12 must-read books for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
- Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which is celebrated in May, recognizes the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US.
- Organizations that support and represent Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders helped Insider devise a list of must-read books in time for May.
- From graphic memoirs to romance novels, these books discuss identity and the role of AAPI people in America.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Every May, communities across the US mark Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
It's a celebration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, recognizing achievements and contributions that generations have made to society and culture.
This year, Insider asked staff at organizations that represent, support, and serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US for their recommendations for must-read books.
From graphic memoirs to romance novels, these books share the experiences of AAPI people in America.
"Adoption is often painted as a one-dimensional happy ending, but this book offers the reader a more nuanced understanding," Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF), told Insider. "Chung, herself a Korean-American adoptee, takes us on a journey to uncover the truth about her birth family that coincides with the birth of her own child. While stereotypes are often used against AAPI [American Asian and Pacific Islander] women to make judgments about their reproductive choices, transracial adoption is never black and white and you can't close Chung's book without seeing that."
Simon Tam, a volunteer with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO), agreed this was a must-read, saying, "It's a breathtaking memoir of adoption, family, and identity that will touch anyone who has ever sought connection."
"As a mother of a biracial child, I loved this graphic memoir in which Jacob relives past conversations with her young son on his identity as a South Asian and white Jewish American living in the age of #BlackLivesMatter and Trump's Muslim ban," Choimorrow said.
"War, displacement, and colonialism have been the story of millions of Asian immigrant families but seldom have those stories been told in the voices and about the sacrifices of the women who held it all together," Choimorrow said. "In telling the story of a Korean woman's family trying to survive among their colonizers, 'Pachinko' captures perfectly the melancholy and suffering so embedded in the Korean psyche."
Michelle Hicks of APANO added, "This incredible, epic novel is filled with a family throughout four generations of forbidden love, a search for belonging, and overcoming the odds."
"A lyrical and poignant memoir about the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful about family, class, girlhood, and growing older. This is the book I wish I had growing up," said Misha Belden, an APANO staff member.
"He depicts the brutality of what it was really like living and working in the US as a Pilipinx immigrant and migrant laborer," said Kristine Din, co-chair of NASPA's Asian Pacific Islander Knowledge Community. "As a Pilipina American, this story has a very personal meaning to my own and my community's history."
Professor Francis Tanglao Aguas, the founding director of William & Mary's program in Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies, called Bulsoan "the perfect writer to take us to a different time and place while we are all trapped in our homes."
"Bulosan's masterpiece is a seamless creative biography, fusing the experiences of his fellow Filipinos with his own," he told Insider. "Through his simple yet vivid writing, Bulosan makes the reader feel as if they are there with him as he navigates racism and the poverty brought on by the poor working conditions of the era."
Wong's hilarious "voice comes through very clearly in her book," said Joliana Yee, co-chair of NASPA's Asian Pacific Islander Knowledge Community.
"I was able to read it with my elder sister, who is a mom herself, and found ourselves just in stitches with laughter until we had tears rolling down our faces," she told Insider. "I would highly recommend it for those in search of something lighthearted, real and relatable."
Yee said she devoured "Crazy Rich Asians" at "a feverish pace."
"Being Chinese Malaysian and having grown up making trips to Singapore, a lot of the characters and their local dialect of English reminded me of my mom and the aunties I grew up around," she said. "I had never read a book in English where I could hear voices like theirs being represented as central characters and cultural references I could relate to firsthand."
"One of the best books I've read on Asian American history that so aptly contextualizes the Asian American community today," Yee said. "It should be a required read and made to be part of the K-12 history curriculum across the US."
Jenny Chu, a member of APANO, said the book is required reading now more than ever.
"The United States is made of up multiple histories, and with the rising racism against Asian Americans due to the pandemic — read up on your history," Chu said. "The first anti-immigration law ever passed in the US was the Chinese Exclusionary Act in 1882; we cannot repeat this."
"My first ever graphic novel and I was blown away by the depth of the character development, plotline, and beautiful illustration," Yee said. "Rich storytelling that many first-generation Asian Americans can relate to on some personal level."
"Thi Bui's graphic memoir centers around her family's experience of fleeing Vietnam as refugees, but beyond that it is an illustration of intergenerational trauma, starting from the colonialism her grandparents and great-grandparents endured — a shared but often untold story of many Asian American families," said Jaclyn Dean, NAPAWF's public policy manager.
"Bui's illustrations are able to capture so much emotion and pain. They are both history lessons and a heart-wrenching walk through the choices that families, and particularly refugee women, must make in the face of war and trauma."
"This book of essays delves into how a racialized America has led to deeper, internalized feelings of shame and invisibilization for Asian Americans. ... This book made me feel seen and validated," said Dean. "At so many points in the book, it was the first time many specific emotional experiences of growing up Asian American were reflected on paper and directly speaking to me."
The graphic novel "is at once a coming-of-age story and a reminder of the thousands of immigrants who come to America in search for a better life for themselves and their children," according to Penguin Random House.
"Comics tend to make me smile and I do need the nod-smile-heartthump that each page brings me," said Pamela K. Santos, one of APANO's members. "Malaka finds joy so easily it seems from moments of translating and figuring yourself out."