Fiction
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Enjoy a riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies and K-pop mania. Together, their stories tell a gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal, in which their tentative friendships may turn out to be the thing that ultimately saves them.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamin Chan
Frida Liu doesn't have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents' sacrifices and can't persuade her husband to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. But after one moment of poor judgment, Frida must enter the School for Good Mothers in the hopes of regaining custody of Harriet. Stark social commentary and questions of authority and attachment play out in Frida’s desperate gambit to atone for her one very bad day.
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
When Deming is 11, his Chinese American mother vanishes, leaving him with a surrogate family that places him with foster parents, two academics who move him from New York City to upstate New York and subsequently adopt him. Now 21, aimless Deming has flunked out of college, always wondering about his mother. How could she have left him? Where is she? Will son and mother be reunited?
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is; she didn't write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American. With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was 9 years old. He doesn't know what happened to her – only that her books have been banned – and he resents that she cared more about her work than about him. Then one day, Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, and soon he is pulled into a quest to find her.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late 20s, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born – a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam – and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class and masculinity.
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, assimilation and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
Memoir
Eat A Peach by David Chang
In 2004, Momofuku Noodle Bar opened in a tiny, stark space in Manhattan's East Village. Its young chef-owner, David Chang, worked the line, serving ramen and pork buns to a mix of fellow restaurant cooks and confused diners whose idea of ramen was instant noodles in Styrofoam cups. Chang grew up the youngest son of a deeply religious Korean American family in Virginia, taught English in Japan, battled bipolar disorder, and became one of the most influential chefs of his generation.
Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow
After her mother dies unexpectedly of cancer, a Chinese American writer and journalist weaves together the story of the fallout of grief that follows her extended family as they emigrate from China and Hong Kong, to Cuba and America. The author, a founding member of NPR’s Code Switch team, considers herself unique in a traditional Chinese family that refused to openly grieve. As a loving tribute, Chow vibrantly tells the story of her mother’s life with great dexterity and in luminous detail.
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. Chung investigates the mysteries and complexities of her transracial adoption in this chronicle of unexpected family for anyone who has struggled to figure out where they belong.
Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor by Anna Qu
A young girl forced to work in a Queens sweatshop calls child services on her mother in this powerful debut memoir about labor and self-worth that traces a Chinese immigrant's journey to an American future.
House of Sticks by Ly Tran
This is a powerful memoir by 25-year-old Ly Tran about her immigrant experience and her recent family history in the aftermath of the war that spans from Vietnam to Brooklyn, and ultimately to the Ivy League.
Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang
When 7-year-old Qian is plucked from her warm and happy childhood surrounded by extended family in China, she finds a world of crushing fear and poverty instead. For five years, she lived undocumented after immigrating with her parents to New York City. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends.
Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong
Ali Wong shares the wisdom she's learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life off stage, including the brutal single life in New York, reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam, tales of being a wild child growing up in San Francisco, and parenting war stories. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong's letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and gross) for all.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
From the singer of indie rock band Japanese Breakfast, this is an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean-American, losing her mother and forging her own identity.
Nonfiction
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this essay collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative. Its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world.
The Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian Kang
In 1965, a new immigration law lifted a century of restrictions against Asian immigrants to the United States. Over the next four decades, millions arrived, including Jay Caspian Kang's parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. They came with almost no understanding of their new home, much less the history of "Asian America" that was supposed to define them.
Trick Mirror: Reflections of Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
In this collection of nine essays, Jia Tolentino recounts her childhood as a rare Asian American in a large Texas evangelical church community, her role in a teen reality-TV show, and her stints at the University of Virginia and in the Peace Corps.
