In September 2022, a multi-narrative novel showed how Vietnamese women emerge victorious, even if the world is against them. An ancestor cursed by a fearsome witch for daring to leave her marriage for true love; a current descendant who knows this curse well: women of this family would never find love or happiness, and would…
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Yellowface: R.F. Kuang Writes a Meta, Mighty, and Merciless Dark Satire
Helen Keller’s memoir is unforgettable for many reasons, but is surprising for her admission of having retold a fable (Birdie and His Friends by Margaret T. Canby) as en eleven-year-old when submitting a short story (The Frost King) for her school magazine. Though, more surprising than this acceptance was Mark Twain’s letter to Keller, where…
Read More“Writing about grief is supposed to be difficult, but…it was ready to be told. All the love I have for my dad and watching his struggle with cancer, it wanted to be on the page.”
The Tune of Grief: Karen S. Chow, author of Miracle, on writing a young character who loses her beloved father and her ability to play the violin —his favourite instrument.
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Iron Widow: Xiran Jay Zhao Crafts An Intimidating & Unapologetic Science Fiction Full of Feminist Rage
While picking up a feminist SFF, some might expect the men in these stories to find an independent place for themselves within these fictional worlds. Because that’s true feminism for many, right? We can’t have a heroine who drives the male protagonists’ arc by herself, with her strength, on her power. Of course, this isn’t…
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An Arrow to the Moon: Emily X.R. Pan Beautifully Blends Love and Lore in This Magical Mix of Romeo & Juliet and Houyi & Chang’e
Retellings have been trending on book lists and for all the right reasons. Whether it’s Chloe Gong’s YA romantic historical fantasy, These Violent Delights, or CB Lee’s fresh exploration of Treasure Island, as part of the “Remixed Classics” series by BIPOC authors, A Clash of Steel. Even reimaginings of Hindu epics like Ramayana (Vaishnavi Patel’s…
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Four Treasures of the Sky: Jenny Tinghui Zhang Unravels A Tragic Story of Reclamation in This Debut
It’s often interesting to see what motivated an author to craft a particular story. Especially when the push to create something powerful comes from empathy for the powerless. Like Sabaa Tahir who says her own experience of growing up as a kid who didn’t fit in and then reading about various stories of some absolutely…
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A Magic Steeped in Poison: Judy I. Lin Brews Loyalty & Treachery in Beautiful Cups of Aromatic Magic
Blending threads of mythology with courageous heroines and hints of romance against a mysterious fantastical backdrop inspired by folklore has recently found a huge space on bookshelves, and deservedly so. Whether it’s the recent YA fantasy, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh that retells a Korean folktale or the recent adult…
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Book Review: Skinship by Yoon Choi
An exquisite collection from a breathtakingly new voice–centered on a constellation of Korean American families, these stories announce the debut of a master of short fiction. A long-married couple is forced to confront their friend’s painful past when a church revival comes to a nearby town . . . A woman in an arranged marriage…
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Book Review: Not Here To Be Liked by Michelle Quach
Emergency Contact meets Moxie in this cheeky and searing novel that unpacks just how complicated new love can get…when you fall for your enemy. Eliza Quan is the perfect candidate for editor in chief of her school paper. That is, until ex-jock Len DiMartile decides on a whim to run against her. Suddenly her vast qualifications mean squat…
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26 Asian Books From A to Z [Challenge by Books and Boba]
For Asian Heritage Month, this post lists twenty-six books by Asian authors — both, diaspora and homeland — according to the ABC challenge put forward by Books and Boba.
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Fanna for Books 