified with piercing cultural, sociopolitical and historical nuances that encourage greater interaction for deeper satisfaction. The Human Zoo is yet...

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist]

02 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Cambodian American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Southeast Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Nine electrifying stories comprise Anthony Veasna So’s debut, and while many were previously published, when read together their magnificence is enhanced as they create an interconnected Cambodian American community. Most autobiographical is “Human Development,” in which the narrator is also Anthony, a gay, Stanford-degreed...

People Like Them by Samira Sedira, translated by Lara Vergnaud [in Shelf Awareness]

13 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, European, Fiction, French, Repost, Translation

Samira Sedira's first English-language title, translated by Sara Vergnaud, is clearly marked "a novel" on its cover, and yet so much of the story is true. People Like Them is a fascinating amalgam of gruesome headlines – French newspapers in 2003 reported that an entire family...

Author Interview: Silvia Moreno-Garcia [in Shelf Awareness]

20 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian, Fiction, Latin American, Mexican, Repost

Silvia Moreno-Garcia: On Publishing, Racism, and a "Real Horror Story" Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a literary chameleon, successfully writing across genres, including speculative short fiction (This Strange Way of Dying), historical fantasy (The Beautiful Ones), magical realism (Gods of Jade and Snow) and horror (Mexican Gothic). She's also edited several anthologies, is the publisher of micro-indie...

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo [in Shelf Awareness]

13 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

Everyone and every place remain assuredly familiar here: Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Myrtle and George drink, dance, manipulate and die throughout East Egg, West Egg, Nick's cottage, Gatsby's mansion, the Plaza suite, and the green-lit dock. But Nghi Vo's first novel (after novellas The...

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin [in Shelf Awareness]

06 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Warning: the number of corpses could actually exceed the page count in Tom Lin's addictively gruesome debut, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. Set between the Utah Territories and California in the late 1800s, Lin's novel manages to enhance a wild, wild western with Odyssean devotion, magic...

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle over American Immigration, 1924–1965 by Jia Lynn Yang [in Booklist]

04 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Pulitzer Prized NYT editor/journalist Jia Lynn Yang makes history intimately personal: “This book is an attempt to fuse my family’s history to the history of the country that found a place for us ...

What Could Be Saved by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz [in Booklist]

27 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Here’s where veteran narrator Lisa Flanagan excels: unflaggingly individualizing myriad varied characters. Here’s where she disappoints: stumbling over non-English words and using a grating French accent. Quibbles aside, Flanagan consistently, remarkably maintains distinct voices for the peripatetic Preston family in Liese O'Halloran Schwarz’s (The Possible...

City of a Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks [in Booklist]

22 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Israeli, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Palestinian, Repost

Lameece Issaq reads languidly, her voice an ongoing invitation to Rebecca Sacks’ debut in which so much happens, but by book’s end might feel narratively stagnant – not because of Sacks’ writing, but because Israel and Palestine remain relentlessly enshrouded in conflict. The opening credits wisely...

Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole [in Booklist]

18 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Nigerian, Repost

“I wake up late the morning I’m meant to go to the consulate,” Teju Cole’s spare novel opens. As if in mid-confession, Peter Jay Fernandez’s tone is immediately familiar. In mere seconds, he’s drawing audiences into his confidence, sharing experiences, disclosing comments, and divulging secrets...

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez [in Booklist]

16 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost

“Respected professor emeritus, writer, widow of a beloved doctor,” Antonia is trying to make the best of what should have been a pastoral Vermont retirement had her kind, grounding Sam not suddenly died. To her three sisters – “the Dominican Greek chorus,” she calls them...

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick [in Booklist]

15 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Tibetan

Let’s just agree that Casandra Campbell is not fluent in any Asian languages – which makes her an odd (mis)casting choice for a title set mostly in Tibet, populated by mostly Tibetan characters. That said, lauded journalist Barbara Demick’s extraordinary latest is a book to...

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