Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura
10 Dec, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese American
Spare, lean, restrained, dare I say ...
BookDragon War Tag
The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941 by Kirby Larson
07 Dec, by in Fiction, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers
How’s this for new math: the first 286 pages hold about the same weight as the final 25 pages. The fictional diary expounds and entertains, revealing a 13-year-old’s West Coast experiences during World War II; the ending “Life in America in 1941” section illuminates and...
The City of Death [Ash Mistry Chronicles, Book 2] by Sarwat Chadda
05 Dec, by in British, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
Okay, so we're skipping ahead here, because I had to read this for a book judging requirement – and, in reading out of order, also confirm that it can narratively stand alone even without its prequel. I can't reveal any trade secrets, but I can...
One Step at a Time : A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
25 Nov, by in Biography, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American
Introduced to U.S. readers by award-winning Canadian author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch in last year's Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War, Son Thi Ahn Tuyet's story continues – literally one step at a time. Now that Tuyet has a real home with her own real family – Dad, Mom, sisters Beth and...
The Cemetery of Forgotten Books: The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven, The Rose of Fire by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves
24 Nov, by in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Translation
Well, crud. In spite of making a list and checking it twice, thrice, and more, I read these in about as 'wrong' order as I possibly could. But before I offer two preventative options, some quick background: the full Cemetery of Forgotten Books by internationally bestselling...
The Wall by William Sutcliffe
18 Nov, by in Adult Readers, British, Fiction, Middle Eastern, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
In an unnamed conflict zone – not unlike the challenging, changing borders of Israel and Palestine – 13-year-old Joshua lives in a new settlement community, Amarias, surrounded by a guarded, barbed-wired wall. Too soon after his father's violent death, his mother desperately married Joshua's now-stepfather who considers...
Year of the Jungle: Memories from the Home Front by Suzanne Collins, illustrated by James Proimos
05 Nov, by in Children/Picture Books, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Vietnamese
With the impending release of the book-to-screen adaptation of Catching Fire on November 22, Suzanne Collins will again be back in the headlines sooner than later. Although The Hunger Games trilogy is what made her a household name, Collins does have other (dare I say ...
The Third Son by Julie Wu + Author Profile [in Bloom]
28 Oct, by in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American
Vision and Reinvention: Julie Wu’s The Third Son So how many detours can a writer make before becoming that writer? If you’re newbie novelist Julie Wu – who knew as a Harvard undergraduate in the 1980s that writing was what she wanted to do – the answer might include a Master’s program...
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
22 Oct, by in Audio, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers
I admit I had a few false starts before I finally settled into Patricia McCormick's latest, which was a 2012 National Book Award finalist for Young People's Literature. Based on the horrifying experiences of Cambodian activist/humanitarian Arn Chorn-Pond’s childhood survival during the brutal Khmer Rouge control...
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
13 Oct, by in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific
So here's the last of my recent unintentional assemblage of end-of-World-War-II novels that began with Elizabeth Wein’s wrenching Rose Under Fire, and progressed with Chris Bohjalian's desperate Skeletons at the Feast and continued with his latest, the vengeful The Light in the Ruins. Of this week's quartet, Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins (how about that...
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
10 Oct, by in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, European, Fiction
This, Chris Bohjalian's latest, is one to stick in the ears ...
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
09 Oct, by in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish
Every so often, I seem to get on a specific reading spree on a topic not exactly of my choosing – that is, the books seem to serendipitously line up on their own. The latest batch of they-chose-me-titles have been set during the final brutal months...
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
08 Oct, by in Adult Readers, British, European, Fiction
Confession: If I didn't have to read Elizabeth Wein's follow-up to her breath-wringing adventure, Code Name Verity, I would have kept Rose Under Fire under wraps, hidden somewhere amidst my must-read pile, and just be content with basking in the potential promise of a satisfying 'gawwww' sometime...
A Handbook to Luck by Cristina García
07 Oct, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Caribbean American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Iranian, Latin American, Latina/o/x
Tell me if you've heard this one before: a Cuban, an El Salvadorean, and an Iranian land on the page and spend decades trying to find their place in the world. Yes? Then, you must have read Cristina García’s A Handbook to Luck. No? Then read...
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
06 Oct, by in Adult Readers, African, Audio, British, Canadian, Fiction
Raised as a Roman Catholic convinced of at least one past life as a Jewish grandmother, I find myself in my old age utterly wary of institutionalized religions, repeatedly alarmed at what we human beings commit upon one another in the name of various (one-and-only)...
The Keeping Quilt and The Blessing Cup by Patricia Polacco
05 Oct, by in Children/Picture Books, Jewish, Memoir, Nonfiction, Russian
Although published a quarter century apart, these are two books that tell a single tears-of-joy-inducing family story. If chronology is important, you might read Patricia Polacco's multi-generational family epic out of publication order – that is, Blessing Cup (out this year) first, and then Keeping Quilt (which debuted in...
Together Tea by Marjan Kamali
03 Oct, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American
"In the car, Mina turned on the news. 'Iran' was mentioned in the same breath as 'terrorist' and 'rogue.' Just once, Mina wanted to hear the name of her old country mentioned in the same breath as 'joy' or 'freedom' or 'gentle goodness.'" What Mina...
In the Sea There Are Crocodiles: Based on the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari by Fabio Geda, translated by Howard Curtis
01 Oct, by in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, European, Italian, Translation, Young Adult Readers
Although the cover bears the designation, "A Novel," Enaiatollah Akbari – whose name also appears on said cover (who is not the book's author, Fabio Geda) – is a real person. A kid, really. In case you need a face to place with the name, the back...
I dreamt … A book about hope by Gabriela Olmos, translated by Elisa Amado
30 Sep, by in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Children/Picture Books, Latin American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers
Sometimes, it takes a village to create a book this magnificent. Award-winning author and publisher Gabriela Olmos gathered "[s]ome of Mexico's best illustrators" who donated their art to create this stunning prayer for peace. "I dreamt of pistols that shoot butterflies ...
FArTHER by Grahame Baker-Smith
28 Sep, by in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
Certain books make me terribly selfish – because once I finish a post, the book gets cleared off my desk and either shelved or shared. British author/artist Grahame Baker-Smith's FArTHER – the many meanings in the title alone, achieved with just the lower-casing of that single 'r' provokes goosebumps...