Alice Stephens
Alice Stephens loves to read and write book reviews. Born in Korea, she has lived on four continents and traveled the world. She lives in Maryland with her family and their lovable mutt, Scooter. Her column, Alice in Wordland, is a regular feature on the Independent’s Book Blog. Her debut novel, Famous Adopted People, is published by Unnamed Press (October 2018). To learn more, please visit her website, follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and/or like her Facebook page. Or else you can just read her book.
198 entries by Alice Stephens
Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History
By Margaret Juhae Lee
An American woman untangles her Korean family’s past.
Who gets to be a mom in our patriarchal, capitalist society?
People hate being reminded fairytales aren’t real.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop: A Novel
By Hwang Bo-reum; translated by Shanna Tan
A bookstore in suburban Seoul brings outsiders together.
Confrontations
By Simone Atangana Bekono; translated by Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen
A Black Dutch girl is driven to commit a shocking act of violence.
A rundown of the two-dozen-ish best books I read this year.
A food-filled recollection of growing up brown in suburban New York.
There’s nothing noble about stuffing your shelves.
8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster
By Mirinae Lee
A woman weathers a turbulent, divided Korea by assuming multiple identities.
Why book reviewers must push past the white gaze.
Y/N
By Esther Yi
A woman in search of herself becomes obsessed with a K-pop idol.
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
By Roxanna Asgarian
A horribly broken system claims six more victims.
Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women’s Rights Worldwide
By Hawon Jung
Meet fearless activists demanding change.
Dust Child: A Novel
By Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
A veteran returns to Vietnam to search for those he abandoned.
Why I’ll always stay true to my work.
Skull Water: A Novel
By Heinz Insu Fenkl
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A mixed-race boy straddles two worlds in 1970s South Korea.
Cursed Bunny: Stories
By Bora Chung; translated by Anton Hur
These fractured fairytales mirror a perpetually broken society.
Not if I have anything to say about it.
What happens when twins from Vietnam are separated and raised apart?
The essayist talks humor, New York City, and hauling ass to the police station.
Under My Bed and Other Essays
By Jody Keisner
The body keeps the score in these reflections on fear and female autonomy.
The travel writer talks beaches, environmental stewardship, and the perfect piña colada.
That novel? I’ll get to it when I get to it.
Chinatown
By Thuận; translated by Nguyễn An Lý
A woman stuck on a Paris train recalls the husband she left behind in Vietnam.
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies: A Novel
By Tsering Yangzom Lama
This multi-generational saga follows the travails of Tibetan exiles.
She Is Haunted: Stories
By Paige Clark
The long shadow of trauma troubles women navigating love and family.
Sleepwalk: A Novel
By Dan Chaon
In a near-future dystopia, a contract killer learns he may have fathered multiple children.
Awakening to Korea with The Grass Roof.
Violets
By Kyung-sook Shin; translated by Anton Hur
After a traumatic childhood, a young woman slowly awakens to friendship and desire.
Border Less: A Novel
By Namrata Poddar
A woman’s journey from call-center worker in Mumbai to successful American Desi is told in linked stories.
The Swimmers: A Novel
By Julie Otsuka
As a woman slips into dementia, she and her daughter face the end of her life.
Pyre
By Perumal Murugan; translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
A young Tamil man brings his bride to his rural, tradition-bound village.
An event that centers marginalized voices is born.
American Baby
By Gabrielle Glaser
A woman is forced to relinquish her newborn in this eye-opening look at the dark side of an allegedly benevolent industry.
Lemon: A Novel
By Kwon Yeo-sun; translated by Janet Hong
The murder of a high-school student changes the trajectory of three women’s lives.
How the writer's new book gives fellow transracial adoptees a voice.
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How whitewashing marginalizes writers of color.
Skinship: Stories
By Yoon Choi
The Korean American experience is examined in this debut collection.
Learning from missteps while taking the next steps.
All Sorrows Can Be Borne: A Novel
By Loren Stephens
Though based on real events, this tale of a Japanese woman forced to give up her child is surprisingly whitewashed.
Folklorn
By Angela Mi Young Hur
A Korean American woman struggles to escape the transgenerational trauma that threatens her sanity.
The Guild of the Infant Saviour: An Adopted Child’s Memory Book
By Megan Culhane Galbraith
In this hybrid memoir, an artist explores adoption through writing and visual art.
The Lady of Zamalek: A Novel
By Ashraf El-Ashmawi; translated by Peter Daniel
The history of corruption in modern Egypt is encapsulated in this thrilling saga of one family’s rise and fall.
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir
By Michelle Zauner
The author seeks to better understand her dying mother and strengthen family ties through food.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
By Cho Nam-joo; translated by Jamie Chang
A case history of a South Korean Everywoman driven to the brink by misogyny.
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Actually, you can’t always open a mind by opening a book…
Aviary: A Novel
By Deirdre McNamer
A mysterious fire reveals the precarity of elder life in America.
In the Company of Men: A Novel
By Véronique Tadjo
A moving chronicle of the West African Ebola outbreak narrated by witnesses to the devastation.
Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir
By Rebecca Carroll
A transracial adoptee reveals her struggle to build a Black identity in a world of white privilege.
American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
By Gabrielle Glaser
A woman is forced to relinquish her newborn in this eye-opening look at the dark side of an allegedly benevolent industry.
The worst year ever allowed this bookworm to achieve a personal best.
The Adoption
By Zidrou and Arno Monin; translated by Jeremy Melloul
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The grandfather of an adopted girl travels halfway around the world to discover the meaning of family.
Jillian in the Borderlands
By Beth Alvarado
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An omniscient, mute girl grows up along the haunted fringes of the American Southwest.
The online literary journal seeks later-blossoming writers.
Living Color: Angie Rubio Stories
By Donna Miscolta
A Mexican American girl grows up brown and nerdy in 1960s and 70s California.
Isn’t it time politics caught up to culture?
The Disaster Tourist: A Novel
By Yun Ko-eun; translated by Lizzie Buehler
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A woman plans the ultimate dismal getaway in this dark tale of voracious experiential consumerism.
The author talks social justice, transracial adoption, and her latest novel, Everyone Was Falling.
When white people get agitated about cancel culture, I just have to laugh. It’s either that or scream.
The writer discusses identity, belonging, releasing a book during the pandemic, and her ideal cup of tea.
Fantasy
By Kim-Anh Schreiber
A woman makes sense of her trauma with the help of a Japanese cult movie.
Why We Swim
By Bonnie Tsui
An entertaining look at humans’ affinity for moving through water.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel
By Cho Nam-joo; translated by Jamie Chang
A case history of a South Korean Everywoman driven to the brink by misogyny.
When it comes to writing a good query letter, it takes a village.
Run Me to Earth: A Novel
By Paul Yoon
The aftermath of a bomb haunts the lives of three Laotian orphans.
Night Theater: A Novel
By Vikram Paralkar
A surgeon in rural India operates on a family of corpses to give them a second chance at life.
Labyrinth: A Novel
By Burhan Sönmez; translated by Űmit Hussein
A man attempts to reclaim his identity after losing his memory in a suicide attempt.
My year in book reviews, plus an important PSA.
…and other ethical dilemmas of the striving author.
Accommodations
By Wioletta Greg; translated by Jennifer Croft
A young woman comes of age in post-Communist Poland.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
By Ottessa Moshfegh
A wounded young woman tries to sleep her way through 12 straight months.
China Dream: A Novel
By Ma Jian; translated by Flora Drew
An ambitious apparatchik can’t keep his dark past from intruding on the present.
It’s not me, it’s you...
First Person
By Richard Flanagan
While ghostwriting the memoir of a notorious criminal, an aspiring novelist battles for his very soul.
The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth: A Novel
By Veeraporn Nitiprapha; translated by Kong Rithdee
This lush, extravagant tale offers a rare glimpse into the torrid heart of modern Thailand.
A People’s History of Heaven: A Novel
By Mathangi Subramanian
A group of friends use girl power to save their Bangalore slum from destruction.
Or doesn’t...
Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary: Selected Works of Kathleen Collins
By Kathleen Collins
A treasure trove of thoughts by a pioneering writer who challenged stereotypes of middle-class African Americans.
Training School for Negro Girls
By Camille Acker
This powerful collection is set against the backdrop of a changing Washington, DC.
In celebration of National Adoption Awareness Month, an adoptee offers some suggested reading.
A searing reading list for devastating times
Goodbye, Vitamin
By Rachel Khong
A young woman returns home to care for her ailing father in this millennial coming-of-age story.
Mr. and Mrs. American Pie: A Novel
By Juliet McDaniel
In this fun beach read, a jilted housewife goes on a madcap journey to win a Palm Springs pageant.
Immigrant, Montana: A Novel
By Amitava Kumar
A student from India comes to America seeking an education of the head and heart.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation: A Novel
By Ottessa Moshfegh
A wounded young woman tries to sleep her way through 12 straight months.
Kudos: A Novel
By Rachel Cusk
In this final installment of a trilogy, the narrator observes the international book-festival circuit.
If you’re writing honestly, it may not be possible.
First Person: A Novel
By Richard Flanagan
While ghostwriting the memoir of a notorious criminal, an aspiring novelist battles for his very soul.
Why writers need to cultivate a community
Time to test your bookish brain!
South and West
By Joan Didion
Occasional flashes of brilliance can't save this flimsy collection unworthy of its author.
One Good Mama Bone
By Bren McClain
The 1950s Deep South comes alive in this folkloric tale of love, sacrifice, and redemption.
Why size sometimes matters.
Good Neighbors: A Novel
By Joanne Serling
A tight-knit group of friends must confront unsettling truths about themselves after one couple adopts a child.
A Separation
By Katie Kitamura
If love is a mystery, divorce is a thriller.
Turns out, the 62nd time’s the charm...
Everything Here Is Beautiful: A Novel
By Mira T. Lee
A tender portrayal of the effects of mental illness on a woman and the people who love her.
It’s a reading guide, not a carol...
The Perfect Nanny: A Novel
By Leila Slimani; translated by Sam Taylor
How well do you know the person watching your children?
Novels, adoption, and the power of imagination