On Old-Timers, Boxing, and Lots of Sex (mostly off the page ...
If you haven't heard of Randy Pausch and experienced his delightful, heartbreaking, inspiring Last Lecture, surely you must: Click here for a comprehensive summary page created by Carnegie Mellon University where he was a professor before he passed away on July 25, 2008 of pancreatic...
The remarkable story begun in The New Sun continues in this second volume of Taro Yashima's graphic memoir, a strikingly simple combination of pictures and brief text that capture a man's journey away from his homeland. Long out of print since its 1947 first printing, Horizon...
Oh, how sad to think this is the very last book by Kamila Shamsie I had left to read ...
What an amazing, unique, and LUCKY find! First published in 1943 by one of the oldest U.S. publishers, Henry Holt and Company, and in spite of excellent reviews plus a multi-year marketing campaign by both publisher and an early publicist who worked to get the...
Another warning: The body count is staggering by series' end. While most are bad guys, or anonymous innocent bystanders (who are disturbing enough to see splattered across so many pages), the ONE that breaks your heart ...
Kamila Shamsie's debut novel is now the same age as her first protagonist, 11-year-old Hasan, the only child of a lauded artist and a once powerful lawyer. The trio live surrounded by extended family and friends in 'the city by the sea' of Karachi, Pakistan....
Marco Polo sure got around in his time, way back in the 13th century! And what a great way to show our instant-access, Web-addicted kids just how incredible the Polo family's adventures were – for any generation! The latest in Chronicle Books' (that great indie San...
Even before this book hit U.S. shelves, French-born Turkish author Elif Shafak was charged with insulting "Turkishness" in violation of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code because one of her characters refers to the large-scale massacre of Armenians that began in 1915 in Turkey as...
Prominently noted on the cover as "The first Arab novel to confront the Holocaust" and banned in the author's native Algeria, The German Mujahid is also based on a true story, making it an even more disturbing, striking read. To add to its authenticity, the novel...
"Did you know that thirty percent of children in American schools are either bullied, or bully other kids?" asks award-winning Australian author Susanne Gervay in her "Author's Note" for the first U.S. edition of her already bestselling novel. Inspired by her own son Jack's experiences...
First an interruption: I learned a very entertaining meaning for a certain common(-ish) word on the first page of Shamsie's second novel: 'bugaboo.' "It's a word that demands to be said out loud," writes Shamsie, "particularly among bilingual Pakistanis who recognize its resemblance to 'baghal...
Without a doubt, the most remarkable part of this striking new edition of Jane Yolen's 1977 title are the pictures. The story is simple: a Chinese emperor's daughter, blind since birth, learns to "see" with the help of a wise old man and his mysteriously...
In a barren wasteland of "perpetual night" called Amberground where only the capital city has access to light from an artificial sun, 18-year-old Gauche Suede works as a dedicated tegami bachi (literally 'letter bee'), a mail carrier whom people entrust "with their hearts." Living in a...
Apparently the big book controversy this week (besides the Wal-Mart $10 vs. Amazon $9 pre-order pricing war) is David Small's 2009 National Book Award nomination in the Young People's Literature category for his graphic memoir, Stitches. YA or not YA, that is the question ...
Once upon a time, Kenji wanted to be a rock star guitarist. But somehow, in 1997, he's ended up managing a convenience store with his cranky mother and his missing sister's baby usually strapped on his back. Then he gets word that Donkey, one of...
I should have ordered all 18 volumes in one batch, because I really can't stand the thought of waiting to see what happens! I gladly admit I couldn't put down the four volumes that arrived last night (I originally got the first Monster from the...
Winner of the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Award, Ma's debut collection is made up of 10 stories that each explores the nature of power – from subtle to blatant – in various types of relationships. The strongest is undoubtedly the title story, taken from an off-hand...
Forty-three (yes, 43!) hours is a major commitment to a single book. And in spite of the most eye-rolling, not-so-nicely-talking back to a continuously babbling (for 43 hours, 3 minutes to be exact!) iPod that I have ever done, I will actually admit that Shantaram is...
Historical works about Korea in English – especially during the tragic years of the Japanese occupation (officially 1910-1945) – seem few and far between. So I really wanted to fall madly in love with this debut novel by fellow Korean American Eugenia Kim. While I was grateful for...
