Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a curated collection of books that honor the voices, stories, and histories of AAPI communities. From powerful memoirs and historical narratives to contemporary fiction, poetry, and children’s stories, these works explore themes of identity, resilience, culture, and belonging.

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Fiction

Nearly three centuries after their coastal community’s witch trials, the women athletes of the 1989 Danvers Falcons hockey team combine individual and collective talents with 1980s iconography to storm their way to the state finals.

When her sister Naomi, about to graduate from Princeton, is found dead on campus, Maya, believing it was no accident, discovers Naomi joined the same underground society she did years ago and now every clue is leading her back to the past-and to the secrets she’s kept all these years.

May Hanover, always the rule-following “Little Sheriff,” reunites with her childhood friends Lauren and Kelsey for a carefree trip to the Hamptons, but when a drunken prank goes disastrously wrong, May becomes the focus of a police investigation and begins questioning whether her friends are hiding dangerous secrets.

In Seoul, South Korea, four young women make their way in a world defined by impossibly high standards of beauty, secret salons catering to wealthy men, strict social hierarchies and K-pop fan mania. 

A marginalized Silicon Valley staff writer moves with her boyfriend to a quiet upstate New York town where she confronts the challenges of their interracial relationship and the questions it raises about her heritage.

Breaking the promise he made to his beautiful wife, to never pry into her past, when they arrive at her childhood home, a crumbling manor shrouded in mystery, a scholar of myths must choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage or their lives.

Traces the saga of a Hawaiian jazz musician and a Korean-Hawaiian beauty who narrowly survive the punishments of World War II.

Possessing genetic advantages that offer the potential for immortality in a near-future New York City, a high-achieving exchange trader dealing in human organs is forced to choose between her future and her estranged father’s suicide-oriented circle.

Giving up her future as a pianist to take care of her parents, the narrator starts working at a high-end beauty and wellness store in NYC, which affords her entry into a new world of privilege where she discovers, beneath the fancy creams and tinctures, lies a terrible truth threatening to consume her.

Enduring life on the margins in a near-future world ruthlessly divided between the employed and unemployed, a once-professional couple give birth to an athletically gifted child, whose attention by the government compels her mother to challenge society’s foundations.

Surviving the sinking of the Titanic, Annie takes a job as a nurse on the Britannic before encountering a fellow survivor who forces her to reckon with past demons.

On the verge of landing their own reality show, Iranian American multimillionaires and L.A. royalty Ali and Homa Milani, owners of a microwaveable snack empire, and their four daughters realize their deepest secrets are about to be dragged out into the open before the cameras even roll.

In this intricately woven tapestry of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance, 15-year-old Nick Chen, who can’t shake the feeling his mother is hiding something, sets out to find his biological father journey that raises more questions than provides answers.

Mia isn’t initially concerned when her family fails to return from a walk, until her mute brother Eugene, who suffers from a rare genetic condition, returns bloody and alone and is unable to describe what happened to their father.

When his undocumented immigrant mother disappears, eleven-year-old Deming Guo is adopted by a family that attempts to make him over as an American teen while he struggles to reconcile his new life with memories of the family he left behind.

After the death of her literary rival in a freak accident, author June Hayward steals her just-finished masterpiece, sending it to her agent as her own work, but as emerging evidence threatens her success, she discovers how far she’ll go to keep what shethinks she deserves.

Envisioning a summer vacation in the humble Singapore home of a boy she hopes to marry, Chinese American Rachel Chu is unexpectedly introduced to a rich and scheming clan that strongly opposes their son’s relationship with an American girl.

A young Korean-American woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea and then disappears, leading a fellow student into an obsessive search for her.

A Chinese American art history major at Harvard, Will Chen is offered a (very illegal) chance to reclaim five priceless treasures China lost centuries ago and assembles a team of fellow students, chosen for their skills and loyalty, to help him on his mission and make history.

Follows a young Indian American woman who is grappling with graduating into a recession, working a grueling entry-level corporate job and trying to date Marina, a beautiful dancer who always seems just beyond her grasp.

Fighting an ugly custody battle with an artistic tenant who has little regard for the strict rules of their progressive Cleveland suburb, a straitlaced family woman who is seeking to adopt a baby becomes obsessed with exposing the tenant’s past, only to trigger devastating consequences for both of their families.

When a crack appears in the pool, a fellowship of swimmers who take comfort in their laps are cast out, including Alice, who, slowly losing her memory, is reunited too late with her estranged daughter, in this intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss.

A novelist on a remote island in the Pacific is linked to a bullied and depressed Tokyo teenager after discovering a Hello Kitty lunchbox that washed ashore.

Ensconced within a Hudson Valley luxury retreat where expectant birth mothers are given luxurious accommodations and lucrative rewards to produce perfect babies, a Filipino immigrant is forced to choose between a life-changing payment and the outside world.

A satirical coming-of-age story follows the experiences of an Indian-American teen in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, who joins his crush’s plot to use an ancient alchemical potion to meet high parental expectations, triggering devastating consequences. 

Considered a self-made widow after the disappearance of her husband, Geeta, when other women in the village ask her for help in getting rid of their own no-good husbands, must decide how far she is willing to go to protect her fearsome reputation and the life she’s built.

Forfeiting her dream job to support her mother’s Filipino food-truck business, Nikki clashes with a kindhearted but competitive British food-truck newcomer who poaches her customers while encouraging a public feud.

Accidentally causing the death of a blind date, Meddy is persuaded by her meddlesome Chinese-Indonesian mother and aunts to dispose of the body, which upends a billionaire’s wedding and Meddy’s reunion with a former flame.

Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, Chinese American actress Luli Wei, desperate to become a star, bargains with blood and ancient magic to realize her dreams, but the steep price for success may turn her into something she despises. 

Years after she is sent away from Boston to China for shoplifting, a conflicted Chinese-American woman reconnects with her golden-boy childhood crush before a ghost from the past threatens her ambitions.

A man wakes up alone and injured in an apocalyptic landscape and must learn how to survive with only vague memories of how he got there.

Willis Wu, a background actor in a Chinatown cop show, dreams of being “Kung Fu Guy” until a turn in the spotlight reveals hidden truths about his family, his community, and his identity in America.

Embarking on a legendary collaboration launching them to stardom, two friends, intimates since childhood, have the world at their feet until they discover that their success, brilliance and money won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of the heart.

Accepting a job at a decadent, mountaintop colony, a young chef, with the help of her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter, is awakened to the pleasures of taste, touch and her own body until she is pushed beyond her boundaries in a plot to reshape the world far beyond the plate.

Nonfiction

The chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious gets uncomfortably real in his debut memoir.

The star of “The Mindy Project” presents a collection of personal essays, observations, fears, and advice on everything from prisoner fan mail to celebrity interactions.

The star of Marvel’s first Asian superhero film, in this candid, inspiring and relatable memoir, tells his own origin story and how he embarked on a journey that took him far outside of his comfort zone into the world of show business.

In this memoir, Chanel Miller reclaims her identity and tells her story in her own words, going beyond the courtroom headlines.

Exploring her complicated relationship with her mother through the “oh my god” moments in their travels together around the world, a journalist relates their many adventures, revealing the true story of two women who became comfortable with the feeling of not belonging and experienced something almost like freedom. 

Collects the standup comedian’s humorous and heartfelt letters to her daughters, covering everything they need to know in life, like the unpleasant details of dating, how to be a working mom in a male-dominated profession and how she trapped their dad.

Drawing from essays, conversations, art, and more, the author crafts an impressionistic scrapbook of her life as a disabled Asian American activist and media maker.

A veteran diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times tells the story of Modern China through the lens of his father’s life as a soldier in Mao’s Peoples Liberation Army as well as his own experiences in the country.

In this intimate memoir-in-essays, the Golden Globe Award-nominated star of Crazy Rich Asians and Hustlers, chronicling how she “made it” in Hollywood, offers a behind-the-scenes look at being Asian American in the entertainment industry and the continuing evolution of her identity and influence in the public eye.

The Japanese Breakfast indie pop star presents a full-length account of her viral New Yorker essay to share poignant reflections on her experiences of growing up Korean-American, becoming a professional musician and caring for her terminally ill mother.

Presents a graphic novel memoir about American identity as it has shaped her interracial family in the aftermath of the 2016 elections.

Ocean Vuong’s second collection of poetry looks inward, on the aftershocks of his mother’s death, and the struggle and rewards of staying present in the world.

Young Adult

Sent from New York City to Seoul to be with her father, Melody discovers the alluring aspect of living in Korea with the help of her newfound friends but soon learns that her shiny new life comes with a high price.

While still coping with her parents’ sudden divorce and having to start at a new school midway through her senior year, Noor and two new friends take a stand against book bans at their small-town Illinois high school.

In a magic competition to find the next headliner for the Conquering Circus, tricks become dangerous, rival magicians mysteriously disppear, and ambitious showgirl Kallia, her nightclub manager Jack, and competition judge Daron are forced to face their deepest secrets.

When Muko is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and must decide if saving her soul is worth returning to her ordinary existence.

Creating an art exhibit out of teenagers’ break-up boxes, including her own, which leads to a creative partnership and new friendship, Chloe Chang learns valuable lessons about what love can be.

Determined to make her crush Jonathan Slate fall for her, Payal Mehta convinces her archnemesis, Philip Kim, to help, but as she lies to the people she loves, hides the too-Indian parts and learns that maybe Philip isn’t the worst, she begins to question her feelings and her sanity.

Instead of going to prom, seventeen-year-old Elena Soo wants to spend her time saving the local community center, and she is determined to keep her priorities straight even when her childhood best friend who is now a K-pop superstar returns to make good on their old pact to go to prom together.

Determined to prove her star chart wrong, Madhuri convinces her childhood best friend Arjun to take part in a relationship experiment, but when real feelings come to the surface, she must decide if charting her own destiny is worth breaking both their hearts.

In 1926 Shanghai, eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, heir of the Scarlet Gang, and her first love-turned-rival Roma Montagov, leader of the White Flowers, must work together when mysterious deaths threaten their city.

Sent back to the ‘90s where she finds herself in high school with her 17-year-old mother, Samantha Kang finds the right romance at the wrong time while trying to fit into an analog world and make things right with her mom. 

Keeping private love letters written to five secret crushes she has had, Lara Jean Song finds her personal life going from imaginary to out of control when the letters are unexpectedly mailed. 

Ignored by Conrad and Jeremiah one summer after the next, Belly is shocked when she returns to the beach house the following season and discovers that everything has changed, for both the better and worse.

After learning her father is Japan’s Crown Prince, Izumi travels to Tokyo and struggles to fit into royal life filled with designer fashion, scandals, and a forbidden romance with her stoic bodyguard.

In a world in which near-extinct dragons pass as humans to grow their numbers secretly, siblings Ember and Dante Hill prepare for destined positions in the world of Talon only to be hunted by a dragon-slaying soldier.

Discovering a mix-up due to their shared Korean name, interns Elijah Ri and Jessica Lee decide to stay switched so Elijah can escape his controlling father while Jessica secures college recommendations, but the one thing they didn’t count on was falling in love.

When Jenna wishes to be her perfect cousin Jessica, the wish comes true but as her old life fades, she must decide if being Jessica is worth losing herself.

When seventeen-year-old Eliza Lin’s entirely fictional essay about meeting her perfect boyfriend goes viral at her international school in Beijing, she has to make a deal with the handsome and charming Caz Song to play the part but when the relationship starts to feel real all her career plans are suddenly threatened.

When Angela Wu offers Lynda Fan the chance to design characters for her Otome game, Lynda discovers things she never knew about herself or her heart.

When Lily realizes she has feelings for a girl in her math class, it threatens Lily’s oldest friendships and even her father’s citizenship status and eventually, Lily must decide if owning her truth is worth everything she has ever known.

Nineteen-year old Winter Young, the world’s hottest superstar, is recruited by a covert organization to take down a criminal tycoon and finds himself paired with Sydney Cossette, a fierce and unpredictable secret agent, but suspicions soon turn to sparksas the two are drawn into a tangled web of secrets and deception.

High school seniors Bàao and Linh, whose feuding families own competing Vietnamese restaurants, conceal their budding romance, as well as Linh’s desire to become an artist.

High school senior Lei unexpectedly finds love amid the student protests in Beijing in 1989, forcing her to choose between her family and its legacy or her future with a revolutionary leader.

Ostracized or incarcerated her whole life, Juliette is freed on the condition that she use her abilities in support of the dictatorship, but Adam, the only person ever to show her affection, offers hope of a better future.

A coven of lovesick teen witches, whose magic causes mental erosion and apocalyptic destruction, searches for a cure to their violent and addictive tendencies.

Jenny never had much time for boys, Kpop, or really anything besides her dream of being a professional cellist. But when she finds herself falling for a Kpop idol, she has to decide whether their love is worth the risk.

Set in the 1930s to today, four generations of Filipino American boys grapple with identity, masculinity, and father-son relationships.

Chloe Chang travels to Seoul to meet her deceased father’s ultra-rich family, but there is a reason why her mom kept her away from the Nohs, and Chloe begins to wonder if her new family’s intentions are pure.

Running a successful beauty-care sales business at school, Korean-American teen Valerie clashes with newcomer Wes, who is selling a competitor’s K-pop products to raise funds for his musical ambitions. 

After her boyfriend, Sam, dies, Julie gets a second chance at goodbye but finds it hard to keep these otherworldly calls a secret, especially when she witnesses the suffering his family is going through.

Seventeen-year-old Jade Nguyen is spending the summer in Vietnam at the French colonial house her estranged father is fixing up as a vacation rental, but unbeknownst to her family, the house and its ghosts have other plans.

Adopted Taiwanese American Catie Carlson yearns to understand more about her culture and biological mother and offers to teach a co-worker how to date in exchange for learning Mandarin, in a story about grief, family and following one’s heart. 

Share a time you left your comfort zone.” That’s the Stanford University essay prompt keeping senior Aisha Agarwal up at night. As a daughter of immigrant parents, a scholarship student at a competitive private school, and a shoo-in for valedictorian, Aisha’s straight-and-narrow path has always guaranteed safety and success. But after her longtime crush, fellow brain Brian, stands her up at winter formal, Aisha decides that playing it safe just isn’t worth it anymore.

Nancy Luo, Krystal Choi, Akil Patel, and Alexander Lin, juniors at Manhattan’s elite Sinclair Prep, are forced to confront their secrets after Jamie Ruan, once their closest friend, is found dead.

A teen from a privileged Asian family navigates culture shock, unexpected freedom and a new relationship while attending school in California and renting a room from the family of an Ivy League hopeful whose debate coach has undermined her plans.

After Kirby Tan breaks her arm at the rock-climbing invitationals she joins the newspaper club, where she meets and falls for astrology-obsessed Bex and then struggles to balance her queer identity with her obligations to family and community.

A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother’s experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps.

Bullied by her classmates, Sarah, a Korean American girl growing up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors, channels her rage into her art and cosplay until it threatens to explode. 

Becca moves to an upscale Silicon Valley suburb and is surprised when she develops a bond with girls who belong to the popular clique-and even more surprised when she learns their secrets.

Leaving modern society behind for the California wilderness, Ash searches for an escape from the miserable feeling of alienation that haunts their daily life but discovers that making the wilds their home isn’t easy and wonders if they can really be happy and survive alone.

High school senior Valentina adored Valentine’s Day until a shocking revelation leads her to believe her love life is cursed, until a Lunar New Year celebration introduces her to charming lion dancer boys and a chance at breaking her family’s curse.

Children’s

Eva Evergreen is determined to earn the rank of Novice Witch before her 13th birthday or risk losing her magic forever, but when the biggest magical storm threatens the coastal town of Auteri, Eva hopes her limited powers will be enough to save the town and her dreams of becoming a witch.

Inspired by a Malaysian folktale follows the story of a witch’s granddaughter who receives the gift of a ghost servant from her grandmother before discovering its dark, all-consuming nature. 

On the first night of rioting in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, Jordan’s father leaves to check on the family store, spurring twelve-year-old Jordan and his friends to embark on a dangerous journey through South Central and Koreatown to come to hisaid, encountering the racism within their community as they go.

When her parents disappear and a demon appears in her kitchen, Kiranmala, who believed herself to be an ordinary sixth-grader, finds herself in another dimension where there is magic, winged horses, and talking birds.

When her grandmother Dadi moves in from Pakistan, Mahnoor’s life is upended especially with a major documentary project looming. But as Dadi shares memories of Partition and her childhood in India, Maha realizes she’s found the perfect story: one that’s deeply personal and newsworthy.

Lupe Wong needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite baseball pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, but her plan goes awry when she has to learn square dancing in gym class.

Searching for a True Dragon in order to save humanity, one capable of intelligent thought and the ability to use magic, Princess Gem finds fate intervening in the form of Remy and his rare dragon, Storm, who are the targets of an evil pirate. 

Moving with her parents into the home of her sick grandmother, young Lily forges a complicated pact with a magical tiger, in a story inspired by Korean folktales.

When a teenage boy appears out of nowhere in 1999, claiming he’s the world’s first time-traveler and has a book outlining the events of the next 20 years, 12-year-old Michael wants to get his hands on the book and must decide how far he’s willing to go.

When eleven-year-old Yumi Chung stumbles into a kids’ comedy camp she is mistaken for another student, so she decides to play the part.

Forced to spend the summer at Nai-Nai’s senior center, Ruby Chu works to help save a historic Chinatown bakery while revisiting her late Ye-Ye’s favorite spots to find a way to deal with her grief and maybe even find herself.

A tale based on true events follows the coming-of-age of a girl who is motivated by an act of racism at school to learn about her ancestral heritage and her grandparents’, experiences as lost children during the Korean War.

Twelve-year-old Maxine Chen dreams of being a figure skating champion, but a remarkably talented new girl at the arena and a racist classmate at school test her resolve.

Facing daunting prospects on the streets of Chennai, two runaway sisters finds shelter and friendship on an abandoned bridge with two homeless boys before an illness forces them to choose between survival and freedom.

When her mom’s video on social media takes off, 10-year-old Lina Gao sets out to go viral herself but discovers there’s a lot more to social media than she ever imagined and must find the courage to be her authentic self in this fast-paced world. 

In Last Chance, Minnesota, with her family, Maizy spends her time at the Golden Palace, the restaurant that’s been in her family for generations, where she makes some discoveries requiring her to go on a search for answers. 

Mindy Kim wants to fit in at her new school, but her favorite lunch leads to scorn, then a thriving business, and finally big trouble.

When Jennifer Chan, a new girl who believes she can find aliens, goes missing, Mallory Moss sets out to find her and must figure out why Jennifer might have run and face the truth inside herself.

Having just moved to Seattle from Taiwan, Cici enters a cooking competition to win the chance to see her grandmother again, but she only knows how to cook Taiwanese food.

As one of the only Asian Americans in her school, Christina confronts both well-meaning ignorance and cruel racism, but in middle school fitting in is important, which is why she and her best friend Megan are both excited and nervous to try out for the popular cheerleading squad.

When their parents return to Taiwan, leaving her and her two older siblings in California on their own, Feng-Li must keep her family together as they all get tangled in a web of bad choices while navigating this strange new world. 

Chinese-American student Christine is devastated when her artistic best friend, Moon, falls dangerously ill amid revelations that she has been having visions about celestial beings telling her she does not really belong on Earth.

Picture Books

This moving ode to the immigrant experience, as well as a manifesto of self-love for Chinese American children, is a jubilant celebration of accepting who you are.

A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers but by drawing from the strength of the powerful women in her life, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self-love and empowerment.

In this heartfelt companion to Eyes That Kiss in the Corners, a young trans-racial adoptee learns to appreciate both her birth culture and her adopted family’s culture, discovering these differences are part of her and what makes her beautiful.

A mother and daughter spend a snowy day together buying and preparing vegetables, assembling ingredients, and playing while their big pot of soup bubbles on the stove. Includes a recipe for “Snowy Day Vegetable Soup.”

Kiyoshi asks his grandfather, the wise poet Eto, where poems come from, and Eto takes him on a walk through the city to seek an answer.

Yoomi doesn’t like the taste of spicy kimchi, but when Grandma makes kimchi pancakes, Yoomi considers changing her mind.

Illustrations and text celebrate the special moments both big and small that a caregiver and child share.

In this yummy celebration of togetherness, love, family and food, a Chinese American girl and her younger sister attend their weekly dim sum family gathering.

Discovering a mysterious new button on her apartment elevator that carries her to amazing places where she can escape and explore on her own, young Iris considers how including another person will change her adventures. 

Like feathery seeds, a young girl and her mother take flight, putting down roots in an adopted country. Soon they blossom in their new home, strong and beautiful among hundreds of others just like them.

Reimagines the cycles of the moon as a mother bakes a Big Moon Cookie and, despite Mama’s request to wait, Little Star begins nibbling at it every night.

After moving to America from Hong Kong, Jun feels isolated at her new school but discovers a sense of home in the familiar foods and flavors she finds in her lunchbox.

An sets out alone by boat through a stormy Mekong Delta, facing waves, rain, and fear but paddles on, knowing the journey is worth it.

Loving nothing more than to sing, Piper Chen is suddenly riddled with doubt when she agrees to sing a solo in her school’s Spring Sing until Nai Nai, her grandmother, helps her overcome her nerves and shine her brightest.

A young girl describes where she finds colors in both the world around her and beyond what she can see.

In a mix of Eastern and Western mythologies, a mother tells her child about two forests inhabited by different, but equally enchanting dragons that coexist within the child’s heart.

Lin makes tofu with her grandma and discovers that patience brings a whole universe together in a simple dish made by a modern Chinese American family.

Longing to see snow for the first time after having been surrounded by the deep blue waves of Hapuna Beach in Hawaii all her life, Claire wonders if she can create a winter wonderland in her own way.