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New and Upcoming Books to Discover This AAPI Heritage Month
It’s May! And in the U.S. that means it’s AAPI Heritage Month, dedicated to celebrating the culture, history, and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Here at Goodreads, we like to stay in our bookish lane (we love our lane), so we’ve gathered this list of 2023 books—new and upcoming—from AAPI and Asian writers around the globe. This is by no means a comprehensive list but rather a sampling of books to discover from across genres.
In fact, this year we’ve made the sorting easier by dividing the list into general genre categories: general fiction; mysteries; romance; sci-fi, fantasy & horror—like that. If you can’t find what you need, keep scrolling down! Of course, some books are hard to categorize, but this collection should provide a starting point for further exploration.
Some highlights: Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone) returns to shelves with the highly anticipated historical epic The Covenant of Water. R.F. Kuang departs from her usual fantasy concerns with the perilous publishing industry adventure Yellowface. And Jesse Q. Sutanto (the Aunties series) spins a San Francisco cozy mystery with Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.
Scroll over the covers to learn more about each book, and be sure to add the books that pique your interest to your Want to Read shelf!
General Fiction
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Mysteries & Thrillers
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Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror
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Romance
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Young Adult
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Nonfiction
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Have a book to recommend for AAPI Heritage Month? Be sure to share it with your fellow readers in the comments below!
Comments Showing 51-88 of 88 (88 new)
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message 51:
by
Celly
(new)
May 05, 2023 12:16PM
Chloe Gong is not Asian American, she´s from New Zealand. Maybe replace her books with Pacific Islanders
flag
Talei wrote: "Im not seeing any Pacific Islanders in this list???"Local: A Memoir by Jessica Machado is on the list and she was born and raised in Hawaii.
Justin wrote: "Talei wrote: "Im not seeing any Pacific Islanders in this list???"Right?? Same thought!!"
Local: A Memoir by Jessica Machado is on the list and she was born and raised in Hawaii.
Alex wrote: "ngl i don’t really see any pacific islanders… 🫠"Local: A Memoir by Jessica Machado is on the list and she was born and raised in Hawaii.
Ridim wrote: "Which ones are Pacific Islander written?? Anyone know any?"Local: A Memoir by Jessica Machado is on the list and she was born and raised in Hawaii.
JumbleofJargon wrote: "I reccomend Members Only by Sameer Pandya :))"Thanks for the recommendation. I have put it on one of my to-read lists.
Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "V wrote: "there are a handful of books by authors of filipino origin. (yeah, it's perhaps ambiguous how one should classify filipinos.) als..."
A friend of mine is looking for a book written by a..."
Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes is a book coming out this month by a Hawaiian author.
Celly wrote: "Chloe Gong is not Asian American, she´s from New Zealand. Maybe replace her books with Pacific Islanders"I'm happy to claim Chloe, but she was born in Shanghai, raised in New Zealand, went to university in the States & now lives in New York.
I'd hate to see the qualification for this blog post made even narrower than it is.
In my opinion, they should have looked further afield for Pacifika authors or made the date range broader.
Leah wrote: Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes is a book coming out this month by a Hawaiian author"Would you look at that cover!
(the cover looks a bit blurry here but it is really beautiful)She already has that one shelved thanks Leah. (three of my GR friends do)
I'm glad I'm not the only one gushing over the book covers on this list! Definitely noted a few for future reading.
Not seeing any Christian Asian authors on this list. We need more diverse voices and representation from Christian authors.
Talei wrote: "Im not seeing any Pacific Islanders in this list???"My thoughts exactly. Pacific Islander month and no Pacific Islander authors? This happens alot.
My 2023 aim is to read one book from each monthly list you post, I’ve just saved about 30 of these books! They look stunning!
worm wrote: "the covers of some of these books are absolutely beautiful !"I agree :)
I don't see "All I Asking For is My Body" anywhere, but it should be on the list.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Talei wrote: "Im not seeing any Pacific Islanders in this list???"I haven’t looked at all of them but I know Jessica Machado is Hawaiian. Her book Localis listed.
Bryn wrote: "It's a really disturbing cultural moment that identity is being pushed so hard lately. Imagine choosing your books based on the immutable characteristics of an author....ew"No. I'd agree if this was a largely an all-else-being-equal situation. If these were nonfiction books about science, say, then the origins of authors would be pretty much irrelevant. Maybe some of the genre fic here is so generically American that it doesn't matter who wrote it. But a lot (most) of these books have culturally specific content.
You can learn a lot about culture and history from literature, even fiction. Learn passively while being entertained. That's why you choose an author of a certain ethnicity--because as an insider, that author has insight into a culture/country that an outsider doesn't have. I've been binging on fiction from south Asian authors lately. Have learned a lot about the history of the region that people of my description (white, middle class, educated American) don't know much about, to our discredit. Did the same kind of binge with authors of Chinese descent awhile ago. Every now and then I read several translations of Russian novels because the bleak perspective is delightful.
I also am not unsympathetic to the argument that authors with ''foreign-sounding" names get overlooked by a lot of people making reading choices, consciously or unconsciously... and having a reminder not to do that is a good thing.
tl;dr: learn about other cultures and get it from the horse's mouth (so to speak.)
So many wonderful and incredible books, this really is a work of art.
Wonderful list. I would like to add author Brendan Bigney who is a native Hawaiian and a member of Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
I just gave it a cursory look. Seems like there is a very stark lack of Pacific Islander authors. It seems like a very engaging and varied list, but it needs variation to include all of the geographic areas being celebrated. Thank you
This list really needs more Pacific Islander choices on this list. I counted one on the whole list and that is really really disappointing
Ridim wrote: "Which ones are Pacific Islander written?? Anyone know any?"The only one i saw was "Local" by Jessica Machado, they really did not put any on the list sadly :/
Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote:Thanks for the recommendation. I have put it on one of my to-read lists."
I hope you enjoy it!
You may also like to consider Natasha Ngan particularly if you are into LGBTQ+ . Part British, Part Asian, Ngan books set in both backgrounds though her works are fiction. She now lives in France. The "Welcome to" series eg Welcome to Consent is non-fiction written by Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes. I follow Stynes on social media and have been lucky enough to read WtC and Welcome to Your Period. Srynes is Austral-Asian to the best of my knowledge.
Is it just me or is there no Japanese or Pacific Islander heritage here? I see a lot of Chinese especially, but not the two I was looking for :’)
Jenna wrote: "I cannot believe Goodreads is allowing these racist comments! And FYI commenting “not interested” is not helpful to the conversation. It just lets me know that you are at the very least, a boring p..."Right? Like what does it add to this conversation at all? Why would a person want to waste their time making a comment about how they're not interested?
The lack of pacific island rep in this list is disappointing.
I’m so happy that there is some South Asian rep, we usually get forgotten!! :)
To celebrate AAPI I would like to share a book, Jungle Child Born In The Jungles Of Vietnam! It is a true story about a family who lived through the Vietnam war and their journey to America. The book illustrates a log lived under socialism and then freedom. Young people should read this as the Vietnam war is not truly understood by a younger generation. The book contrasts the harsh realities of what Socialism does to the common citizen.
Nice looking list, but I wish horror was represented too. There are diverse and inclusive books in that genre too and it’s a shame it doesn’t get talked about more often. 💔
Thanks for the curated list - would be great to see more Pacific Island inspired ones.Also… why do people feel the need to spend the time and effort and respond with “no thanks” or “not interested”?
