Category Archives: Pakistani American
The Best Eid Ever by Asma Mobin-Uddin, illustrated by Laura Jacobsen
When Aneesa, a young Muslim girl, wakes up on the first morning of Eid with just her grandmother, she greatly misses her parents, who are on a pilgrimage to Mecca. At the prayer hall, Aneesa meets two girls whose family escaped war in their homeland with virtually nothing. Aneesa learns the true meaning of Eid as she shares some of her bountiful gifts, indeed making it the best Eid of all.
Review: “TBR’s Editors’ Favorites of 2007,” The Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2007
Readers: Children
Published: 2007 Continue reading
First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins
With her Republican front-runner father, Sameera “Sparrow” Righton just might be headed to the White House. That is, if her father’s PR spinners can make her more ‘all-American,’ given her Pakistani heritage as the beloved adopted daughter of two headstrong activists who want to change the world. She goes from invisible teenage schoolgirl to glam chic, thanks to the campaign’s makeover gurus, but discovering just who the real Sameera Righton is turns out to be the best adventure of all. Check out the accompanying, real-life blog, www.sparrowblog.com by the fictional Sameera on the all-too-real upcoming 2008 Presidential elections.
Perkins continues spunky Sparrow’s story in First Daughter: White House Rules.
Review: “In Celebration of Asian Pacific American Month: New & Notable Books,” The Bloomsbury Review, May/June 2007
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2007 Continue reading
Negotiating Ethnicity: Second-Generation South Asian Americans Traverse a Transnational World by Bandana Purkayastha
A careful examination of 48 second-generation South Asian Americans whose parents arrived from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal during 1965 and the mid-1980s. Through personal stories and sociological context, Purkayastha explores how this second generation projects self-identification in a world where they are clearly not white, yet often not Asian enough.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, August 4, 2005
Readers: Adult
Published: 2005 Continue reading
Husband of a Fanatic: A Personal Story Through India, Pakistan, Love, and Hate by Amitava Kumar
Amitava Kumar, a Hindu Indian writer based in the United States, marries a Pakistani Muslim in 1999 when India and Pakistan are at war: “I felt good about marrying ‘the enemy,’” he writes, “ … my marriage had opened a new track for people-to-people diplomacy.” Then he is named in an online blacklist of so-called Hindu traitors. While his journey begins in an ethnic enclave in New York, Kumar also travels through the South Asian continent, as everyone from relatives to religious leaders weighs in on the age-old tension, distrust, and outright hatred based not on individual encounters but the blindness of national and religious identity.
Review: “New and Notable Books, AsianWeek, April 7, 2005
Readers: Adult
Published: 2005 Continue reading
Sadika’s Way: A Novel of Pakistan and America by Hina Haq
Not exactly one of the newest titles (it arrived later than sooner on my desk), but certainly noteworthy because of its subject matter. It opens with the Pakistani birth of Sadika – an unwanted daughter – and moves swiftly along through her coming of age, her lack of marriage prospects, and her eventual blossoming as an independent young woman. A sense of “you GO, girl” keeps moving the story, and you can’t help but root for naïve Sadika as she finally claims her own voice and learns to navigate a discovered newly sense of self.
Review: “New and Notable Books, AsianWeek, April 7, 2005
Readers: Adult
Published: 2004 Continue reading
Trespassing: A Novel by Uzma Aslam Khan
Another tale of Pakistan (finally, multiple entries in this area!), this one a lyrically written love story – with all sorts of obstacles, of course – about a modern daughter running an inherited silk factory, and a Massachusetts-educated student returning to Karachi for his father’s funeral. The story is woven together with bits and pieces of the lovers’ perspectives, mixed in with the overarching story of their lives together – and apart.
Review: “New and Notable Books, AsianWeek, April 7, 2005
Readers: Adult
Published: 2005 Continue reading
Silly Chicken by Rukhsana Khan, illustrated by Yunmee Kyong
In rural Pakistan, little Rani is sure that her mother loves Bibi, the pet chicken, more than she loves Rani. Rani even secretly threatens to eat the chicken. But when Bibi disappears, and Rani discovers Bibi’s newly hatched chick, Buchi, she learns what true chicken love can be. … Sibling rivalry comes in all kinds of forms!
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, March 31, 2005
Readers: Children
Published: 2005 Continue reading
I Dream of Microwaves by Imad Rahman
An inventive debut collection of interconnected short stories about one Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (no, not that one), an itinerant actor with a vague resemblance to a criminal whom he once portrayed on America’s Most Wanted. This Kareem criss-crosses the country, and later the world, on rather obscure random quests for … uh … love? The perfect role? Answers? Who knows, but it’s a crazy ride all the way through.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, April 30, 2004
Readers: Adult
Published: 2004 Continue reading
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