Only when Louise Erdrich won this year's National Book Award for The Round House, did I learn that House is the middle of a planned trilogy that begins with The Plague of Doves which, most serendipitously, was already loaded on my iPod. A bit of...
Today – December 7, 2012 – is the 71st anniversary of the "date which will live in infamy," as named by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in describing the assault on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base and launching the United States into World War II. That the attackers...
Here's my 'why-I-read-this-book-scenario': a 21st-century equivalent to the mail-order bride from Bangladesh, her middle-class white American engineer sponsor hubby, the suburban New York life they attempt to share ...
So enthralled by Diana Thung's August Moon earlier this week, I immediately ordered Captain (her first and only other title thus far), and was delightfully tickled to find a blurb on the back cover from Gene Luen Yang (of first-ever National Book Award graphic novel finalist-fame for American Born Chinese): "Goofy and endearing...
Canadian eco-architect David H.T. Wong's debut defies simple categorization: while clearly a graphic work for younger readers (much of the language is soooo totally tweenage vernacular), Escape covers some 200 years of history through the fictional story of a Chinese Canadian American family, also named Wong, whose experiences...
In the genre of memoirs (which includes based-on-a-true-story, autobiographical novels), I've noticed two distinct categories: the titles you read for the importance of the story, and the memoirs that also turn out to be fabulous examples of great literature. Psychologist Rahimeh Andalibian's writing debut represents the former;...
Get ready for surreal delight. When a mysterious creature with an imbedded bullet turns up, Fi and her scientist father head to the town of Calico – linked "to the rest of the country! and the world!" by a single bridge. They'll be staying with Fi's Uncle...
Although Vincent Lam's first novel hit shelves months ago, I waited (and waited) to read it because I was afraid – seems to be my modus operandi for follow-up titles to books I've cherished, unable to move on for fear of grave disappointment. Lam's interconnected story...
Perhaps you might label me odd (true) or contrary (no way!) or even disrespectful (dohhh!) to post about cancer and death today of all days, but let me just assure you that this really does make sense. Books like this are the best reminders to...
Little White Duck is a visual feast that showcases the childhood memories of author Na Liu, and vibrantly enhanced by her artist husband Andrés Vera Martínez. Liu introduces herself with an adorably grinning "Ni Hao!," explaining that she was born in Zhifang, a suburb of...
Award-winning Iranian writer Ahmad Akbarpour uses the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988, claiming 1.5 million lives) as the backdrop for this indelible, meaningful story about a young boy who lost his mother – and his leg. "The story is set in Iran," Akbarpour explains in his author's...
Gilead and Home are parallel stories – that is, one is not a sequel or prequel of the other, but what happens in one, happens contemporaneously in the other. As satisfying as each novel can be alone, to read both one after the other will be...
How strange to admit that Dave Eggers taught me Eugène Ionesco – Mr. Theatre of the Absurd himself – wrote kiddie stories in addition to his dozens of plays (Rhinoceros, The Chairs, The Bald Soprano, being some of his signature pieces). Eggers founded McSweeney's which recently debuted McMullens,...
While I can hardly estimate the many, many books I’ve read about the Japanese American experience during World War II, I know few details about what happened to Japanese Canadians. The lone fact that looms is that like their Japanese American counterparts on the West...
Banafsheh, a blue-eyed little girl aged 5, is traveling with her grandmother one night on a train, and notices a young woman sitting across from them reading a book. "If my mother were alive, she would be reading a book, too," she thinks longingly to...
Since Brian Selznick’s remarkable Wonderstruck has been out for almost a year, this may be rather old news for you. However, if, like me, you're crawling out from that comfy rock and need an unforgettable fix to take back under, here's your perfect next choice. Oh,...
Of course, a child named Zephyr is predestined to love planes, always ready to ride the gentle winds in the limitless sky. [I should also mention that "Zephyr" is the name of the (unmanned, solar-powered) plane that holds the world record for being continuously airborne...
Once again, I start from book's end, with the "About the Author" page which introduces war-child Zeina Abirached, whose first 10 years of life were spent surviving Beirut's civil war (1975-1990). As an adult, she happened upon a 1984 documentary that included "[a] woman whose...
When's the last time you competed with one of your kids to read a book? Especially when said child is usually not so interested in anything without a screen? Good thing my bedtime is a little later than his, or else I'd never have gotten...
I think I must have been a Boricua in a former life. I can't seem to stay away too long from La Isla del Encanto (especially my favorite Isla Culebrita), and I get the fiercest cravings for Bebo's and mofongo (it's all about a full...
