Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Reads

Forgotten Country

By Catherine Chung

hoopla: eAudiobook

Janie embarks on a mission to find her sister and discover the truth behind her family’s silence. To do so, she must confront the family’s history. This story weaves Korean folklore into a modern narrative of immigration and identity.

The Best We Could Do

By Thi Bui

B Bui

hoopla: eBook

A poignant graphic novel that portrays a family’s journey from war-town Vietnam.

The Downstairs Girl

By Stacey Lee

YA Lee

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

By day, Jo Kuan works as a maid for the cruel daughter of a wealthy man in Atlanta, but by night she moonlights as a newspaper advice columnist, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” Read as she struggles with society’s outlook on race and gender and contemplates stepping into the light.

Girls Burn Brighter

By Shobha Rao

Fic Rao, Q Rao

OverDrive: eBook

Poornima and Savitha are two poor and ambitious young women. When an act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything and delves into Indian’s underworld to find her friend.

All You Can Ever Know

By Nicole Chung

B Chun, QB Chun, CD B Chun

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

Nicole Chung tells her own personal search for the Korean parents who gave her up which coincides with the birth of her own child.  The story explores prejudice, family, and painful secrets of the past.

Pachinko

By Min Jin Lee

Fic Lee, Q Lee, CD Fic Lee

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

In the early 1900s Sunja falls in love with a wealthy stranger.  Pregnant with his child, she finds he is already married and runs off instead with a minister on his way to Japan.  She leaves behind her home and sets off a powerful saga that will last generations.

Little Fires Everywhere

By Celeste Ng

Fic Ng, Q Ng, CD Fic Ng

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

Celeste Ng returns with a riveting novel about the picture-perfect Richardson family, two women that live under their roofs, and the custody battle over a Chinese-American baby that dramatically divides the entire town.

The Astonishing Color of After

By Emily X.R. Pan

YA Pan, CD YA Pan

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

Leigh Chen Sanders believes firmly that when her mother died by suicide she turned into a bird.  She travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents and this bird, struggling to reconcile her grief.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies

By S.J. Sindu

hoopla: eAudiobook

Lakshmi, who goes by Lucky, is an unemployed millennial program and both her and her husband are secretly gay.  Explore as Lucky struggles with her family and tried to liberate an old lover from an arranged marriage.

Severance

By Ling Ma

Fic Ma

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

Candace Chen is a millennial office drone mourning the loss of her Chinese immigrant parents. She’s so enraptured in routine that she barely notices the plague that sweeps New York and leaves her alone to photographs the eerie remnants of the city and make new friends.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

By Balli Kaur Jaswal

Fic Jasw

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

Nikki takes a job teaching “creative writing” at the community center in the heart of London’s Punjabi community and all of her classmates are Sikh widows interested in learning English. Eager to liberate these women, Nikki encourages their sharing of sexy English stories but must be cautious of the conservative young men known as the Brotherhood.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

By Ocean Vuong

Fic Vuon

OverDrive: eBook, eAudiobook

This moving novel is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read.  It unearths the family history in Vietnam and explores race, class, and masculinity.  An absolute must-read.