Celebrate the Lunar New Year with these fantastic titles that embody the Year of the Dragon.
Dragons are powerful, mythical, and lucky – but also dangerous. Be inspired by their cultural significance and strength in this week’s selections.
Celebrate authors from Asia, dragon filled adventure, along with a collection of cooking books for delectable Asian cuisine.
IN TRANSLATION
Death on Gokumon Island by Erina Reddan
The rockbound and forbidding Gokumon Island was once a pirate stronghold. Now it is home to a clannish fishing community, dominated by two feuding families. When Kosuke Kindaichi arrives bringing news of a death, it triggers a series of grotesquely staged murders. The scruffy detective attempts to untangle the island’s secrets and stop the killings, but a fresh mystery seems to greet him at every turn, and soon he falls under suspicion himself.
The Stolen Bicycle by Ming-Yi Wu
On a quest to explain how and why his father mysteriously disappeared twenty years ago, a writer embarks on an epic journey in search of a stolen bicycle and soon finds himself immersed in the strangely overlapping histories of the Japanese military during World War II, Lin Wang, the oldest elephant who ever lived, and the secret world of antique bicycle collectors in Taiwan. The result is a surprising and moving meditation on memory, loss, and the bonds of family.
The Vagrants by Yiyun Li
In the provincial town of Muddy Waters in China, a young woman named Gu Shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty-eight years old and has already spent ten years in prison. The citizens stage a protest after her death and, over the following six weeks, the town goes through uncertainty, hope, and fear until eventually the rebellion is brutally suppressed. We follow the pain of Gu Shan's parents, the hope and fear of the leaders of the protest and their families. Even those who seem unconnected to the tragedy – an eleven-year-old boy seeking fame and glory, a nineteen-year-old village idiot in love with a young and deformed girl, and old couple making a living by scavenging the town's garbage cans – are caught up in remorseless turn of events. Yiyun Li's novel is based on the true story which took place in China in 1979.
HERE BE DRAGONS
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms - but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory's purpose. To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hroth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow - exactly where she wants to be. The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother's past is coming to upend her fate. When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin
With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationally bestselling author George R.R. Martin, this is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros. Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen, the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria, took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.
The Choice by Nora Roberts
It's time for the final reckoning.... With Odran's defeat at the Battle of the Dark Portal, his quest to rule over Talamh and Breen has stalled - for now. But the terrible battle and heart-breaking losses have taken their toll. It's a time as painful as any Breen has ever known as she helps to treat the wounded, bring the dead home from blood-and ash-soaked battlegrounds and support her friends and family in their grief. With the enemy cast out and the portal sealed it is a time to recover but there is little time to rest. Soon the enemy's witches begin to appear to Breen in her sleep, practicing black magick, sacrificing the innocent, and plotting brutal destruction. It is time for Breen to seek out those in desperate need of rescue and confront the darkness with every weapon she has. An epic battle is coming. A battle Breen cannot afford to lose....
Blood of an Exile by Brian Naslund
Caught trying to assassinate a fellow noble, Lord Silas Bershad was given a death sentence: fight monsters so that he would die serving the kingdom. He's never lost a fight. He's the most successful dragon slayer in history. But marked as a doomed man, Bershad stands apart from the world. Now the king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an out. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever. Across dragon-infested mountains, into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology... the links of fate bind us all.
FIERY DRAGON TITLES FOR CHILDREN & TEENS
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao
After his augmented reality gaming headset is possessed by the spirit of the First Emperor of China, twelve-year-old Chinese American Zack Ying is compelled to travel across China to steal an ancient artifact, fight figures from Chinese history and myth, and seal a portal to prevent malicious spirits from destroying the human realm.
Attack of the Dragon King by Maisie Chan
When Jack's grandpa leaves him a magical twelve-sided jade coin, Jack finds himself caught in an ancient battle between good and evil. For he is the new Tiger Warrior, and it's up to him to save the world! Luckily, Jack has the spirits of the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac to help him. Tiger can harness the power of fire, Dragon can control water, Monkey has lightening speed and the rest, well they're just happy to be out of the jade coin for a bit! But other ancient spirits want the power of the Chinese Zodiac for themselves.
The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin
From ancient times, the ice dragon was a creature of legend and fear, for no man had ever tamed one. But Adara was not afraid. For Adara was a winter child, born during the worst freeze that anyone, even the Old Ones, could remember. The ice dragon had always been in her life, glimpsed from afar as she played in the snow long after the other children had fled the cold. In her fourth year, she touched it and in her fifth year she rode upon its broad, chilled back. Then, in her seventh year, on a calm summer day, fiery dragons from the North swooped down upon the peaceful farm that was Adara's home. And only a winter child, and the ice dragon who loved her, could save her world from utter destruction.
The Dragon's Promise by Elizabeth Lim
Princess Shiori made a deathbed promise to return the dragon's pearl to its rightful owner, but keeping that promise is more dangerous than she ever imagined. She must journey to the kingdom of dragons, navigate political intrigue among humans and dragons alike, fend off thieves who covet the pearl for themselves and will go to any lengths to get it, all while cultivating the appearance of a perfect princess to dissuade those who would see her burned at the stake for the magic that runs in her blood.
TANTALISING TASTES OF ASIA
To Asia, with Love by Hetty McKinnon
Recipes range from the traditional - salt and pepper eggplant, red curry laksa, congee, a perfectly simple egg, pea and ginger fried rice - to Hetty's uniquely modern interpretations, such as buttery miso vegemite noodles, stir-fried salt and vinegar potatoes, cacio e pepe udon noodles and grilled wombok caesar salad with wonton crackers. All share an emphasis on seasonal vegetables and creating irresistible Asian(ish) flavours using pantry staples. Whether it's a banh mi turned into a salad, a soy-sauce-powered chocolate brownie or a rainbow guide to eating dumplings by the season, this is Asian home cooking unlike anything you've experienced before.
My Asian Kitchen by Jennifer Joyce
A celebration of modern Asian cooking, in 100 healthy, flavour-packed traditional and modern dishes Bao buns, pho, sushi, poke bowls, gyoza, ramen and kimchi have devotees on every high street - now Jennifer Joyce shows how easy it is to create these zingy, fresh, healthy flavours at home. From grilled sticky skewers and steak tacos, salads, rice bowls and dumplings, to prawn katsu bao and miso-glazed ribs, this is an adventure in the dazzling diversity of modern Asian cooking. Jennifer's exquisitely simple recipes, no-nonsense explanation of ingredients, hand-drawn diagrams and beautiful photographs are all you need to start cooking in your very own Asian Kitchen.
Street Food Asia by Luke Nguyen
Join Luke Nguyen on his latest adventure through the bustling and fragrant backstreets of Asia. Through Saigon and Jakarta, to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, Nguyen uncovers the hidden locations and secret eats of four very different cities and their street food cultures.
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