War Archives - Page 5 of 33

Two Dead by Van Jensen, illustrated by Nate Powell, color by Erin Tobey [in Shelf Awareness]

10 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Cycles of violence dominate the graphic novel Two Dead – whether at home or on so-called enemy territory. Traumatized by a World War II friendly-fire fatality, Sergeant Gideon Kemp returns stateside, eschews his law degree, and begins his police career in 1946 in his hometown...

North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah [in Booklist]

08 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, European, Fiction, Repost

Originally from Somalia, Mugdi and Gacalo have now spent the majority of their lives in Norway, where they’ve been productive citizens, raising two children. Their quiet, middle-aged calm is shattered when their son Dhaqaneh commits a suicide bombing in Somalia. Gacalo’s only way forward after the...

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates [in Booklist]

20 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) is one of – potentially the – most sought-after contemporary voice on the politics of race, and his debut fiction could not have been more laudably anticipated. Now sporting Oprah’s seal of approval as her latest Book...

Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay [in Shelf Awareness]

13 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in British Asian, Fiction, Filipina/o, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Southeast Asian

Growing up in the Philippines, Candy Gourlay (Tall Story) "wondered why all the books she'd ever loved didn't resemble her steamy, tropical home in Manila." As she explains in her author bio, it took years as a journalist and author for Gourlay, who now lives...

How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee [in Booklist]

09 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Singaporean

*STARRED REVIEW Singaporean born, Oxford-educated, Amsterdam-domiciled Jing-Jing Lee opens her expansive, extraordinary debut novel with a reclamatory dedication: “For all the grandmas (halmonies, lolas and amas) who told their stories, so that I could tell this one.” Lee’s rescue of stories belonging to older women is...

Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon [in Booklist]

05 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean American, Laotian, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW The story begins and ends with Alisak, one of three inseparable Laotian orphans in 1969, who, in the final pages, will have become an almost-content Spanish shopowner on his way to a birthday celebration in 2018. Traversing countries and continents during a half-century, Paul...

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys [in Booklist]

29 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

L.A.-born, Madrid-raised Maite Jáuregui makes her audiobook debut with one of the year’s most anticipated/lauded/likely to be awarded titles. Jáuregui dominates a sizable cast (Joshua Kane, Robert Petkoff, Oliver Wyman, Richard Ferrone, Neil Hellegers, Liza Kaplan), while her co-stars take turns momentarily interrupting chapters with...

Older Brother by Mahir Guven, translated by Tina Kover [in Shelf Awareness]

18 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, French, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Syrian, Translation

Two brothers. Two narrators. Two type fonts: serif for "The Older Brother" chapters; sans serif for "The Younger Brother." Their family has shrunk as Mahir Guven's debut, Older Brother, begins: "...

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris [in Booklist]

10 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Australian, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost

“Choosing to live is an act of defiance, a form of heroism,” Lale assures his lover Gita. The pair are both Slovakian Jews, trapped in the hell of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As the death camp’s Tätowierer – the tattooist who scars prisoners with everlasting numbers – Lale...

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali [in Booklist]

04 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American, Persian, Persian American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Adroitly adapting her deep, mellifluous voice across continents, decades, ages, and genders, Mozhan Marnò flawlessly embodies Marjan Kamali’s (Together Tea, 2013) stupendous sophomore title about young lovers torn apart by class, politics, and history during the violent tumult of 1950s Iran. A Tehran stationery...

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung [in Booklist]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean American, Repost

“I suppose I should warn you that I tell a story like a woman: looping into myself, interrupting,” announces Catherine Chung’s protagonist Katherine. “Things have never seemed straightforward to me; the path has never been clear.” As the child of a WWII veteran father and...

Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated by Janet Hong [in Booklist]

25 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Biography, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Few historical tragedies compare to the hell-on-earth endured by the Japanese military’s so-called “comfort women,” a grossly abused term for mostly young girls kidnapped during WWII into sexual slavery. For Lee Ok-sun, one of Korea’s few survivors, her “service” included 30–40 men daily in...

A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata [in Booklist]

01 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW From ages eight to 12, Hanako lived in prison: She was one of 120,000 majority Americans of Japanese descent imprisoned during WWII by Executive Order 9066. “[N]ow that she was kind of free ...

Five More to Go: Maaza Mengiste’s The Shadow King [in The Booklist Reader]

26 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Biography, Black/African American, Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste Maaza Mengiste’s indelible debut, Beneath the Lion’s Gate (2010), put Ethiopian historical fiction on countless best-of, must-read, and award lists. Her monumental new novel draws inspiration from her great-grandmother, who as the eldest – and in Mulan-style! – answered Emperor...

Three Flames by Alan Lightman [in Booklist]

22 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Novelist and physicist Alan Lightman (Einstein's Dreams) has traveled twice yearly since 2003 to Cambodia to work with his Harpswell Foundation which empowers women leaders in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. In his first novel in seven years, Lightman’s opening dedication directly spotlights Harpswell’s “strong and...

The Parade by Dave Eggers [in Booklist]

07 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

As McSweeney’s founder Dave Eggers’ default narrator-of-choice for over a dozen titles, Dion Graham improves – again – Eggers’ original with his meticulous, mellifluous aural presentation. Eggers’ latest is a slim, tense title that, on the page, might read more didactic parable than affecting novel. Anonymity...

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga [in Booklist]

06 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab American, Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Syrian, Syrian American, Verse Novel/Nonfiction

When violent unrest arrives in Syria, Jude’s family is cleaved in half as she and her pregnant mother leave behind her father and older brother to live with her uncle’s family in Ohio. Jude perseveres with English, an unfamiliar (sometimes unwelcoming) culture, establishing new friendships,...

The Last Word: Audios of Posthumously Published Books – Part 2 [in Booklist]

04 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Australian, Black/African American, European, Lebanese American, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Translation, Vietnamese American

The one thing in life that’s guaranteed is, well, death. But books are certainly a lasting legacy. And sometimes, when we get the books after their creator has passed on, an audiobook can breathe new life into the text, animating from beyond. A bittersweet legacy, indeed, but...

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid [in Booklist]

02 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW When Anthony Shadid’s own nuclear family falls apart – his marriage ends, he’s separated from his only child – he returns to Marjayoun, Lebanon in August, 2007 with “foolish and rash ...

In Celebration of Women in Translation Month: Asian Women Authors — Part II [in The Booklist Reader]

30 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Fiction, Japanese, Korean, Lists, Repost, Short Stories, Thai, Translation

This is the second of a two-part series. Click here for Part I. Last week, we shared a baker’s dozen of titles by Asian women writers, made accessible by dedicated, invaluable translators who continuously, miraculously enable anglophone readers in discovering, enjoying, and sharing books from around...

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