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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Go home!
Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo
Ebook
An anthology of Asian diasporic writers musing on the notion of "home." "Bold and devastating . . . the very definition of reclamation." --The International Examiner Asian diasporic writers imagine "home" in the twenty-first century through an array of...
Speak, Okinawa : a memoir
Brina, Elizabeth Miki
Paper Book
A "hauntingly beautiful memoir about family and identity" (NPR) and a young woman's journey to understanding her complicated parents--her mother an Okinawan war bride, her father a Vietnam veteran--and her own, fraught cultural heritage. Elizabeth's mother was working as a...
Heart of fire : an immigrant daughter's story
Hirono, Mazie
Paper Book
"Heart of Fire is a revelatory, evocative, deeply moving book." -Washington Post "Amazing . . . a memoir I really loved." -Secretary Hillary Clinton, "You and Me Both" podcast "A beautiful book."-Trevor Noah, The Daily Show The...
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.
Ebook
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * An exhilarating blend of autobiography and mythology, of world and self, of hot rage and cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identities--immigrant, female, Chinese, American. * NATIONAL BOOK...
Stealing Buddha's dinner : a memoir
Nguyen, Bich Minh.
Paper Book
A vivid, funny, and viscerally powerful memoir about childhood, assimilation, food, and growing up in the 1980s As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bich Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity. In the pre-PC era Midwest, where the devoutly Christian...
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 debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania   "Powerful and...
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
Chang-rae Lee, the bestselling and award-winning author of Native Speaker, Aloft, and My Year Abroad returns with his most ambitious novel yet-a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime. June Han was orphaned as a girl...
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 ...
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...
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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