Shelf Awareness Archives - Page 9 of 19

Angel & Hannah by Ishle Yi Park [in Shelf Awareness]

14 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Poetry, Puerto Rican, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Poet/singer Ishle Yi Park crafts an elegiac debut novel-in-verse featuring star-crossed teens, a "rebel/ Romeo & Juliet." From the opening line of Angel & Hannah, Park immediately commands complicity in sharing something secret involving diverse backgrounds: "Psst," she warns, "Ven acá. Illuwah" – "come here," in Spanish,...

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo [in Shelf Awareness]

13 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

Everyone and every place remain assuredly familiar here: Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Myrtle and George drink, dance, manipulate and die throughout East Egg, West Egg, Nick's cottage, Gatsby's mansion, the Plaza suite, and the green-lit dock. But Nghi Vo's first novel (after novellas The...

Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman [in Shelf Awareness]

11 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Jewish, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW That the protagonist's name is Francisco Goldberg – an amalgam of maternal Guatemalan immigrant and paternal Jewish parentage – presents an irresistible invitation to explore autobiographical overlaps with award-winning creator Francisco Goldman. The parallels are immediate: both are peripatetic journalist/writers with connections to Boston,...

From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo [in Shelf Awareness]

10 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Korean American, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

On June 19, 1982, 27-year-old Chinese American Vincent Chin was bludgeoned with a baseball bat by Ronald Ebens and stepson Michael Nitz. The two white men, like too many others, were driven by anti-Asian resentment over Detroit's declining auto industry due to Japanese competition. "It's...

Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff [in Shelf Awareness]

07 May, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Kyle Lukoff has already received acclaim for his picture books, including his #OwnVoices 2020 Stonewall Award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother. Lukoff's middle-grade debut, Too Bright to See, is another illuminating story that explores gender identity, featuring a trans tween who's finally ready to...

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin [in Shelf Awareness]

06 May, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

Warning: the number of corpses could actually exceed the page count in Tom Lin's addictively gruesome debut, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. Set between the Utah Territories and California in the late 1800s, Lin's novel manages to enhance a wild, wild western with Odyssean devotion, magic...

Nancy by Bruno Lloret, translated by Ellen Jones [in Shelf Awareness]

19 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chilean, Fiction, Repost, South American, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW In Chilean author Bruno Lloret's inventively sly debut novel, Nancy, the narrative might seem relatively transparent: titular Nancy approaches death by cancer and recalls her happy childhood, her dangerous adolescence, her brother's disappearance, her mother's abandonment, her father's Mormon conversion, her husband's gruesome death....

Tono Monogatari by Shigeru Mizuki, translated by Zack Davisson [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Short Stories, Translation, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW The late Shigeru Mizuki's most recent posthumous import, Tono Monogatari – in English, Tales of Tono – is as multi-layered as the eminent manga creator himself. Venerated for his magnificently detailed histories – Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, for example – and cherished for his charming supernatural...

Thirst by Amélie Nothomb, translated by Alison Anderson [in Shelf Awareness]

02 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Repost, Translation

To portray Jesus Christ in fiction is not new – some would agree he was always a novel creation. From Nikos Kazantzakis's classic The Last Temptation of Christ to the ongoing bestselling manga series Saint Young Men, Jesus moves copies. Prolific writer Amélie Nothomb (Tokyo Fiancée; Pétronille), who's...

Author Interview: Kaitlyn Greenidge [in Shelf Awareness]

30 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

"I Write for Black Women" Kaitlyn Greenidge's debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, won the 2017 Whiting Award and was among the New York Times Critics' Top 10 Books of 2016. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts...

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, translated by Polly Barton [in Shelf Awareness]

29 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Translation

Kikuko Tsumura has already won major Japanese literary prizes – most often writing about women in the workplace. Her U.S. fiction debut, There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job, smoothly translated by award-winning Polly Barton, features a 36-year-old unnamed working woman, her anonymity convincingly...

The Lost Package by Richard Ho, illustrated by Jessica Lanan [in Shelf Awareness]

26 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW "Serendipity" perhaps best describes Richard Ho's (Red Rover) second picture book, The Lost Package, enhanced by writer/artist Jessica Lanan's (The Fisherman & the Whale) superbly expressive watercolors. Together, the creative pair present a wondrous story about separation and near-magical reunion. Under the watchful eye of a...

Amphibians by Lara Tupper [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

Mobility, adaptability, and colorful changes are confronted by the girls and women in Lara Tupper's nimble interlinked collection, aptly titled Amphibians. Although each memorable story easily stands alone, to seek and recognize the deft connections intensifies the reading experience. Unnamed narrators bookend the collection, requiring...

I’m Waiting for You: And Other Stories by Bo-Young Kim, translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

As impressive as Kim Bo-Young's intriguing stories are, their literary provenance is equally entertaining. "I wrote 'I'm Waiting for You' for one person to read and one person to hear, with no ambitions of it ever being published," Kim reveals in her author's note. An...

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge [in Shelf Awareness]

22 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Kaitlyn Greenidge wowed the literary world with her disturbingly delightful debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman; her follow-up, Libertie, shows no hints of sophomore slump. Inspired by Susan Smith McKinney Steward, New York's first Black female doctor (and the third U.S. Black woman...

My Tree by Hope Lim, illustrated by Il Sung Na [in Shelf Awareness]

11 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

Author/illustrators Hope Lim (I Am a Bird) and Il Sung Na (The Dreamer) form an ideal #OwnVoices Korean American partnership in My Tree, which follows an immigrant child's quest for "home." In the backyard of the new house stands "an old tree. Tall, crooked, quiet." Reminded...

Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina [in Shelf Awareness]

10 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Japanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Elizabeth Miki Brina claims her voice with resounding clarity in her memoir, Speak, Okinawa. As the daughter of a U.S. soldier with Jamestown ancestry and an Okinawan immigrant mother, Brina's identity was always a negotiation of race, class, privilege. By opening her stupendous book...

Seven Special Somethings: A Nowruz Story by Adib Khorram, illustrated by Zainab Faidhi [in Shelf Awareness]

08 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Persian, Persian American, Repost

Persian American Adib Khorram joyfully and playfully celebrates his heritage in Seven Special Somethings, his picture book debut, following his award-winning Darius the Great YA duology. Khorram is partnered with fellow debut picture book creator Zainab Faidhi, an Iraq-born artist whose animation background provides each page...

Floating in a Most Peculiar Way: A Memoir by Louis Chude-Sokei [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Once upon a time, Louis Chude-Sokei's parents were known as "the JFK and Jackie O of Biafra," a former West African nation "that had disappeared or been 'killed.'" Half a century later, Chude-Sokei examines what it meant to be "the first son of the...

The Night Marchers and Other Oceanian Tales edited by Kate Ashwin, Sloane Leong, and Kel McDonald [in Shelf Awareness]

19 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Filipina/o, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hawaiian, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

The Night Marchers and Other Oceanian Tales is the fourth installment in Iron Circus Comics' geographically specific Cautionary Fables & Fairytales series: African tales in The Girl Who Married a Skull, Asian stories in Tamamo the Fox Maiden, and European fare in The Nixie of the Mill-Pond. Volume four...

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