Politics Archives - Page 12 of 34

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri [in Library Journal]

15 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's (The Interpreter of Maladies) unparalleled ability to transform the smallest moments into whole lives pinnacles in this extraordinary story of two brothers – so close that one is "the other side" of the other – coming of age in the political...

I See the Promised Land: A Life of Martin Luther King Jr. by Arthur Flowers, illustrated by Manu Chitrakar, designed by Guglielmo Rossi

09 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Black/African American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indian, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, South Asian, Young Adult Readers

Arthur Flowers, a "blues-based" performance poet, musician, and professor, introduces himself as "Rickydoc Trickmaster," to render the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. into a biography for younger readers, as traditional Patua Indian scroll painter Manu Chitrakar brings Flowers' recitation to vibrant life. Their combined...

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

09 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

Reading four novels, each set in a major Indian city, one after another over a single week or so, has made the stories feel as if they might overlap, dovetail, conflate, creating quite the enriching literary experience. In the midst of A Fine Balance, I...

On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman [in Library Journal]

03 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

* 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...

The World Is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village by Anna Badkhen [in Christian Science Monitor]

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

When you Google journalist Anna Badkhen, the one repeating line you’ll encounter is this: “Anna Badkhen writes about people in extremis.” To do so, she’s “spent [her] adult life in motion of one sort or another in the war-wrecked hinterlands of Central Asia, Arabia, Africa.” Badkhen...

Author Interview: Don Lee [in Bloom]

29 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

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...

Author Profile: Don Lee [in Bloom]

27 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

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...

Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar

23 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Audio, British, Egyptian, European, Fiction, Middle Eastern

Hisham Matar's second novel (following his much-lauded, substantially-awarded debut, In the Country of Men) reads like a fast-moving dream, events jarringly, jaggedly forced together, and yet somehow managing to maintain a clear, thoughtful narrative. Narrator Steve West's methodically-paced, calmly-controlled voice imbues Matar's haunting story with dignity...

On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

06 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

Allow me to start with the simple end: Ru Freeman's On Sal Mal Lane is stupendous. I'll even embellish that verdict and add that it is actually fan-huththa-tastic...

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

16 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonfiction, Syrian American

Clearly I waited too long to read this book, even though it sat ready on my shelves and on my iPod for years. Before I lament further, you should know that if you choose to go audible, Firdous Bamji doesn't disappoint; he remains one of the...

Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

11 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Short Stories

For fans of Aravind Adiga's unforgettable 2008 Booker Prized first novel, The White Tiger, who were perhaps not as enthralled with his 2011 follow-up, Last Man in Tower, might I suggest you look backward a few more years to his very first book? Introduced to eager readers just after Adiga's Booker...

A Chinese Life by Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié, translated by Edward Gauvin

28 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

No other word than epic describes this almost 700-page tome. It's epic in content: six decades of one ordinary man's extraordinary life, told through detailed, rich depictions in swirling black-and-white pen and ink that never seem to still. It's epic in context: 60 years of...

Author Interview: Pauline A. Chen [in Bloom]

20 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

A couple of days after filing my feature on Pauline A. Chen, I got on the phone to ask her all the questions I couldn’t find answers to out there in the virtual world of google-ing. True confession moment: I admit I was a wee bit...

The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen + Author Profile [in Bloom]

18 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American

When the teenaged Pauline Chen arrived in Harvard Yard, her intention was to become a writer. The American-born daughter of Taiwanese parents, she grew up amidst Long Island’s endless strip malls and was determined – she wrote in July 2012 at Tribute Books – to shed her “provincial” upbringing....

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

17 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, Fiction

I think at least a decade has passed since I read a Chris Bohjalian title (Midwives remains my favorite). Two shocks came with this, his latest: 1. He's got 15 books out already; and 2. He's of Armenian descent (yes, I should have connected that '-ian'...

Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds by Ping Fu with MeiMei Fox [in Bookslut]

05 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

This is not a spoiler: If you take a good look at the cover of the recent memoir Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds, you know the pages will deliver a happy ending ...

The City of Devi by Manil Suri + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

04 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Let's go back about seven years. So a writer walks into a bar. It's dark, but thankfully not smoky. The majority of the people there are more bookish (including Booker-ish!) than biker brutish. The writer finds a drink, and is standing slightly off the side with...

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis [in Christian Science Monitor]

30 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Biography, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Already designated “definitive political biography” on its back cover, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Brooklyn College political science professor Jeanne Theoharis will reside in my personal reading history as the most difficult book I’ve ever reviewed. Never before – and hopefully never...

Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

29 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Let me start with what has been deemed as historical record. According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation – which not only owns and operates Jefferson's legendary home, Monticello, but maintains the most comprehensive website focused on "Monticello, Jefferson, his family, and his times" – this is the official...

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

14 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction

The late Anthony Shadid is back in the headlines today with happy news: the double-Pulitzer winner's resonating memoir is one of the autobiography finalists for the National Book Circle Critics awards for the publishing year of 2012. House of Stone recounts Shadid's restoration of his great-grandfather's home...

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