Staff Picks: Fabulous Fiction by AAPI Authors
by emjane
We’re highlighting books by Asian American and Pacific Islander authors in honor of AAPI Heritage Month – however, don’t just limit your AAPI reading to May! AADL participates in the Unerased Book Club, which highlights amazing titles monthly. Here are four of my favorites read by the group in prior months, but keep checking AADL.TV for our future discussions!]
My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa | Request a Copy |Watch the Book Club Discussion
This twisty thriller centers on Paloma, a woman in her early 30s living in California and having a crisis. Paloma tries to be patient and kind, but life is so much more challenging now that she’s cut off from her parents' riches– plus the people out in the world are so infuriating. Paloma’s story is told in alternating chapters between the present day and her time in an orphanage in Sri Lanka, where she was adopted as a pre-teen.
Paloma is an unreliable, sometimes unlikeable, narrator, but Jayatissa builds up enough sympathy and curiosity that I found myself rooting for her (and constantly guessing what the twists would be…sometimes correctly, sometimes not)! I listened to the audiobook via Libby and thought the narrator did a fabulous job bringing voice to the characters and helped keep the pacing suspenseful to the end!
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen |Request a Copy |Watch the Book Club Discussion
This gorgeous graphic novel delicately interweaves the story of Tien, a thirteen-year-old boy uncertain how to come out to his mother, with tellings of the Cinderella and Little Mermaid fairy tales. Making excellent use of color to indicate storytelling – Tien’s present day life is colored in red, his mother’s past in yellow, and the fairy tales in a deep bluish purple – Trung’s illustrations could tell the story on their own, though the words in the novel just further enhance it!
I read this book in one sitting and had that wonderful sensation of both wanting the reading experience to continue, but knowing the author had perfectly completed the story.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn | Request a Copy |Watch the Book Club Discussion
Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a family epic, moving through the years and switching perspectives between the members of the Hawaiian Flores family. Middle child Nainoah’s near-death experience leaves him with a healing ability – and complicates his relationship with his two siblings, his parents, and his sense of self and obligation. As Nainoah and his siblings Dean and Kaui struggle to define themselves as individuals and build lives of their own away from the family, parents Malia and Augie work to make ends meet and support each other and their children.
Sharks is a bit slower-paced and more atmospheric than the fiction I usually read. However, Washburn’s beautiful writing is worth languishing in, and once I decided to let the book wash over me, rather than become impatient for plot development, I wasn’t put off by the pace. The audiobook, narrated by a full cast and available on CD or via Libby, is highly recommended.
Almost-American Girl by Robin Ha | Request a Copy | (stay tuned to AADL.TV for a future discussion recording!)
This graphic memoir tells the story of Ha’s adolescence beginning with a “surprise” immigration from Korea to Alabama. Ha’s mother initially told daughter Chuna that they were vacationing in Alabama, however, when it came time to return home, her mother marries the friend they were visiting, and Chuna is thrust into American living.
Though she’s happy to choose her American name, Robin, nearly everything else about the move is a deep struggle, from getting along with her step-siblings and classmates, to learning English, to connecting with anyone but the family dog. Robin’s trials with finding identity and acceptance are relatable to nearly any teen, but the additional cultural barriers make everything all-the-more challenging. Ha does an excellent job weaving bits of Korean language and culture into the illustrations and text – I would happily read the next chapters of her life, should she choose to write more!
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