Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month - Books for Adults

Explore books for adults that spotlight a range of experiences within Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

Updated April 27, 2024
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All you can ever know : a memoir
Chung, Nicole
Paper Book
An ABA Indies Introduce TitleNicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting myth. Nicole believed that her biological parents had made...
Concepcion : an immigrant family's fortunes
Samaha, Albert
Paper Book
Nearing the age at which his mother had migrated to the U.S., part of the wave of non-Europeans who arrived after immigration quotas were relaxed in 1965, Albert Samaha began to question the ironclad belief in a better future that had inspired his mother's family to uproot themselves from their...
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...
Cursed bunny
Chung, Bora
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE A wildly original debut from a rising star of Korean literature--surreal, chilling fables that take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and the reign of big tech with absurdist humor and a (sometimes...
Girl in translation
Kwok, Jean.
Paper Book
From the author of Searching for Sylvie Lee, the iconic, New York Times-bestselling debut novel that introduced an important Chinese-American voice with an inspiring story of an immigrant girl forced to choose between two worlds and two futures.  When Kimberly...
Hula : a novel
Hakes, Jasmin 'Iolani
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Summer by Harper's Bazaar and ELLE * Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award Winner "Stunning . . . An intricately built novel that spans decades, moving in and out of a collective voice, while also telling Hi'i's deeply personal and devastating story...
The hundred secret senses
Tan, Amy
Audiobook
Secret Senses and two children's books, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat, which will be adapted as a PBS series for children for Fall 2001. Tan was a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club, and her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and...
Insurrecto
Apostol, Gina
Paper Book
"A bravura performance."--The New York Times Histories and personalities collide in this literary tour-de-force about the Philippines' present and America's past by the PEN Open Book Award-winning author of Gun Dealers' Daughter.   Two women, a...
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...
The leavers : a novel
Ko, Lisa
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, Bustle, and Electric Literature "There was a time I would have called Lisa Ko's novel...
Must I go : a novel
Li, Yiyun
Paper Book
"One of our major novelists" (Salman Rushdie) tells the story of a woman reflecting on her uncompromising life, and the life of a former lover, in this provocative novel. "Yiyun Li is one of my favorite writers, and Must I Go is an extraordinary book."--Meg...
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 ...
Our missing hearts : a novel
Ng, Celeste
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestseller * A New York Times Notable Book * Named a Best Book of 2022 by People, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Oprah Daily, and more * A Reese's Book Club...
Pachinko
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 picture bride
Yi, Ku?m-i
Paper Book
Winner of the Nautilus Award for Historical Fiction "Lee Geum-yi has a gift for taking little-known embers of history and transforming them into moving, compelling, and uplifting stories. The Picture Bride is the ultimate story of the power of friendship--a must read...
Severance
Ma, Ling
Paper Book
Maybe it's the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma's offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance. "A stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both...
Sex and vanity : a novel
Kwan, Kevin
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * GMA BOOK CLUB PICK * The author of the international phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians takes us from Capri to NYC, where a young woman finds herself torn between two men--and two very different cultures. "Another riveting tale of privilege,...
To hold up the sky
Liu, Cixin
Paper Book
From New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu comes a short story collection of captivating visions of the future and incredible re-imaginings of the past. In To Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where...
To paradise
Yanagihara, Hanya
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * From the award-winning, best-selling author of the classic A Little Life--a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia.
We could be heroes
Chen, Mike
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Brotherhood The super hero book you need to read right now! "An enjoyable, exciting, and action-packed read... at its core, just fun." -Associated Press ...
Yellowface
Kuang, R. F.
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK "Hard to put down, harder to forget." -- Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences... Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she...

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