From sci-fi to memoirs, this book list highlights Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander experiences. We hope you learn from and feel inspired by these incredible reads!
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden
A memoir about coming of age as a queer, biracial teenager within the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where cult-like privilege, shocking social and racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hide in plain sight.
Good Talk by Mira Jacob
A memoir about coming of age as a queer, biracial teenager within the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where cult-like privilege, shocking social and racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hide in plain sight.
The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh
A memoir about coming of age as a queer, biracial teenager within the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where cult-like privilege, shocking social and racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hide in plain sight.
Afterparties Stories by Anthony Veasna So
A debut story collection about Cambodian-American life-immersive and comic, yet unsparing-that marks the arrival of an indisputable new talent in American fiction.
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Chung investigates the mysteries and complexities of her transracial adoption in this chronicle of unexpected family for anyone who has struggled to figure out where they belong.
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Set in New York and China, the Leavers is the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he’s loved has been taken away–and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan.
Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Zauner tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon. As she grew up her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila
Intimately tied to the Hawaiian Islands, This is Paradise explores the relationships among native Hawaiians, local citizens, and emigrants from (and to) the contiguous forty-eight states. There is tension between locals and tourists, between locals and the military men that populate their communities, between local Hawaiian girls who never leave, and those who do so for higher education and then return.
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki-bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
The Body Papers by Grace Talusan
The abuse and trauma Talusan suffers as a child affects all her relationships, her mental health, and her relationship with her own body. On a fellowship, Talusan and her husband return to the Philippines, where she revisits her family’s ancestral home and tries to reclaim a lost piece of herself. Not every family legacy is destructive.
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing.
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
Khai Diep has no feelings. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, Esme Tran can’t turn it down. She becomes hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
The author describes her experiences as a young Vietnamese immigrant, highlighting her family’s move from their war-torn home to the United States in graphic novel format.
The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee
The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day.
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
With sly humor and a poet’s searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born-a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam-and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change – the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens – while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy.
Naturally Tan by Tan France
In this heartfelt, funny, touching memoir, Tan France tells his origin story for the first time. With his trademark wit, humor, and radical compassion, Tan reveals what it was like to grow up gay in a traditional South Asian family, as one of the few people of color in South Yorkshire, England.
Jade City by Fonda Lee
Stylish and action-packed, full of ambitious families and guilt-ridden loves, Jade City is an epic drama reminiscent of the best classic Hong Kong gangster films but set in a fantasy metropolis so gritty and well-imagined that you’ll forget you’re reading a book.
