Booklists: suggested reading

 

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Multicultural
Adult Books for Teens Booklist

 

Multicultural Fiction and Nonfiction for ages 12+
Not all books on this list are suitable for all readers, parental guidance should be used.

 

A list of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the folloAugust 4, 2007list (BL), Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus, and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on this list. Titles are listed alphabetically by author.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

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Fiction

• Crescent
  Author: Abu-Jaber, Diana
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039305747x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Praised by critics for her first novel, Arabian Jazz, Diana Abu-Jaber now weaves with spellbinding magic a multidimensional love story set in the Arab-American community of Los Angeles.
  Updated 3.31.03
• War By Candlelight: Stories
  Author: Alarcon, Daniel
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060594780 Date: 2005
  KirkusBooklist
  In this exquisite collection, Alarcon takes the reader from Third World urban centers to the fault lines that divide nations and people, personalizing the shifting realities of our own contemporary world.
  Updated 3.10.05
• Ten Little Indians: Stories
  Author: Alexie, Sherman
  Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117449 Date: 2003
  KirkusPW
  Alexie is one of the most acclaimed and popular writers today. Now, with Ten Little Indians, he offers 11 poignant and emotionally resonant new stories about Native Americans who, like all Americans, find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads.
  Updated 5.6.03
• Midnight at the Dragon Cafe
  Author: Bates, Judy Fong
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 1582431892 Date: 2005
  BooklistKirkus
  Judy Fong Bates's fresh and engaging first novel is the story of Su-Jen Chou, a Chinese girl growing up the only daughter of an unhappy and isolated immigrant family in a small Ontario town in the 1950s.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 2.15.05
• 72 Hour Hold
  Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400040744 Date: 2005
  KirkusLJPW
  In this novel of family and redemption, Campbell draws on the powerful emotions of her own experience and African-American roots in this story of a mother who struggles to save her 18-year-old daughter from the devastating consequences of mental illness by forcing her to deal with her bipolar disorder.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars | All Stars
  Updated 5.23.05
• The Meaning of Consuelo
  Author: Cofer, Judith Ortiz
  Publisher: FSG $ 20 ISBN: 0374205094 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  This affecting novel is a lively celebration of Puerto Rico as well as an archetypal story of loss, the loss each of us experiences on our journey from the island of childhood to the uncharted territory of adulthood. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
  Updated 10.8.03
• The Point of Return
  Author: Deb, Siddhartha
  Publisher: Ecco $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060501510 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Set in the remote, northeastern hills of India in the 1970s, The Point of Return revolves around the father-son relationship of a willful, curious boy, Babu, and Doctor Dam, an enigmatic product of British colonial rule and Nehruvian nationalism.
  Suggested Reading: Stars of India
  Updated 3.31.03
• The Kite Runner
  Author: Hosseini, Khaled
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222453 Date: 2003
  Library JournalKirkusPW
  An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, takes readers from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | All Stars | Afghanistan Stars
  Updated 5.12.03
• Sightseeing: Stories
  Author: Lapcharoensap, Rattawut
  Publisher: Grove $ 22 ISBN: 0802117880 Date: 2005
  KirkusPWBooklist
  Set in contemporary Thailand and written with a grace and sophistication that belie the age of its young author, this masterful new collection contains generous, tender tales of family bonds, youthful romance, generational conflicts, and cultural shifts beneath the glossy surface of a warm setting.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 12.27.04
• Somebody's Daughter
  Author: Lee, Marie Myung-Ok
  Publisher: Beacon $ 23.95 ISBN: 0807083887 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  Adopted by a Midwest couple, 19-year-old Sarah Thorson studies one summer in Korea and eventually embarks on a crusade to find her birth mother. Paralleling Sarah's story, Kyung-sook, a Korean woman, reflects on the child she was forced to give away.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | Asian American Stars
  Updated 3.3.05
• Prospero's Daughter
  Author: Nunez, Elizabeth
  Publisher: One World $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345455355 Date: 2006
  KirkusBooklistLJ
  Loosely based on Shakespeare's play The Tempest, this new novel by American Book Award- winning author Nunez tackles the issues of race, class, science, and passion- and interweaves the English, African, and Caribbean influences Nunez is known for.
  Sugggested Reading: Shakespearean Stars | All Stars
  Updated 2.28.06
• All Over Creation
  Author: Ozeki, Ruth L.
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670030910 Date: 2003
  KirkusPWBooklist
  From the author of My Year of Meats comes the story of a Japanese-American prodigal daughter just trying to make sense of it all as the unceasing cycle of all creation continues around her.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Asian American Stars
  Updated 2.20.03
• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
  Author: Packer, Z.Z.
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222348 Date: 2003
  KirkusPWLJ
  Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is the highly anticipated debut of a remarkable writer of short stories and winner of the Whiting Writers' Award and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts | African American Stars
  Updated 1.16.03
• Getting Mother's Body
  Author: Parks, Suzan-Lori
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400060222 Date: 2003
  BooklistPW
  From this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama comes an enormously accomplished and original debut novel about a down-on-their-luck black family in 1960s Texas in search of the storied jewels buried with one of their relatives.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts | African American Fiction Stars
  Updated 5.19.03
• No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again: A Symphonic Novel
  Author: Yunque, Edgardo Vega
  Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374223114 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  This sweeping drama of intimately connected families conjures up the ever-shifting cultural mosaic that is America. At its heart is Vidamia Farrell, half Puerto Rican, half Irish, who sets out in search of the father she has never known.
  Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
  Updated 8.25.03
• Blood Fugues
  Author: Yunque, Edgardo Vega
  Publisher: Rayo $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060742771 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  A vivid, gripping tale of action and mystery, Blood Fugues explores the ways in which family ties and secrets spin their way into our present lives, shaping our desires, our fears, and our futures. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 9.23.05