With or Without You by Domenica Ruta
20 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction
Ah, well ...
BookDragon Identity Tag
World Class: Poems Inspired by the ESL Classroom by J.C. Elkin
17 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Poetry, Young Adult Readers
Comprised of just 27 pages which hold 14 poems, this collection feels more like a pamphlet than an actual book. That said, the spare verses by J.C. Elkin, a Pushcart Prize-nominated ESL teacher at a Maryland community college, are not without complexity and depth, inspired by...
How Do I Begin? A Hmong American Anthology edited by the Hmong American Writers’ Circle
12 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hmong American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers
"For any serious artist, it is a terrible feeling of surrender when you realize there is no place in the world for your voice, when all that you express seems marginalized or in vain ...
Author Interview: Vaddey Ratner [in Bloom]
05 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Memoir, Repost, Southeast Asian American
Almost two years after Vaddey Ratner made her New York Times bestselling debut with In the Shadow of the Banyan – her fictionalized account of her survival, as a young child, of the Khmer Rouge genocide that took most of her family along with some two million others...
I’ll Be Right There by Kyung-sook Shin, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Library Journal]
04 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation
*STARRED REVIEW "I do not specifically reveal the era or elucidate Korea's political situation," writes Kyung-sook Shin, recipient of the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize for Please Look After Mom, in the ending of her latest spectacular novel in English translation. Ironically, those missing details make this story...
Author Profile: Vaddey Ratner [in Bloom]
03 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Memoir, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American
"To transform suffering into art": Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan While the Vietnam War ended for the United States with the April 1975 military withdrawal, death and destruction continued, moving into neighboring Cambodia and Laos. With the evacuation of U.S. troops, the Communist...
Hidden Girl: The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave by Shyima Hall with Lisa Wysocky
26 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Egyptian, Egyptian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers
"If this book leads to even a single rescue, then my time in bondage was worth it," Shyima Hall writes in the penultimate paragraph in the final chapter of her new memoir. That "time in bondage" she refers to is four long years during which...
Flight by Sherman Alexie
24 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Young Adult Readers
I spent my last birthday with Sherman Alexie ...
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
10 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American
Confession first: I took almost two years to finish this debut novel. Not until an interview deadline loomed (stay tuned!) could I force myself to keep turning the pages until I reached the end. Because I just couldn't let the book go. As wrenching and...
Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
22 Jan, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction
Here's what a fairly recent (pubbed September 2013) bestseller looks like. It hasn't gotten any major nominations or awards (perhaps I should add 'yet,' as author Jamie Ford's debut, Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, garnered a few nods); nevertheless, it's certainly sold plenty of...
Under the Same Sun by Sharon Robinson, illustrated by AG Ford
20 Jan, by in African, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Memoir, Nonfiction
An 85-year-old grandmother makes a special birthday trip from the U.S. to Tanzania where three generations celebrate with a surprise safari through Serengeti National Park. The story is special enough ...
Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li [in Library Journal]
15 Jan, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost
*STARRED REVIEW In her first title since she received a 2010 MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, Yiyun Li again explores the far-reaching repercussions of a single person's death. While her mesmerizing The Vagrants (2009) revolved around the execution of a young political victim, here, three childhood friends take...
Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
13 Jan, by in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American
Above all else, Janie is a survivor. She escaped the horrifying deaths that took her entire family in her native Cambodia. She's outlived her adoptive Canadian mother who passed away just last year. She's built a fulfilling career as a scientist specializing in brain research. She's...
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
29 Dec, by in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
What a year Benjamin Alire Sáenz has had: in the adult market, he made literary history last May as the first Latino writer to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his seven-story collection, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club; his latest young adult title...
Yokohama Yankee: My Family’s Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan by Leslie Helm
17 Dec, by in Adult Readers, European, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Japanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction
'Sprawling' barely begins to describe journalist/editor Leslie Helm's ambitious family history that spans nearly a century-and-a-half, three continents, and the titular five generations of a German Japanese American family with current branches spread throughout the rest of the world. Prompted by the death of his difficult...
Blue Is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh, translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger
13 Dec, by in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Translation, Young Adult Readers
From the very first page, you'll learn that one lover is dead, while the other survives: "My love, when you read these words I will have left this world." Emma is in transit to Clementine's childhood home to retrieve Emma's diaries: "I asked my mother...
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
11 Dec, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Iranian American, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific
A few months ago when I came upon this fascinating article, "The One Thing White Writers Get Away With, But Authors of Color Don't" by PolicyMic's Gracie Jin, I started trolling around for authors venturing into unexpected 'color'-ful fictional territory. I was fascinated to find two bestselling writers...
Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kids by Deborah Ellis, foreword by Loriene Roy
28 Nov, by in Canadian, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers
Deborah Ellis has a doubly powerful schtick: first, her nonfiction titles give underrepresented children a highly visible podium for their very own words (Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak, Off to War: Voices of Soldiers’ Children, Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees, Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely through...
The Cemetery of Forgotten Books: The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven, The Rose of Fire by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves
24 Nov, by in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Translation
Well, crud. In spite of making a list and checking it twice, thrice, and more, I read these in about as 'wrong' order as I possibly could. But before I offer two preventative options, some quick background: the full Cemetery of Forgotten Books by internationally bestselling...
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
19 Nov, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American
Before she is even a teenager, Saba Hafezi reveals herself to be quite the unreliable narrator. Telling stories, however, is what will save her youthful soul ...