At first impression, the story is very familiar: two American-born sisters of Vietnamese American immigrants – one the high-achieving 'good' daughter with her law degree, the other the 'lost' daughter with fast friends and temporary jobs that never last long. But in Bich Minh Nguyen's heart-string-pulling...
To teach the value of life, the National Welfare Act places a timed nanocapsule in one out of every 1,000 first graders' immunization syringes. On a predetermined date between the ages of 18 to 24 – with just 24 hours notice to the moment to...
On Old-Timers, Boxing, and Lots of Sex (mostly off the page ...
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 ...
Just in case you need a refresher, every volume from 11 until the final 18 now opens with a summary and who's who ...
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...
Just like addictive junk food (not that I would know, ahem!), you can't read just one volume of Monster. You start one, you have to immediately finish all the ones you can get your hands on. Too bad I ordered only five at a time...
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...
"Hadiya's name is not really Hadiya," the editor's note introduces this harrowing, heartbreaking blog-turned-book. "We have used pseudonyms for every Iraqi in this story because each of their lives could be in danger if they were identified. But Hadiya is a real teenager in Mosul,...
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...
Volume One: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima Volume Two: The Day After Volume Three: Life After the Bomb Volume Four: Out of the Ashes Volume Five: The Never-Ending War Volume Six: Writing the Truth Volume Seven: Bones into Dust Volume Eight: Merchants of Death Atom bomb. Unimaginable horrors. Survival against all odds. Bearing...
So I'm jumping on the Monster bandwagon a little late (which debuted in 1995 in Japan to multiple awards but took another 11 years to arrive Stateside in translation) ...
Told in the three alternating voices of a Chinese mother and her two Chinese American daughters, Fan Wu's second novel weaves a family tapestry filled with the multiple layers of intermixed cultures and generations. Mary, once Guo-Mei, now lives comfortably in Silicon Valley with her American-born...
Ruka, a star handball player, gets a little too rough and ends up kicked off the team. Frustrated, she heads to big city Tokyo where she thinks she might find the sea, and instead meets a mysterious young boy named Umi (whose name happens to...
Two years after her father is killed in a car accident, Emily moves with her mother and younger brother Navin to a faraway family home, once owned by her great-grandfather who disappeared decades ago. On the top floor of the neglected house, she finds a...
In her reader's guide at book's end, Naseem Rakha explains how in 1996 she was assigned to cover Oregon's first excecution in over three decades. Once finished with the assignment, she continued to ask questions and "by far the most compelling [stories] were those told...
Every Chinese New Year, Amy’s mother feels particularly homesick for her family living on the other side of the world in China. This year, a package arrives with a letter that tells the story of a remarkable stone found in Uncle Zhong’s fields, that was...
Despite his prestigious college degree which should have guaranteed him a bright future, Azel is unable to find meaningful work in his native Tangier, a city in northern Morocco. Mired in self-absorbed disappointment, he spends his days and nights lost in women, wine, and song,...
Not only will you be unable to put this down, you'll have to be careful to remember to breathe while reading this unforgettable debut novel written entirely in free verse. By age 10, Matt Pin has already had a harrowing life as a child of...
Here's a new perspective on the adoption experience: an older-sister-to-be marks off the days, one by one, as she and her father and grandparents make special preparations for the return of her mother who will be bringing her new sibling from Korea. Yumi Heo's illustrations...
