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SPOTLIGHT ON........Adult Fiction |
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Celebrate Asian American Heritage Month with these recommended titles by, for and about Asian Americans.
All of these library materials are owned by the Metropolitan Library System. Log on to CyberMars with your library card to reserve any titles that interest you, or ask a librarian for assistance.
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I Want Candy
Kim Wong Keltner (Avon, c2008)
Shelf Number: Fiction/KEL
Fourteen year old Candace Ong loves rock candy and rock music, jelly beans and jelly shoes. More than anything, she wants not to be stuck for another summer as a waitress in her parents’ restaurant Eggroll Wonderland. So when a new opportunity arises, she leaps at the chance—even though it means leaving home to experience a life far beyond the dim sum ho hum. Once again, Keltner explores the rigors of finding one’s identity as a member of two cultures. |
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Lost Men: A Novel
Brian Leung (Shaye Areheart Books, c2007)
Shelf Number: Fiction/LEU
First novelist Leung illustrates the complexities of father-son relationships in his lyrical novel. When Westen Chan’s American mother dies his father leaves him with his great-aunt and uncle in Washington State. His father promises to return and take his son to his village in China. Twenty years later the journey happens. The novel alternates in viewpoint between the father and the son as they travel through China. |
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Peony In Love: A Novel
Lisa See (Random House, c2007)
Shelf Number: Fiction/SEE
Set is 17th-century China; this is a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a family saga and a work of musical and social history. Peony, the 15-year-old daughter of a wealthy family, is to be wed in an arranged marriage. Unusually for a girl of her time, Peony has been educated. She is an intelligent girl chafing against the restrictions of expected behavior. This novel explores the many manifestations of love and the desire of women to have a voice and be heard. |
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Rivalry: A Geisha’s Tale
Kafu Nagai (Tr. Stephen Snyder) (Columbia U. Press, c2007)
Shelf Number: Fiction/NAG
Nagai is considered one of Japan’s greatest novelists. This novel, considered an early masterpiece, hadn’t been completely translated until now. The story is about Komayo, a young, attractive widow who has just resumed being a geisha. She resumes relations with a former patron. When he wants to buy her from the house for which she works, she hesitates because she is infatuated with a young actor. This short novel is packed with incidents and great characterizations. |
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The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
Gail Tsukiyama (St. Martin’s, c2007)
Shelf Number: Fiction/TSU
The bestselling author has written a powerfully moving story about life in Japan before, during and after WWII. The story follows the Matsumoto brothers. Orphaned when their parents were killed in a boating accident, the boys are raised by their grandparents in Tokyo. Both brothers are successful in their chosen fields as well as in love. The lingering effects of war are clear and these, combined with a nation’s search for pride and hope after surrender comprise the heart of the novel. |
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