Identity Archives - Page 10 of 83

Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias, illustrated by Tracy Subisak [in Shelf Awareness]

01 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

*STARRED REVIEW Margaret Chiu Greanias's inviting Amah Faraway is a heartfelt homage to her Taiwanese heritage that binds multiple generations on either side of the globe. Tracy Subisak (illustrator of Shawn Loves Sharks) elevates the familiar bicultural narrative with vivacious multimedia illustrations. Kylie of San Francisco and Amah of...

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto [in Booklist]

31 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Indonesian American, Repost, Singaporean American

As the photographer for the extended Chan clan’s wedding business, Meddelin (a well-intentioned approximation of Madeleine) is intimately familiar with all manner of nuptial celebrations, even when they include accidental murder, as witnessed in Dial A for Aunties (2021), Jesse Q. Sutanto’s rollicking debut, which introduced Big...

Crushing by Sophie Burrows [in Booklist]

27 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW From just the cover, the color red immediately suggests a strangers-to-not narrative; that floating heart in the title underscores what’s to come. But knowing what happens doesn’t diminish in any way Sophie Burrows’ poignant, timely, mostly wordless graphic debut. Set in London, where Burrows also...

Seoulmates by Jen Frederick [in Shelf Awareness]

26 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost

Since Hara Wilson and Choi Yujun didn't quite get their happily-ever-after in Heart & Seoul, author Jen Frederick – a transracial Korean adoptee – returns with its addictive sequel, Seoulmates. In the first book, Korea-born, Iowa-raised adoptee Hara's loss of her estranged father prompted a...

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, illustrated by Yas Imamura [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Japanese American, Nonfiction, Repost

"This is a true story. Mostly," Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Squad) explains in her author's note in Love in the Library, both a revealing exposé of unjust history and an exceptional tribute to love. Tokuda-Hall's maternal grandparents are Tama, a librarian, and George, the library's most constant patron....

Uncle Rico’s Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle by Peter Bacho [in Booklist]

20 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Filipina/o American, Memoir, Repost, Short Stories

“Each morning when I rise, I pause to remember the preciousness of what I have lost, and I cherish it.” Septuagenarian Peter Bacho, whose first novel, Cebu (1991), won the American Book Award, commits those memories to the page in poignant, affecting “mostly true stories.” Bacho’s...

Red Thread of Fate by Lyn Liao Butler [in Booklist]

19 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

Tam’s marriage to Tony is finally weaving back together as they prepare for the adoption of their son from China. After their lunchtime phone call suddenly disconnects, Tam learns that Tony and his cousin Mia were killed. The unraveling is immediate. Tony wasn’t supposed to...

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW In her fifth self-narration, acclaimed Indigenous author Louise Erdrich’s latest is delightfully enhanced with personal meta-references, insightfully balancing the narrative’s heavier events. Louise, the owner of Minneapolis’ Birchbark Books (as is the author herself), goes on a just-before-pandemic-shutdown book tour – clearly a nod...

Reprieve by James Han Mattson [in Booklist]

13 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW A multi-generational family home of horrors looms throughout James Han Mattson’s (The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves) spellbinding latest. Ever-versatile narrator JD Jackson chills and thrills, underscoring the slyly literary, intensifying the social commentary, enhancing the utterly gory. John Forrester began his house of frights...

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada Kelly

07 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Middle Grade Readers

“You’re scared of your own shadow,” Marisol’s older brother declares. She’s hurt but also admits, “Why do I have to be scared of everything all the time? No one else is.” Sometimes, eight-year-old Marisol’s ‘what-if’-worries prevent her from doing what she wants – including climbing her...

I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To: Stories by Mikołaj Grynberg, translated by Sean Gasper Bye [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Eastern European, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

Photographer/psychologist/author Mikołaj Grynberg is best known in his native Poland for his documentary nonfiction featuring his generation of Polish Jews, born after the Holocaust and raised by survivors. Grynberg turns to fiction for the first time with I'd Like to Say Sorry, but There's No One...

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward [in Booklist]

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

Catriona Ward’s latest is quite the creepfest addition to psychological thrillers in which houses or buildings star as characters. Veteran Christopher Ragland sounds so appropriately trusting, even as listeners should be well aware: believe no one. The book’s characters couldn’t be more different, but Ragland proves...

What Is Love? by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Carson Ellis [in Shelf Awareness]

31 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Mac Barnett (Paolo, Emperor of Rome), lauded author of dozens of titles, poses a timeless question that has no absolute response in What Is Love?, a poignant, often humorous exploration of one of life's most personal experiences. "When I was a boy," Barnett's story begins,...

I Know You Love Me, Too by Amy Neswald [in Shelf Awareness]

30 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW The fraught relationship between two half-sisters links the 14 stories of Amy Neswald's exceptional debut collection, I Know You Love Me, Too. Ingrid and Kate, eight years apart, share a father who died when Ingrid was 20 and Kate 12. "Relationships between half-sisters should be half...

Thirty Talks Weird Love by Alessandra Narváez Varela [in Booklist]

29 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

At 13, Anamaria is a beloved daughter, a top-performing student at an elite academy. But she lives in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico on the Texas border in 1999, threatened by looming femicide. And then Anamaria meets Thirty, who insists she’s Anamaria’s 17-years-in-the-future self. Thirty indeed talks...

The Bennet Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi [in Booklist]

28 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

Among countless Pride and Prejudice adaptations, Eden Appiah-Kubi’s debut might be the only with a transgender co-lead; it certainly has one of the most non-traditional Jane Austen-inspired casts ever. Welcome to Bennet House, Longbourn College’s first and only female residence. Appiah-Kubi’s Bennet sisters here are Black engineering...

Incense and Sensibility [The Rajes series, Book 3] by Sonali Dev [in Booklist]

27 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

Sonali Dev continues to channel Jane Austen via the Raje family with her third in the series, familiarly, gratefully voiced by Indian American favorite Soneela Nankani. Dev opens with a literal bang: California gubernatorial candidate Yash Raje is shot during a rally. His physical recovery...

Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang [in Booklist]

23 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Complicated intergenerational relationships have long fueled fiction, with immigration notably adding further challenges to parent-child understanding and bonding. Weike Wang’s provocative sophomore novel (after Chemistry, 2017) again centers on an accomplished Chinese American Harvard graduate with uneasy social, professional, and familial connections. Here Wang dissects the...

City of Incurable Women by Maud Casey [in Shelf Awareness]

21 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

At just 128 pages, Maud Casey's compelling City of Incurable Women – ostensibly a historical novel featuring 19th-century French women institutionalized with diagnoses of hysteria – might invite an expeditious single-sitting read. That sparseness obscures its intricate density: hardly straightforward narrative, City of Incurable Women is a...

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka [in Booklist]

20 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Award-winning, bestselling Julie Otsuka is averaging one book per decade, making each exquisite title exponentially more precious. Here she creates a stupendous collage of small moments that results in an extraordinary examination of the fragility of quotidian human relationships. Initially set in an underground pool, it voices...

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