Personal transformation Archives

Immigrant Heritage Month by the Book(s)! [in The Booklist Reader]

June is #ImmigrantHeritageMonth, which began in 2014 and has been recognized and celebrated by the (Obama) White House as “a time to celebrate diversity and immigrants’ shared American heritage” since 2015. “Immigration,” the White House declares, “is part of the DNA of this great nation.” Perhaps now more than ever...

The Parrot and the Merchant by Marjan Vafaeian, translated by Azita Rassi [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Persian, Repost, Translation

An avid collector, Persian merchant Mah Jahan's most precious possessions are her birds. Despite her devotion, "she kept them in cages or chains so that they couldn't fly away and leave her." Most beloved is "a beautiful bright parrot," favored because "the parrot had learned...

the extraordinary journey of the fakir who got trapped in an Ikea wardrobe. A novel. by Romain Puértolas, translated by Sam Taylor

15 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Indian, South Asian, Spanish, Translation

An Indian fakir gets in an old red Mercedes cab at Terminal 2 of Charles de Gaulle Airport and utters his first word – in Swedish – to the driver: "Ikea." Have you heard this one before? Well, no, most probably not ...

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

24 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction

If I were to choose the one book that affected me most this year – the one that ran the entire spectrum from giddiest to maddest, from eye-opening in wonder to eye-scrunching in horror – this is it. Bad Feminist has forever changed the way I read,...

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

09 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction

See the entwined pair of hands? Although the girl and woman never meet, they remain forever bound by both blood and experience over a tumultuous century in Afghanistan. The woman is Shekiba, the only daughter in a family of sons, whose gender alone makes her a target of abuse...

The Last Werewolf Trilogy: The Last Werewolf, Talulla Rising, By Blood We Live by Glen Duncan

07 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, British Asian, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race

In a roundabout way I can't quite recall, I ended up at this 2007 New York Times article, "Young Man Behaving Badly," and learned that bestselling author Glen Duncan is hapa British Asian. I found his latest title, By Blood We Live, magically waiting on my shelves, only...

Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth by Adharanand Finn

06 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, British, Memoir, Nonfiction

"In 1975 ...

Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger

14 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonethnic-specific

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...

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb

05 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Australian, British, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Neal Bascomb is a consummate storyteller: he can unravel a tale with an ending you already know, set it at a heart-thumping pace, and never let you rest until you hit that final page. Unless you've been in total seclusion your entire life, you probably know...

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui, translated by David Karashima

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Déjà vu: If the title seems at all familiar to you even though the book's U.S. pub date happened this fall, don't be surprised because you've probably, already seen various iterations of the story on other multiple platforms. While this is the original 1967 bestselling...

I’ll Give It My All … Tomorrow (vols. 3-4) by Shunju Aono, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

30 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Nope, tomorrow still hasn’t arrived for midlife slacker Oguro. As volume 3 opens, Oguro continues to struggle with his manga-making, his disappointed father isn’t above smacking him since “just telling [him] isn’t doing it,” and his teenage daughter has little choice than to detachedly watch...

Author/Artist Interview: CYJO + “KYOPO”

08 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Korean, Korean American, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

CYJO + “KYOPO” = MARVEL Come one, come all! Get ready for the upcoming Asian Pacific American invasion at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. “Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter” opens this Thursday, August 12 and runs through October 14, 2012. Presented in conjunction with the...

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

23 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Indian African, Indian American, South Asian American

Truth: if not for Sunil Malhotra, I would never have finished Abraham Verghese's bestselling first novel, Cutting for Stone. Immediately opened upon receipt more than two years ago, for some reason, my bookmark never moved beyond the first few chapters ...

Dear Zari: Hidden Stories from Women of Afghanistan by Zarghuna Kargar

17 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, British, Memoir, Nonfiction

"'I hope other people – particularly women – listen to these stories and become kinder to their own sex,'" a woman laments, her life made unbearable by her female in-laws who condemn her because she literally flushed away the evidence of her virginal blood. "'I don't understand...

The Paradise Bird Tattoo (or, Attempted Double-Suicide) by Choukitsu Kurumatani, translated by Kenneth J. Bryson [in Library Journal]

16 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

A major Japanese prize-winning book (Naoki, 1998) and film (Akame shijūya taki shinjū misui, 2003; in English, Akame 48 Waterfalls), Paradise is an unflinching meditation on late-20th-century disconnection. Middle-aged Ikushima, once again a self-described “corpse” in shoes and suit, recalls his drifting life 12 years ago: after...

The Other by David Guterson

14 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

I could cry over The Other. And not tears of the 'I'm so gratefully happy'-variety, alas; I'm talking truly disappointed waterworks. David Guterson writes quietly wrenching novels, including his bestselling Snow Falling on Cedars, and later East of the Mountains, which I actually found more effecting. The Other, too,...

I’ll Give It My All … Tomorrow (vol. 2) by Shunju Aono, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

24 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Shizuo Oguro's definitely getting older, although not quite yet better. Having quit the corporate life at age 40 determined to become a manga artist in volume 1, Oguro is now 42 and facing creative rejection, trying to convince himself that "Great talents bloom late." His friend – the angry...

Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, introduction by Craig Thompson

16 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, South American

Daytripper is a gift of unexpected brilliance. That's all you really need to know. And just as I soooooo appreciated knowing almost nothing about this title before I opened its enticing pages, I will try not to spoil a moment for you. If you're not ready to...

Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan [in Christian Science Monitor]

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nepali, Nonfiction, Repost

Two warnings: 1. Don’t read Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal in public unless you enjoy making a spectacle of yourself, wiping your eyes and blowing your nose every few pages; 2. Skip the middle photo insert until...

Author Interview: Anjali Banerjee [in Bookslut]

06 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian American

With her past seven published novels – written for audiences that range from middle-grade readers on up – Anjali Banerjee didn’t particularly mention male body parts in any great detail. Maybe a twinkling eye here, capable hands there, but she certainly didn’t dwell. But as...

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