Important warnings first: this is definitely NOT a kiddie manga, so parents (!!) – be sure to keep this well out of reach from curious young 'uns. The word 'graphic' is especially relevant here, and is definitely not intended or appropriate for younger eyes. Creator Asumiko Nakamura's...
Ready for some swashbuckling adventure ...
From the opening few pages of reading a Nadeem Aslam novel, I knew his writing was something to treasure and behold. Serendipitously, I used my then-day job to bring the Pakistan-born, British-educated-and-domiciled Aslam over the Pond to be a featured guest at the then-annual South...
Give me a story with two narratives interwoven through nonlinear timelines and, usually, I'll be one committed reader. The House Girl opens in 1852 rural Virginia with a teenage slave girl named Josephine, then fast forwards in the next chapter to Lina, an ambitious attorney...
Warning: This harrowing memoir is the most difficult book I've read this year. Since I actually started it in 2012 (highly recommended by one of my editors), it's actually the most difficult book I've read over two years (and more). To get to the final...
"I was born in an impoverished backwater, and could easily have lived out my days as an insignificant country girl," a young woman modestly professes on stage as she receives the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's highest literary honor for a debut author. Barely out of her...
If I had not stuck Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad thrillers in my ears, I might never have discovered Australian journalist-turned-bestselling novelist Michael Robotham – French's The Likeness (I think) ended with the 'if you liked x, then try y'-recommendation that led me to Night Ferry. Contrarian that I am, however,...
Internationally renowned for her two bestselling novels, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger is also a splendiforous artist with double the graphic titles to her lauded name. Her fourth and latest is "a new fairy tale" with origins that begin with movement: "Awhile ago, Wayne...
Poisoned and hallucinating, a Canadian doctor lies in a hospital in the remote town of Kilwa in Tanzania. A stranger happens to hear a few brief details of the man's outrageous story, and decides to introduce himself to this doctor with an Indian name – Kamal...
With Broken Harbor finished, my Tana French days are over ...
First things first: click here to catch up. You'll be well-rewarded for sure! This latest volume opens with an intriguing graphic of characters captured in a two-page spread of bubbles and dots, labelled "The Wandering Son Board Game": "Don't be so fresh. 1 space back," a...
Wow, I sort of wondered ...
* STARRED REVIEW As in Ru Freeman’s absorbing 2009 debut, A Disobedient Girl, the intricate lives of young children also take center stage in this latest work. In 1979, the titular Sal Mal Lane is a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s largest city and former...
With his eyes and body still “bleary from post-windsurfing and traveling,” Don Lee nonetheless graciously agrees to be grilled yet again – we’re going on a decade-plus of various interviews through four books! He’s tired, he’s rambling, but he’s always entertaining … and once more...
Here's another tiny-world overlap that convinces me that some higher power is directing my reading choices: first-time author Christa Parravani is married to Gulf War veteran author Anthony Swofford (Jarhead) – 'Tony' in Her – who appeared in the 2008 Oscar-nominated documentary, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was directed by...
When Don Lee’s first book debuted in April 2001, he probably didn’t know that he was the forerunner of a colorful trend – literally. His collection, Yellow, had the shortest of subtitles, simply Stories. Three months later, in July, another yellow-tinted cover appeared: Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging...
Tana French has a method to her mysteries: While all four of her titles are standalone thrillers, you'll get more out of each if you read them in chronological order because each book's protagonist is connected to the next. Rob opens the Dublin Murder Squad series with In the...
To put a word so violent as Executioner next to a muzak-soundtrack-inducing subtitle like Love Stories, on a cover sporting a cutesy, heart-shaped tiger's tail is exactly the sort of unsettling experience you can expect from Rajesh Parameswaran's uniquely original debut story collection. Animals take control of their narratives...
In the second installment of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, Cassie Maddox hasn't quite recovered from Operation Vestal of In the Woods, the series' debut. While she gained a caring, supportive, all-around good guy lover, she lost her partner who was also her very...
Who needs films when writers like Nadeem Aslam can create such eloquent canvases that no celluloid could ever hope to project? Blind Man's Garden takes you deep into the tragic 'war on terror' and shows you the very lives of the individuals who must live...
