NHPR Reads: May 2024

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! This month serves as a time to celebrate the culture, history, and achievements of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the nation. We hope you enjoy this list of a few of the NHPR staff’s favorite texts by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  If you have a favorite that didn’t make it onto this list, let us know! Our inbox, voices@nhpr.org, is always open. – Zoë 

Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations On Race, Affirmative Action, And Family by Oiyan Poon

Part memoir, part review of Supreme Court rulings that have defined race relations in America (as well as Asian Americans’ positionality within the Black/White binary), and a personal as well as academic deep dive into the issue of affirmative action, Oiyan explores all this by addressing her daughter’s many questions, including her precocious questions when she was just three years old: are we White? No. Are we Black? No. Then what are we? Asian American. But Asian American isn’t a color! Wise words Te Te! Wise words indeed… – Felix Poon

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

A heartbreaking story of family ties and family tragedies, a brilliant examination of the pressures children can face and the escape valves they create for themselves. Secrets abound, as do struggles for genuine connection and identity. It’s beautiful, and gut-wrenching. – Sara Plourde

Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

An NPR review of Bestiary says “Chang’s facility for making even mundane or traumatic events beautiful with words is a reminder that stories are, among other things, some of our very best survival tools.” And stories abound here, with elements of beasts and magic, amid the all too real issues of familial abuse and separation, which Chang handles deftly. – Sara Plourde

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Privilege in the publishing industry is put on notice in this debut satire in which a white author steals a manuscript from her dead Asian friend and publishes it as her own work. Yellowface asks us to consider who gets to tell our stories – and who gets to profit off the telling of those stories. – Sara Plourde

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong 

For those who prioritize beautiful language, pick up this poetry collection. Vuong shares with us an intimate look into familial grief and the depth of a mothers love. – Zoë Kay

Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar 

This is such a stunning debut novel. I laughed, I cried ( a lot), I contemplated my own life and the human experience. I truly can not recommend this book enough. The plot does center around death and addiction, but somehow manages to leave the reader feeling hopeful. – Zoë Kay

Franny Choi poetry, and Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang – Sarah Gibson

This is a very unoriginal suggestion but if you, like me, didn’t read the bestseller Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner when it first came out, I highly recommend you jump on the bandwagon (pun not intended!). Michelle is the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast, and her memoir about food, family, identity and grief is so compelling. I finished it in two days! – Lauren Chooljian

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan

It’s an epic read that is by turns devastating and full of hope. If you’re already a Tan fan (The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter are also excellent) you know you’re in for lots of deep mother/daughter feels, too.

Also Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I read most of this novel in one night when I had pregnancy insomnia because it totally sucked me in! – Katie Colaneri

Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo

My friend Sung emigrated from South Korea to New Jersey as a young man. So has the protagonist of this novel. The funny moments and the sad ones will be familiar to anyone who’s no more than a remove or two away from the immigrant experience – which is most of us. And anybody who’s ever cringed at their parents’ behavior will see their teen years brought to life in this slyly serious picaresque. – Jim Schachter

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston. This work is considered a classic in the genre of memoir, first published in 1976. The author explores myth, memory, and the immigrant experience of her Chinese family as they settle in California. – Angela Menendez

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo – Jackie Harris

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei – Julia Furukawa

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is probably the best book about language learning I’ve ever read! It is a memoir about Lahiri – one of the most accomplished writers in the English language – leaving behind English and starting to write in Italian in her 40s. Lahiri originally wrote the book in Italian and it was translated into English by Ann Goldstein (Elena Ferrante’s translator, for any fans of the Neapolitan Quartet!). It is an amazing meditation on both the power and limits of language. – Kate Dario

The I.Q. series by Joe Ide – the books are just great. – Rebecca Lavoie

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

Yes, I’m throwing a romance novel on this list. It’s a modern rom-com! (And definitely for adults.) But I loved the construct, the framing device, and the East Coast-West Coast vibe of it all. If you enjoy books by the likes of Emily Henry, want to get a glimpse inside the workings of a TV writers room, and are curious about how a grown-up can maybe break from the stifling expectations of her parents, you may just love this book! – Rebecca Lavoie