Books To Read for AAPI Heritage Month
Did you know that May is AAPI Heritage Month in the US? This month is for recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and their impact on the history and culture of the United States. The books below are a handful of my favorite books by Asian authors that I highly recommend or have come highly recommended to me.
Have you read any of these? Would you recommend any others? I’d love to hear your suggestions!
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai is an autobiographical memoir in which Malala talks about her experience being shot in the head by the Taliban when she stood up for girls education in Pakistan, and how she used that experience to keep working harder for girls and women's right to an education in her country. She is a very well spoken young woman who was fortunate to have a supportive mother, and more importantly with girls education in the region, a supportive father who encouraged her to stand up for what she believed in and get and education. She is the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate and continues to raise money and awareness for girls education in Pakistan. For more information on her efforts, visit https://malala.org/malalas-story.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is about two families that are from very different backgrounds in a progressive middle class neighborhood. Elena Richardson is at the center of this well-to-do neighborhood and decides to rent a house Mia Warren, an enigmatic artist and single mother. They seem to develop a close friendship, but they are torn apart when one of them attempts to adopt a Chinese American baby and they are taken to trial.
Know My Name by Chanel Miller is her memoir recounting her sexual assault at a Stanford University frat party and the ensuing aftermath of a very publicized trial that made international headlines. During the trial she was known anonymously as Emily Doe, and her victim impact statement was so powerful it that went viral, first showing up with BuzzFeed. She credits the MeToo movement as the reason she was able to come forward with revealing her identity and publishing this book. She is most recently making headlines with her museum debut of a 75-foot-long mural at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok is a book that I've started, but not finished yet. It comes highly recommended by Tiffany over @oomilyreads. It's a story of a teenage girl who immigrates to the US from Hong Kong and essentially lives two lives - one as a high school student and one as a sweat shop worker.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - In this gripping novel about how our love and choices transcends generations, we follow the story of a young daughter of a crippled fisherman falls in love with a wealthy stranger she met on the shore near her home in Korea. She soon discovers that she is pregnant and that he is married. Refusing to be bought off to be kept quiet, she accepts a marriage proposal from another gentleman on his way to Japan. Her decision to leave her home country and move to another with a man she barely knows while standing up the power of the man who fathered her son is one that affects her children’s children.
Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram is a book with journal entries by Dang Thuy Tram and is often referred to as the Vietnamese Anne Frank. This is the moving diary kept by a 27-year-old Vietnamese doctor who was killed by the Americans during the Vietnam War, while trying to defend her patients. I got a copy of this during a book exchange with my book club several years ago. It had made its rounds through the members of the club and stopped with me as I was unable to get through the first few pages without needing a mental break. This is certainly a book to keep coming back to though and taking in a little bit at a time.
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim is a poignant story set in Virginia about what it means to be loyal to a fault and how far people will go to protect their families and their secrets. How far will you go to try to find a cure? What will you do to make sure your secrets are kept? Will you stick with lying and coverups or will you go as far as murder and framing someone else?
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa was originally written in Japanese and translated to English by Stephen Snyder, who is Middlebury College’s VP for Academic Affairs, Dean of the Language Schools, and Kawashima Professor of Japanese Studies. I mention that because I also work full-time for Middlebury College and first heard of this book when I heard he was the one translating it. The Memory Police is set on an unnamed island off an unnamed coast where objects are disappearing. First, it’s small things like ribbons, hats, gloves, pens, kitchen utensils, and other things that are inconvenient but don’t have a drastic impact on life. Most people start to forget these things after awhile, but there a few handful that do still remember and they live in fear and in hiding from the memory police who are work diligently day and night to make sure that the things that disappear are gone for good from memory. The novel focuses on a young woman who figures out that her editor is one of the people who does remember items and decides to hide him under her floorboards. The story follows her efforts to capture their experiences in writing to try preserving the things that others have long since forgotten. A poignant and provocative story about the power of memory, love, loss, and trauma.
