"A DEEP SOUTH MAGAZINE Summer 2024 READING LIST Selection
AMERICAN WRITING AWARDS — Finalist — Women's Fiction
LOS ANGELES BOOK FESTIVAL — Winner — General Fiction
Cinnamon Beach is a multicultural tragicomedy, told from three female perspectives, in which an American writer living in Japan returns to South Carolina to scatter the ashes of her brother while trying to maintain the 'perfect-family' facade she created from afar, and support her Indian American sister-in-law who wants a future which might upset everyone. Sparks fly at an impromptu book-signing when the author reconnects with her college friend, now a famous African American country music star, and her daughter who is deaf finds ways to communicate with a secret first-love."
"Squeaky Wheels: Travels with my Daughter by Train, Plane, Metro, Tuk-tuk and Wheelchair is a mother-daughter travel memoir woven with comparative culture and accessibility awareness. Kamata's adventures with her teen—who happens to be deaf, with cerebral palsy, and in a wheelchair—through subterranean Tennessee, to the islands of Japan, and to the top of the Eiffel Tower ultimately lead to a daughter's increasing independence, a mother letting go of expectations, and advocacy for travel which prohibits discrimination."
"When Christine, an idealistic young American teacher, meets and marries Hideki Yamada, an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach, she believes that their love with be enough to sustain them as they deal with cultural differences. However, Hideki's duties, and the team of fit, obedient boys whom he begins to think of as a surrogate family, take up more and more of his time, just as Christine is struggling to manage the needs of their multiply-disabled daughter and their sensitive son. Things come to a head when their son is the victim of bullies. Christine begins to think that she and her children would be safer—and happier—in her native country. On a trip back to the States, she reconnects with a dangerously attractive friend from high school who seems to understand her like no one else.
Meanwhile, Daisuke Uchida, a slugger with pro potential who has returned to Japan after living abroad, may be able to help propel Hideki's team to the national baseball tournament at Koshien. Not only would this be a dream come true for Hideki, but also it would secure the futures of his players. While Daisuke looks to Hideki for guidance, he is also distracted by Nana, a talented but troubled girl, whom he is trying to rescue from a life as a bar hostess (or worse). Hideki must ultimately choose between his team and his family."
"Thirteen-year-old Satoshi Matsumoto spent the last three years living in Atlanta where he was the star of his middle-school baseball team—a slugger with pro potential, according to his coach. Now that his father’s work in the US has come to an end, he’s moved back to his hometown in rural Japan. Living abroad has changed him, and now his old friends in Japan are suspicious of his new foreign ways. Even worse, his childhood foe Shintaro, whose dad has ties to gangsters, is in his homeroom. After he joins his new school’s baseball team, Satoshi has a chance to be a hero until he makes a major-league error.
“A heart-warming story about a baseball player who learns that teamwork is much more important than being the star of the team. I loved the family dynamics and depiction of life, and especially baseball, in Japan.”—Shauna Holyoak, author of Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers (Hyperion, 2019)
“An engaging, sports-focused, family-driven Japanese spin on the new-kid-in-school narrative.”—Kirkus Reviews"
"Pearl Dubois is a Southern belle. She was born in New Orleans to a prominent and wealthy family. During the Second World War, she wants to help the Allies. She lands a job in Paris working for the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS is the first spy agency in the United States. Its goal is to gather intelligence about the Germans and to win the war. Pearl convinces her boss to send her on a secret mission. She will bring photos of German spies to General George Patton, who is stationed near the Belgian border. On the way to the general's camp, Pearl and three companions are ambushed by Nazi soldiers. She becomes a prisoner and must survive by her wits until she can plot her escape. Based on the real-life experiences of Gertrude Sanford Legendre, the first woman to be captured as a spy during WWII, Pearl's adventures are both riveting and inspiring."
"The American writer Suzanne Kamata had lived in Japan for more than half of her life, yet she had never explored the small nearby islands of the Inland Sea. The islands, first made famous by Donald Richie's The Inland Sea 50 years ago, are noted for displaying artwork created by prominent, and sometimes curious, international artists and sculptors: Naoshima's wealth of museums, including one devoted to 007, Yayoi Kusama's polka dot pumpkins, Kazuo Katase's blue teacup, and a monster rising out of a well on the hour in Sakate, called Anger at the Bottom of the Sea to name a few. Spurred by her teen-aged daughter Lilia's burgeoning interest in art and adventure, Kamata sets out to show her the islands treasures. Mother and daughter must confront several barriers on their adventure. Lilia is deaf and uses a wheelchair. It is not always easy to get onto — or off of — the islands, not to mention the challenges of language, culture, and a generation gap. A Girls Guide to the Islands takes the reader on a rare visit by a unique mother and daughter team."
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