Anand’s family lived a happily middle-class life until his father disappeared and his sister became mute with shock after witnessing a violent death. Now he, his mother and his sister live in poverty in Kolkata, and Anand has had to drop out of school and take a job with a mean stall owner to make ends meet. But then he gives his last food to an ( Read more... )

Based on lectures given by Achebe in 1998, Home and Exile is a collection of three essays about Nigeria and colonialism. Gracious even when tearing into those he perceives* to misrepresent Nigeria, Achebe intricately examines both colonial and anti-colonial writings about Nigeria and the European perspective of it.

It’s noteworthy, though, that ( Read more... )

Empress is about Empress Wu, the 7th century woman who rose from humble backgrounds to rule China and eventually become the first female emperor. Sa’s recreation of 7th century China is very engrossing, but the book mostly reads as if Sa had originally intended to write a nonfiction book, and changed it at the last minutes to fiction. By adding a ( Read more... )

I may have Nisioisin’s name wrong. I’ve seen it several ways, but this is how the footnotes and “about the author” in the book present it.

Anotherholic is three novellas based on the popular manga by Clamp. It relies on only the simplest understanding of the manga’s plot-a high school student named Watanuki sees and is harassed by ghosts, and ( Read more... )

Set shortly after Cast in Shadow, the humans of Elantra trust the telepathic Tha’alani even less than they did before. Concerned by increased violence to the Tha’alani, the emperor orders the royal playwright to write a play designed to make the humans more comfortable with them. Having more experience than anyone else with the Tha’alani, Kaylin ( Read more... )

A minister’s daughter, Lauren Olamina lives in an enclosed community in a dystopian future. The police are thieves, the government may as well not exist, and outside the cities, most people wouldn’t as soon shoot you as look at you, they’d rather look at you, shoot you, and steal everything you own ( Read more... )

When he was younger, Jace Witherspoon was the only member of his family who his father, a respected judge, did not beat. But when his brother, Christian, ran away from home to escape the beatings, Jace started to step up and redirect some of the beatings his mother suffered to himself. And then five years later, Jace couldn’t take it anymore, and ( Read more... )

Hana Maruyama is 38, but has the body of an 80-year-old thanks to Werner’s Syndrome, a genetic defect that causes rapid aging. Hana is almost entirely dependent on her mother, Cate, and the two live a very quiet, orderly life. Hana’s best friend, Laura, has not seen Hana in over ten years, despite repeated offers to visit with her two daughters, ( Read more... )

This quasi-autobiographical book is about Young Ju Park, a Korean girl who immigrates to the U.S. when she’s 4. Thinking that “Mi Gook,” the Korean term for America, means that America is Heaven, she’s not prepared for the confusion, strangeness, and near-poverty that await her. The book focuses on the difficulties of being an immigrant being ( Read more... )

Set in 19th century China, this is the story of Lily, a girl of low birth who becomes a laotong, or “old same” with Snow Flower, a girl of higher birth. A laotong is a lifelong friend who is closer to you than anyone else, and two laotong seem to be essentially regarded as two parts of one person.

The book chronicles their love story (I find it ( Read more... )