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Americanah

June 12, 2015

americanah

Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love when they are teenagers in Lagos, Nigeria. As the time comes for college and moving on they know that they have no wish to stay in Nigeria. Ifemelu gets into a school in the United States and Obinze goes to London. While this may sound straightforward it is anything but in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new novel, Americanah. Instead, Ifemelu and ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, Knopf, literary, nigeria

Diamond Head

May 15, 2015

  Diamond Head is an ambitious debut from the school of Amy Tan multi-generational Chinese family drama. The Leongs are the premier family living on Oahu where they settle after leaving China prior to World War I. First time novelist Cecily Wong does an admirable job portraying the inter-generational relationships amongst the Leong women. She captures those that reflect ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: China, cultural, debut, Harper, Hawaii, historical fiction

Mr. and Mrs. Doctor

May 13, 2015

  Job’s father sends him from their homeland in Nigeria to America to study to become a doctor. Instead of doing so, Job flunks out of college but continues to tell everyone he is still studying. At twenty-four he uses some of the tuition money on a green card marriage thus ensuring he never has to move home and acknowledge his lies. This is the beginning of the quicksand ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, Coffee House Press, cultural, debut, literary, nigeria

Above the East China Sea

May 1, 2015

above the east china sea

    How has he not had it drummed into him that brats don’t whine? We don’t plead. We don’t need. We require nothing. Not even real roots. We’re air ferns. In Sarah Bird's new novel Above the East China Sea the island of Okinawa is the centerpiece of a multi-generational drama that plays out during World War II and modern times. Tamiko is a native of the ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, historical fiction, literary, Vintage, world war II

The Sympathizer: A Novel

April 20, 2015

sympathizer

So it was that we soaped ourselves in sadness and we rinsed ourselves with hope, and for all that we believed almost every rumor we heard, almost all of us refused to believe that our nation was dead. It is only fitting that the narrator in The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s debut novel, is never named. He is a Communist spy, a man who has spent his entire life turned inside ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, debut, Grove Press, historical fiction, literary, Southeast Asia, Vietnam War

The Story Hour

August 18, 2014

story hour

  When it comes to the workings of the human heart there are few who tell tales so consistently unexpected and with such depth as Thrity Umrigar. Her newest novel, The Story Hour, is about the lonely Lakshmi and Maggie, the psychologist assigned to work with her after she tries to kill herself. Lakshmi came from India six years ago with her arranged-marriage husband. Her life ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, Harper, India

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