BEING JAPANESE AMERICAN: A JA SOURCEBOOK FOR NIKKEI, HAPA … & THEIR FRIENDS
By Gil Asakawa (Stone Bridge Press)
In spite of its rather cheesy title, this is actually both an informative and fun read. Part history, part photo album, part cultural document, part memoir, part language lesson, even part cookbook, Being is an entertaining primer on many aspects of the Japanese American experience. And even though Asakawa thinks Memoirs of a Geisha was an “enjoyable novel,” Being certainly has enough other merits to keep you reading (and chuckling, too).
THE MAGPIE BRIDGE
By Liu Hong (Headline, distributed by Trafalgar Square)
Written by a British Chinese author, Bridge pulls the reader in bit by bit, almost like unraveling a mystery. At the book’s core is the relationship between a young Chinese student living in London and her grandmother who comes to visit her in the middle of the night and decides to stay. Trouble is, Tie Mei passed away years ago, but here she is in her granddaughter’s 3rd floor bedroom telling Jiaojiao that she is pregnant with Tie Mei’s great-grandson .…
THE TEMPERATURE OF THIS WATER
By Ishle Yi Park (Kaya Press)
A powerful collection of prose and poetry by a talented not-yet-30 Korean American writer, named the poet laureate of Queens, New York. In quick snapshots made of words, Park captures her troubled family, her lovers, her own self to create indelible images of suffering, joy, love and loss.
QUICK & EASY SOYMILK DESSERTS
By Yasuyo Shida (Japan Publications Trading / Kodansha America)
Say you’re allergic to dairy products (like me, boo hoo), but you still crave sweets like crème brulee or mocha cappuccino or ice cream or even tiramisu … crave no more in vain because this book has easy-to-follow recipes that really work. Who knew soy biscotti could be this tasty!
RAISE THE RED LANTERN: THREE NOVELLAS
By Su Tong, translated by Michael S. Duke (Perennial / HarperCollins)
It’s no wonder that Chinese film auteur Zhang Yimou chose the title novella for his film of the same name, about four desperate women vying for the attention of their shared wealthy husband. Tong is an enticing storyteller, deftly capturing the dissolution of three different families in each of the novellas. In “Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes,” a greedy father’s desertion of his small-village family for city life brings his own eventual downfall. And in “Opium Family,” an entire town is brought down by the very opium that brings the village unexpected wealth.
RICE: A NOVEL
By Su Tong, translated by Howard Goldblatt (Perennial / HarperCollins)
Don’t be put off by the tacky cover with the bare chest of a necklaced young man. The story within, with all its rawness and shock, is hard to put down. Five Dragons, an orphaned young man on the verge of starvation, is given a job in the rice emporium belonging to the Feng family in 1930s China, a time marked by widespread famine. The Feng family treats Five Dragons no better than a dog; Five Dragons reciprocates with beastly behavior. His fate remains intertwined with the proprietor Feng and his two daughters, and through the decades, the results move toward greater brutality and final tragedy.
NEW TASTES IN GREEN TEA: A NOVEL FLAVOR FOR FAMILIAR DRINKS, DISHES, AND DESSERTS
By Mutsuko Tokunaga, translated by Yoko Toyozaki and Stuart Atkin (Kodansha International)
These days, the many health benefits of green tea are well-known … now here’s a book to tell you why it’s so good for you, as well as everything else you ever wanted to know about green tea. It’s all laid out with gorgeous photos and beautiful recipes that will send you directly to the kitchen.
MAPS OF CITY & BODY: SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE PERFORMANCES OF DENISE UYEHARA
Script and commentary by Denise Uyehara, foreword by Chay Yew (Kaya Press)
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 the script for her show, Big Head, which explores through actual testimony the similarities between the experiences of the Japanese Americans during World War II and those of Arab Americans post-9/11. “What does it take to hate a body?” one haunting chant repeats again and again. Indeed, do we never learn from our past mistakes?
AND FOR THE KIDDIES …
MOO, COW
MY KITTY
MY PUPPY
OINK, PIGLET
By Salina Yoon (Price Stern Sloan / Penguin)
Four fun, fuzzy-covered board books for the youngest reader featuring colorful, rotund animals eager to play.
THE SONS OF THE DRAGON KING: A CHINESE LEGEND
By Ed Young (Atheneum Books for Young Readers / Simon & Schuster)
Ever wonder why so many Chinese restaurants have the word “dragon” in its name – like Golden Dragon around the corner from the AsianWeek office? Or how about why so many dragons grace the top of buildings throughout Asia, not to mention Chinatowns across the country? Find out all that and more in Ed Young’s latest rendition of the Chinese folktale about the Dragon King and his nine Dragon sons.