We're an Open Book
6 hrs. 42 min. | Memoir | Catapult | Release Date: 10/2/2018
Nicole Chung is probably most well known around the internet as the managing editor of the now-defunct The Toast and her If John Cho Was Your Boyfriend piece. In her memoir she tells the story of her transracial adoption, her path to finding her birth family and how she inadvertently uncovers a family secret.
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328 pages | St. Martin’s Press | Cozy Mystery | 3/27/2018
I really don’t know how to review a cozy mystery. I picked this book up because I was in the mood for something different and I like seeing authors of color in spaces that have been traditionally very homogeneous.
Death by Dumpling felt very much like an origin story as we are introduced to Asia Village–a quaint Asian shopping center in Ohio—and Lana Lee, our 27- year-old half-English half-Tawainese protagonist. Lana is working at her family’s restaurant in Asia Village after quitting her corporate job and when she delivers the dumpling that kills the owner of Asia Village, she reluctantly joins the case to find the true murderer.
I found Chien’s breezy first-person writing enjoyable as we met the residents of Asia Village and Detective Trudeau–who I think plays a significant role in other books. The book fell a little flat for me but I’m curious to read the next book.
Rating: unrated | 336 pages | Scholastic Press | Contemporary | Release Date: 1/29/2019
Rukhsana Ali lives two very different lives. With her friends and brother, she is a happily out and dating her girlfriend Arianna. But when she is among her traditional Muslim Bangladeshi community–which includes her marriage-minded mother–her sexual identity is a closely held secret. When Rukhsana is caught kissing her girlfriend, she finds herself fighting for her happiness and possibly her freedom.
Sabina Khan’s debut is a layered story that takes a close look at how family and identity can sometimes be at odds, but how there can also be a happy medium if you fight for it. Even though Rukhsana doesn’t understand all her family’s beliefs, she still has a lot of love for her culture and traditions that she does not want to lose because she is in love with a girl.
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When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Just like it’s namesake,When Dimple Met Rishi has all the hallmarks of a 90’s rom-com and so much more. Taking place entirely during a web developer summer program, the plot felt a little claustrophobic at times, but the relationship was developed wonderfully. Both narrators on the audiobook give great performance, though Vikas Adams’ voice for Dimple had a tendency to sound shrill. This book is everything you’ve heard and I want this movie. I want it now. – ★★★★
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
After experiencing a violent encounter with the police, high school senior Justyce McAllister begins writing letters to Martin Luther King, Jr. to unpack his newly developed complex feelings about race and policing. Dear Martin is definitely an important book because so few YA novels are explicitly written and marketed for black teen boys the way this book has been but the story left me wanting more. I was annoyed that the white love interest got to explain the complexities of race in America, the MLK portrayal felt sanitized and Justyce reads as younger and more naive than a 17-year-old from the hood at an elite boarding school about to study policy at Yale. Author Zetta Elliot has made some criticisms of this books portrayal of black women and I agree with a lot of what she says. I think Dear Martin would have made a great middle-grade book, but as a YA it felt like a missed opportunity for a more nuanced discussion. – ★★★ + .5
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