May is set aside as a time to recognize the contributions and influence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans (AAPI) to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. Check out some of these titles written by AAPI authors – or ask your librarian for a recommendation!
Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
An electrifying debut novel about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstance but relentless in their search for one another. Check out a copy.
This is Paradise: Stories by Kristiana Kahakauwila
Elegant, brutal, and profound – this magnificent debut captures the grit and glory of modern Hawai’i with breathtaking force and accuracy. Check out a copy.
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T. Kira Madden
The acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden’s raw and redemptive debut is 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. Check out a copy.
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang
This book is the immigrant’s story for the twenty-first century; a story of food, family, and the forging of a new notion of what it means to be an American. Check out a copy.
The World We Found by Thrity N. Umrigar
American divorcee Armaiti has six months to live and her last wish is to see her three best friends again–Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta, all in Bombay. But Nishta’s husband, Iqbal, a fellow university idealist turned fundamentalist, will be the biggest obstacle to fulfilling Armaiti’s final desire. Check out a copy.
The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
A hilarious debut novel about a wealthy but fractured Chinese immigrant family that had it all, only to lose every last cent–and about the road trip they take across America that binds them back together. Check out a copy.
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. Check out a copy.
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
This short, powerful, illustrated book, written in response to the current refugee crisis, is composed in the form of a letter, from a father to his son, on the eve of their journey. Watching over his sleeping son, the father reflects on the dangerous sea-crossing that lies before them. It is also a vivid portrait of their life in Homs, Syria, before the war, and of that city’s swift transformation from a home into a deadly war zone. Check out a copy.
The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
Alisha Rai returns with a sizzling new novel, in which two rival dating app creators find themselves at odds in the boardroom but in sync in the bedroom. Check out a copy.
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
Award-winning author Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco. Check out a copy.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
A war orphan rises from her humble beginnings to become a powerful military commander, and perhaps her country’s only hope for survival. Check out a copy.
All descriptions above from publisher’s descriptions