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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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...
Only what we could carry : the Japanese American internment experience
Inada, Lawson Fusao.
Paper Book
The definitive anthology of Japanese American internment. "In these stories are lifted up our humanity, our indomitable spirit and dignity, an implacable quest for justice"--Janice Mirikitani Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States...
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.
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
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...
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
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. ...
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 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...
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 * A...
Interior Chinatown
Yu, Charles 1976-
Paper Book
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...

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