Showing results by narrator "Elyse Dinh" in All Categories

Willa Lieu-Endicott moved from California to the Pacific Northwest to start over. Since her husband’s death, she’s been struggling to get back her old career as a cookbook ghostwriter. Unfortunately, her latest project—ghostwriting for a viral cooking sensation known more for his washboard abs than his meals—has her stuck. Until she meets her new neighbor. Hudson Daws, the handyman next door, lives on a farm with his parents and two adult children. He’s the opposite of everything she’s ever known.

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal—he’ll be more social if she does the same—she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch. Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

A collection of the year’s best short stories, selected by National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee and series editor Heidi Pitlor. “Without stories, we cannot live well,” shares guest editor Min Jin Lee, describing how storytelling affects and nurtures readers. The Best American Short...

Los Angeles brims with opportunity in 1959—though not for aspiring fashion designer Cordelia Mai Yin, the first-generation child of Vietnamese immigrants, who finds the city unkind to outsiders and as dispirited as her own family. When Cordi rents a cheap loft in an old apartment building, she quickly warms to kindred souls Tessa, Audrey, and Silly. They also want better things and have pasts they’d rather forget. That they all share the same middle name makes their friendship seem like destiny.

More like sisters than best friends, Issa Bui and Olivia Nong grew up dreaming of becoming movie stars. But for young Vietnamese women in 1930s Hollywood, the MGM back lot seems unreachable. Undeterred, Issa knows she’s meant for great things. The blood of shamans runs through her veins. To find fame in this town, for herself and for Olivia, Issa needs to make connections. For starters, with her dead grandmother Bà Ngoại.

In her introduction to this year’s The Best American Essays, guest editor Vivian Gornick states that her selections “contribute materially to the long and honorable history of the personal essay by way of the value they place on lived experience.” Provocative, daring, and honest at a time...

""Excellent....Taken as a whole, the volume moves beyond food’s sensory pleasures to investigate it as a cultural vessel, a symbol of inequality, and more. It’s a standout addition to the series."" —Publisher's Weekly (starred review) A collection of the year’s top food writing, selected...

"A brilliant duet and a moving exploration of the American immigrant experience."--Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being A dual first-person memoir by the acclaimed Vietnamese-American novelist and her thoroughly American teenage daughter In 1975, thirteen-year-old Lan Cao boarded an...

Sometimes life is not fair! In this second book in the Ly-Lan Finds A Way chapter book series about a daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ly-Lan navigates the school book fair—complete with anticipation and disappointment, surprising injustices (why did prices go up?), and finding a way to...

When Vietnamese American Freddie Lo finds herself in Vietnam for the first time since she was little, she's not quite sure how to feel. The memories of her extended family are more like distant echoes; she has a tough time speaking Vietnamese; and she can't help but feel like she just isn't Vietnamese enough. Still, this is her chance to reconnect with her family, especially her Ong ngoai—or grandfather—who is receiving a big award. That's when Ong ngoai reveals his secret.

Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we plan! In this chapter book series about a daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ly-Lan navigates her life as a new third grader—complete with old and new friends, unexpected (and disappointing) changes at home and school, and finding a way to thrive...