Best Hispanic American Literature & Fiction

But Oscar may never get what he wants. A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." He cuts his barn-burning comic-book plots (escape, ruin, redemption) with honest, messy realism, and his narrator speaks in a dazzling hash of Spanish, English, slang, literary flourishes, and pure virginal dorkiness." His narration is a triumph of style and wit, moving along Oscar de Leon's story with cracking, down-low humor, and at times expertly stunning us with heart-stabbing sentences. That Díaz's novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator's] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth's Zuckerman — in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is just the word for it) work of modern fiction — all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else." a mixture of straight-up English, Dominican Spanish, and hieratic nerdspeak crowded with references to Tolkien, DC Comics, role-playing games, and classic science fiction. The great achievement of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is Díaz's ability to balance an intimate multigenerational story of familial tragedy. It's Dominican and American, not about immigration but diaspora, in which one family's dramas are entwined with a nation's, not about history as information but as dark-force destroyer. In Díaz's landscape we are all the same, victims of a history and a present that doesn't just bleed together but stew. ". The Dominican Republic [Díaz] portrays in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a wild, beautiful, dangerous, and contradictory place, both hopelessly impoverished and impossibly rich. Not so different, perhaps, from anyone else's ancestral homeland, but Díaz's weirdly wonderful novel illustrates the island's uniquely powerful hold on Dominicans wherever they may wander. "Now that Díaz's second book, a novel called The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao , has finally arrived, younger writers will find that the bar. Oscar Wao shows a novelist engaged with the culture, high and low, and its polyglot language. If Donald Barthelme had lived to read Díaz, he surely would have been delighted to discover an intellectual and linguistic omnivore who could have taught even him a move or two." — Newsweek "Few books require a 'highly flammable' warning, but The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz's long-awaited first novel, will burn its way into your heart and sizzle your senses. Díaz's novel is drenched in the heated rhythms of the real world as much as it is laced with magical realism and classic fantasy stories." this fierce, funny, tragic book is just what a reader would have hoped for in a novel by Junot Díaz."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A terrific story which sucks the reader in and holds on to you until the final page."
"Interesting."
"I do not care for the bad language in books but I know that is necessary in order to capture the real person(s) in a culture. It is from this exposure of a family being taken into the power of Trujillo and his evil that lays the foundation for Oscar. This is the story of an extremely troubled young man, not unlike countless thousands in our society today."
"Love love love this book and Junot Diaz."
"Díaz uses tone and point-of-view brilliantly as he weaves together languages, cultures, and characters."
"The main character, Oscar, was easy to sympathize with and I fell in love with his passion immediately. As a somewhat closet nerd myself, I saw myself at his age falling in love with all the classic sci-fi, the first time I discovered Roleplaying games, spending hours lost in your imagination."
"This book is excellent, there is so many layers to it."
"I was really excited to read a book about modern day people with similar interests to me - science fiction, superheroes, fantasy."

A Time and People Top 10 Book of 2012. Finalist for the 2012 Story Prize. Chosen as a notable or best book of the year by The New York Times , Entertainment Weekly , The LA Times , Newsday , Barnes & Noble, Amazon, the iTunes bookstore, and many more... “ Exhibits the potent blend of literary eloquence and street cred that earned him a Pulitzer Prize… Díaz’s prose is vulgar, brave, and poetic .”. – O Magazine From the award-winning author, a stunning collection that celebrates the haunting, impossible power of love. “ Junot Díaz writes in an idiom so electrifying and distinct it’s practically an act of aggression, at once enthralling, even erotic in its assertion of sudden intimacy… [It is] a syncopated swagger-step between opacity and transparency, exclusion and inclusion, defiance and desire… His prose style is so irresistible, so sheerly entertaining , it risks blinding readers to its larger offerings. Yet he weds form so ideally to content that instead of blinding us, it becomes the very lens through which we can see the joy and suffering of the signature Díaz subject: what it means to belong to a diaspora, to live out the possibilities and ambiguities of perpetual insider/outsider status.” – The New York Times Book Review. His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her , charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed." “ Junot Díaz has one of the most distinctive and magnetic voices in contemporary fiction: limber, streetwise, caffeinated and wonderfully eclectic … The strongest tales are those fueled by the verbal energy and magpie language that made Brief Wondrous Life so memorable and that capture Yunior’s efforts to commute between two cultures, Dominican and American, while always remaining an outsider.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times. “[A] propulsive new collection… [that] succeeds not only because of the author's gift for exploring the nuances of the male… but because of a writing style that moves with the rhythm and grace of a well-danced merengue .” –Seattle Times “In Díaz’s magisterial voice, the trials and tribulations of sex-obsessed objectifiers become a revelation .” –The Boston Globe. Tough , smart, unflinching, and exposed, This is How You Lose Her is the perfect reminder of why Junot Díaz won the Pulitzer Prize… [He] writes better about the rapid heartbeat of urban life than pretty much anyone else ." “ Díaz writes with subtle and sharp brilliance … He dazzles us with his language skills and his story-making talents, bringing us a narrative that is starkly vernacular and sophisticated, stylistically complex and direct… A spectacular read .” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “As tales of relationship redemption go, each of the nine relatable short stories in Junot Díaz's consummate collection This Is How You Lose Her triumphs … Through interrogative second-person narration and colloquial language peppered with Spanish, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author authentically captures Junior's cultural and emotional dualities.” – Metro. These are precarious, unappreciated, precious lives in which intimacy is a lost art, masculinity a parody, and kindness, reason, and hope struggle to survive like seedlings in a war zone.” – Booklist (starred review).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Diaz has an innate ability to change his voice depending upon the character, even varying the word choices and pacing as the character ages throughout the book."
"Mr. Diaz brings the reader into this sometimes dissonant world with great skill and, again, a kindness for his characters that resonates throughout his books."
"Anyway, I managed to like the book, I would say very much, because Junot is certainly a good writer and many emotions such as love, sex, frustration, sadness, made my heart and mind enter some of the stories like if I was part of them."
"There's a second story in the middle which I don't really understand- it's a woman's story that I just don't quite understand how it relates or how it connects to the main character."
"great book, you get to experience alot of different perspectives and read some interesting stories."
"The book should have had a glossary or note to facilitate more English speaking readers, but by researching I learned some new idioms in Spanish."
"Not the extraordinary powerhouse and highly recommeded The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao (hence 4 instead of 5) but well written, fillled with his typical authentic characters, full of humanity: love, grief, regret."
"I couldn't finish it."

This Printz Honor Book is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” ( Publishers Weekly ) that distills lyrical truths about family and friendship. * "A tender, honest exploration of identity and sexuality, and a passionate reminder that love—whether romantic or familial—should be open, free, and without shame." * "Meticulous pacing and finely nuanced characters underpin the author's gift for affecting prose that illuminates the struggles within relationships." "Sáenez writes toward the end of the novel that “to be careful with people and words was a rare and beautiful thing.” And that’s exactly what Sáenez does—he treats his characters carefully, giving them space and time to find their place in the world, and to find each other...those struggling with their own sexuality may find it to be a thought-provoking read." I'm sure I'll reread it myself at some point. I hated having it end." (James Howe, Author of Addie on the Inside).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"An amazing thing about this book: both Ari and Dante have awesome, involved, caring parents, something that's nearly unheard of in YA novels."
"The book is well written."
"Bought this for a friend and ended up reading it before giving it to her."
"So when I found out that this book was what touched the kid so much I knew it was something I had to read. I loved this book, it is a book that is a must read."
"My son is in the 7th grade and an avid reader, I purchased this book without reading the summary simply chose it based on the awards it received."
"I just finished reading this book."
"It's beautifully written and it's different from anything I've ever read (and I've read just about every YA book with a gay character I can find)."
"I cannot recommend this book enough!"
Best Asian American Literature & Fiction

– Paula Hawkins. From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You , a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. “Witnessing these two families as they commingle and clash is an utterly engrossing, often heartbreaking, deeply empathetic experience…It’s this vast and complex network of moral affiliations—and the nuanced omniscient voice that Ng employs to navigate it—that make this novel even more ambitious and accomplished than her debut…Our trusty narrator is as powerful and persuasive and delightfully clever as the narrator in a Victorian novel…It is a thrillingly democratic use of omniscience, and, for a novel about class, race, family and the dangers of the status quo, brilliantly apt…The magic of this novel lies in its power to implicate all of its characters—and likely many of its readers—in that innocent delusion [of a post-racial America]. She toggles between multiple points of view, creating a narrative both broad in scope and fine in detail, all while keeping the story moving at a thriller’s pace.” — LA Times “Riveting…unearthing the ways that race, class, motherhood and belonging intersect to shape each individual…Perhaps Ng's most impressive feat is inviting the reader's forgiveness for Mrs. Richardson –– a woman whose own mission for perfection, and strict adherence to rules ultimately become the catalyst for the maelstrom that ensues.” —Chicago Tribune. “Like Sue Monk Kidd or Madeleine Thien, Celeste Ng has a carpenter’s sure touch in constructing nested, interconnected plots…There are few novelists writing today who are as wise, compassionate and unsparing as Ng, about the choices you make, the ones you don’t, and the price you might pay for missed lives.” — Financial Times. “Like Everything I Never Told You , Ng’s excellent debut, the book plots its way into a smart, accessible conversation about race and class. “Ng writes with the wisdom of a hundred lives lived, churning out complex characters mostly sympathetic, sometimes loathsome, but all startlingly human.” — HarpersBazaar.com. “Fans of novelist Celeste Ng’s debut, Everything I Never Told You , and devotees of her resistance-ready Twitter feed can rejoice…The story drifts effortlessly between characters; each is full and memorable as they coax the novel to its fiery climax. “Couldn’t be more timely… Little Fires Everywhere might just be the signpost that we need, pointing a way forward with the gentle suggestion that sometimes doing the right thing means breaking some rules.” – Paste “Compelling… Little Fires Everywhere invests all of its emotional energies in the relationship between mothers and their children…in Ng’s precisely rendered perfect suburb.” – Vox. “Ng’s taut class drama is calibrated for fireworks.” – New York Magazine , Books to Read This Fall “Written with deep empathy and vivid characters who feel true to life, Little Fires Everywhere is a captivating, insightful examination of motherhood, identity, family, privilege, perfectionism, obsession, and the secrets about ourselves we try to hide.” – Buzzfeed. “There are few modern writers as brilliant at capturing the complexities of a family as Celeste Ng…The book is smart, nuanced, and exhilarating—but more than anything, Little Fires Everywhere is a gorgeous exploration of motherhood in its many forms, and the many different paths that women travel to get there.” — Shondaland.com. “Ng’s uncanny ability to embody multiple viewpoints makes for a powerful, revelatory novel.” – BBC.com, Ten Books to Read in September. “Ng has one-upped herself with her tremendous follow-up novel… a finely wrought meditation on the nature of motherhood, the dangers of privilege and a cautionary tale about how even the tiniest of secrets can rip families apart… Ng is a master at pushing us to look at our personal and societal flaws in the face and see them with new eyes… If “Little Fires Everywhere” doesn’t give you pause and help you think differently about humanity and this country’s current state of affairs, start over from the beginning and read the book again.” --San Francisco Chronicle. “Ng’s talent for depth of story and character development shines and will stay with you long after you’ve finished the book.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch “Immersive and thought-provoking…Hang on and prepare to be mesmerized as you meet two families in idyllic Shaker Heights, Ohio.” — The Missourian. “A multilayered, tightly focused and expertly plotted narrative…A deeply impressive novel with the power to provoke and entrance.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune “One of the best novels of the fall is an emotional tale about motherhood, class and so much more… Everything I Never Told You , was good, but this is better.” —AARP.org “Mesmerizing…The result is a deftly woven plot that examines a multitude of issues, including class, wealth, artistic vision, abortion, race, prejudice and cultural privilege.” —BookPage “Ng’s best-selling first novel Everything I Never Told You proved her deft hand at crafting family dramas with the deep-rooted tension of a thriller, a skill she puts to pitch-perfect effect in her latest entry…that is equal parts simmering and soulful.” —HarpersBazaar.com “A quiet but powerful look at family, secrets, and running from the past. “Ng’s stunning second novel is a multilayered examination of how identities are forged and maintained, how families are formed and friendships tested, and how the notion of motherhood is far more fluid than bloodlines would suggest…[A] tour de force.”— Booklist (starred review). “This incandescent portrait of suburbia and family, creativity, and consumerism burns bright…. As in Everything I Never Told You , Ng conjures a sense of place and displacement and shows a remarkable ability to see—and reveal—a story from different perspectives. -- Peter Ho Davies, author of The Fortunes "As if it wasn't totally obvious from her stunning first novel, Little Fires Everywhere showcases what makes Celeste Ng such a masterful writer. Celeste Ng is a powerful and poignant writer whose attention to detail is pitch-perfect. An Amazon Best Book of September 2017: With her first two novels, Celeste Ng has established herself as a writer of rare sensitivity and talent. Ng is a master of family and societal dynamics, shifting perspectives, and the secrets that we try to protect—and readers who loved her debut will recognize the author in this second novel, even as she continues to stretch herself as a writer.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The first 100 pages (one-third of the total book) just cover a lot of character study and plot set-ups. The plot focus about a Chinese baby abandoned at a fire station and the subsequent court battle when the single mother surfaces six months later to try to reclaim her daughter from the family in the process of adopting her, was really, really well done."
"Moreover, as the story progresses, it mines the undercurrents and conflicts unfolding in the neighborhood, and the inexorable events that ensue when an itinerant mother-daughter move in and casually defy every rule in the well-ordered, tony Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. Elena Richardson was an ambitious journalist, but subverted her talent and success (now writing trivial articles for the community paper) after marriage to her attorney husband. She inherited property from her parents in the modest part of town and now rents it out to less fortunate individuals with, what she believes, is strong character and willing submission to Shaker Heights principles. Mia repurposes objects into unique formats and themes, photographs them, and uses techniques that reflect her perceptions of the world around her, which invites the reader into startling and intimate motifs. She furnishes a sly portrait of suburbia, where the cracks and fissures that aren’t present in the manicured houses and streets are nevertheless rupturing the very misguided families that the rules aim to defend."
"Ng has the ability to write beautifully crafted sentences while she develops her characters in an equally talented manner."
"I cannot say enough good things about this book."
Best Classic American Literature

Since its original publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind —winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time—has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel. “Pushing the bounds of the Richter Scale, the nine stories in Last Day on Earth are going to shake up the story world."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Its a great novel on many levels: plot, characterization, narrative flow, and effective advocacy and support for a vanquished way of life (Mitchell does not pretend to be objective; she is fighting a rear guard action to defend the South she loved against the judgment of history; the reason she infuriated liberal critics from the moment the book was published to the present day was because she fought that action so effectively in this book.)."
"A slice of southern life, it's an intimate portrait of the mind set of the politics and culture of the times. The scene is set where the untouchable aristocracy of the South revels in the rich tapestry of entitlement, thinking themselves indestructible."
"In Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, it is the antics of two of our most popular southern birds that give the nature beyond Scarlett O’Hara’s bedroom window a curtain call: The mocking birds and the jays, engaged in their old feud for possession of the magnolia tree beneath her window, were bickering, the jays strident, acrimonious, the mockers sweet voiced and plaintive."
"A look into the life and times of a woman who never gave up during the Civil War and the reconstruction of the South."
"Though it doesn't go much into the actual fighting in the Civil War, it gives a glimpse what life was like in Atlanta, primarily, for the people who lived back then in Georgia."
"The story is beautiful and timeless and a great example of a strong-willed, independent woman who alienates her friends and family for merely learning how to survive."
"If you liked to movie you will love toe book."
"After I finished reading the book, I sat with it on my lap, staring into space trying to imagine how I was going to go on without seeing my ' friends ' anymore."
Best Humorous American Literature

From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. Fortunately, such people can turn to Randall Munroe, the author of the XKCD comic strip loved by fans of internet culture. For Munroe, who writes with a clarity and wit honed over eight years of writing captions for his webcomic, the fact that a question might be impossible to solve is no deterrent to pursuing it.” —Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog. while dealing with relationships and the meaning of a computer-centric life, xkcd has become required reading for techies across the world….The Internet has also created a bond between Mr. Munroe and his readers that is exceptional. "With his steady regimen of math jokes, physics jokes, and antisocial optimism, xkcd creator Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, scores traffic numbers in NBC.com or Oprah.com territory. [A]t its best [xkcd] isn’t a strip comic so much as an idea factory and a shared experience."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I love the blog and was really looking forward to this book, but buying the kindle edition was a mistake."
"This is a great way to enjoy older questions and answers over again, updated, and to share them with new people, and the new questions and answers - never featured on the website - are delightful; I won't spoil it for you, but my favorite has to be the answer to "If a bullet with the density of a neutron star were fired from a handgun (ignoring the how) at the Earth's surface, would the Earth be destroyed?" If you have even a passing interest in science and ever enjoy daydreaming about the fantastic or the ridiculous, this book is for you. Gift season is coming up; thanks to this book my Christmas shopping will be a great deal easier."
"Randall Munroe hits that oddball humor sweet spot with zany questions and actual, scientific--and most importantly, interesting--answers."
"Randall Munroe's XKCD is a cornerstone of the World-Wide Web, and he brings the same intelligence and overabundance of careful research here to absolutely hilarious (and often randomly awesome or terrible) questions."
"Best bathroom book ever... and I mean that in the very best possible way you can imagine."
"Whether it's taking a dip in a nuclear reactor cooling pool, or halting the earth's spin just to see what would happen, Monroe accepts the intellectual challenge and delivers with gusto."
"They're hyperlinked, and you can use the links on the footnote to jump back But the page bounds move slightly every time, and notes near the top activate the Kindle options rather than the footnote."
"I've always enjoyed the amazing amount of research and calculations required for Munroe's writing, and his ability to break it down in a fairly easy to understand way."
Best Native American Literature

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team. The daily struggles of reservation life and the tragic deaths of the protagonist's grandmother, dog, and older sister would be all but unbearable without the humor and resilience of spirit with which Junior faces the world.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Love these stories because I learned so much about the Natve American culture and because they were so beautifally written."
"Wonderful book great for teens and adults alike,"
"It is the first book written by Sherman Alexie that I have read, but it won't be the last. Could high school lesson plans be constructed around this book?"
"Great story for teens & adults."
"Yes it was easy reading....excellent life messages."
"I enjoyed it."
"An excellent book for teenage & young adults living difficult lives."
"I will be reading his other books,but they are probably not as good as good."
Best American Fiction Anthologies

Keenly observed and written with his insightful and deadpan sense of humor, he explores enduring Southern truths about home, place, spirit, table, and the regions' varied geographies, including his native Alabama, Cajun country, and the Gulf Coast. -- New Orleans Times-Picayune , praise for the author. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution , praise for the author --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As the meal cooked, the essence of the cracklin's would melt through the pone of the bread, and when it was done she would cut it into triangles and serve it with pinto beans and stewed squash and slice Spanish onions and pickled pepper so hot it would blind a baby if he rubbed it on his eyes." I won't even repeat his description of a place called "Harold's Barbecue" because if I do both you, dear reader, and me are going to have to go eat something and I've got to finish this review. But it's not all about the food.. it's the cadence, just the way of being in the South that's so unique and seems so strange when I fly back there from (crazy) California and feel the humidity and smell the biscuits."
"Rick Bragg's books and humor usually delight us, but he missed the mark somewhat with "My Southern Journey.""
"I read his book, "All Over But The Shoutin'" and have not enjoyed such great southern storytelling in a long time!!"
"Having been born in Florida and having lived in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee; I consider myself as Southern as Southern gets."
"If you are not reading Rick Bragg, you are missing the most beautiful and atmospheric prose ever put to paper."
"The vibrant colors of his family, from Ava and Charlie to his Momma and his brothers, all the way till you can almost taste the food you read."
"My only exposure to Rick Bragg had been in southern Living Magazine."
"And after you have laughed your ass off and cried your eyes out, you share your love of what you read on Facebook, and then call and email your friends and read then passages until they call “uncle” and promise to get it."