Service Alert
Website maintenance April 24 10pm ET
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
Showing 1 - 20 of 22 items
By Lulu Delacre, Sonia Sotomayor. 2018
The first Latina Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, recalls the formative influence of books in her life. She explores how…
her love of literature provided her with the inspiration to realize her dreams. For grades 2-4. 2018By Rachna Gilmore. 2001
Fifteen-year-old Tara Mehta's life is turned upside down when her grandmother visits from India. Naniji disapproves of the family's Canadian…
lifestyle and feminist mother. But Tara also learns of her heritage and Naniji's involvement in Gandhi's peace movement. Some strong language. For junior and senior high readers. 2001By Crystal Hubbard. 2005
A picture-book biography highlighting a pivotal event in the childhood of African American baseball player Marcenia "Toni Stone" Lyle Alberga,…
the woman who broke baseball's gender barrier by becoming the first female roster member of a professional Negro League team. 2005. For grades 2-4By Avner Mandelman. 2005
Nine stories about the Israeli experience. In "Terror" a father beats the son who fails to stand up for his…
five-year-old brother, thus instilling the precept that, right or wrong, family comes first, even before justice or fear. Strong language and some violence. Sophie Brody Medal. 2005By Susan D. Peters. 2010
Sweet Liberia, Lessons from the Coal Pot is a delightful, painfully honest memoir that chronicles the thick slice of humanity…
sandwiched between Liberia's April 12, 1980 coup and the Civil War in 1989. Like many others who embraced Black Pride, Afros, African clothing and names in the 70's, Susan and thousands more took it one step further and immigrated to Mother Africa. This touching memoir is set against the author's personal growth, her cultural struggles, and her triumphs, and is an informative, personally revealing, and often-comical account of her family's eleven-year journey immersed in the rich culture of Liberia, West Africa. "Many have wondered what it would be like to pack up our things and move to a new country, but none of us have imagined having to flee our new homeland with our children and barely more than the clothes on our back. Yet, Susan Peters managed to do just that while maintaining her faith which would eventually help her rebuild her life and uplift her heart and soul. This book is a wonderful and eye-opening experience that shouldn't be missed!"---Naleighna Kai, National Best-selling author of Speak It into Existence.By Sau-Ling Wong, Hualing Nieh. 1981
This extraordinary novel tells the story of two women-Mulberry and Peach-who are really one. Mulberry is a young Chinese-American woman…
who has fled the turmoil of postwar China to settle in the United States. Unable to forget the terrors she has witnessed or to resolve the conflicts between her new life and her old, she copes by developing a second personality: the fearless, tough-talking, sexually uninhibited Peach. While Mulberry clings to her cultural and ethical roots, Peach renounces her past to embrace the American way of life with a vengeance. These two women-both in flight-speak to their readers through an innovative narrative structure, combining journal entries, interior dialogue, letters, poetry, and myth. Mulberry's past-mainly her experiences during the Japanese occupation of China and the years of civil war between Communists and Nationalists-haunts the text. Separated from her family, she seeks refuge in the home of wealthy cousins, who try desperately to maintain their rigid traditions as warrign forces close in around Peking and the house is systematically looted. Mulberry escapes downriver in a boat carrying a strange assortiment of refugees. But her escape to Taiwan only brings new terrors: when her new husband is targeted by the police, Mulberry msut go into hiding with him in a tiny attic room. There her young daughterm who cannot remember life "outside", descends into a fantasy world of her own invention and unwittingly ensures her family's doom, Mulberry's journal entires alternate with a series of letters from Peach to "the man from the USA immigration service." Peach has embarked on a cross-country journey in flight from possible deportation. Pregnant and penniless, she lives by her wits while taunting her pursuers and ridiculing her alter ego Mulberry, whom she seeks, finally, to conquer. In Mulberry and Peach Hualing Nieh offers a rare perspective, through the eyes of a young refugee woman, of the upheavals of contemporary China (where the book was banned upon its first publication in 1976). Through her experimental, highly effective narrative, she also presents an unforgettable portrait of the pain of cultural dislocation and the anguish of psychological disintegration.By Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto. 1966
A Daughter of the Samurai tells the true story of a samurai's daughter, brought up in the strict traditions of…
feudal Japan, who was sent to America to meet her future husband. An engrossing, haunting tale that gives us insight into an almost forgotten age.Madam Sugimoto was born in Japan, not in the sunny southern part of the country which has given it the name of "The Land of Flowers," but in the northern province of Echigo which is bleak and cold and so cut off from the rest of the country by mountains that in times past it had been considered fit only for political prisoners or exiles.Her father was a Samurai, with high ideals of what was expected of a Samurai's family. His hopes were concentrated in his son until the son refused to marry the girl for whom he was destined and ran off to America. After that all that was meant for him fell to the lot of the little wavy-haired Etsu who writes here so delightfully of the things that happened in their childhood days in far-away Japan.Memory Is Our Home is a powerful biographical memoir based on the diaries of Roma Talasiewicz-Eibuszyc, who was born in…
Warsaw before the end of World War I, grew up during the interwar period and who, after escaping the atrocities of World War II, was able to survive in the vast territories of Soviet Russia and Uzbekistan.Translated by her own daughter, interweaving her own recollections as her family made a new life in the shadows of the Holocaust in Communist Poland after the war and into the late 1960s, this book is a rich, living document, a riveting account of a vibrant young woman's courage and endurance.A forty-year recollection of love and loss, of hopes and dreams for a better world, it provides richly-textured accounts of the physical and emotional lives of Jews in Warsaw and of survival during World War II throughout Russia. This book, narrated in a compelling, unique voice through two generations, is the proverbial candle needed to keep memory alive.By Harini Nagendra. 2022
'A gorgeous debut mystery with a charming and fearless sleuth . . . spellbinding' SUJATA MASSEY'Told with real warmth and…
wit. . . A perfect read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Vaseem Khan' - ABIR MUKHERJEE'A cosy mystery that warmly illuminates a time and place not often examined in fiction' VASEEM KHAN'A beautifully painted picture of a woman's life in 1920s India' M W CRAVEN'A delight' CATRIONA MCPHERSON'The classic whodunnit with the added appeal of a female sleuth in Colonial India. . . fascinating' RHYS BOWENMurder and mayhem . . . monsoon season is coming._____________________________Solving crimes isn't easy.Add a jealous mother-in-law and having to wear a flowing sari into the mix, and you've got a problem.When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry doctor Ramu, she's resigned herself to a quiet life.But that all changes the night of the party at the Century Club, where she escapes to the garden for some peace - and instead spots an uninvited guest in the shadows. Half an hour later, the party turns into a murder scene. When a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime, Kaveri becomes determined to save her and launches a private investigation to find the killer, tracing his steps from an illustrious brothel to an Englishman's mansion. She soon finds that sleuthing in a sari isn't as hard as it seems when you have a talent for maths, a head for logic and a doctor for a husband.And she's going to need them all as the case leads her deeper into a hotbed of danger, sedition and intrigue in Bangalore's darkest alleyways . . .BOOK ONE IN THE BANGALORE DETECTIVES CLUB SERIES*INCLUDES A BONUS CHAPTER OF DELICIOUS INDIAN RECIPES* ___________If you love murder mystery series like Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Vaseem Khan's Baby Ganesh Agency and Ovidia Yu's Crown Colony series, you won't want to miss THE BANGALORE DETECTIVES CLUB, Book One in a brand new series from Harini Nagendra'Told with real warmth and wit. . . Harini Nagendra has created an intricate and fiendish mystery with a wonderful duo of amateur sleuths Kaveri and Ramu at its heart, and capturing the atmosphere and intensity of Bangalore in the roaring twenties. I can't wait for the next instalment. A perfect read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Vaseem Khan' - ABIR MUKHERJEE'Riveting. [Nagendra's] use of colonial history is thoroughly fascinating, with devastating depictions of the airy condescension of the British. A fine start to a promising series' BOOKLIST Starred Review'Harini Nagendra takes us to a wonderfully unfamiliar world in this delightful debut mystery. . .I couldn't put it down' VICTORIA THOMPSON, USA Today bestselling author of Murder on Madison Square'Absolutely charming . . . this one is a winner!' CONNIE BERRY, USA Today best-selling and Agatha-nominated author of The Kate Hamilton Mysteries.'This lush mystery will transport you to heady 1920s Bangalore, where new bride Kaveri stumbles into sleuthing-while dragging her doctor-husband into the fray. Mouth-watering fashion and food set against simmering colonial intrigue in this delicious whodunit can be devoured in one sitting.' SUMI HAHN author of The Mermaid from Jeju'I loved The Bangalore Detectives Club . . . Kaveri especially is charming' Ovidia Yu, author of The Cannonball Tree MysteryBy Alys Conran. 2019
Magda lives alone in her a huge house by the sea. Bad tempered and elderly, Magda does not need help…
from anyone, despite being wheelchair bound. With her sharp tongue, she gets through carers at a rate of knots, until Susheela arrives. And Susheela, it turns out, is in even more trouble than Magda. Still reeling from the recent death of her mum and trying to prop up her dad who is at risk of losing the family business, she finds she is pregnant. The future suddenly looks uncertain and frightening. But Magda and Susheela strike up an unlikely and sometimes uneasy friendship. Magda finds herself thinking back to her early childhood in colonial India before she was sent "home" to England; a childhood filled with servants and privilege but also terrible secrets. We also follow the story of her mother, Evelyn, once a warm hearted, and free spirited school teacher who slowly has all life and optimism ground away by a controlling husband and the misery of being a respectable member of the ruling classes. What becomes clear is that Evelyn searched for home for a long time, just like Magda, just like Susheela. And Magda begins to realise that home might not be a fortress to be ferociously defended, but may mean something else altogether. Thoughtful, clever, and beautifully observed Dignity considers the legacy of the Raj in Britain today, but more importantly what it means to belong to a place and to other people.(p) Orion Publishing Group Ltd 2019By Holly Thompson. 2001
Caitlin Ober is back in Japan, teaching English in Kyushu. Some 15 years ago, as a little girl, Caitlin lived…
in Kyoto, but a tragic accident drove her and her family back to America. Now guilt obscures her path, just as ashfall from a nearby volcano covers Kagoshima in dust. In a garden Caitlin meets a teenage half-Japanese girl, Naomi, who may be someone Caitlin can save this time around. Together the two travel to Kyoto during O-Bon, the festival when the dead return. Amid bonfires, temple grounds, and ghostly memories, Caitlin bravely embraces her future. Ash is a bittersweet novel of redemptive beauty, of startling images and alluring details.Holly Thompson lives in Kamakura and writes frequently about Japan. This is her first novel.By Chen Zeping, Karen Gernant, Can Xue, Porochista Khakpour. 2008
Though the story of Liujin, a young woman seeking a new kind of human freedom, Frontier attempts to unify the…
grand opposites of life--barbarism and civilization, the spiritual and the material, the mundane and the sublime, beauty and death, Eastern and Western cultures. A layered, multifaceted masterpiece from the 2015 winner of the Best Translated Book Award.By Allen Say. 2005
Using two very different and remarkable styles of art, Caldecott medalist Allen Say tells a tale within a tale, transporting…
readers seamlessly to the Japan of his childhood, when he used to come running with the children of his own neighborhood at the sound of the kamishibai man's clappers.By Li Miao Lovett. 2010
"An important, even invaluable book, a moving farewell to the old, more humane way of life as China and all…
the world become technologized and globalized."-Maxine Hong KingstonA dam rises on the Yangtze, uprooting a million lives in a government-made, modern environmental and human rights disaster, and a poor salvager who has lost everything finds an abandoned baby girl. A tale of defiance, of a lost man finding his place-and a new kind of love-in modern China, and of a rich man reclaiming his soul and the woman he loved before the revolution tore them apart.By John J. Healey. 2016
A sumptuous novel inspired by one of history’s most intriguing forgotten chapters—the arrival of Japanese Samurai on the shores of…
Europe.In 1614, twenty-two Samurai warriors and a group of tradesmen from Japan sailed to Spain, where they initiated one of the most intriguing cultural exchanges in history. They were received with pomp and circumstance, first by King Philip III and later by Pope Paul V. They were the first Japanese to visit Europe and they caused a sensation. They remained for two years and then most of the party returned to Japan; however, six of the Samurai stayed behind, settling in a small fishing village close to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where their descendants live to this day. Healey imbues this tale of the meeting of East and West with uncommon emotional and intellectual intensity and a rich sense of place. He explores the dueling mentalities of two cultures through a singular romance; the sophisticated, restrained warrior culture of Japan and the baroque sensibilities of Renaissance Spain, dark and obsessed with ethnic cleansing. What one culture lives with absolute normality is experienced as exotic from the outsider’s eye. Everyone is seen as strange at first and then—with growing familiarity—is revealed as being more similar than originally perceived, but with the added value of enduring idiosyncrasies.The story told in this novel is an essential and timeless one about the discoveries and conflicts that arise from the forging of relationships across borders, both geographical and cultural.By Harini Nagendra. 2022
Murder and mayhem . . . monsoon season is coming. Solving crimes isn't easy. Add a jealous mother-in-law and having…
to wear a flowing sari into the mix, and you've got a problem. When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry doctor Ramu, she's resigned herself to a quiet life. But that all changes the night of the party at the Century Club, where she escapes to the garden for some peace—and instead spots an uninvited guest in the shadows. Half an hour later, the party turns into a murder scene. When a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime, Kaveri becomes determined to save her and launches a private investigation to find the killer, tracing his steps from an illustrious brothel to an Englishman's mansion. She soon finds that sleuthing in a sari isn't as hard as it seems when you have a talent for maths, a head for logic and a doctor for a husband. And she's going to need them all as the case leads her deeper into a hotbed of danger, sedition and intrigue in Bangalore's darkest alleyways . . ..By Harini Nagendra. 2022
'The first in an effervescent new mystery series. . . a treat for historical mystery lovers looking for a new…
series to savor (or devour)' NEW YORK TIMESMurder and mayhem . . . monsoon season is coming. _____________________________ Solving crimes isn't easy. Add a jealous mother-in-law and having to wear a flowing sari into the mix, and you've got a problem. When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry doctor Ramu, she's resigned herself to a quiet life. But that all changes the night of the party at the Century Club, where she escapes to the garden for some peace - and instead spots an uninvited guest in the shadows. Half an hour later, the party turns into a murder scene. When a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime, Kaveri becomes determined to save her and launches a private investigation to find the killer, tracing his steps from an illustrious brothel to an Englishman's mansion. She soon finds that sleuthing in a sari isn't as hard as it seems when you have a talent for maths, a head for logic and a doctor for a husband. And she's going to need them all as the case leads her deeper into a hotbed of danger, sedition and intrigue in Bangalore's darkest alleyways . . . BOOK ONE IN THE BANGALORE DETECTIVES CLUB SERIES INCLUDES A BONUS CHAPTER OF DELICIOUS INDIAN RECIPES ___________ 'A gorgeous debut mystery with a charming and fearless sleuth . . . spellbinding' SUJATA MASSEY 'Told with real warmth and wit. . . A perfect read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Vaseem Khan' ABIR MUKHERJEE 'A cosy mystery that warmly illuminates a time and place not often examined in fiction' VASEEM KHAN 'A beautifully painted picture of a woman's life in 1920s India' M W CRAVEN 'A delight' CATRIONA MCPHERSON 'The classic whodunnit with the added appeal of a female sleuth in Colonial India. . . fascinating' RHYS BOWEN 'Told with real warmth and wit. . . Nagendra has created an intricate and fiendish mystery... A perfect read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Vaseem Khan' - ABIR MUKHERJEE 'Riveting. [Nagendra's] use of colonial history is thoroughly fascinating, with devastating depictions of the airy condescension of the British. A fine start to a promising series' BOOKLIST Starred Review 'Harini Nagendra takes us to a wonderfully unfamiliar world in this delightful debut mystery. . .I couldn't put it down' VICTORIA THOMPSON'Absolutely charming . . . this one is a winner!' CONNIE BERRY'An enjoyable trip back in time with a spunky young woman for company.' R V RAMAN'Mouth-watering fashion and food set against simmering colonial intrigue in this delicious whodunit can be devoured in one sitting.' SUMI HAHN'I loved The Bangalore Detectives Club . . . Kaveri especially is charming.' OVIDIA YU'Nagendra makes her fiction debut with an exceptional series launch. . . rich, edifying, and authentic' Publishers Weekly, Starred Review 'Deliciously exotic' Sunday PostBy Salar Abdoh. 2014
"Abdoh paints a gripping portrait of a nation awash in violence and crippled by corruption....Captivating."--Publishers WeeklyIncluded Library Journal's "Books That…
Buzzed at BEA" Roundup, the first word on titles and trends from Barbara Hoffert, EditorIncluded in Publishers Weekly's Fall Preview (Literary Fiction)"Abdoh deftly captures the uneasy atmosphere of 2008 Tehran, swirling with betrayal and corruption."--Library Journal, Books for the Masses/Editors' Picks BEA 2014"Tehran at Twilight is a remarkable meditation on violence, and on all the ways one bears witness to pain...At the center lies the story of two friends whose paths have diverged, and of love restored between a mother and a son. A smart, eloquent novel."--Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz"Connecting the dots of the shadow lives of Iranian, American, and Iranian American double and triple agents, and their double and triple stories in Iran and Manhattan, Baghdad and Berkeley, Abdoh also tells a tale of mothers and sons, using espionage for infrared insight into concealed identities. The startling truth embedded in this tight novel: We Are All Iranians."--Brad Gooch, author of City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara"Tehran--bloated, capricious, corrupt, and with its various secret police agencies competing against one another--becomes a ripe setting for this roman noir...Move over Scandinavia: there's a new kid on the noir block."--Hooman Majd, author of The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay"A smart political thriller for our modern times."--Laila Lalami, author of Secret SonThe year is 2008. Reza Malek's life is modest but manageable--he lives in a small apartment in Harlem, teaches "creative reportage" at a local university, and is relieved to be far from the blood and turmoil of Iraq and Afghanistan where he worked as a reporter, interpreter, and sometime lover for a superstar journalist who has long since moved on to more remarkable men.After a terse phone call from his best friend in Iran, Sina Vafa, Reza reluctantly returns to Tehran. Once there, he finds far more than he bargained for: the city is on the edge of revolution; his friend Sina is embroiled with Shia militants; his missing mother, who was alleged to have run off with a lover before the revolution, is alive and well--while his own life is in danger.Against a backdrop of corrupt clerics, shady fixers, political repression, and the ever-present threat of violence, Abdoh offers a telling glimpse into contemporary Tehran, and spins a compelling morality tale of identity and exile, the bonds of friendship, and the limits of loyalty.By Tahira Naqvi, Ismat Chughtai. 1995
In India's colonial past, in a time of political and social revolution, Ismat Chughtai masterfully unfolds her magna opus, The…
Crooked Line: the semi-autobiographical tale of a fiery-spirited, middle-class Muslim girl bent on exploring the shape and nature of consuming desire. Writing with the same honesty and passion as her scandalous short-story, "The Quilt," Chughtai exposes the complex relationships developed between women living and working in relative seclusion, and the intellectual and emotional contradictions lying in the heart of a rebellious country on the brink of independence from the British Raj and ultimately Partition.By Alys Conran. 2019
Shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award'I loved this... Magda is a real stand-out character for me in…
books I've read recently, I can't quite stop thinking about her' Jane Garvey, BBC Woman's Hour 'Brilliant... A truly convincing state-of-the-nation novel' Daily Mail 'Packs a powerful punch and makes you smile while breaking your heart'Woman's Weekly 'Fierce and compassionate'Mail on Sunday 'Conran's work is subtle and complex: there is no one right story about the Empire. Instead we are offered multiple views, ironies and contradictions that only one of most talented, tender writers in Wales could portray'New Welsh Review 'Fierce, compassionate, angry, but above all, heart-breakingly real. I was drawn in from the very first page'Claire Fuller, author of Bitter Orange 'An Indian household can no more be governed peacefully without dignity and prestige, than an Indian Empire' The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook, Flora Annie Steel & Grace Gardiner Magda is a former scientist with a bad temper and a sharp tongue, now living alone in a huge house by the sea. Confined to a wheelchair, her once spotless home crumbling around her, she gets through carers at a rate of knots. Until Susheela arrives, bursting through the doors of Magda's house, carrying life with her: grief for her mother's recent death; worry for her father; longing for a beautiful and troubled young man.The two women strike up an unlikely friendship: Magda's old-fashioned, no-nonsense attitude turns out to be an unexpected source of strength for Susheela; and Susheela's Bengali heritage brings back memories of Magda's childhood in colonial India and resurrects the tragic figure of her mother, Evelyn, and her struggle to fit within the suffocating structure of the Raj's ruling class. But as Magda digs deeper into her past, she unlocks a shocking legacy of blood that threatens to destroy the careful order she has imposed on her life - and that might just be the key to give the three women, Evelyn, Magda and Susheela, a place they can finally call home.'An exquisite novel: compassionate, beautiful and unflinching. I'm full of admiration for the skill with which it draws connections between the past and present, and manages to feel both timeless and achingly contemporary'Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest