In Susan Conley's debut novel defined by deep relationships, the most intriguing alliances get neglected and overlooked for the more commonplace and predictable. Willow – called Willie – moves to Paris to be closer to her peripatetic brother Luke who was most recently in China bringing safe...
Monica Ali's latest novel which pubbed June 28, 2011, just before what would have been Diana Spencer's 50th birthday – July 1, 2011 – had "The People's Princess" lived. In case the cover wasn't enough of a clue, that date detail matters because Untold Story imagines that Diana left...
Although I can't recommend this book, I sure would like to find some readers who might want to discuss it. As it's apparently a "national bestseller" – so touts the cover of the paperback edition – perhaps a few of you who have already read it might...
Cath and Wren are twins – how they got their name is just too entertainingly clever. They've been each other's best friend their whole lives, sharing the same room which also serves as a near-shrine to Simon Snow (à la Harry Potter, who does get a...
If you don't like spoilers, might I suggest you click here to catch up. This series is so uniquely delightful, you really shouldn't miss a volume; trust me, they do need to be read in order. This latest installment officially hits shelves tomorrow. Welcome to junior high school...
Since I temporarily seem to find myself in Utah – although I admit it's not quite as frightening here as I thought it might be, ahem! – I figured this spookfest would not be complete without a Utahn Halloween manga, right? Jess Smart Smiley, who "lives in the bewitching mountains of Utah,"...
Mysteries don't get any more substantially delicious than this: Vish Puri voiced by Sam Dastor as written by Tarquin Hall, with just the right balance of page-turning entertainment and sociopolitical insight. Before you partake, however, you should know that this is #4 in a series;...
Vision and Reinvention: Julie Wu’s The Third Son So how many detours can a writer make before becoming that writer? If you’re newbie novelist Julie Wu – who knew as a Harvard undergraduate in the 1980s that writing was what she wanted to do – the answer might include a Master’s program...
What writer and musician James McBride initially thought might take just six months to write required 14 long years to produce his now-almost-20-year-old debut title, The Color of Water. "Mommy" – McBride never calls her anything else – was never a cooperative subject: she shared her memories in her...
After 10 installments of her award-winning Rei Shimura mysteries, DC-area-based Sujata Massey goes historical with her latest Dictionary, published this summer after six years in the making. Dictionary marks the debut of a new series Massey intends, The Daughters of Bengal, each set in India. Given a choice...
Let's start with this fascinating article: "The One Thing White Writers Get Away With, But Authors of Color Don't" by PolicyMic’s Gracie Jin – go ahead, take a few minutes to read it. You'll see from that giant close-up photo that author Bill Cheng is indeed of...
So here's the last of my recent unintentional assemblage of end-of-World-War-II novels that began with Elizabeth Wein’s wrenching Rose Under Fire, and progressed with Chris Bohjalian's desperate Skeletons at the Feast and continued with his latest, the vengeful The Light in the Ruins. Of this week's quartet, Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins (how about that...
This, Chris Bohjalian's latest, is one to stick in the ears ...
Every so often, I seem to get on a specific reading spree on a topic not exactly of my choosing – that is, the books seem to serendipitously line up on their own. The latest batch of they-chose-me-titles have been set during the final brutal months...
Tell me if you've heard this one before: a Cuban, an El Salvadorean, and an Iranian land on the page and spend decades trying to find their place in the world. Yes? Then, you must have read Cristina García’s A Handbook to Luck. No? Then read...
Raised as a Roman Catholic convinced of at least one past life as a Jewish grandmother, I find myself in my old age utterly wary of institutionalized religions, repeatedly alarmed at what we human beings commit upon one another in the name of various (one-and-only)...
Get ready to linger: every panel – and I do mean every! – is a wonder to behold, inducing that slack-jawed 'gawwww, how does she dooooo that?'-sort of reaction! If you've picked up this volume without first reading the previous others, I would definitely recommend going back. Following the...
On the evening of her 12th birthday, Mira Levenson receives three life-changing (death-defying) gifts: a diary, a charm, and her period. As one-quarter of a school writing class (led by an author named Miss Print!), Mira finds her voice – silently at first through the diary...
Earlier this year, I received an email from a Chinese Canadian author, May Q. Wong, inquiring about "a shipload of Koreans who sailed to Mexico to find a better life." Clueless, I forwarded her request to a few of my scholar friends and colleagues ...
In 2006, Gene Luen Yang made major literary headlines when his then-debut, American Born Chinese, became (not without controversy, ahem!) the first-ever graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award. [Click here for my 2007 post-NBA interview with Yang.] Released earlier this month, Yang's two-volume Boxers &...
