Asian American Books
Top 10 Asian American Books
: The Namesake, The Woman Warrior, American Born Chinese, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Bonesetter's Daughter, No-No Boy, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, M. Butterfly, Bone, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Author | Jhumpa Lahiri |
ISBN | 0618485228 |
Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors it received were...
Author | Maxine Hong Kingston |
ISBN | 0679721886 |
This was an intense book full of both women's power and violence against women set against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution and the emigration of many Chinese people fleeing Mao to California. It is a mixture of autobiography and folklore and is beautifully written. Maxine Hong Kingston received...
Author | Gene Luen Yang |
ISBN | 1596431520 |
All Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl...
Born...
Author | Amy Tan |
ISBN | 0143038109 |
Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past—including the terrible truth even Helen does...
The Bonesetter's Daughter
Author | Amy Tan |
ISBN | 0345457374 |
Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . .
In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule,...
Author | John Okada |
ISBN | 0295955252 |
John Okada was born in Seattle, Washington in 1923. He attended the University of Washington and Columbia University. He served in the US Army in World War II, wrote one novel and died of a heart attack at the age of 47. John Okada died in obscurity believing that Asian America had rejected his work.
In...
Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans
Author | Ronald Takaki |
ISBN | 0316831301 |
Issues that I had with this book:
1. This book is 491 pages long. Of these, only 24 were spent discussing the experiences of Indian Americans. Was it because Takaki exhaustively covers all Asian immigration to America? No. It's because the book focuses heavily on Japanese, Chinese and Korean...
Author | David Henry Hwang |
ISBN | 0822207125 |
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and soon to be back on Broadway in a revival directed by the Lion King's Julie Taymor, starring Clive Owen
"A brilliant play of ideas... a visionary work that bridges the history and culture of two worlds."--Frank...
Maybe I should change the 3 stars I gave Bone to 4 stars, because I’m still thinking about this book several weeks later. Set in San Francisco, Bone is a tale of strained relations between Chinese immigrant parents and their Chinese-American offspring (three sisters, one of whom, Leila, is our narrator)....
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Author | Anne Fadiman |
ISBN | 0374525641 |
Lia Lee was born in 1982 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, over-medication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as...
In her most powerful novel yet, acclaimed author Lisa See returns to the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the...
Author | Cynthia Kadohata |
ISBN | 0689856407 |
kira-kira (kee ra kee ra): glittering; shining Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason and so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move...
Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
Author | Andrew X. Pham |
ISBN | 0312267177 |
Catfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey—a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam—made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland.
Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His...
Author | Gail Tsukiyama |
ISBN | 0312144075 |
A 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and...
Author | Alan Brennert |
ISBN | 0312304358 |
This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.
Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like...
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Author | Amy Chua |
ISBN | 1594202842 |
An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards—and the costs—of raising her children the Chinese way.
"This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of...
Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment
Author | Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston |
ISBN | 0553272586 |
Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp—with 10,000 other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton...
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
Author | Eddie Huang |
ISBN | 0679644881 |
“Long before I met him, I was a fan of his writing, and his merciless wit. He’s bigger than food.”—Anthony Bourdain
Eddie Huang is the thirty-year-old proprietor of Baohaus—the hot East Village hangout where foodies, stoners, and students come to stuff their faces with delicious...
Author | Jade Snow Wong |
ISBN | 0295968265 |
Originally published in 1945 and now reissued with a new introduction by the author, Jade Snow Wong's story is one of struggle and achievements. These memoirs of the author's first twenty-four years are thoughtful, informative, and highly entertaining. They not only portray a young woman and her...
Author | Viet Thanh Nguyen |
ISBN | 0802123457 |
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los...
To save his daughter, he'll go anywhere—and any-when…
Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in I.T., trying to keep the spark in his marriage, and struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career as a time-traveling...
Author | Kiana Davenport |
ISBN | 0345434943 |
In this epic, original novel in which Hawaii's fierce, sweeping past springs to life, Kiana Davenport, author of the acclaimed Shark Dialogues, draws upon the remarkable stories of her people to create a timeless, passionate tale of love and survival, tragedy and triumph, survival and transcendence....
Author | Nina Revoyr |
ISBN | 1888451416 |
"[A]n absolutely compelling story of family and racial tragedy. Revoyr’s novel is honest in detailing southern California’s brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity."
—Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon
Southland...
A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family
Author | Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan |
ISBN | 1401341284 |
"Starting with charred fried rice and ending with flaky pineapple tarts, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan takes us along on a personal journey that most can only fantasize about--an exploration of family history and culture through a mastery of home-cooked dishes. Tan's delectable education through the landscape...
Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
Author | Helen Zia |
ISBN | 0374527369 |
The fascinating story of the rise of Asian Americans as a politically and socially influential racial group
This groundbreaking book is about the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group...
Author | Ann Mah |
ISBN | 0061771279 |
"Ann Mah's Kitchen Chinese is a delicious debut novel, seasoned with just the right balance of humor and heart, and sprinkled with fascinating cultural tidbits." --Claire Cook, bestselling author of Must Love Dogs
Kitchen Chinese, Ann Mah's funny and poignant first novel about a young Chinese-American...
Author | Adrian Tomine |
ISBN | 1897299168 |
Shortcomings, Adrian Tomine's first long-form graphic novel, is the story of Ben Tanaka, a confused, obsessive Japanese American male in his late twenties, and his cross-country search for contentment (or at least the perfect girl). Along the way, Tomine tackles modern culture, sexual mores, and...
How to Be an American Housewife
Author | Margaret Dilloway |
ISBN | 0399156372 |
A lively and surprising novel about a Japanese woman with a closely guarded secret, the American daughter who strives to live up to her mother's standards, and the rejuvenating power of forgiveness.
How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters, and the pull of tradition....
Raymond Ding is 40, divorced, and, as a boyfriend, sort of lecture-y and condescending. He works as the Assistant Director of Minority Affairs at Jack London College in Oakland and, in his relationship with Aurora Crane, a younger Eurasian woman, he can't seem to forget that he's the guy she's sleeping...
Author | Monica Itoi Sone |
ISBN | 0295956887 |
With charm, humor, and deep understanding, a Japanese-American woman tells how it was to grow up on Seattle's waterfront in the 1930s and to be subjected to "relocation" during World War II. Along with some 120,000 other persons of Japanese ancestry—77,000 of whom were U.S. citizens—she and her...
YELL-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American
Author | Vickie Nam |
ISBN | 0060959444 |
In this groundbreaking collection of personal writings, young Asian American girls come together for the first time and engage in a dynamic converstions about the unique challenges they face in their lives. Promoted by a variety of pressing questions from editor Vickie Nam and culled from hundreds...
Author | Ruth Ozeki |
ISBN | 0142003891 |
A warm and witty saga about agribusiness, environmental activism, and community—from the celebrated author of My Year of Meats and A Tale for the Time Being.
Yumi Fuller hasn’t set foot in her hometown of Liberty Falls, Idaho—heart of the potato-farming industry—since she ran away...
Author | Alan Brennert |
ISBN | 1250137683 |
DAUGHTER OF MOLOKA′I is the highly anticipated sequel to Alan Brennert’s acclaimed book club favorite, and national bestseller, MOLOKA′I. It’s a companion tale that tells the story of Ruth, the daughter that Rachel Kalama—quarantined for most of her life at the isolated leprosy settlement...
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
Author | Ronald Takaki |
ISBN | 0316831115 |
"A Different Mirror" is a dramatic new retelling of our nation's history, a powerful larger narrative of the many different peoples who together compose the United States of America. In a lively account filled with the stories and voices of people previously left out of the historical canon, Ronald...
Author | Shawna Yang Ryan |
ISBN | 1101874252 |
A stunning story of love, betrayal, and family, set against the backdrop of a changing Taiwan over the course of the twentieth century.
February 28, 1947: Trapped inside the family home amid an uprising that has rocked Taipei, Dr. Tsai delivers his youngest daughter, the unnamed narrator...
Author | Iris Chang |
ISBN | 0140277447 |
In December 1937, the Japanese army invaded the ancient city of Nanking, systematically raping, torturing, and murdering more than 300,000 Chinese civilians.
This book tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured...
Mona in the Promised Land
Author | Gish Jen |
ISBN | 0679776508 |
The heroine of Mona in the Promised Land is a true child of the suburbs. Mona--a self-described "self-made mouth" goes to temple, loves pickles, is boy-crazy, worries about getting into the right college and keeping up with her over-achieving sister, and wishes her parents were less strict. Her equally...
The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker
Author | Eric Liu |
ISBN | 0375704868 |
Beyond black and white, native and alien, lies a vast and fertile field of human experience. It is here that Eric Liu, former speechwriter for President Clinton and noted political commentator, invites us to explore.
In these compellingly candid essays, Liu reflects on his life as a second-generation...
Author | Celeste Ng |
ISBN | 0735224293 |
Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the...
Author | Milton Murayama |
ISBN | 0824811720 |
First and foremost, I must state up front that this work is a novella length work, clocking in at approximately 100 pages. But don't let that dissuade you as Milton Murayama packs more into those 100 pages than most novels manage to do in 300+ pages.
This is an outstanding work, capturing so many...
The Barbarians are Coming
Author | David Wong Louie |
ISBN | 0425178285 |
Sterling Lung grew up in the back of his parent's laundry dreaming about being a real American while speaking Chinese to his mother, English to his friends, and very little to the father he seemed always to disappoint.
Now twenty-six and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Sterling...
Author | An Na |
ISBN | 0142500275 |
When Young Ju is four years old, she learns that her family is leaving their small fishing village in Korea to live in Mi Gook. Young Ju has heard enough about Mi Gook to be sure the place they are moving to is paradise, that she and her family are going to heaven.
After flying through the sky for a long...
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Author | Charles Yu |
ISBN | 0307379205 |
A story of a son searching for his father . . . through quantum space–time.
Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people...
Author | Lynda Barry |
ISBN | 1570614598 |
In this graphic novel that's part memoir and part creativity primer, Lynda Barry serves up comics that delve into the funk and sweetness of love, family, adolescence, race, and the hood. Name that Demon!!! Freaky boyfriends! Shouting Moms! Innocence betrayed! These are some of the pickled demons...
Author | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni |
Anju is the daughter of an upper-caste Calcutta family; her cousin Sudha is the daughter of the black sheep of the family. Sudha is as beautiful, tenderhearted, and serious as Anju is plain, whip-smart, and defiant. yet since the day they were born, Sudha and Anju have been bonded in ways even their mothers...