‘I Wished I Was There’ by Robin Snook
This book is about days where, as the title suggests, the author wished he had been present.
It covers 20 iconic sporting events from the 1966 World Cup, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Nobby Stiles etc, right through to the miracle Headingley Test of 2019, featuring Ben Stokes and Jack Leach.
As in book one, a wide variety of sports are covered, such as boxing (The Rumble In The Jungle), golf (The Miracle in Medinah), athletics (Super Saturday at the 2012 London Olympics) as the action switches from such famous venues as Wembley, Lord’s, Ellis Park, The Crucible Theatre, Augusta National and Wimbledon.
Robin Snook has again researched his 20 events well, this time drawing on eye-witness accounts from friends and family who were actually ‘there’.
The forward is from BBC Radio cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, with Yorkshire’s Ryder Cup golfer Mark James providing the forward for the golfing Miracle of Medinah chapter.
‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ by Malinda Lo
A story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare in 1950’s America.
“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took root – that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father – despite his hard-won citizenship – Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
‘Lost in Taiwan’ by Mark Crilley
THIS WASN’T PAUL’S IDEA.
The last thing he’s interested in is exploring new countries or experiencing anything that might be described as “cultural enrichment.” But like it or not, he’s stuck with his brother, Theo, for two weeks in Taiwan, a place that – while fascinating to Theo – holds no interest to Paul at all.
While on a short trip to a local electronics store, Paul becomes hopelessly lost in Taiwan’s twisting, narrow streets, and he has no choice but to explore this new environment in his quest to find his way back to Theo’s apartment.
In an unfamiliar place with no friends – and no GPS! – there’s no telling what adventures he could happen upon. And who knows? Maybe it turns out he has friends in Taiwan, after all.
‘Messy Roots – A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American’ by Laura Gao
After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrated to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars – at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name.
In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.
Insightful, original, and hilarious, toggling seamlessly between past and present, China and America, Gao’s debut is a tour de force of graphic storytelling.
‘The Next New Syrian Girl’ by Ream Shukairy
This story follows the unlikely friendship between two very different Syrian girls, the pressures and expectations of the perfect Syrian daughter, and the repercussions of the Syrian Revolution both at home and abroad.
Khadija Shami is a Syrian American high school senior raised on boxing and football. Saddled with a monstrous ego and a fierce mother to test it, she dreams of escaping her sheltered life to travel the world with her best friend.
Leene Tahir is a Syrian refugee, doing her best to adjust to the wildly unfamiliar society of a suburban Detroit high school while battling panic attacks and family pressures.
When their worlds collide the result is catastrophic. To Khadija, Leene embodies the tame, dutiful Syrian ideal she’s long rebelled against. And to Leene, Khadija is the strong-willed, closed-off American who makes her doubt her place in the world.
But as Khadija digs up Leene’s past, a startling and life-changing discovery forces the two of them closer together. As the girls secretly race to unravel the truth, a friendship slowly and hesitantly begins blooming. Doubts are cast aside as they realize they have more in common than they each expected. What they find takes them on a journey all the way to Jordan, challenging what each knows about the other and herself.
‘Totsakan – The Demon King and The Hermits Riddle’ by Tamlin Bea
The story draws on the famous Thai epic poem and imagines two young teenagers of today magically transported into the story of ‘The Ramekien’.
Written jointly by Graham Watts and Woranuj (Laem) Maneerungsee, both journalists in Thailand, in Thai and English under the pen name Tamlin Bea. This book draws on the famous Thai epic poem and imagines two young teenagers magically transported into the story of The Ramekin. Totsakan lands two contemporary Thai teenagers in the bewildering world of The Ramakien, in which Prince Ram, assisted by the wily Hanuman and his monkey army, seek to rescue Ram’s wife Sida from the clutches of the Demon King. In this telling, they cannot do it without the help of the children, a girl with near superpower martial arts skills and a boy with nerdish technical skills and the courage of a lion. In the process they have to defend their own world from the rage of the Demon King. Totsakan is a fast-paced and exhilarating novel requiring no prior knowledge of the poem but brings the Thai epic vividly to life for a new generation. It’s a fantastical, gripping and exhilarating novel.