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
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Go home!
Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo
Paper Book
An anthology of Asian diasporic writers musing on the notion of "home"--and the possibilities of outsiderhood and belonging.  "I read this book and see my people--see us--and feel, in our collective outsiderhood, at home." --Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds "To be...
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...
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...
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...
In the country
Alvar, Mia.
Paper Book
'Her diamond prose sparkles so brightly and cuts so deeply' Celeste Ng Shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize Shortlisted for the John Leonard Prize Winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction With nine globe...
White chrysanthemum
Bracht, Mary Lynn
Paper Book
Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria....
America is not the heart
Castillo, Elaine
Paper Book
Three generations of women from one immigrant family try to reconcile the home they left behind with the life they're building in America. Illuminating the violent political history of the Philippines in the 1980s and 1990s and the insular immigrant communities that spring up in the suburban...
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...
War trash
Jin, Ha
Paper Book
War Trash, the extraordinary new novel by the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting, is Ha Jin's most ambitious work to date: a powerful, unflinching story that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war--the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean...
The kinship of secrets : a novel
Kim, Eugenia
Paper Book
In 1948 Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges they know will face them, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their infant daughter, Inja, behind with their extended...
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
The Buddha in the attic
Otsuka, Julie
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * PEN/FAULKER AWARD WINNER * The acclaimed author of The Swimmers and When the Emperor Was Divine tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as "picture brides" a century ago in this "understated masterpiece ... that...
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
Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction - a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, and escaping the roles we are forced to play-by the author of the infinitely inventive How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
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
'By turns hilarious and heart-rending. Plunges fearlessly into the murky grey areas of race and family, of struggling to find common ground, of trying to talk to our children and help them make sense of it all' Celeste Ng'Does Donald Trump hate Muslims?''Is that how people really...
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
A memoir and cookbook from the creator of the gourmet Korean-Mexican taco truck Kogi, the star of Netflix's "The Chef Show," and the culinary advisor to Jon Favreau's film "Chef." "Roy Choi sits at the crossroads of just about every important issue involving food in the...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.