Although AAPI Heritage month has been celebrated since the 1970s, I think there has been more media presence to this month because of the hate crimes committed this pandemic year towards the American Asian community as the "scapegoats" for the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, what we can do as readers is to uplift the AAPI literature by AAPI authors. In that vein, here is my eclectic AAPI to be read list for the month (in other words things already in my queue but moving forward for this month:
The award-winning former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York, Ishle Yi Park takes readers on a nostalgia trip to the 1990s in Angel & Hannah, her lyrical retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Sparks fly when Hannah, a Korean American girl from Queens, meets Angel, a Brooklynite with Puerto Rican roots — but the young lovers’ relationship soon begins to crack under the weight of financial problems and substance abuse. Review
From the creative force behind Japanese Breakfast comes this heartfelt collection of essays. Zauner writes about growing up as one the one of the only Asian American kids in her Oregon hometown, living on the East Coast and in Seoul, and losing her mother in her twenties. Review
Review: In this new take on Cinderella, I Love You So Mochi author Sarah Kuhn introduces readers to Rika: an orphaned teenager who desperately wants to believe that she’s the daughter of rom-com star Grace Kimura. As Rika chases down her dream mother, she’s accompanied by another actor, Hank Chen. But is Hank the One, or has Rika’s head drifted too far into the clouds?
Review: Growing up in a majority-white hometown with her white single mom, Izumi’s never found her place to belong. But when she learns her long-lost father is actually the Crown Prince of Japan, she races across the Pacific to meet him. Izumi was too Japanese for America — but can a Japanese American princess truly call Tokyo home?
When Huong arrives in New Orleans with her two young sons, she is jobless, homeless, and worried about her husband, Cong, who remains in Vietnam. As she and her boys begin to settle in to life in America, she continues to send letters and tapes back to Cong, hopeful that they will be reunited and her children will grow up with a father.
How do you grieve, if your family doesn’t talk about feelings?
This is the question the unnamed protagonist of Ghost Forest considers after her father dies. One of the many Hong Kong “astronaut” fathers, he stays there to work, while the rest of the family immigrated to Canada before the 1997 Handover, when the British returned sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.
As she revisits memories of her father through the years, she struggles with unresolved questions and misunderstandings. Turning to her mother and grandmother for answers, she discovers her own life refracted brightly in theirs.
This is the question the unnamed protagonist of Ghost Forest considers after her father dies. One of the many Hong Kong “astronaut” fathers, he stays there to work, while the rest of the family immigrated to Canada before the 1997 Handover, when the British returned sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.
As she revisits memories of her father through the years, she struggles with unresolved questions and misunderstandings. Turning to her mother and grandmother for answers, she discovers her own life refracted brightly in theirs.
Parvin Mohammadi has just been dumped--only days after receiving official girlfriend status. Not only is she heartbroken, she's humiliated. Enter high school heartthrob Matty Fumero, who just might be the smoking-hot cure to all her boy problems. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to Homecoming, she's positive it will prove to herself and her ex that she's girlfriend material after all. There's just one problem: Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Review
Twelve-year-old Nozomi lives in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. She wasn't even born when the bombing of Hiroshima took place. Every year Nozomi joins her family at the lantern-floating ceremony to honor those lost in the bombing. People write the names of their deceased loved ones along with messages of peace, on paper lanterns and set them afloat on the river. This year Nozomi realizes that her mother always releases one lantern with no name. She begins to ask questions, and when complicated stories of loss and loneliness unfold, Nozomi and her friends come up with a creative way to share their loved ones' experiences.
Eleven year-old Peter Lee has one goal in life: to become a paleontologist. Okay, maybe two: to get his genius kid-sister, L.B., to leave him alone. But his summer falls apart when his real-life dinosaur expedition turns out to be a bust, and he watches his dreams go up in a cloud of asthma-inducing dust.
Even worse, his grandmother, Hammy, is sick, and no one will talk to Peter or L.B. about it. Perhaps his days as a scientist aren't quite behind him yet. Armed with notebooks and pens, Peter puts his observation and experimental skills to the test to see what he can do for Hammy. If only he can get his sister to be quiet for once -- he needs time to sketch out a plan.
Twelve-year-old Natsu and her family live a quiet farm life in Manchuria, near the border of the Soviet Union. But the life they've known begins to unravel when her father is recruited to the Japanese army, and Natsu and her little sister, Asa, are left orphaned and destitute.
In a desperate move to keep her sister alive, Natsu sells Asa to a Russian family following the 1945 Soviet occupation. The journey to redemption for Natsu's broken family is rife with struggles, but Natsu is tenacious and will stop at nothing to get her little sister back. Review.
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