A Few Additions: Our Favorite Recent Reading in Honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Check out last year’s post here!

Here are a few more worth taking a peek at this month, or any month:)

The House that Lou Built by Mae Respicio

We know we chose this one for Womyn’s month, too-- but with intersectionality and all, Lou and her family have a ton of awesome women as well as rocking their heritage, being thoughtful, and the list of what they rock goes on.. ! Enjoy the Bay Area vibes, tiny house-plot, girls who know what they want, and Filipino rep— it’s a keeper.

Counting on Community by our fave (we met him!!!) Innosanto Nagara. This is our favorite board book of his and is most certainly what Gabby will be giving to all of her loved ones who have babies. A beautiful counting book that adds aspects of the lovely things that make community. This has his staple artistic beauty, and of course has his fierce love and passion for humans being good to one another and doing good work.

Somewhere Only We Know by Maureen Goo - for you, or your young human friends who are craving the pop world celebrity happenings. This one was fun and had the vibes you would want from a K-Pop star living in Hong Kong going off-script. We especially enjoyed that it was set in Hong Kong!

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai - a novel with some pictures in the mix (not a graphic novel, as I had assumed before reading it), it focuses on two brothers who move from China to Australia and have very different experiences adjusting and managing such a huge transition. There is lots of baking involved and the pair of siblings are really relatable in this one. The first half felt pretty slow, but by the end we enjoyed it and found its way of representing the boys to be very valuable.

Come on. How can you stand the cuteness of this cover? Also— I just read it is getting adapted to be a J-drama!? If that doesn’t sound exciting for summer, I don’t know what is.

My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame, (please enjoy both Volumes 1 and 2 !!). This graphic novel is heartwarming in all the BEST ways. Based in Japan, this series is about a super cute girl and her contemplative father. It’s really best if you enjoy this graphic novel series right now, and not be told what it’s about. It’s simple, poignant, human, and just very well done. If I had to choose a book to give to someone and say, “Happy May!” (because of course, that’s a fun thing to do) it would likely be these books because I would know someone would be happy in May after reading them. Just read them!

And can we bring back Full CIcada Moon? Great, thanks so much for understanding. The cover alone should woo anyone, but also so should this half black half Japanese main character who is super introspective and navigating her way through the world.

BONUS - For grown humans: The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai was a fun, more original plot of a romcom book with non-white humans - HOORAY. This one was entertaining and featured a black woman lead and a Samoan man as the main love interest. You heard that right, Samoan rep!! Let’s shout it from the rooftops, how overdue is that!? Also there is a little disability rep and conversation woven into this seemingly light fluffy romance book, so perhaps enjoy some of that, as well. Not to mention there is a quirky aunt in this one-- am I the only one who aspires to be a quirky weirdo aunt? She’s in here if you like that, like I do. Finally, this is a series in case you are searching for that summer beach series to devour.

Books we recently added to our Want to Read list: The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters (!! someone please send me this, who doesn’t love a sister story!?), Ramadan, looks like a timely, simple board book by Hannah Elliot, Other Words for Home, It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew The Way, and for summer romcom vibes Fake it Till You Break It with a fake dating trope that one of us can’t help but want to check out! (sigh, it’s Gabby, I’m not embarrassed by this I own it).

What books have you been loving with the ridiculously ginormous label of Asian representation recently? Or ever? Tell us, we are always looking for more, and happy May!