MAO: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday [in AsianWeek]
03 Nov, by in Adult Readers, Biography, British Asian, Chinese, Nonfiction, Repost
From the bestselling author of Wild Swans (together with a well-known academic), comes an unflinching look at one of the most powerful, influential figures of the 20th-century, not to mention one of the most...
Award-winning Haitian American writer 
Marking the 60th anniversary of that fateful August 6th morning comes a richly detailed examination of the three weeks that led up to the Hiroshima bombing. While it reads like a riveting novel – scientists, politicians,...
Good Morning America viewers, with a panel of bestselling authors, chose Ahmedi’s story in a nationwide search for the most extraordinary true-life experience. Afghani-born Ahmedi’s 19 years are marked by...
A must-read novel about a Filipino Native American hapa Vietnam War veteran whose disturbing journal “entrys” are juxtaposed with more reliable, objective narration. How the story plays out keeps you on the edge of your seat,...
The first available translation of important fiction highlighting the Japanese colonization of Korea: Kannani exposes the brutality endured by Koreans at the hands of their Japanese oppressors – even among the children – while Document follows...
A loving tribute, memoir-style, to the author’s father, a South Vietnamese pilot shot down during the Vietnam War and assumed dead. Pham and his mother begin a new life in the United...
One child escapes, the other is left behind: In this continuation of the bestseller, 
Despite the bombs falling from the sky, a devoted librarian manages to safely rescue thousands of books before the library burns down. An inspiring tale for anyone who loves books … not...
Undoubtedly, this 29-year-old author can write. His story is a little too convoluted, but it’s well worth the read. Gabriel Guttman (in German, ‘Gutmann’ is literally “good man”), a grisled Korean War veteran...
First and foremost: This is one of the best books I’ve read this year in spite of the historical improbability laid out at the novel’s end. Ayoshi, a woman artist in 1869 Japan, paints in order...
Based on historical accounts, Ha Jin’s third novel opens with the words of an elderly man who records his memoirs for his American-born grandchildren. He
methodically recounts his experiences as a young “volunteer” Chinese army...
“So may I clarify that tonight I speak as a subject of the American empire? I speak as a slave who presumes to criticize her king,” Roy says...
This is a World War II story told from the other side – without that other side being demonized and made to seem inhuman. The book’s narrator meets an engineer who recalls...
Chang’s debut novel, following her memorable short story collection Hunger, is filled with complex characters and intricate details about their troubled lives. At its center is the narrator, Hong, a woman caught in multi-layered, multi-generational betrayals...
This is one of those perfectly sized, well-designed books that add that something extra to an already enlightening reading experience. Perhaps the most powerful section of Uyehara’s slim volume is...
An engaging memoir by the adopted son of a famed Vietnamese doctor and spiritual master. Growing up in a country devastated by war, the mischievous son eventually learns...
Silent No More: The Varsity Victory Volunteers of World War II
Write what you know best” is the advice that writers probably hear most often. Franklin Odo, activist, academic, and museum curator extraordinaire, does exactly that. His latest title, No Sword...
While the premise of a young girl’s diary about surviving war in contemporary Iraq is promising – if not necessary in order to put an innocent human face to the so-called ‘war on terrorism’...