New Crayons

Hosted by Susan at Color Online.

"Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal? Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids. Every week on Sunday, I post what's new in our box. I think crayons are a pretty cool metaphor for multicultural lit. I hope you'll share what you picked up from the library, store, or in the mail too."

New this week:




The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez (Afghanistan)

via Bookmooch










Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Agarwal (India)

from the library








Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea (Mexico)

ARC from Little, Brown and Company

Which books by authors of colour, or that celebrate racial diversity, came your way this week?

Reviews of interest:

A Mercy by Toni Morrison (African America)
Becoming Abigail by Chris Abani (Nigerian)
What We All Long For by Dionne Brand (African Canadian)
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden (Native Canadian)
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbian)
The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles (Brazilian)
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spanish)

If you've read or reviewed any of these books, feel free to comment or leave links to reviews. I'd love to read them. No spoilers please.

New Crayons August 1

Hosted by Susan at Color Online.

"Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal? Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids. Every week on Sunday, I post what's new in our box. I hope you'll share what you picked up from the library, store, or in the mail too."

New this week:

The Latino Five

* B as in Beauty by Alberto Ferreras

* Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

* Hungry Woman in Paris by Josefina Lopez

* The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas

* Houston, We Have a Problema by Gwendolyn Zepeda

Won from Claire at kiss a cloud in the Hachette Latino Book Month Giveaway in May. Thank you Claire and Hachette.

I have several reading challenges going that I can use these for, including the Color Me Brown for August Challenge at Color Online, Diversity Rocks, LibraryThing Authors, or Spice of Life.

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

From Publishers Weekly:

"Taylor Greer and her adopted Cherokee daughter Turtle, first met in The Bean Trees. Now six years old and still bearing psychological marks of the abuse that occured before she was rescued by Taylor, Turtle is discovered by formidable Indian lawyer Annawake Fourkiller, who insists that the child be returned to the Cherokee Nation. Taylor reacts by fleeing her Tucson home with Turtle to begin a precarious existence on the road; skirting the edge of poverty and despair, she eventually realizes that Turtle has become emotionally unmoored. In taking a fresh look at the Solomonic dilemma of choosing between two equally valid claims on a child's life, Kingsolver achieves the admirable feat of making the reader understand and sympathize with both sides of the controversy, as she contrasts Taylor's unalterable mother's love with Annawake's determination to save Turtle from the stigmatization she can expect from white society. Alice's resolve to help her daughter takes her into the heart of the Cherokee Nation and results in an astonishing but credible meshing of lives. In the end, both justice and compassion are served. Kingsolver's intelligent consideration of issues of family and culture--both in her evocation of Native American society and in her depiction of the plight of a single mother--brims with insight and empathy.

Won from Color Online, thank you Susan.

Which books by authors of colour or that celebrate racial diversity came your way this week?

If you've read or reviewed any of these books, tell us what you thought or leave links to your reviews. I'd love to read them.

New Crayons July 5

Hosted by Susan At Color Line.

"Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal? Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids. Every week on Sunday, I post what's new in our box. I hope you'll share what you picked up from the library, store, or in the mail too."


ARC:

Little Bee****+ by Chris Cleave (UK) Set alternately in Nigeria and a refugee center in England, this is not an easy story but it is one that needed to be written. I devoured the book in one day. I recommend it highly. From Doubleday through LibraryThings's Early Reviewer Program. A beautiful hardcover copy with an attractive cover.




Bookmooched:

The Storyteller's Daughter: One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland by Saira Shah

"This is the story of a woman returned to her family's homeland cloaked in a burqua to witness the pungent and shocking realities of Afghan life...". Saira Shah is well known for her film documentary Beneath The Veil which depicted the humiliations forced upon women under Taliban rule.


Library:

Graceland by Chris Abani By the author of Becoming Abigail which I reviewed earlier this week. This young Nigerian man is quite the writer. I gave Abigail five stars. I have high hopes for Graceland.


Which books by authors of colour or that celebrate racial diversity came your way this week?

New Crayons

Hosted by Susan At Color Line.

"Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal? Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids. Every week on Sunday, I post what's new in our box. I hope you'll share what you picked up from the library, store, or in the mail too."

Library:

Becoming Abigail***** by Chris Abani (Nigeria/US)

2006 Novella, 121 pages; about a young Nigerian girl sent to London and forced into prostitution by relatives. I've heard good things about this writer so I decided to start with this book. Completed. My review will be posted on Tuesday.





Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (India)

2009 Fiction, 336 pages. I really enjoyed The White Tiger, which won the 2008 Booker Prize, so I wanted to read more of his fiction. Adiga lives in Mumbai, his novels are set in India.








Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie (Pakistan/UK)

2009 Fiction, 370 pages; follows the life of a Japanese women from Nagasaki 1945 to India and Pakistan, America, and Afghanistan post 2001.





Complimentary copy:

Belong to Me**** by Marisa de los Santos (US)

2008 Fiction, from Book Club Girl. Completed in time to participate in a live author interview on Blog Talk Radio, which you can listen to here. An engaging story of friendship and the wish to fit in. I look forward to reading Loved Walked In by this author. Recommended.




Mooched:


20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo (China)

2008 Fiction, 204 pages; translated from the Chinese.

Village of Stone (2004) by the same author is one of my favourite novels. I can't recommend it enough. I wanted to read this and her first novel written in English, A Concise Chinese-English dictionary for Lovers (2007). 20 Fragments arrived this week all the way from Australia. Thank you Pam.


Which books by authors of colour or that celebrate racial diversity came your way this week?

New Crayons

Hosted by Susan At Color Online.

"Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal? Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids. Every week on Sunday, I post what's new in our box. I hope you'll share what you picked up from the library, store, or in the mail too."

Won:

The Asian Five at Nely's blog All About {n}, compliments of Hachette Books.

1.Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee (Korean American)

A novel that "Explores the most fundamental crisis of immigrants' children: how to bridge a generation gap so wide it is measured in oceans...an insight into the secret world of Korean America" -Observer (UK)

2.Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee (Korean American)

Memoir of a Korean girl, abandoned as a child and adopted by Americans who experienced displacement and the need to search for home.

3.The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer Lee (Chinese)

Non fiction, a fascinating history of Chinese food and the social and political implications for those who partake.

4.Transparency by Frances Hwang (Chinese American)

Short stories about immigrant experience, two of which were chosen by Joyce Carol OAtes and Francine Prose to appear in best new American Voices.

5.Strangers from a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki (Japanese American)

Non fiction, "Takai effortlessly weaves the stories of thousands of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Indian, Vietnameses, Cambodian, and Laotian Amercians into a single tale of discovery, endurance and courage."-San Francisco Chronicle

Thank you Nely and Hachette Books!

Which books that celebrate racial diversity and multiculturalism came your way this week?

.

Last week's New Crayons.

New Crayons

Hosted by Susan At Color Online.

"Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal? Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids. Every week on Sunday, I post what's new in our box. I hope you'll share what you picked up from the library, store, or in the mail too."

Mooched:


The Stillborn by Zaynab Alkali (Nigeria 1984)

A Longman African Classic publication, this first novel which centers around young Li, "as she struggles for independence against the traditional values of the family, home, marriage and the lure of the city and all it can offer."

Acquired from the UK through a Bookmooch swap, thank you Graham. At just over 100 pages and set in Northern Nigeria it will make a perfect afternoon's read for the Summer Vacation Travel Challenge.

Won:



Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Dandicat (US 1994)



A first novel by a young Haitian American woman who has gone on to write several other books. I won this at Color Line and look forward to reading it. Thank you L.


Borrowed:


Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (Australia 2006)



An award-winning novel by Aboriginal Australian writer. This won the Miles Franklin Award for literature among others. Walter Mosley says "Carpentaria celebrates the mythic and the pedestrian of Aboriginal life in Australia's heart. Inventive and epic, the novel reveals the complex connections between land and human, public and private life, class and destiny, faith and modernism."

I convinced my public library to purchase this book and I am enjoying it very much. These will fit nicely into the Diversity Rocks Challenge, or the 21 Cultures Challenge.

Which books that celebrate diversity and multiculturalism came your way this week?