By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

Year of the Dog
By Henry Chang
Soho Press, Inc., 2008

From the outside, New York’s Chinatown may appear to be a united community filled with not just Chinese — both immigrants and American-born residents — but an array of individuals with many different backgrounds.

But NYPD detective Jack Yu from the Ninth Precinct knows better. Having grown up in the neighborhood, he knows that there is a difference between individuals with roots planted in Mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, especially when it comes to the local gangs. Read the full story

By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

“Train Man”
By Hitori Nakano
Del Ray Books, 2004

What would you do if you came across a cute girl (or guy) and had the opportunity to see them again, but didn’t know how to make it happen?
Most people would turn to their friends, but in the case of Nakano’s protagonist, he turns to the Internet.

After defending some women on a Tokyo train from an obnoxious drunk, the nameless protagonist immediately shares his experiences on an online message board of self-proclaimed geeks. He doesn’t think much of it until he receives a pair of Hermes teacups from the 20-something woman who had been sitting next to him on the train.

Train Man — as he soon comes to be known as — doesn’t know what to make of the gift and immediately turns to his online comrades. What follows is an ever-growing message board as the geeks respond to him. Read the full story

By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

“The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya”
By Nagaru Tanigawa
Little, Brown and Company, 2009

The SOS Brigade is back and still on its mission to keep Haruhi Suzumiya — a high school student who unknowingly has the power to destroy the world — happy.

In this sequel to “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya,” Kyon and the rest of the brigade (whose name stands for Save the World by Overloading it with Fun Haruhi Suzumiya) members go along with Haruhi as she takes on the task of making a movie for their school’s cultural festival. Read the full story

By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

“The Scent of Sake”
By Joyce Lebra
HarperCollins, 2009

“Let a woman enter the brewery and the sake will go sour.”

All her life, Rie has heard these words. But as the sole heir to the House of Omura, one of the most respected families of sake brewers in Kobe, Japan, she knows she must learn as much as possible about the trade in order to carry on the tradition.

Unfortunately, things are not that simple in 19th century Japan. In this male-dominated society, Rie learns from her mother that she must “kill the self,” swallow her feelings, and push her personal desires aside. This becomes especially true when her parents arrange for her to marry Jihei, the son of another brewing family. Read the full story

A girl learns book-smarts isn’t everything, a boy learns basketball isn’t everything, and a dragon and goldfish befriend a girl

By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

“Millicent Min, Girl Genius”
By Lisa Yee
Scholastic, 2003

You’d think being a genius would make life easier. School would be a breeze. Your career choice could be based on your passion instead of merely what you’re good at. And all the answers to your problems would lie inside your own head.

However, as Millicent Min learns in “Girl Genius,” having a high IQ does not equal a perfect life.

At the tender age of 11, Millicent has just finished her junior year in high school and decides to take a class at a local college to keep busy over summer break.

Unfortunately for Millicent, her mother thinks she needs more of a normal childhood by socializing with people of her own age. Read the full story

By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

“Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story”
Written by Paula Woo, illustrated by Lin Wang
Lee & Low Books, June 2009

Being Asian American in the early days of show business was not easy.

Roles were limited and small, and more often than not, Asians and Asian Americans were portrayed in a negative light. At times, these small roles were given to white actors or actresses.

But this didn’t stop Anna May Wong, whose love for television and film started at a very young age. Read the full story

By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

“Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”
By Eleanor Coerr
Dell Publishing, 1977

I remember this book from my childhood, but I have never read it.

“Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” is the story of Sadako Sasaki, an 11-year-old Japanese girl who was in Hiroshima when the atom bomb dropped on the city in 1945. It was not until 10 years later that the effect of the bomb begins to take its toll on Sadako’s body. She is diagnosed with leukemia as a result of the radiation from the blast.

To help her heal, Sadako begins folding paper cranes with the goal of completing 1,000 cranes. According to Japanese lore, if a sick person folds that many paper cranes, the gods will fulfill their wish and cure them. Read the full story

By Samantha Pak
Northwest Asian Weekly

“The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”
By Nagaru Tanigawa, published by Little, Brown and Company, April 2009

Almost every kid has moments where he or she wishes that life was a little less ordinary and a little more exciting.

Read the full story

By Samantha Pak
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Editor’s note: At the beginning of the year, we ran a poll on our Web site asking our readers whether they liked our book reviews. Based on the feedback we received, we decided to run a monthly book recommendation list. We hope you enjoy it.

Read the full story

By Thi-Le Vo
Northwest Asian Weekly

When it comes to children’s books, many have the common assumption that these books can’t offer children more than a cute story and pages of colorful illustrations.

Read the full story

A review of Manzoor’s memoir

By Andrew Hamlin
Northwest Asian Weekly

“I owe my life to two strokes of incredible luck,” writes Sarfraz Manzoor in his memoir. “I was not born female, and I was not the oldest son.” Manzoor discusses his life in a Pakistani immigrant family living in Luton, England. In his father’s rigid household, the first son would follow into the father’s work. The daughter would remain on her best behavior until she found a man to marry.

Relief from such expectations allowed him breathing room to find identity within Western influences. He identified with singer Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen,” and Bruce Springsteen.

Manzoor is a longtime television and radio reporter writing his first book. His writing is casual, and no matter how far-reaching his tales are, his writing is warm and dryly humorous.

At one point, Manzoor’s infatuation with Springsteen takes him across the ocean to America, where he works as a door-to-door salesman.

In America, Manzoor finds glare, noise and cultural confusion. An Englishman by nationality and a Pakistani by ethnicity, he finds that many of the Americans answering their doors do not know the difference. Some do not care. Read the full story

Image provided by Wordcraft of Oregon LLC

By Calton Breen
Northwest Asian Weekly

Alex Kuo’s latest book, “White Jade and Other Stories” rides a rocky divide. Writing from a ChineseAmerican perspective, the short pieces that make up this collection support his personal political agenda. As such his voice does need to be heard, but literature does not sit easy with work that is one-sided, driven by emotion instead of reason and flagrantly guilty of the twin sins of omission and distortion.

The collection is made up of a novella that gives the book its title and seven shorter pieces. These shorter pieces are, for the most part, placeholders. Not well thought out, they read as early drafts the author added to the collection in order to flesh it out to standard book length. Read the full story