Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May is Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! Celebrate the history and literary contributions of APPI communities with these library titles.

This list was compiled by South Pasadena Public Library staff and members of the South Pasadena Public Library Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee.

Updated March 6, 2025
South Pasadena Public Library
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Not quite not white : losing and finding race in America
Sen, Sharmila
Paper Book
A first-generation immigrant's exploration of race and assimilation in the United States, an American's journey into the heart of not-whiteness. Part memoir, part manifesto, Not Quite Not White is a searing appraisal of race and a path forward for the next not quite not white generation - a witty...
Last boat out of Shanghai : the epic story of the Chinese who fled Mao's revolution
Zia, Helen
Paper Book
The dramatic, real-life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China's 1949 Communist Revolution-a precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today. Shanghai has historically been China's jewel, its richest, most modern city. The...
The woman warrior : memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts
Kingston, Maxine Hong.
Paper Book
"'No name woman' originally appeared, in slightly different form, in the January 1975 issue of Viva"--T.p. verso.
In the country : stories
Alvar, Mia
Paper Book
These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the...
White chrysanthemum
Bracht, Mary Lynn
Paper Book
For fans of Lisa Wingate's Before We Were Yours and Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, a deeply moving novel that follows two Korean sisters separated by World War II. Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female...
America is not the heart
Castillo, Elaine
Paper Book
Named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, Real Simple, Lit Hub, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post, Kirkus Reviews, and The New York Public Library  "A saga rich with origin myths, national and personal . . . Castillo is part of a...
If I had your face : a novel
Cha, Frances
Paper Book
A riveting, feminist debut about four women navigating contemporary South Korea, a world of strict social hierarchies, extreme plastic surgery and K-pop fan mania. "Even as a girl, I knew the only chance I had was to change my face. When I looked into the mirror, I knew...
War trash
Jin, Ha
Paper Book
Ha Jin’s masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War. In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self-effacing clerical officer in Mao’s “volunteer” army, is taken...
The kinship of secrets : a novel
Kim, Eugenia
Paper Book
Finalist for the 2019 New American Voices Award "A gorgeous achievement."--Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko  From the author of The Calligrapher's Daughter comes the riveting story of two sisters, one raised in the United States, the other in...
The surrendered
Lee, Chang-rae.
Paper Book
Read an essay by Chang-rae Lee here. The bestselling, award-winning writer of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft returns with his biggest, most ambitious novel yet: a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime. ...
P'ach'ink'o
Lee, Min Jin
Paper Book
One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan-the inspiration for the television series on...
The Buddha in the attic
Otsuka, Julie
Paper Book
Finalist for the 2011 National Book Award Julie Otsuka's long awaited follow-up to When the Emperor Was Divine ("To watch Emperor catching on with teachers and students in vast numbers is to grasp what must have happened at the outset for novels like Lord...
The color of air : a novel
Tsukiyama, Gail
Paper Book
PARADE's Best Books to Read this Summer "A rich historical novel that illustrates why connection is more important and more vital than ever." -New York Times bestselling author Lisa See Daniel Abe, a young doctor in Chicago, is finally coming back to Hawai...
On earth we're briefly gorgeous : a novel
Vuong, Ocean
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller * Nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction * Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century ...
I hotel
Yamashita, Karen Tei
Paper Book
2010 National Book Award Finalist 2010-2011 Asian/Pacific American Library Association (APALA) Book Award Winner in Adult Fiction 2010 California Book Award Winner Dazzling and ambitious, this hip, multi-voiced fusion of prose, playwriting, graphic art, and...
Interior Chinatown
Yu, Charles
Paper Book
NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * "A shattering and darkly comic send-up of racial stereotyping in Hollywood" (Vanity Fair) and a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we...
How much of these hills is gold
Zhang, C Pam
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES  NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2020  LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE...
Good talk : a memoir in conversations
Jacob, Mira
Paper Book
A "beautiful and eye-opening" (Jacqueline Woodson), "hilarious and heart-rending" (Celeste Ng) graphic memoir about American identity, interracial families,  and the realities that divide us, from the acclaimed author of The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing. NAMED...
Crying in H Mart : a memoir
Zauner, Michelle
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American--"in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself" (NPR). * CELEBRATING...
L.A. son : my life, my city, my food
Choi, Roy
Paper Book
Los Angeles: A patchwork megalopolis defined by its unlikely cultural collisions; the city that raised and shaped Roy Choi, the boundary-breaking chef who decided to leave behind fine dining to feed the city he loved--and, with the creation of the Korean taco, reinvented street food...

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