Falvey Memorial Library Celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
By Erica Hayes and Deborah Bishov
Falvey Memorial Library is pleased to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, an opportunity to celebrate the rich history and culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). May is an important month for Asian and Pacific Islander American history. The first Japanese immigrant arrived in the U.S. on May 7, 1843. The great transcontinental railroad connecting California with the Eastern U.S. was also completed on May 10, 1869. More than 20,000 Chinese workers contributed to its construction.
The U.S. Census defines Asians as people whose backgrounds are from East, Southeast, and South Asia. This includes countries such as China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam, among many others. The largest groups of Pacific Islanders are communities native to Hawaii, Guam, and Samoa. Despite their contributions, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have experienced struggles finding their place in the United States. The federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited Chinese immigration to the U.S. until 1943. Approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans (most of whom were U.S. Citizens) suspected of “dual loyalties” to Japan were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. Today, this racism continues to impact Asian and Pacific Islander Americans through the alarming rise of Anti-Asian hate crimes and, most recently, the shootings of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta and a mass shooting in Indianapolis in which the majority of victims were members of the Sikh community.
To honor AAPI Heritage Month, Falvey Memorial Library has compiled a list of books and other resources by and about people of Asian-Pacific ancestry. No list of this nature could ever be comprehensive, but we hope that this list will serve as a starting point. The list below includes links to books available in print or as e-books from Falvey’s collections, where available. For books and other items not in our collections, we’ve linked wherever possible to WorldCat, which will show you which local libraries hold the book if you are off-campus. If you’re on campus, you can request these (and many other books) through EZBorrow.
Memoirs & Autobiographies:
- Living for Change: An Autobiography by Grace Lee Boggs
- Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
- Mongrel: essays, diatribes, and pranks by Justin Chin
- All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung
- Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
- Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
- The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
- The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir by E.J. Koh
- Fairest: A Memoir by Meredith Talusan
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
Other Nonfiction:
- The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee
- Ethnic Renewal in Philadelphia’s Chinatown: Space, Place, and Struggle by Kathryn E. Wilson
- Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People by Helen Zia
- The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History
Fiction:
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
- She Weeps Each Time You’re Born by Quan Barry
- America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
- Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang
- Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
- Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
- Love Like Hate by Linh Dinh
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang
- The Last Illusion by Porochista Khakpour
- Sons and Other Flammable Objects by Porochista Khakpour
- Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong
- The Leavers by Lisa Ko
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
- A Burning by Megha Majumdar
- Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
- A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- The Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen
- Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
- Monstress: Stories by Lysley Tenorio
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
- The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
- Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon
- How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
- Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
Poetry:
- Asylum Quan Barry
- Hybrida by Tina Chang
- Half-lit houses by Tina Chang
- Of Gods and Strangers by Tina Chang
- Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang
- The boss by Victoria Chang
- When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen and Jericho Brown
- A mere rica Linh Dinh
- Interrogation Room by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
- Paper Pavilion by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
- Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong
- Engine Empire by Cathy Park Hong
- The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers by Bhanu Kapil
- Body Facts by Joey S. Kim
- Miracle Fruit by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- This Way to Sugar by Hieu Minh Nguyen
- Animal Eye by Paisley Rekdal
- Deepening Groove by Ravi Shankar
- Interior with Sudden Joy by Brenda Shaughnassy
- The Octopus Museum by Brenda Shaughnassy
- Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
- Ignatz by Monica Youn
Podcasts:
- Asian American History 101
- AAWW Radio: New Asian American Literature
- Asian Enough
- Books and Boba
- Dear Asian Americans
- New Books in Asian American Studies
- Reel Asian
Films:
- Asian Americans (PBS documentary, currently free to stream)
- Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision (streaming video from AVON)
- Minari (2020 Academy Award winner and nominee)
Other Resources related to Anti-Asian Violence:
- Stop AAPI Hate
- Anti-Asian Violence Resources Card
- Statement from the American Library Association
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice
- Stand against anti-Asian racial discrimination during COVID-19: A call for action (Gao & Liu, 2020)
- Fighting Anti-Asian Racism: Tools for Libraries (The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association)
- Anti-racism resources to support Asian American, Pacific Islander community (NBC News)
Other lists of recommendations:
- A Reading List to Celebrate Asian Authors
- Best Asian American books: Memoirs, fiction by AAPI authors
- New AAPI Books 2021, New Asian American & Pacific Islander Books
- The 20 best Asian American films of the last 20 years
- 14 Documentaries from Asian American Pacific Islander Filmmakers
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Great blog post, Erica and Deborah! Thanks for sharing all of these resources, in so many genres. I look forward to checking out some of the books and podcasts.