James Yaegashi

Set in 1853 in Japan, this novel follows Yoshi, a Japanese boy who dreams of someday becoming a samurai. Unfortunately, as part of the serving class, Yoshi can never become a warrior. He is taken up by Manjiro, the protagonist of Preus's Heart of a Samurai, and becomes his servant and secret watchdog. Meanwhile, Commodore Matthew Perry and his USS Susquehanna squadron of steamships arrive in Edo Bay demanding "diplomatically" that Japan open its ports...

In 1841 a Japanese fishing vessel sinks. Its crew is forced to swim to a small, unknown island, where they are rescued by a passing American ship. Japan's borders remain closed to all Western nations, so the crew sets off to America, learning English on the way.
Manjiro, a 14-year-old boy, is curious and eager to learn everything he can about this new culture. Eventually the captain adopts Manjiro and takes him to his home in New England. The boy...

Karnazes is an ultramarathoner: a member of a small, elite, hard-core group of extreme athletes who race 100 miles and longer. They can run forty-eight hours and more without sleep. They can scale mountains, in brutally hot or cold weather, pushing their bodies, minds, and spirits well past what seems humanly possible. Karnazes has run 226.2 miles nonstop; he has completed the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon across Death Valley in 130-degree weather;...

An American investigates a murder amid the secrecy and corruption of China in this crime thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author of Razor Girl.
 
Art history professor Tom Stratton hasn’t seen his former mentor David Wang for years—until they unexpectedly run into each other while Stratton is on a guided tour of China. But the reunion doesn’t last long. After Wang is found dead—and...

A mysterious tome holds the key to a religious conspiracy millennia old, which could reveal a lost world and the secret origins of the human race… John Madison is hired by a magician to find a rare sixteenth-century book of sorcery, stolen by the magician's assistant, and lost to him for thirty-five years. In his widest reaching journey yet, Madison travels from the great mosques of Istanbul to the ruins of Pergamon and the temples of the Near...

Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki is the genius behind such animated classics as Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Nautica of the Valley of the Winds. His bountiful imagination and compassion have earned him accolades the world over. Until the early 1990s, Miyazaki's work was largely unfamiliar to American audiences. But that would soon change, and now fans of all ages eagerly await new material from the master. Setting the bar high...

Bestselling author Richard Reeves provides an authoritative account of the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens during World War II Less than three months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and inflamed the nation, President Roosevelt signed an executive order declaring parts of four western states to be a war zone operating under military rule. The U.S. Army immediately began rounding up thousands of Japanese-Americans,...

Award-winning author Lee Wardlaw's books have been honored by such prestigious groups as the American Library Association and the Children's Book Council. Using a Japanese form of short poetry that concentrates on humanlike foibles, Won Ton follows a shelter cat as he gets a new home. When the cat, who considers himself a prince of his kind, is given the name Won Ton, he's aghast. ''How can I be soup?'' he asks. But soup or not, Won Ton and his new...

In 2011 D.J. McIntosh took the book world by storm with her debut novel, The Witch of Babylon. Praised for its "stellar research" and "superb writing," it introduced readers to John Madison, a rakish New York art dealer with a past, who uncovered a fabulous treasure trove of antiquities in the hills outside Baghdad and the truth behind a famous story long believed to be.

D.J. McIntosh's The Witch of Babylon won an Arthur Ellis Award prior to its publication. Here Turkish-American art dealer John Madison gets caught up in a deadly conspiracy involving a stolen artifact stretching from ancient Mesopotamia to modern-day Iraq. Aided by an archaeologist and a photojournalist, John navigates a tricky landscape filled with thieves, killers, and men with dark secrets, all while unearthing the startling history of alchemy....