Hungry? Then don't read this ...
Readers with groupie-tendencies (like me), take careful note: Hattie Ever After is positive proof that if you ask an author enough times for more, you just might receive. "When I left Hattie at the end of Hattie Big Sky," confesses Kirby Larson in her ending "Author's...
Open this penultimate volume, and the belly begins flip-flopping over how it might – must? – end. Creator Shuzo Oshimi has clearly shown himself to be one scary manipulator, so already I'm trying to prepare for the inevitably shattering shock this October when that final installment comes out. Oh, but the agony of...
Not to discourage anyone, but feel free to stop reading any further and just go to your favorite bookstore, walk to your nearest library, click online, or visit your most literary buddy's shelves, and open to the first page of Our Happy Time as soon...
Micah is a boy. Micah is a girl. Micah is 17, a senior in a progressive New York City private school. Micah's father went to Marseille in search of his unknown black French father and came back with a white French wife. Micah's father is an...
In a roundabout way I can't quite recall, I ended up at this 2007 New York Times article, "Young Man Behaving Badly," and learned that bestselling author Glen Duncan is hapa British Asian. I found his latest title, By Blood We Live, magically waiting on my shelves, only...
Not quite a teenager, Poni loses her 12-year-old best friend in violent increments: to too-early forced marriage, three failed suicide attempts, and finally to childbirth long before her natural time. Poni – and her fiercely supportive mother – are determined that Poni will somehow stay in school...
I can't believe we're already in the last full week of LGBT Pride Month! I confess that my June literary goal was to read as many David Levithan titles as possible (without guilt even, given what month this is). Alas, I didn't make much progress in any...
Canadian lawyer/author Jennifer Gold’s debut novel starts with such promise: a contemporary teenager's discovery of the eponymous "soldier doll" is interwoven with the doll's near-century-long journey from Europe to the U.S. to Vietnam, landing in a garage sale in Toronto to be bargained for a mere...
Claire Danes, interestingly enough, narrates 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning Michael Cunningham’s latest novel. The choice seems a bit odd as most of the narrative is from the point of view of two brothers. Still, Danes is good enough, if a little on the flat side. Perhaps...
While he's not exactly Mr. Popularity at his new school, Takao Kasuga is gingerly settling into his uprooted life far from the small town of Gunma where he was involved in so many shameful, difficult, frustrating, violent experiences. His favorite book, Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil,...
Without a doubt, Kimberly McCreight's bestselling debut contains every parent's every nightmare, beginning with the absolute worst at the end of the first full chapter: "I'm sorry, Mrs. Baron. But your daughter, Amelia, is dead." Her 15-year-old body lies broken on the grounds of her posh private school...
Before you can fully appreciate the final volume of the adventures of our favorite time-traveling hunky bathing beauty, you'll need to dive into the two previous volumes to catch up. If nothing else, aren't you curious why our ancient stoner is holding that bottle of Yakult? You won't find...
When her father dies, a girl and her mother's futures are forever altered. As a 14-year-old living in a 17th-century Persian village, she expected to be contentedly married, looking forward to starting her own family, not unlike her best friend who is already heavy with...
I read the eponymous first chapter almost a year ago and then stopped. I listened to the same story – the absolute highlight in the disappointingly uneven collection Haiti Noir – so smoothly, lullingly read by Robin Miles, and again stopped. The book stayed on my desk...
After years of keeping secrets, Rakhee Singh's "demons" have finally "clawed their way free." Without confronting what happened to her family that summer in India when she turned 11, she finds herself unable to embrace her future – her impending architecture degree, her promising design job, and most importantly,...
Okay, I confess the cover put me off from opening the book for months (well, actually, years); I recently compromised by choosing to go aural and was surprisingly delighted to spend almost eight hours with narrators Laural Merlington and Emily Durante (who take turns reading as mother and...
I really, really don't want to tell you what this book is about because I don't want to ruin your delight of discovery. I knew nothing at all of its premise ...
First thing first: although every volume offers possibly standalone chapters, to get the full narrative arc, you really need to read them all in order. [Click here to check out the rest of Ikigami.] If you're not yet familiar with this chillingly effective, utterly addictive series, the most important...
Amin Ahmad not only writes mysteries – The Caretaker and The Last Taxi Ride make up two-thirds of his Ranjit Singh thriller trilogy – I confess he remains quite a personal mystery.] While he’ll answer almost any question from a distance, he’s been quite agile avoiding our carefully...
