Had I not been so enthralled with Room, I don't know if I would have discovered Emma Donoghue's many other titles, but I've definitely been enjoying reading newly discovered authors' works backwards. Take a look at the cover and you can probably guess what Landing is about....
Nitori Shuichi and his older sister Maho are starting at a new school. Before he's even entered his fifth-grade classroom, Nitori has already been mistaken for a girl. He is indeed a beautiful boy ...
Having read Luis Alberto Urrea's unforgettable Border Trilogy, I began the audible version of this novel that highlights illegal immigration with some trepidation. Alas, Urrea doesn't narrate this title; and although it's read with effective gusto by Susan Ericksen, I've gotten used to Urrea's flow, having...
Two things are keeping me up at nights ...
The "traffic" in Chen's collection revolves around broken love, made even more jarring by a literal jaggedness on the page with the layout of her words. The protagonist, Xiaomei, loses love too many times. In childhood, her first loss is her father who "disappeared into...
Despite his prestigious college degree which should have guaranteed him a bright future, Azel is unable to find meaningful work in his native Tangier, a city in northern Morocco. Mired in self-absorbed disappointment, he spends his days and nights lost in women, wine, and song,...
The good news is you will probably find Malindo Lo's young adult debut hard to put down. The bad news is that you will probably find it hard to find at all. At least for awhile ...
Meet Kimberly Keiko Cameron, aka “Skim,” a wannabe witch navigating her angst-filled teenage life in a 1990s Toronto high school. In this book created by cousins Mariko and Jillian, making their fabulous collaborative debut, Skim manages...
The poignant shortcomings of soulful slacker Ben Tanaka are artfully presented in this striking volume. And, of course, Ben isn’t the only one with shortcomings. When his live-in relationship in Oakland falls apart and his girlfriend...
In a hospital waiting room, Kenji Yoshino brushed away the reaching, worried hand of his first boyfriend as they waited for a diagnosis that could have been serious. Ten years later, Yoshino, a Yale Law School...
Searching for Home
Shyam Selvadurai Debuts Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
While ‘home’ today for Shyam Selvadurai is undoubtedly Toronto, Canada, the ‘home’ that he plumbs for his books remains Sri Lanka, where he was born and lived...
Shyam Selvadurai’s ‘Swimming’ Debut
While “home” today for Shyam Selvadurai is undoubtedly Toronto, Canada, the “home” that he plumbs for his books remains Sri Lanka, where he was born, and lived there until the age of 19....
Call me old, but who really wants to read about a promiscuous 16-year-old school girl who uses her so-called charm to seduce an older divorcée, her societal power to seduce her servant, and her academic prowess...
An ethnographic study of gay Filipino men in New York City, with stories culled from interviews with 50 men between 1990 and 1995, including a fascinating look at the unique gay Filipino American vernacular...
An anthology of ‘autobiographies as activisms’ by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and self-identified ‘queer’ Asian Pacific Americans, Restoried Selves also provides young gay APAs a tool for empowerment and finding community.
Review: "New...
An anthology that takes a combined look at two rapidly growing fields of study – globalization of sexual cultures together with the study of “new media.” At its core is the internet, which has...
An entertaining, quirky, somewhat sad love story of sorts about a troubled young woman who marries a gay doctor and creates a new kind of family of her own.
Review: "New and Notable...
Provocative, though rather academic study of immigration controls based on gender – from turn-of-the-century Chinese prostitutes to present-day homosexuals.
Review: "New and Notable Books," AsianWeek, February 28, 2003
Readers: Adult
Published: 2002...
A collection of 80-plus essays on race, culture, feminism, and activism, which continues the dialogue begun two decades ago in the revolutionary this bridge called my back. Included...
Lyrical debut about Korean American hapa, Fee, who survives child molestration, and the subsequent relationship he unwittingly falls into with his molestor’s teenage son.
Review: "New and Notable," aMagazine: Inside Asian America, December 2001/January...
