BookDragon Immigration Tag

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung + Author Interview

10 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

For someone who has experienced hell, Loung Ung is a bright, welcoming voice filled with inviting laughter. She’s warm: “I just had dinner with my writing group last night. They’re my PenGals. I just love them! I don’t know what I would do without them.” She’s practical:...

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

22 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, British, Fiction

Having finished one Chris Cleave novel, I had to immediately start another without even missing a step (literally, as both books were loaded one after the other on the iPod – with Little Bee narrated with careful control by Anne Flosnik – and I was out running...

Harbor by Lorraine Adams

17 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Fiction

According to her official website bio, Lorraine Adams left her Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper career in 2000 "to recount the lost stories of Algerians she knew without the strictures of journalism, and the conventional sentiment of the moment." Even before 9/11, Adams well understood about "ambiguity" and...

Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life by Luis Alberto Urrea

15 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction

This third and final installment of Luis Alberto Urrea's Border Trilogy is unmistakably his most personal. His "good Republican" mother from Staten Island never accepted his Mexican identity. His "devil on the dance floor"-father was once on Mexico's presidential staff, becoming a bowling alley janitor...

The Lives of Rain by Nathalie Handal, foreword by Carolyn Forché

02 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Palestinian American, Poetry

I am the first to admit I missed having the poetry function installed when my limited brain got assembled. So when I DO actually GET poetry, I feel a true sense of gratitude to the writer, not to mention a few outbursts of gleeful accomplishment. Nathalie...

Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border by Luis Alberto Urrea, photographs by John Lueders-Booth

27 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Mexican, Mexican American, Nonfiction

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...

A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff

26 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Audio, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

In spite of the "Afterword" being at book's end, I feel like I need to begin this post with the final line: "I write this especially so that the story of Dina and her beloved, Johann, will be remembered by our family," explains two-time Newbery...

One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature edited by Zohra Saed and Sahar Muradi, foreword by Mir Tamim Ansary

27 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Afghan American, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Stories

The title of this diverse anthology is taken from the opening line of Afghan fairy tales, not unlike 'once upon a time.' In this case, afsanah, seesanah – one story, thirty stories...

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

06 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hong Kongese

I didn't actually read most of Jean Kwok's debut novel, but Grayce Wey who read it to me made it un-put-downable. Wey's gentle, lilting accent which fades in and out depending on...

Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry edited by Neelajana Banerjee, Summi Kaipa, and Pireeni Sundaralingam

11 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Bangladeshi American, Indian American, Nepali American, Pakistani American, Poetry, South Asian American, Sri Lankan American, Young Adult Readers

The title – Indivisible – the editors explain, is "a word taken from the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance." Through the 49 diverse American voices represented here with roots in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and...

The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America by Mae Ngai

28 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Biography, Chinese American, Nonfiction

When the local San Francisco public school denied Mamie Tape admission solely based on her Chinese heritage, her parents sued the city's Board of Education in what became the landmark 1885 case, Tape vs. Hurley. Mamie was seven years old, the American-born child of middle-class Chinese...

Migritude by Shailja Patel

26 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Drama/Theater, Indian African, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Poetry, South Asian American

Given the sheer number of books that arrive in the mailbox, I rarely pick up a title and start reading immediately. But something about Migritude (debuting from fabulous indie publisher Kaya Press: 'Smokin' Hot Books'!!) demanded 'read me NOW!' Once opened, I could hardly put...

Quiet As They Come by Angie Chau [in San Francisco Chronicle]

17 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

Through 11 dovetailing stories that begin in the 1980s and move toward today, Angie Chau's absorbing debut collection, Quiet As They Come, follows three branches of an extended family that has miraculously escaped the Vietnam War. The 12 refugees attempt to adapt and survive the...

Elsie’s Bird by Jane Yolen, illustrated by David Small

13 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

The versatile Jane Yolen – apparently she hates the word "prolific" according to a recent interview – debuts her 300th title bearing her good name over the half century she's been writing! No, that's not a typo. Yes, truly 300 books! No wonder she's been called...

Seaside Dream by Janet Costa Bates, illustrated by Lambert Davis

12 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction

Family and friends from all over are arriving to celebrate Grandma's 70th birthday. Together they gather to eat and laugh ...

Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness by Tracy Kidder

06 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Nonfiction

Words of warning ...

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

25 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

What timing ...

East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres by Andrew Lam

23 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

Unlike the rest of Andrew Lam’s relatives who only want to bombard him with questions about meeting Hiroyuki Sakai of Iron Chef fame (I don't watch TV and I hate to cook), what I want to know is, 'how's the love life?' Some might say...

The Hidden Girl: A True Story of the Holocaust by Lola Rein Kaufman with Lois Metzger

25 Aug, by SIBookDragon in European, Jewish, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Lola Rein Kaufman's "'memory button'" got turned on on September 17, 1939, when Russian tanks, trucks, and soldiers entered her small hometown of Czortków in what was then Poland. She was not yet 5 years old. Before she reached her 10th birthday, she lost her...

Water Ghosts: A Novel by Shawna Yang Ryan

20 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction

How ironically fitting that Shawna Yang Ryan’s debut novel – about, yes, ghosts! – has already had multiple lives. First published in 2007 as Locke 1928 by a tiny non-profit California press, El León Literary Arts, it returned to bookshelves two years later in a new incarnation with...