Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month
May 2021
Looking to the Past
Fiction
The mermaid from Jeju : a novel
by Sumi Hahn

A talented young deep-sea diver from occupied 1948 Korea’s neighboring Jeju Island visits Mt. Halla for her family’s annual trading trip before her romance with a mountain youth is upended by family tragedy and political turbulence. A first novel.
The tenth muse : a novel
by Catherine Chung

Determined to conquer the Riemann hypothesis in the face of cultural discrimination against women intellectuals, a genius mathematician uncovers a mysterious theorem's unexpected World War II link to her family. 75,000 first printing.
The kinship of secrets
by Eugenia Kim

"From the author of The Calligrapher's Daughter comes the riveting story of two sisters, one raised in the United States, the other in South Korea, and the family that bound them together even as the Korean War kept them apart"
The House of Yan : A Family at the Heart of a Century in Chinese History
by Lan Yan

One of the most influential businesswomen of China today brings to life a century of Chinese history from the last emperor to the present day, including the Cultural Revolution that tore her family apart. Original. 20,000 first printing.
The starlet and the spy : a novel
by Chi-min Yi

A Korean war survivor is assigned as translator for Marilyn Monroe during a 1954 USO tour to a Korea still struggling to return to normalcy and develops a deep kinship with the star. 50,000 first printing. Original.
The night tiger
by Yangsze Choo

"From New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo, a novel set in 1930s colonial Malaysia that pulls the reader into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love, and a child and a youngwoman searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible"
The poppy war
by R. F. Kuang

An epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the violent history of China's 20th century, follows the efforts of an unexpected, dark-skinned war orphan to obtain an education at Nikan's most elite military school in spite of prejudice and the challenges of her lethal shaman skills, which raise her awareness about the existence of gods and the imminence of war. 75,000 first printing.
Nonfiction
Ants among elephants : an untouchable family and the making of modern India
by Sujatha Gidla

A woman, born as an “untouchable” into the Indian caste system, describes how she was educated by Canadian missionaries in the 1930s and what it was like growing up in a world full of poverty and injustice but also full of incredible possibility.
Growing up in San Francisco's Chinatown : boomer memories from noodle rolls to apple pie
by Edmund S. Wong

Chinese American baby boomers who grew up within the twenty-nine square blocks of San Francisco's Chinatown lived in two worlds. Elders implored the younger generation to retain ties with old China even as the youth felt the pull of a future sheathed in red, white and blue. The family-owned shops, favorite siu-yeh (snack) joints and the gai-chongs where mothers labored as low-wage seamstresses contrasted with the allure of Disney, new cars and football. It was a childhood immersed in two vibrant cultures and languages, shaped by both. Author Edmund S. Wong brings to life Chinatown's heart and soul from its golden age.
A village with my name : a family history of China's opening to the world
by Scott Tong

A journalist describes how his assignment as bureau chief for the American Public Media program, “Marketplace,” in Shanghai gave him the opportunity to reconnect with members of his extended family and understand the country’s modern transitions through the eyes of natives.
At America's Gates : Chinese Immigration During The Exclusion Era, 1882-1943
by Erika Lee

With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese laborers became the first group in American history to be excluded from the United States on the basis of their race and class. This landmark law changed the course of U.S. immigration history, but we know little about its consequences for the Chinese in America or for the United States as a nation of immigrants. At America's Gates is the first book devoted entirely to both Chinese immigrants and the American immigration officials who sought to keep them out. Erika Lee explores how Chinese exclusion laws not only transformed Chinese American lives, immigration patterns, identities, and families but also recast the United States into a "gatekeeping nation."
Empress : the astonishing reign of Nur Jahan
by Ruby Lal

The historian author of Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India presents a deeply researched portrait of the 17th-century Mughal Empire ruler that illuminates her genius as a designer, architect, politician, hunter and partner
Remembering Shanghai : A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars, and Scoundrels
by Isabel Sun Chao

A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever. When Mao comes to power, eighteen-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home--and that she will never see her father again. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and the unpredictable nature of life against the epic backdrop of China in turmoil