Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: Southeast Asian & Pacific Islander creators & stories

By Collection Management Librarian Dontaná

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and this week we are celebrating by sharing stories written by Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander authors.

Southeast Asian & Pacific Islander creators & stories



Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden

Why you should try it: This candid memoir is great for teens and adults to explore and discuss issues related to growing up lesbian and biracial.

Description: An acclaimed literary essayist presents this raw and redemptive debut memoir about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager in Boca Raton, Florida, where she, the only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, found loving friendships with fatherless girls.

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Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad

Why you should try it: This reflective novel is perfect for readers who love seeing a new city from multiple perspectives.

Description: A house in flooded Bangkok reflects a confluence of lives shaped by upheaval, from a homesick missionary doctor, to a haunted jazz pianist in the age of rock, to a woman who would escape her political past.

Stream & download withMedia on Demand/Libby (ebook)

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Insurrecto by Gina Apostol

Why you should try it: Who doesn't love a good road trip? Even if it is through a war-torn island nation reeling from the effects of colonialism.

Description: While on a road trip in Duterte’s Philippines, two women, a Filipino translator and an American filmmaker, both collaborate and clash in the writing of a film script about a massacre during the Philippine-American war.

Stream & download with: Hoopla (digital audiobook)

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Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey by G. B. Tran

Why you should try it: If you read historical fiction of the Vietnam War, or any historical fiction, this graphic memoir will resonate with a story of personal pain and reconciliation.

Description: A graphic memoir about the author’s experiences as the son of Vietnamese immigrants who fled to America during the fall of Saigon describes how he learned his tragic ancestral history and the impact of the Vietnam War on his family while visiting their homeland years later.

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Song of the Exile by Kiana Davenport

Why you should try it: World War II fiction lovers will find a different side of the war in this powerful story that starts in Hawaii.

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

Stream & download withHoopla (digital audiobook)

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The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley A. Tenorio

Why you should try it: If you're a fan of compelling stories about the relationship between mothers and sons, this is the book for you.

Description: An undocumented teen, the son of a Filipina B-movie star-turned-con artist, joins a friend on a freedom-risking journey to a ramshackle desert town that offers him the first chance to define himself. 

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Thousand Star Hotel by Bao Phi

Why you should try it: This one is for poetry lovers!

Description: Thousand Star Hotel confronts the silence around racism, police brutality, and the invisibility of the Asian American urban poor.

Stream & download withHoopla (ebook)

Find all available formats in the catalog »

Librarian Dontana

About Dontaná

Dontaná is a Collection Management Librarian who was born with an unending reading list. She is almost always reading two books simultaneously and is easily distracted by cool covers.