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2023 AAPI Heritage Month List

This Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, celebrate the many cultures and stories within the AANHPI community with books by authors of Asian, East Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander heritage and cultures.

A partial list, including staff recommendations, local media recommendations, local best-seller lists...

Books: 
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science Cover Image
$49.95
ISBN: 9780393081084
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 21st, 2015

The Wok: Recipes and Techniques Cover Image
$50.00
ISBN: 9780393541212
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - March 8th, 2022

Staff recommended.


Every Night Is Pizza Night Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781324005254
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Norton Young Readers - September 1st, 2020

Convinced that pizza is the best food, Pipo will eat nothing else until her fed-up parents send her on a quest to prove that no dishes in their multicultural neighborhood are better.
Review Quotes: Chef and food writer Lopez-Alt brings his enthusiasm for food to the bouncy, lively lines of this picture book...with stylized figures and playful background details Ruggiero spotlights not only the ingredients and dishes but also the realistic diversity of Pipo's multicultural neighborhood. --Sarah Hunter "Booklist"


The Loneliest Americans Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525576235
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Crown - October 11th, 2022

Staff recommended.

A "provocative and sweeping" (Time) blend of family history and original reportage that explores--and re-imagines--Asian American identity in a Black and white world.
"[Kang's] exploration of class and identity among Asian Americans will be talked about for years to come."--Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)


Fixit: An IQ Novel Cover Image
By Joe Ide
$28.00
ISBN: 9780316531085
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Mulholland Books - May 9th, 2023

Staff recommended.


IQ (An IQ Novel #1) Cover Image
By Joe Ide
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316267731
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Mulholland Books - September 19th, 2017

Staff recommended.


Age of Vice: A Novel Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780593328798
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Riverhead Books - January 3rd, 2023

Staff recommended.


Uncle Rico's Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle Cover Image
$24.95
ISBN: 9780295749778
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: University of Washington Press - May 3rd, 2022

Staff recommended.
Sharing a life inextricably connected to his community and the generation that came before him, this memoir is a tribute to Filipino Seattle.


Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9781328460141
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Mariner Books - May 1st, 2018

Staff recommended.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's memoir--an intimate look at the mythology, experience, and psyche of the Asian American male--including an extraordinary posthumous coda, "My Family's Slave"


Stay True: A Memoir Cover Image
By Hua Hsu
$26.00
ISBN: 9780385547772
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Doubleday - September 27th, 2022

Staff recommended.

2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner!

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner

"Quietly wrenching. . . To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn't quite do it justice; nor is it mainly about being Asian American, even though there are glimmers of that too. . . This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion -- all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life. . . Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of "Stay True" sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout." --The New York Times


Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781984820389
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: One World - March 2nd, 2021

Staff recommended. The poet and essayist 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 collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative — and 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.


On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525562047
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Books - June 1st, 2021

Time Is a Mother Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593300251
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Books - June 6th, 2023

Night Sky with Exit Wounds Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781556594953
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Copper Canyon Press - April 5th, 2016

Obit Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781556595745
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Copper Canyon Press - April 7th, 2020

The Trees Witness Everything Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781556596322
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Copper Canyon Press - April 26th, 2022

Dancing with the Dead: The Essential Red Pine Translations Cover Image
$22.00
ISBN: 9781556596452
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Copper Canyon Press - April 11th, 2023

Poems of the Masters: China's Classic Anthology of T'ang and Sung Dynasty Verse Cover Image
By Red Pine (Translator)
$22.00
ISBN: 9781556591952
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Copper Canyon Press - September 1st, 2003

For the first time in any Western language, the complete text of China's classic poetry anthology. From Copper Canyon Press.


The Samurai's Garden: A Novel Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780312144074
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: St. Martin's Griffin - April 15th, 1996

Staff recommended.


The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane: A Novel Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781501154836
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Scribner - April 3rd, 2018

Staff recommended.


Pachinko (National Book Award Finalist) Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781455563920
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Grand Central Publishing - November 14th, 2017

Staff recommended.

Review Quotes:
"Stunning... Despite the compelling sweep of time and history, it is the characters and their tumultuous lives that propel the narrative... A compassionate, clear gaze at the chaotic landscape of life itself. In this haunting epic tale, no one story seems too minor to be briefly illuminated. Lee suggests that behind the facades of wildly different people lie countless private desires, hopes and miseries, if we have the patience and compassion to look and listen."-- The New York Times Book Review

Review Quotes:
"In 1930s Korea, an earnest young woman, abandoned by the lover who has gotten her pregnant, enters into a marriage of convenience that will take her to a new life in Japan. Thus begins Lee's luminous novel "Pachinko" -- a powerful meditation on what immigrants sacrifice to achieve a home in the world. "Pachinko" confirms Lee's place among our finest novelists." -- Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author


Our Missing Hearts: A Novel Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780593492543
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Press - October 4th, 2022

Staff recommended.


The Travelling Cat Chronicles Cover Image
By Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel (Translated by)
$20.00
ISBN: 9780451491336
Availability: Backordered
Published: Berkley - October 23rd, 2018

Staff recommended.

A life-affirming anthem to kindness and self-sacrifice that shows how the smallest things can provide the greatest joy--the perfect gift for cat lovers and travellers!


Portrait of a Thief: A Novel Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593186060
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Tiny Reparations Books - April 4th, 2023

Staff recommended. College students of Chinese heritage want to return looted treasures to the rightful country, China. So of course a few museum heists are the answer!
Complicated relationships with each other and with some of the parents [one dad works in the art theft division!] Ocean's 11-inspired globe trotting heists make for a page-turning read! Oh. and did i mention the other heist team?! Really fun read. ~Elaine

A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major, and eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible — and illegal — job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. Inspired by true events, "Portrait of a Thief" is equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling. It is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique on the lingering effects of colonialism.


All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781948226370
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Catapult - October 15th, 2019

Staff recommended.


A Living Remedy: A Memoir Cover Image
$29.99
ISBN: 9780063031616
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Ecco - April 4th, 2023

In her second memoir, Chung looks at the politics of class, race and home. Chung, who was adopted, grew up in a mostly white community on the West Coast, and didn’t realize until she left home how economically vulnerable her family was. As she established a career, she grappled with guilt about having surpassed her parents, and years later, she sees how economic inequality has profound consequences for the end of life — even though death is called an equalizing force.


Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780525557371
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Press - April 25th, 2023

A sweeping narrative history of the Chinese Exclusion Act through an intimate portrayal of one family's epic journey to lay down roots in America.

"Mott Street" follows Chinese American writer Ava Chin, who grew up estranged from her father, as she seeks the truth about her family history-and uncovers a legacy of exclusion and resilience that speaks to the American experience past and present. Chin's ancestors became lovers, classmates, sworn enemies, and, eventually, through her birth, kin-all while converging at a single Chinatown address."


The Bangalore Detectives Club: A Novel Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781639363803
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Pegasus Crime - March 14th, 2023

Moira MacDonald recommendation in The Seattle Times, here. https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/moira-macdonald-recommends-some-atmospheric-thrillers/


Murder Under a Red Moon: A 1920s Bangalore Mystery (Bangalore Detectives Club) Cover Image
$26.95
ISBN: 9781639363704
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Pegasus Crime - March 28th, 2023

Your Driver Is Waiting: A Novel Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780385549301
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Doubleday - February 28th, 2023

This debut is a punchy page-turner imbued with dark comedy and trenchant social commentary. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride, Malcolm Forbes writes. A review here.


Crying in H Mart: A Memoir Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781984898951
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Vintage - March 28th, 2023

Book captures an experience Seattle-area residents know well
Their mecca was H Mart, which Michelle Zauner describes in her memoir and 2018 New Yorker essay as "a beautiful, holy place."
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/why-crying-in-h-mart-is-a-spiritual-experience/ 


The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802124944
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Grove Press - April 12th, 2016

Staff recommended.

Pulitzer Prize Winner.


Flux Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9781685890346
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Melville House - March 21st, 2023

In Jinwoo Chong’s debut novel, “Flux,” a time-warping discovery impacts the lives of three people coping with personal and systemic traumas. Full review in The New York Times, here.


Sea Change: A Novel Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593469347
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Vintage - March 28th, 2023

NYT recommended: After Ro’s boyfriend leaves to train for a Mars mission, her best friend gets engaged and the mall aquarium where she works decides to sell Dolores, the giant Pacific octopus her missing biologist father discovered. Amid all these upheavals, Ro needs to grapple with her past and forge a way forward.


Victory City: A Novel Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780593243398
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Random House - February 7th, 2023

NYT recommended: Rushdie’s new novel recounts the long life of Pampa Kampana, who creates an empire from magic seeds in 14th-century India. Her world is one of peace, where men and women are equal and all faiths welcome, but the story Rushdie tells is of a state that forever fails to live up to its ideals. 


The Chinese Groove: A Novel Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9781640095663
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Counterpoint - January 24th, 2023

NYT Recommended: A comedic take on the trials of immigration, Ma’s latest novel follows a Chinese man who is woefully unprepared for his move to America, but who powers through thanks to his belief that generosity and connection always exist among his fellow countrymen.


Stars and Smoke (A Stars and Smoke Novel #1) Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781250852816
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Roaring Brook Press - March 28th, 2023

For Young Adult readers. This smoldering enemies-to-lovers novel from bestselling author Marie Lu puts a superstar global phenomenon and a hotshot young spy on a collision course with danger - and Cupid's arrow - in an electric new series.


The Great Reclamation: A Novel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593420119
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Riverhead Books - March 28th, 2023

Set against a changing Singapore, a sweeping novel about an aching love story and powerful coming-of-age that reckons with the legacy of British colonialism, the World War II Japanese occupation, and the pursuit of modernity. The Great Reclamation confronts the wounds of progress, the sacrifices of love, and the difficulty of defining home when nature and nation collide.


Interior Chinatown: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780307948472
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Vintage - November 17th, 2020

From the infinitely inventive author of "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.


Whereabouts (Vintage Contemporaries) Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780593312087
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Vintage - March 29th, 2022

A marvelous new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author — her first in nearly a decade — about a woman questioning her place in the world, wavering between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties.


Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593321201
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Knopf - July 5th, 2022

In this exhilarating novel, two friends — often in love, but never lovers — come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. Spanning thirty years, this is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.


Exhalation Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781101972083
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Vintage - June 30th, 2020

In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.


Know My Name: A Memoir Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780735223721
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Books - August 18th, 2020

"Know My Name" will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.


The Swimmers: A novel Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780593466629
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Anchor - January 24th, 2023

Seattle Reads Title 2023. So much information about Seattle Reads is here!
And information about Julie Otsuka visiting Seattle May 19-20, 2023, is here.

For a group of swimmers, the local community pool is a refuge from daily life. There they can find solace in the routine, surrounded by familiar faces but able to only concentrate on the laps ahead of them. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are all cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. This is especially hard for Alice, a woman who is slowly losing her memory, and her estranged daughter who reenters her mother’s life just in time to watch her decline.


The Fervor Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593328330
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - April 26th, 2022

In a country that is already turned upside down by World War II, Meiko and her daughter, Aiko, were taken from their home in Seattle and sent to one of the internment camps in the Midwest. Meiko tries to make this transition as normal for Aiko as possible, but when a mysterious disease begins to spread, Meiko teams up with her fellow detainees to investigate. Though it is difficult to find answers, what they do know is that something sinister is at work in the camp… Inspired by Japanese folklore, this is a thrilling examination of the supernatural and the natural, and when it becomes difficult to decide which is worse.


Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780345505347
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Ballantine Books - October 6th, 2009

Local author. Staff recommended.


The Many Daughters of Afong Moy: A Novel Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982158224
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Atria Books - May 2nd, 2023

2023 PNBA Book Award Winner.


A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780143124870
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Books - December 31st, 2013

Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, this is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.


How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780316540537
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Little, Brown and Company - December 6th, 2022

A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor, inviting us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live. "A miraculous, transcendental book." (Ed Yong, author of "An Immense World")

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature.


Eat a Peach: A Memoir Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781524759230
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Clarkson Potter - May 24th, 2022

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593549223
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Berkley - March 14th, 2023

To Paradise: A Novel Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593315651
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Anchor - March 21st, 2023

She Is a Haunting Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781547610815
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Bloomsbury YA - February 28th, 2023

For Young Adult Readers.


Beasts of a Little Land: A Novel Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780063093584
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Ecco - December 6th, 2022

Local author.


Clark and Division (A Japantown Mystery #1) Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781641293693
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Soho Crime - June 28th, 2022

2022 Edgar Award Winner. Set in 1944 Chicago, this eye-opening and poignant new mystery, the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her revered older sister's death, brings to focus the struggles of one Japanese American family released from mass incarceration at Manzanar during World War II.


The Wind Knows My Name: A Novel Cover Image
By Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle (Translated by)
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593598108
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Ballantine Books - June 6th, 2023

Four Treasures of the Sky: A Novel Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250811806
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Flatiron Books - April 4th, 2023

Ma and Me: A Memoir Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781250867124
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Picador - May 16th, 2023

2023 PNBA Book Award Winner
An excellently interwoven story of the refugee experience, Americanization of immigrant children, tension and trauma between mothers and daughters, and the lingering effects of war.  With a journalist's eye and a creative writer's heart, Reang has crafted a memorable memoir with poignant lines I'll bookmark for life
May 30, 2022.  Putsata Reang finds home with and away from her mom in memoir "Ma and Me"
Review in The Seattle Times here.


Love in the Library Cover Image
By Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Yas Imamura (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781536204308
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Candlewick - February 8th, 2022

For readers age 6 and up!


Yes We Will: Asian Americans Who Shaped This Country Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780593463055
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Dial Books - May 3rd, 2022

For readers age 4 and up!


The Girl Who Heard the Music: How One Pianist and 85,000 Bottles and Cans Brought New Hope to an Island Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781728262314
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Sourcebooks Explore - April 4th, 2023

For readers age 4 and up!


Ohana Means Family Cover Image
By Ilima Loomis, Kenard Pak (Illustrator)
$8.99
ISBN: 9780823451180
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Neal Porter Books - April 5th, 2022

For readers age 3 and up!


Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome Cover Image
By Kat Zhang, Charlene Chua (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781534497351
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - May 3rd, 2022

For readers age 4 and up!


Punky Aloha Cover Image
By Shar Tuiasoa, Shar Tuiasoa (Illustrator)
$17.99
ISBN: 9780063079236
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: HarperCollins - June 7th, 2022

For readers age 4 and up!


Rainbow Shopping Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780823449774
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Holiday House - March 7th, 2023

For readers age 4 and up!


Hundred Years of Happiness Cover Image
By Thanhhà Lai, Nguyen Quang (Illustrator), Kim Lien (Illustrator)
$17.99
ISBN: 9780063026926
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: HarperCollins - April 5th, 2022

For readers age 4 and up!