Running In The Family, Michael Ondaatje; Vintage International

“An autobiographical journey of discovery gathers together fragments of memory, experience, and family history in order to understand the meaning of his parents’ legacy and his own heritage.”
Robin’s Note: Michael Ondaatje is famous for writing the novel The English Patient, bu this is his memoir of childhood and his own family’s quirks and secrets.  As with all of his writing, the language is rich and absorbing, and his fondness for his homeland shines through even with the breakdown of his family.  His sense of place is unmatched.

Samurai Shortstop, Alan Gratz; Dial Books

“While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father.”
Robin’s Note: This title is a bit different from most sports titles, in that it’s historical, but I thought it might appeal, especially since we now have a star Japanese baseball player here in Boston.  The history of baseball in Japan is interesting, and they are likely the only other country that loves the sport as much as Americans do.  Baseball was adopted in Japan early on in the game’s history, and the conflict between the new culture it represented and the traditions of Japan, represented here by samurai culture, was fierce and often personal.

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, Sherri L. Smith; Delacorte Books For Young Readers

“Disaster strikes when Ana Shen is about to deliver the salutatorian speech at her junior high school graduation, but an even greater crisis looms when her best friend invites a crowd to Ana’s house for dinner, and Ana’s multicultural grandparents must find a way to share a kitchen.”
Robin’s Note:This title is Sherri Smith’s most recent, and features delectable food mixed with family drama, but all of her titles are different and inviting stand alone novels with strong, intelligent teen girls at the core.  I’d very much recommend Lucy the Giant for a different take on needing to be the adult in a family, and the excellent historical novel Flygirl, about a young woman who decides to pass as white in order to become a Women’s Air Service Pilot (or a WASP) during World War II.

The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie; Little, Brown Young Readers

“Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.”
Robin’s Note: Sherman Alexie is an extraordinary storyteller—he goes from being hilariously funny to heartbreaking in only a few paragraphs.  This is his first novel aimed at teens, and its incredibly charming.  Junior, the lead, has a strong, sarcastic voice, which leads to many a laugh out loud scene, but the circumstances of his life show you why he needs it: alcoholism is rampant on the reservation where he lives, and the pressure of being perceived as betraying his friends and community at the same time as trying to fit in to an new school is crushing at times.  If you like his style, you should also check out his short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and novels for adults.

Finding Nouf: A Novel, Zoë Ferraris; Houghton Mifflin

“A captivating page-turner that vividly evokes Saudi Arabiansociety and introduces an original new hero.When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing and is found drowned in the desert outside Jeddah, Nayir-a desert guide hired by her prominent family to search for her-feels compelled to find out what really happened. Gentle, hulking, conscientious Nayir soon finds himself delving into the interior life of a wealthy, protected teenage girl in one of the most rigidly segregated of Middle Eastern societies.To gain access to the world of women, Nayir realizes he will have to join forces with Katya Hijazi, a lab technician at the coroner’s office and the fiancée of Nouf ‘s brother.”
Robin’s Note: This mystery (much like the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall-Smith) is excellent in how it evokes a culture very different from the US.  All of the details of society are presented through the characters, keeping it emotionally invested rather than feeling like a list of facts about Saudi Arabia.  The characters of investigator Nayir and lab tech Katya, an intelligent woman pushing against the confines of her society, are immediately likable and filled with humor, and the mystery is a carefully plotted puzzle.

Beethoven Was One-sixteenth Black: And Other Stories, Nadine Gordimer; Farrar, Straus And Giroux

“‘You’re not responsible for your ancestry, are you . . . But if that’s so, why have marched under banned slogans, got yourself beaten up by the police, arrested a couple of times; plastered walls with subversive posters . . . The past is valid only in relation to whether the present recognizes it.’ In this collection of new stories Nadine Gordimer crosses the frontiers of politics, memory, sexuality, and love with the fearless insight that is the hallmark of her writing.”
Robin’s Note: If you’re curious about South Africa, there are a few trademark writers, Nadine Gordimer being one of them.  Also check out Doris Lessing and J. M. Coetzee for excellent writers from the same region.  This collection of short stories will give you a taste of what her writing is like, and is a strong recent collection of her work.

Love As A Foreign Language #1, J. Torres, Eric Kim; Oni Press

“Joel hates Korea. Why he agreed to teach there defies his comprehension. He can’t wait to return to normal life. His year of teaching is almost over and then he’ll finally be free. But Joel’s life is about to go from dark dreams to cotton candy kisses and it’s all because of Hana. The very sight of this girl sends him flying straight to cloud nine, but won’t another year in Korea send him crashing back down?”

Robin’s Note: This graphic novels series, now available in two omnibus editions that complete the series, is charming, hilarious, and balances just enough plot with an equal part unabashed heart.  The fish-out-of-water element in the story show Joel’s isolation, and provides a lot of the humor, but his budding romance with Hana turns his world upside-down in the best possible way.  Great for anyone who knows what it’s like being a bit lost in a foreign landscape, and also how wonderful it is to find a connection anyway.  This is a lesser know graphic novel series (undeservedly!) and the romance and humor combination appeal widely.

The Red Necklace, Sally Gardner; Dial

In the late eighteenth-century, Sido, the twelve-year-old daughter of a self-indulgent marquis, and Yann, a fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan raised to perform in a magic show, face a common enemy at the start of the French Revolution.

This title grabs you right from the beginning with its spooky atmosphere, intriguing characters, and strong sense of time and place (without overwhelming the reader with historical details.)