Love Archives - Page 18 of 84

Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir by Bishakh Som [in Booklist]

07 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American

Earlier this year, Bishakh Som debuted her dazzling graphic collection, Apsara Engine, the genesis of which is found here – inseparably entwined with Som’s own unique origin story. Som introduces herself in a narrative frame, bordering the memoir’s beginning and end: “I wanted to clue...

The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, translated by Arunava Sinha [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

As spare as it might initially seem, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay's wickedly entertaining novel, The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die, manages smoothly to illuminate gender inequity, cultural biases, socioeconomic disparity, and familial dysfunction through a three-generational ghost story. At 18, Somlata is wed to her 32-year-old husband, the "blissfully...

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa [in Shelf Awareness]

04 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost

Returning to the Palestinian multi-generational epic format that made her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin (2010), an international bestseller, Susan Abulhawa's haunting Against the Loveless World features another extended Palestinian clan enduring exile, surviving persecution, and (sometimes) cheating death. Abulhawa's compelling cipher is a woman with...

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW Brit Bennett was widely awarded for The Mothers (2016), and her highly-anticipated sophomore title – regardless of medium – won’t disappoint. With exacting nuance, narrator Shayna Small immediately distinguishes one Vignes twin sister from the other. Desiree, the “fidgety twin...

Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham [in Booklist]

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

Nigerian-born, Iowa Writers’ Workshop-MFA-ed Tola Rotimi Abraham’s devastating debut covers almost two decades of a Lagos family navigating dysfunction and trauma. The comfortable lives of twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike and younger brothers Andrew and Peter disintegrate when their father falls victim to a financial...

The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud by Kuniko Tsurita, translated by Ryan Holmberg [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

An English-language debut, The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud is a label-defying collection of Kuniko Tsurita's gekiga – literally, "dramatic pictures," referring to more serious graphic work for adult audiences. Organized chronologically from 1966 to 1980, the historical compilation includes Tsurita's early magazine submissions as a...

The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda [in Booklist]

23 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

Once upon a time, the Olander quartet was just about perfect: white American Keith and Indian-born cosmopolitan Jaya fall madly in love in London and eventually settle in northern California to raise their two children. When eight-year-old Prem drowns in the family’s pool, 13-year-old Karina...

Inheritors by Asako Serizawa [in Shelf Awareness]

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

Pieces of Asako Serizawa's intriguing novel-in-interlinked-stories, Inheritors, have been published since 2005 and winning awards (O. Henry, Pushcart) since 2013. Her acknowledgements reveal "this book [took] so long to write," but her tenacity is a gift to readers. With 13 stories featuring five generations of...

The Yogini by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, translated by Arunava Sinha [in Booklist]

17 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian, Translation

Not yet married a year, Homi and her husband are passionately in love. Beyond being happy at home, Homi thrives at her high-power position at a television studio. The pair share a comfortable, compatible existence in Kolkata, occasionally interrupted by extended familial demands. And then Homi...

The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun, translated by Lizzie Buehler [in Shelf Awareness]

13 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

Pristine beaches, spectacular landscapes, cultural landmarks might have been the go-to tourist destinations once upon a time, but in Yun Ko-eun's sly, compelling novel, The Disaster Tourist, scenes of death and destruction are where the people really want to go. Global voyeurism is succeeding, with...

Recipe for Persuasion [The Rajes series, Book 2] by Sonali Dev [in Booklist]

10 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

They’re baaaaaaak, with Soneela Nankani repeating her aural support for welcome consistency. Bestselling Sonali Dev continues her Austen-inspired series starring the Indian royalty-descended, Northern California-established Raje family. Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (2019) introduced the extended clan, matching neurosurgeon Trisha with chef DJ. In #2, Dev’s...

The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio [in Christian Science Monitor]

07 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost

His name was chosen to bring good fortune. So far, it isn’t working. Lysley Tenorio’s novel The Son of Good Fortune explores the sorely tested bonds of a Filipino mother and her son living in the shadows in America. Eight years have passed since award-winning writer and...

Mimi Lee Gets a Clue [A Sassy Cat Mystery, Book 1] by Jennifer J. Chow [in Booklist]

06 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Cat mysteries are a (bestselling) thing: the late Lillian Jackson Braun’s 29-volume Cat Who ...

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler [in Booklist]

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

At under five hours, Anne Tyler’s latest is her shortest, but all her usual ingredients for a satisfying listen are here: familiar Baltimore setting, characters who evolve, family and friends with memorable sideline storylines. Fitting easily into Tyler’s pantheon of repeating narrators (Blair Brown, Kimberly Farr,...

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Fiction, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Mexican, Mexican American, Repost

Mexican Canadian Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an award-winning, genre-hopping literary chameleon, having successfully written fantasy, fairy tales, vampiric adventure, noir, short stories. Clearly channeling her inner H.P. Lovecraft in Mexican Gothic, she's created her own varietal of irresistible 1950s fungal horror. Socialite Noemí is summoned home early...

Author Interview: Traci Chee [in Shelf Awareness]

30 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The Magic of Reality Traci Chee is the author of The Reader Trilogy and the novel We Are Not Free, coming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on September 1. She studied literature and creative writing at UC Santa Cruz and earned a Master of Arts degree from San Francisco...

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee [in Shelf Awareness]

29 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Japanese American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

In a mesmerizing genre-switch, YA author Traci Chee moves from the fantasy worldbuilding of her acclaimed The Reader trilogy (The Reader; The Speaker; The Storyteller) to World War II historical fiction, with unforgettable results, in We Are Not Free. As a fourth-generation Japanese American, Chee gets personal, affectingly...

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW How are Thomas and Rose faring? Did Patrice get her degree? How much has Archille grown? Did Millie make Zhaanat famous? So immersive are the 13.5 hours spent with Louise Erdrich’s (LaRose) latest community of families, friends, even strangers, that long after recording’s end,...

It’s Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan [in Booklist]

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

Multi-talented Terry McMillan has been narrating her titles for 15 years already! She’s aurally involved in various incarnations – abridgements, as part of a cast, and here as a solo narrator. She shares the same age, 68, with protagonist Loretha, whose beloved husband Carl, suddenly dies...

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat [in Booklist]

25 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab American, Fiction, Repost

The “demarcation” begins over a wardrobe malfunction: a 12-year-old girl, improperly, according to the local men, dressed in shorts, arrives at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem with her mother and uncle. Exchanging the forbidden shorts for her uncle’s “baggy trousers” gives her a...

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