Katiaesque

  • “A Long Walk To Water,” by Linda Sue Park

    “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park Clarion, 2010 I first read Linda Sue Park’s Newbery-award winning “A Single Shard” back in 2003 after I quit my newspaper reporting job and decided to plunge into the world of children’s literature. Now, eight years later, this new work feels even finer, somehow, a new…

    Katia Raina

  • Books are Our BFFs: A Giveaway

    To continue with last month’s friendship theme, I’d like to offer you a little giveaway to celebrate books and friendship! You see, starting this blog has been one of the very best things I have ever done. Through it I have met — physically and virtually — some amazing award-winning, up-and-coming, super-talented authors who, most…

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  • “How I Paid For College,” by Marc Acito

    Broadway Books, 2004 My only question is: how had I never heard of this book before — on my great hunt for the best contemporary historical fiction? Of course I have just updated my list, to include this crazy little book. https://katiaraina.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/best-contemporary-historical-fiction-part-i/ Set in a small New Jersey “bedroom” community in 1983, the hilarious story…

    Katia Raina

  • Best Contemporary Historical Fiction YA/Middle-Grade

    1. “The Disappeared” by Gloria Whelan Dial Books, 2008 (set in 1977, Buenos Aires, Argentina, YA) Here is what I thought about it: https://katiaraina.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/the-disappeared-by-gloria-whelan/ And here is my interview with the author: https://katiaraina.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/no-country-is-safe-from-totalitarianism-an-interview-with-author-gloria-whelan/ 2. “When You Reach Me,” by Rebecca Stead, this year’s Newberry! Wendy Lamb Books, Random House, 2009 (set in the 1970s New York City,…

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  • Best Contemporary Historical Fiction for Adult Readers

    In bookstores and on amazon.com we have so many categories. Romance, mystery, historical titles, contemporary ones, etc. But as of right now, there is no separate category for recent historical fiction. So I am creating one, right here on this little blog. After half a year of searching, sorting, reading and interviewing, I have put together a list of 17…

    Katia Raina

  • “The Sky Unwashed” by Irene Zabytko

    Algonquin Books, 2000   This didn’t have the fast-paced feel of today’s traditional novel. I realize the characters, their lives and their stories had to have been invented, at least partly, still, I thought of this narrative more like a non-fictional account of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and its harrowing surreal aftermath for the people who worked and…

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  • “The Red Umbrella” by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia

      Alfred A. Knopf, 2010 Ay, Dios Mio, another beautiful surprise. I kind of love this, actually, picking up a book, thinking — okay, let’s see. Then starting to read, not being so sure. Then, suddenly, the world and the characters of the story taking such firm hold of me, my heart starts catching the…

    Katia Raina

  • “All The Broken Pieces” by Ann E. Burg

    Scholastic 2010 Another great find on my hunt for the best contemporary historical fiction, this sparse novel in verse must be what they mean when they describe something as a “deeply felt” work. It is a simple story of a 10-year-old Vietnamese boy with a good arm for baseball who had been adopted into an…

    Katia Raina

  • “Countdown” by Deborah Wiles

    Scholastic, 2010 A nerdy yet spunky 12-year-old Franny is figuring out her way through confusing 1962. Is the end of the world at hand? Is her family going to die in the nuclear explosion sent by the Russians? Is her best friend going to hate her forever? Will the social studies teacher keep treating her like she’s invisible? And that neighbor kid…

    Katia Raina

  • “Before I Fall” by Lauren Oliver

     HarperCollins 2010 From the cover, the buzz, the title, the publisher, I just assumed the book was another pleasant contemporary “hot” little read. I wanted to take a break from sifting through the contemporary historical fiction — all that bloodshed in Vietnam, all these arrests in Argentina . . . (still working on that list by the…

    Katia Raina