The Queen of Tears by Chris McKinney [in Christian Science Monitor]
23 May, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hawaiian, Korean, Korean American, Repost
Once Korea's greatest movie star – dubbed 'the Queen of Tears' for her ability to cry convincingly on film – Soong Nan Lee arrives in Hawai‘i to face her three adult children. Her two eldest by...
Originally published in 1951, the final novel from Hayashi – undoubtedly one of Japan’s most important women writers of the 20th century – traces a tormented, destructive love affair. When they meet, Yukiko and Tomioka are...
How Yamanaka can tell some of the most harrowing stories with such lyrically beautiful language is astonishing. In her latest novel, Hawaii’s best known writer captures the story of three lost, tuberculosis-stricken sisters, sent away to...
An unput-down-able romp of a fun novel (with a few very serious moments) starring hapa (half-Asian, half-not) Patty Ho who goes from awkward Seattle suburb freshman to adventurous, independent Stanford summer math camper.
Reviews: "In Celebration of...
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...
Here’s the Cinderella tale with an entertaining twist … ever wonder what happened from Prince Charming’s – that’s actually Prince Stephen’s – point of view?
Review: 
As her husband recovered from cancer treatments, Grace Lin wrote Robert’s Snow, the delightful adventures of a tiny mouse, to celebrate their good fortune. But just months later, Lin and her husband – also...
If you loved his films, check out the screenplays for more detailed nuance. Undoubtedly, Pak is one of the most original, talented, imaginative young filmmakers out there.
Review: 
When Lina is bombarded by relatives who want to marry her off at her sister’s Indian wedding, she unthinkingly wards off the well-wishers by making up the perfect fiancé supposedly waiting for her back...
An APA chick lit title, starring Lindsey Owyang, a Chinese American San Franciscan who has the boyfriend too good to be true – even if he’s only one-quarter Chinese. Her chance encounter with a...
In spite of its devastating moments, this is one fabulous novel about a billion-rupee quiz show winner, a lá Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, who is unjustly arrested for cheating. Rescued from being further tortured,...
When her Hollywood agent sends D-lister Raveena Rai overseas to star in a Bollywood film, she gets stuck with a lecherous director and a tongue-tied though gorgeous co-star. Fun, silly romp just in time...
Two interesting facts emerge: 1. young girls are bonded together to become laotongs (literally, “old sames”) for life and 2. women communicate using nu shu, a secret women-only written language. In the novel, 80-year-old...
Got the publication date confused and held it longer than intended – but can’t let it go without saying this is a grand coming-of-age story. Jazz Gardner travels to India with her family where...
Nineteen years after her twin’s unsolved disappearance, Mara Dunn finds her sister’s camera in a junk sale. Its final roll of film – of rare orchids – offers a definitive path of clues. With...
This one is just delicious – and delightfully plotted as to how it plays with time and place and people. The beginning: a man, a woman,...
A pseudonymously penned mystery thriller from the chronicler of the early Filipino American experience, this "lost" work ironically follows the lives of three non-Filipinos. Nevertheless, Hau and Anderson establish the work as...
Innocence lost: 17-year-old Ami is both schoolgirl and prostitute, pregnant by her mentally challenged older brother, brutally gang raped by a rock star and his groupies, but capable of restoring the dormant virility of...