Author Interview: Kate Beaton [in Shelf Awareness]
02 Nov, by in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost
Kate Beaton: 'I Stopped Drawing ...
BookDragon Shelf Awareness Tag
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton [in Shelf Awareness]
01 Nov, by in Adult Readers, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost
*STARRED REVIEW Kate Beaton’s many devotees revere her for the award-winning series Hark! A Vagrant. Perhaps lesser known is the provenance of those erudite, playful histories: they began as a webcomic while Beaton worked in the oil fields of Alberta, Canada. In Ducks: Two Years in the...
Lunch from Home by Joshua David Stein with Niki Russ Federman, Ray Garcia, Preeti Mistry, Mina Park, illustrated by Jing Li [in Shelf Awareness]
14 Sep, by in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Indian American, Jewish, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Repost, South Asian American
Journalist/author Joshua David Stein (Notes from a Young Black Chef) goes back to school in Lunch from Home, a delectable celebration of comfort foods with origins from all over the world that converge in a single classroom. "This story [is] based on the lives of four...
Daughters of the New Year by E.M. Tran [in Shelf Awareness]
13 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American
E.M. Tran's author's note about the provenance of her absorbing debut novel begins with her mother's beauty pageant trophy, which always graced the top of the family piano. "How did it get there, through the chaos and danger of Saigon's collapse?" Tran asks. For refugees...
Sojourn by Amit Chaudhuri [in Shelf Awareness]
12 Sep, by in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian
*STARRED REVIEW Amit Chaudhuri – novelist, poet, essayist, musician – dexterously expands the quotidian into philosophical, sociopolitical, and existential ruminations in Sojourn, a sparse narrative with undeniably dense resonance. An unnamed Indian writer arrives in Berlin for a four-month university residency. He's befriended, then abandoned, by a...
Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min [in Shelf Awareness]
11 Aug, by in Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese American, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers
Lio Min's soulful debut novel, Beating Heart Baby, highlights music, art, and the love of family – by birth, yes, but more significantly by circumstance and choice. Their emotive narrative spotlights Filipino American artist Santi and Korean Japanese American musician Suwa, playing out a tumultuous relationship...
Only the Cat Knows by Ruyan Meng [in Shelf Awareness]
10 Aug, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost
*STARRED REVIEW Through the first half of her spare, intricate novella Only the Cat Knows – recipient of the 2020 Red Hen Press Novella Award – Ruyan Meng brilliantly builds a mounting sense of claustrophobia. A factory worker labors hard every day but is unable to...
Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean [in Shelf Awareness]
09 Aug, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost
Author Emiko Jean transfers the effusive charm of her YA novels (Tokyo Ever After; Tokyo Dreaming) into her first adult fiction, Mika in Real Life. At age 35, Japanese American Mika is once again jobless. Her career's been inarguably erratic, serially fired from a donut shop, nannying, writing ...
The Flamingo by Guojing [in Shelf Awareness]
03 Aug, by in Canadian Asian Pacific American, Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost
Few books deserve the "perfect" designation, but The Flamingo by Guojing arguably earns that appellation. The celebrated author of The Only Child and Stormy presents another remarkable, near-wordless story for young readers that gloriously commemorates bonds between humans and animals, enhanced here with the heartwarming relationship between a child and...
Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts [in Shelf Awareness]
02 Aug, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation
Following the notable success of The Aosawa Murders, prolific, award-winning Japanese author Riku Onda reunites with translator Alison Watts for Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight, another riveting, tightly plotted psychological thriller. "This, I guess you could say," the novel opens, "is the story of a photo." That...
The Con Artists by Luke Healy [in Shelf Awareness]
28 Jul, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Irish, Repost, Young Adult Readers
*STARRED REVIEW The prologue alone to Luke Healy's sharp, skilled The Con Artists is a wow-inducing example of show-don't-tell genius. "Oh, hello. I'm Luke Healy, the author of this book. No big deal," he modestly introduces himself. As he reads "a prepared statement" – the usual "entirely...
Death Doesn’t Forget [Taipei Night Market, Book 4] by Ed Lin [in Shelf Awareness]
26 Jul, by in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American
Though Death Doesn't Forget is the fourth in the Taipei Night Market series, versatile novelist Ed Lin nimbly ensures each volume could easily stand alone. Of course, the recommended route is to read the titles in order – Ghost Month; Incensed; 99 Ways to Die – to further...
Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi [in Shelf Awareness]
25 Jul, by in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Fiction, Nigerian, Nigerian American, Repost, Short Stories
The nearly 15 years Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi spent writing and rewriting proves to be tenacity well invested, resulting in her audacious debut, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories. The 10 chapters here work as standalone pieces (many were previously published in...
Take No Names by Daniel Nieh [in Shelf Awareness]
11 Jul, by in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost
Daniel Nieh, a former international model and Chinese-English translator, introduced his protagonist Victor Li in the gripping Beijing Payback, published in 2019. Nieh's sophomore thriller, Take No Names, heightens the gasp-inducing wild ride of Victor's debut. Although both titles are easily consumable as stand-alone novels – Nieh...
Flip the Script by Lyla Lee [in Shelf Awareness]
20 Jun, by in Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers
Readers familiar with Lyla Lee's exuberant YA debut, I'll Be the One, will be tickled to see that singer/dancer Skye Shin is "topping the charts" in Lee's equally ebullient sophomore YA novel, Flip the Script. Like Skye, Lee's new protagonist, Hana Jin, is a Korean American...
Nana, Nenek & Nina by Liza Ferneyhough [in Shelf Awareness]
15 Jun, by in British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Malaysian American, Repost
Liza Ferneyhough makes her delightfully clever author/illustrator debut with Nana, Nenek & Nina. The picture book opens with a double-page spread introducing a three-person family, with the Golden Gate Bridge visible through their window. Photos hang on either side of the window, two of which...
Tokyo Dreaming [Tokyo Ever After, Book 2] by Emiko Jean [in Shelf Awareness]
13 Jun, by in Fiction, Japanese American, Repost, Young Adult Readers
The empowering delight of Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Ever After continues in Tokyo Dreaming as Her Imperial Highness Princess Izumi tries to fit into an ancient hierarchy. When the second book opens, Izumi and her mother are ensconced in Tokyo's Tōgū Palace with their somewhat malodorous pup, Tamagotchi, who's been...
Family Album by Gabriela Alemán, translated by Dick Cluster and Mary Ellen Fieweger [in Shelf Awareness]
03 Jun, by in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, South American, Translation
Family Album, from award-winning author Gabriela Alemán, is a shrewd, beguiling collection. In eight genre-defying stories, the Brazil-born, Ecuador-based Alemán deftly confronts push-button topics like colonialism, identity, and religion. Dick Cluster, who translated Alemán's novel Poso Wells (2018), returns here with Mary Ellen Fieweger to provide...
Inheritance: A Visual Poem by Elizabeth Acevedo, illustrated by Andrea Pippins [in Shelf Awareness]
31 May, by in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Young Adult Readers
Elizabeth Acevedo, the author of the multi-award-winning The Poet X and Clap When You Land, is also a National Poetry Slam Champion. Inheritance, her most famously performed poem, is here set in print, enhanced with stupendous art by author/illustrator Andrea Pippins (Young, Gifted and Black). Hair – and how...
The Third Person by Emma Grove [in Shelf Awareness]
26 May, by in Adult Readers, Canadian, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost
Debut author Emma Grove's luminous graphic memoir opens with a declaration: "None of the following incidents are made up or invented ...