Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (APIHM) may have come to an end but the
opportunities to support and celebrate Asians and Pacific Islanders lives on all year round.
As the month comes to a close, it's time to round up and see all of the books
written by Asian and Pacific Islander authors I've read this month.
I'm quite proud of how much reading I managed to accomplish this month
(despite my mental health being at its lowest)! Honestly, if it weren't for audiobooks
and taking an extra day from each work week, I wouldn't have been able to
read as much. Although I didn't get to all of the books on my tbr, I'm still
satisfied with the quality of the books that blessed my eyes and ears. Most of
the titles in this post I recommend, so trust that they're pretty tbr-worthy. 😊
To clear which books are from Asian authors and which are from Pasifika
authors, I categorized by Asian titles then Pacific Islander titles. Sit back and relax with a cup of tea/coffee/water or
your furbaby because I read 37 books this month (!!), so this post will be a
long one.
Asian-authored titles
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur ★★★★★ | A genre-defying, continents-spanning saga of Korean myth, scientific discovery, and the abiding love that binds even the most broken of families.
Elsa Park is a particle physicist at the top of her game, stationed at a neutrino observatory in the Antarctic, confident she's put enough distance between her ambitions and the family ghosts she's run from all her life. But it isn't long before her childhood imaginary friend—an achingly familiar, spectral woman in the snow—comes to claim her at last. [
full book summary]
The Quiet Is Loud by Samantha Garner ★★★★ | When Freya Tanangco was ten, she dreamed of her mother's death ten days before it happened. That’s when she realized she was a veker, someone with enhanced mental abilities and who is scorned as a result. Freya's adult life has been spent in hiding: from the troubled literary legacy created by her author father, and from the scrutiny of a society in which vekers often meet with violence.
Interwoven with themes of Filipino-Canadian and mixed-race identity, fantastical elements from Norse and Filipino mythology, and tarot card symbolism, The Quiet Is Loud is an intergenerational tale of familial love and betrayal, and what happens when we refuse to let others tell our stories for us. [
full book summary]
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao ★★★★½ | The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead. [
full book summary]
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim ★★★★ | Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother. [
full book summary]
Mercury Boys by Chandra Prasad ★★★½ | History and the speculative collide with the modern world when a group of high school girls form a secret society after discovering they can communicate with boys from the past, in this powerful look at female desire, jealousy, and the shifting lines between friendship and rivalry. [
full book summary]
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat ★★★★ | On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother’s response only intensifies a sense of shame: “You exist too much,” she tells her daughter.
Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, You Exist Too Much is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings―for love, and a place to call home. [
full book summary]
Renegade Flight by Andrea Tang ★★★★ | Viola Park's life is over. She's gone from planning her future as a pilot-in-training to resigning herself to life on the ground. And it's all because she made one tiny, not-altogether-legal maneuver on the prestigious GAN Academy's entrance exam. It's bad enough that she didn't get into the Academy, but getting caught cheating? It's probably the worst thing Vi could imagine.
Set fifteen years after Prudence Wu took flight in Rebelwing, a new generation of scrappy young pilots challenge corruption, competition, and more dangerous mechs than ever, as they redefine what it means to be a revolutionary. [
full book summary]
Queen of Fire by Devika Rangachari ★★★★ | Lakshmibai, the widowed queen of Jhansi, is determined to protect her son's right to his father's throne and safeguard the welfare of her kingdom. Faced with machinations to take over Jhansi, at a time when all of India is rising up against the British, she has to prove her valour and sagacity time and again. But will this be enough to save all that she values?
In this gripping novel, award-winning historical novelist Devika Rangachari brings to vivid life the interior life of this nineteenth-century queen, thrust into a position she does not desire but must assume, and of her son, who is cowed by the challenges he has to face but determined to live up to his mother's courage.
Between Demons and Deities by Bianca Wang-Polendo ★★★½ | Death was waiting around the corner, ready to welcome another soul with a cool embrace.
After waking up from a coma two years ago, half-Atonacan, half-Wei fire mage Esmeralda has struggled with lost memories. Since then, Esme has led a quiet life in Atonaco with her best friend, a spirit mage named Dacio. Everything begins to fall apart the day that Dacio is arrested for a crime that they couldn’t possibly have committed—the attempted murder of the emperor of Wei.
Between Demons and Deities features the magic and freedom of friendship and self-acceptance in the face of adversity and murky secrets. [
full book summary]
The High Auction by Misba ★★★★ | Few humans in the future find the secrets of what words and sounds can do, for the Apocalypse and war led them to evolve in mind and physique. Two of them end World War III with just a speech. Some say they did a mass hypnosis. Others say it was their voice and will.
Fifty years later in South Asia, KUSHA, a twenty-three-year-old machine-geek with social awkwardness and amnesia, tries to get the Devil’s Book with secrets of voice. [
full book summary]
Little Gods by Meng Jin ★★★½ | On the night of June Fourth, a woman gives birth in a Beijing hospital alone. Thus begins the unraveling of Su Lan, a brilliant physicist who until this moment has successfully erased her past, fighting what she calls the mind’s arrow of time.
When Su Lan dies unexpectedly seventeen years later, it is her daughter Liya who inherits the silences and contradictions of her life. Liya, who grew up in America, takes her mother’s ashes to China, Liya’s memories are joined by those of two others: Zhu Wen, the woman last to know Su Lan before she left China, and Yongzong, the father Liya has never known. In this way a portrait of Su Lan emerges: an ambitious scientist, an ambivalent mother, and a woman whose relationship to her own past shapes and ultimately unmakes Liya’s own sense of displacement.
Block Seventeen by Kimiko Guthrie ★★★½ | When Akiko "Jane" Thompson first met Shiro Yamamoto, she knew they were meant to be. Five years later, their happiness is threatened. An intruder burgles their apartment but takes nothing, leaving behind only cryptic traces of his or her presence. Shiro risks their security in a plot to expose the misdeeds of his employer, the TSA. Jane's mother has seemingly disappeared, her existence only apparent online. Jane wants to ignore these worrisome disturbances until a cry from the past robs her of all peace, forcing her to uncover a long-buried family secret. [
full book summary]
A Burning by Megha Majumdar ★★★★ | Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor--has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.
Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed it can be read in a single sitting. Majumdar writes with dazzling assurance at a breakneck pace on complex themes that read here as the components of a thriller: class, fate, corruption, justice, and what it feels like to face profound obstacles and yet nurture big dreams in a country spinning toward extremism. An extraordinary debut. [
full book summary]
His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light by Mimi Mondal ★★★ | I am not a fighter. I am a trapeze master.
An act of compassion puts a trapeze artist in India on a collision course with a terrifying supernatural power in His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light: a Tor.com Original from Dalit writer Mimi Mondal.
Fragile Monsters by Catherine Menon ★★★½ | Mary is a difficult grandmother for Durga to love. She is sharp-tongued and ferocious, with more demons than there are lines on her palms. When Durga visits her in rural Malaysia, she only wants to endure Mary, and the dark memories home brings, for as long as it takes to escape. [
full book summary]
re: desire by Afshan D'souza-Lodhi ★★★★ | Afshan D’souza-Lodhi’s debut poetry collection [re:desire] explores the yearning to love, be loved and belong from a desi (South Asian) perspective. Her work sits on the intersections of flash fiction, poetry and script, echoing the hybridity of the worlds that many young British desis find themselves occupying. Drawing on the poetry of many different languages and cultures – Urdu, English, Konkani, Islamic and Christian – this collection explores how we access our traditions from a distance.
A Hero Born by Jin Yong ★★★ | Set in ancient China, in a world where kung fu is magic, kingdoms vie for power and the battle to become the ultimate kung fu master unfolds, an unlikely hero is born... in the first book in the epic Legends of the Condor Heroes series by the critically acclaimed master of the genre, Jin Yong.
After his father--a devoted Song patriot--is murdered by the Jin empire, Guo Jing and his mother flee to the plains of Ghengis Khan and his people for refuge. For one day he must face his mortal enemy in battle in the Garden of the Drunken Immortals. Under the tutelage of Genghis Khan and The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing hones his kung fu skills. Humble, loyal and perhaps not always wise, Guo Jing faces a destiny both great and terrible. [
full book summary]
The Hundred Years War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and
Resistance 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi ★★★★★ | In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, "in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone." Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi's great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day. [
full book summary]
Version Zero by David Yoon ★★★ | A lightning fast and scorchingly observant novel of the moment, Version Zero is a thrilling, humorous adult debut from the brilliant mind of New York Times bestselling author David Yoon.
Reboot the present. Save the future.
Max, a data whiz at the Facebook-like social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he starts asking questions about what his company is doing with the data they collect, he finds himself fired…and then blackballed across all of Silicon Valley. [
full book summary]
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung ★★★★ | What does it mean to lose your roots—within your culture, within your family—and what happens when you find them?
Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From early childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hopes of giving her a better life; that forever feeling slightly out of place was simply her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as she grew up—facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from—she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth.
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami ★★★½ | Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student who subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormentors.
Kawakami's simple yet profound new work stands as a dazzling testament to her literary talent. There can be little doubt that it has cemented her reputation as one of the most important young authors working to expand the boundaries of contemporary Japanese literature.
Night Flowers Shirking From the Light of the Sun by Li Xing ★★★ | A cultivator insists on repaying her life debt to a demoness.
No one is happy with this development.
• xianxia (ancient fantasy china)
• idiots to lovers
• tall hot and murderface/disaster dumbass
• happy ending
• 18+ for post-story content
Pacific Islander-authored titles
The Boy From the Mish by Gary Lonesborough ★★★★½ | A funny and heart-warming queer Indigenous YA novel, set in a rural Australian community, about seventeen-year-old Jackson finding the courage to explore who he is, even if it scares him.
It's a hot summer, and life's going all right for Jackson and his family on the Mish. It's almost Christmas, school's out, and he's hanging with his mates, teasing the visiting tourists, avoiding the racist boys in town. Just like every year, Jackson's Aunty and annoying little cousins visit from the city - but this time a mysterious boy with a troubled past comes with them… As their friendship evolves, Jackson must confront the changing shapes of his relationships with his friends, family and community. And he must face his darkest secret - a secret he thought he'd locked away for good. [
full book summary]
The Pōrangi Boy by Shilo Kino ★★★★ | Twelve-year-old Niko lives in Pohe Bay, a small, rural town with a sacred hot spring – and a taniwha named Taukere. The government wants to build a prison over the home of the taniwha, and Niko’s grandfather is busy protesting. People call him pōrangi, crazy, but when he dies, it’s up to Niko to convince his community that the taniwha is real and stop the prison from being built. With help from his friend Wai, Niko must unite his whānau, honour his grandfather and stand up to his childhood bully.
A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand, edited by Paula
Morris, Alison Wong ★★★★ | A landmark anthology of creative work – poetry, fiction and essays – by emerging Asian New Zealand writers.
This landmark collection of poetry, fiction and essays by emerging writers is the first-ever anthology of Asian New Zealand creative writing. [
full book summary]
This anthology can actually count for both Asian and
Pasifika reads as editor Paula Morris is Pacific Islander and editor Alison Wong is
of Asian descent.
In the Jaded Grove by Anela Deen ★★★★ | Simith of Drifthorn is tired of war. After years of conflict between the Thistle court and the troll kingdom, even a pixie knight known for his bloodlust longs for peace. Hoping to secure a ceasefire, Simith arranges a meeting with the troll king—and is ambushed instead. Escape lies in the Jaded Grove, but the trees of the ancient Fae woodland aren’t what they seem, and in place of sanctuary, Simith tumbles through a doorway to another world.
With their fates bound by magic, Simith and Jessa must keep the strife of his world from spilling into hers—except the war isn’t what it appears and neither are their enemies. Countless lives depend on whether they can face the truths of their pasts and untangle the web of lies around them. But grief casts long shadows, and even their deepening bond may not be enough to save them from its reach. [
full book summary]
Author Anela Deen is hapa haole Hawaiian and the main character in the book is Filipino American.
When Water Burns by Lani Wendt Young ★★★★ | "Maybe you're not meant to manipulate fire the way I do. Maybe sparks are all you're ever going to make." He snarled, "Or maybe you just need to be a better teacher and give me more." Before I could reply, he grabbed my hand, twisted and pulled me into a restraining lock. Body pressed against my back, he held me in a chokehold. I struggled. Kicked. Fought. Pain knifed me as I tried to free myself. He spoke and his breath was hot in my ear. "Now, fire goddess let's see if I can make more than sparks."
As a malicious telesa plots her revenge, a mysterious stranger arrives on the island. Fuelled by hate and running from a fiery past, he looks to Leila for answers and she must fight to contain the fury of fanua-afi while trying to protect all those she loves.
When it comes to Water and Fire, daughter of earth and son of the ocean - who will endure? When water burns?This is the second book in the Telesa Trilogy and follows on from book one, 'Telesa: The Covenant Keeper.' [
full book summary]
Dawn Raid by Paula Vaeluaga Smith ★★★★ | Like many 13-year-old girls, Sofia's main worries are how she can earn enough pocket money to buy the groovy go-go boots that are all the rage, and if she will die of embarrassment giving a speech she has to do for school! It comes as a surprise to Sofia and her family when her big brother, Lenny, talks about protests, overstayers and injustices against Pacific Islanders.
Through her spirited and heartfelt diary entries, we join Sofia as she navigates life in the 1970s and is inspired by the courageous and tireless work of the Polynesian Panthers as they encourage immigrant families across New Zealand to stand up for their rights.
My New Zealand Story is a series of vividly imagined accounts of life in the past ... making history come alive. [
full book summary]
Flock: First Nations Stories by Ellen Van Neerven ★★★★★ | This wide-ranging and captivating anthology showcases both the power of First Nations writing and the satisfaction of a good short story. Curated by award-winning author Ellen van Neerven, Flock roams the landscape of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling, bringing together voices from across the generations. Featuring established authors such as Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko and Tara June Winch, and rising stars such as Adam Thompson and Mykaela Saunders, Flock confirms the ongoing resonance and originality of First Nations stories.
Scar of the Bamboo Leaf by Sieni A.M. ★★★½ | "That boy is like the bamboo...foreign and unknown in this environment. But like the bamboo, if you plant and nurture it in the right soil, it has the potential to grow vibrant and strong."
Walking with a pronounced limp all her life has never stopped fifteen-year-old Kiva Mau from doing what she loves. While most girls her age are playing sports and perfecting their traditional Samoan dance, Kiva finds serenity in her sketchbook and volunteering at the run-down art center her extended family owns, nestled amongst the bamboo. [
full book summary]
Ghost Bird by Lisa Fuller ★★★½ | Stacey and Laney are twins – mirror images of each other – and yet they’re as different as the sun and the moon. Stacey works hard at school, determined to get out of their small town. Laney skips school and sneaks out of the house to meet her boyfriend. But when Laney disappears one night, Stacey can’t believe she’s just run off without telling her.
As the days pass and Laney doesn’t return, Stacey starts dreaming of her twin. The dreams are dark and terrifying, difficult to understand and hard to shake, but at least they tell Stacey one key thing – Laney is alive. It’s hard for Stacey to know what’s real and what’s imagined and even harder to know who to trust. All she knows for sure is that Laney needs her help. Stacey is the only one who can find her sister. Will she find her in time?
Sister Heart by Sally Morgan ★★★★ | A young Aboriginal girl is taken from the north of Australia and sent to an institution in the distant south. There, she slowly makes a new life for herself and, in the face of tragedy, finds strength in new friendships.
Poignantly told from the child’s perspective, Sister Heart affirms the power of family and kinship.
Teine Samoa by Dahlia Malaeulu ★★★★ | Teine Sāmoa means Sāmoan girl. It’s a label that carries with it an unspoken duty to obey, serve and respect your family and Sāmoan culture. But who can be teine Sāmoa? When should you be teine Sāmoa? And how can you be teine Sāmoa outside of Sāmoa?
Lani is an afakasi, and is unsure of her Sāmoan heritage and what being Sāmoan even means. But one thing she knows for sure is that she’s afraid of Vai and the ‘Real Sāmoans’. Masina, the free-spirited daughter of a Church Minister, is bound by parental expectations and struggling to fulfill the destiny set by her parents. Teuila is the good Islander girl and proud teine Sāmoa who realises she doesn’t want to be a ‘switcher’ anymore.
Teine Sāmoa is a journey of cultural identity and discovery for four junior high school students, their families, their teachers and, most importantly, anyone who has ever faced the challenges of being a teine Sāmoa.
Wraith by Shane Smithers, Alex Smithers ★★★ | James can fly, though his landings need some work. However, that’s the least of his problems when he crash lands into a city in the clouds. Soon James is drawn into a race against time to find the SAFFIRE, a new technology designed to save the city from the effects of climate change. Finding his way home seems impossible but with the help of Aureole, a young girl determined to save her city, James just might be able to fly away and help save the city in the process.
Living On Stolen Land by Ambelin Kwaymullina ★★★★½ | Living on Stolen Land is a prose-styled look at Australia's colonial-settler ‘present’. This book is the first of its kind to address and educate a broad audience about our colonial contextual history, in a highly original way. It pulls apart the myths at the heart of our nationhood and challenges Australia to come to terms with its own past and its place within and on ‘Indigenous Countries’.
This title speaks to many First Nations’ truths; stolen lands, sovereignties, time, decolonisation, First Nations perspectives, systemic bias and other constructs that inform our present discussions and ever-expanding understanding. This title is a timely, thought-provoking and accessible read.
Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Lili'uokalani ★★★★★ | Hawai'i's Story by Hawai'i's Queen is an account of those difficult years at the end of the nineteenth century, when native Hawaiian historian David Malo's 1837 prophecy concerning "the small ones" being "gobbled up" came true for the Hawaiian Islands.
When this book was first published in 1898, it was an international plea for justice. Just as Admiral Thomas had restored Hawaiian sovereignty in 1843 following an illegal action by Lord Paulet, Queen Lili'uokalani prayed that the American nation would similarly reestablish the Hawaiian throne. Queen Lili'uokalani died on November 11, 1917, her poignant plea for justice unanswered.
Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity by
J. Kehaulani Kauanui ★★★★ | In the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) of 1921, the U.S. Congress defined “native Hawaiians” as those people “with at least one-half blood quantum of individuals inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778.” This “blood logic” has since become an entrenched part of the legal system in Hawai‘i. Hawaiian Blood is the first comprehensive history and analysis of this federal law that equates Hawaiian cultural identity with a quantifiable amount of blood. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui explains how blood quantum classification emerged as a way to undermine Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) sovereignty. Within the framework of the 50-percent rule, intermarriage “dilutes” the number of state-recognized Native Hawaiians. Thus, rather than support Native claims to the Hawaiian islands, blood quantum reduces Hawaiians to a racial minority, reinforcing a system of white racial privilege bound to property ownership.
Kauanui also addresses the ongoing significance of the 50-percent rule: Its criteria underlie recent court decisions that have subverted the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and brought to the fore charged questions about who counts as Hawaiian. [
full book summary]
And there you have it - 37 books for APIHM!
Have you read any books from this list?
What did you read in May and what were
your favorites? Let me know in the comments!
AAPIHM/APIHM is over until next year, but like I said: celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander works and people all year round. It's also important to be informed of the rising
Asian hate crimes that's increased over the past year and do what you can to
help support fellow Asians and stop Asian hate.
Stop Asian hate in the U.S. and around the world by contacting elected
officials,
donating, signing petitions,
volunteering,
attending bystander intervention trainings, supporting Asian businesses/creators,
reporting anti-Asian hate crimes
near you, and more:
Stop AAPI Hate,
Stop Asian Hate carrd,
Anti-Asian Violence Resources carrd,
Asian American Commission,
Asian American Advocacy Fund,
Asian Mental Health Collective, and this comprehensive list of
Asian-led orgs and resources via NYMag. More resources in the sidebar as well. ➔
India is going through a devastating second wave of covid cases and are in search of oxygen supplies and more, so please
consider
donating to India Covid Emergency via CARE.org,
UNICEF,
Mutual Aid India,
Give India,
Global Giving,
Just Giving,
trans Indian Covid Relief GoFundMe,
Queer relief via Pink List India, bid on
bookish auction goodies with Books For Hope, and utilize
this comprehensive resource of more ways to help.
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