41 Asian and Asian American Books Everyone Should Read

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

1. Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

Genre: Memoir/cultural criticism

Never has a book made me feel so seen and validated as Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings. This powerful, must-read revelation taught me about Asian American history that had been left out of my public school education, helping me connect the dots in my own life and mental health journey. As author and poet Claudia Rankine said, “to read this book is to become more human.”

Indeed, for Asian Americans, Hong puts into words so many experiences that have remained silent and invisible within us. Having language for these minor feelings—”minor” as in the melancholy music scale but also feelings that have been dismissed as minor by others—is like uncovering whole layers of the human experience, both for those inside and outside the Asian American community. Hong lends her lived experiences as a Korean American daughter of immigrant parents, as well as her sharp insights and historical research, to these beautifully and honestly written essays. This 2020 book will be adapted for the screen by studio A24 and actress Greta Lee.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

2. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Genre: Satire/psychological thriller

New York Times bestselling author R.F. Kuang is back with another triumph, and Yellowface proves she’s a master of multiple book genres. Unlike her award-winning Poppy War fantasy book series or dark academia Babel, this 2023 novel is a darkly funny satire about the publishing industry that also ventures into the thriller realm. As perfectly encapsulated by its title, the novel follows a white woman who plagiarizes her Chinese American friend’s work and gets rebranded by her publisher as Asian. What ensues is a brilliant train wreck that will have your heart in your throat and yet compel you to keep reading. All the while, it’ll help you gain deeper insight into the racism and sexism rampant in the literary world and the impact of social media on modern-day authors.

Looking for your next great book? Read four of today’s bestselling novels in the time it takes to read one with Fiction Favorites!

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

3. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Genre: LGBTQ+/coming-of-age fiction

In this stunning 2019 debut novel by acclaimed poet Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese American son pens a letter to his mother, who will likely never read it, as she speaks little English and cannot read. She works brutal hours at a nail salon, coming home late to battle PTSD from what she witnessed as a child in Vietnam. Each line on each page of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous shimmers, and I couldn’t help but eagerly read many of them out loud to my partner, evidence of the magic that occurs when poets transfer their deep attention to language into the world of novels.

In sentences that will make your heart ache, the narrator writes to his mother, confessing how it felt to endure her abuse and about his summer job on a tobacco farm, where he fell in love with a boy addicted to opioids. Through words for his mother, we begin to contemplate what it means to live in America and what it means to have this brief and beautiful time on earth.

Rd Books Ecomm Welcome To The Hyunam Dong Bookshop Via Amazon.com

VIA MERCHANT VIA MERCHANT

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

4. Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

Genre: Slice-of-life fiction

Hwang Bo-Reum’s debut novel took South Korea by storm for its refreshing positivity and rejection of hypercapitalism, which is why the English translation by Shanna Tan was listed as one of Debutiful‘s Most Anticipated Books of 2024. This bestseller follows a burned-out Yeongju, who quits her city job and divorces her husband to open a small bookstore. As Yeongju learns what it actually takes to be a successful bookseller, she meets a menagerie of fellow book lovers and lost souls, who are really the heart of this charming, feel-good book. Intentionally slow-paced and meandering, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop was indeed a welcome break from the faster-paced and heavier books on my reading list—the perfect book to read while curled up in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee on a lazy Sunday.

Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more books, humor, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

5. Good Talk by Mira Jacob

Genre: Graphic memoir

As children learn about the world, they often ask questions that make us rethink what we take for granted. In this 2018 graphic memoir, author Mira Jacob’s 6-year-old son is full of questions—some poignant, some funny—all of which lead to very good talks. As rifts in their interracial family surface with the 2016 presidential election, these questions grow in complexity, causing Jacob to reflect on her own American experience and sense of identity. With pictures and dialogue brimming with authenticity, the book is at once powerful and inviting. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations is one of the most honest books about race relations in America and is told with immense love, humor and insight.

Rd Books Ecomm The Fox Wife Via Amazon.com

VIA MERCHANT VIA MERCHANT

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

6. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Genre: Fantasy/folk tale

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo is celebrated for her rich stories steeped in Chinese and Malaysian mythology and history, with her first novel, The Ghost Bride, adapted into a Netflix original series. Her latest, 2024’s The Fox Wife, explores the East Asian myth of beautiful, shape-shifting fox spirits, told from the perspectives of a fox girl named Snow and an aging detective named Bao. Although this is a tale of murder, revenge and magical realism, it’s a quiet and dignified one that will immerse you in the enchanting winters of early 1900s Manchuria.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

7. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Genre: Science fiction/short stories

Stories of Your Life and Others is for readers of both short stories and sci-fi books. Published in 2002 to critical acclaim and awards, this book was more than 10 years in the making. Ted Chiang spent five years researching linguistics to write one of the stories in this collection, “Story of Your Life,” which won the Nebula Award for Best Novella and later became the basis for the film Arrival starring Amy Adams. The story centers on a linguist who learns to communicate with visiting aliens and, in the process, begins to experience time differently. All of Chiang’s stories will make you pause and think more deeply about the reality we live in and the reality he presents to us. He brings big concepts like free will, love, time and knowledge into sharp focus with stories that are intimate and full of humanity.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

8. Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

Genre: Short stories

For fans of short fiction, there is no more beautifully written choice than Afterparties, a 2021 short story collection about Cambodian American life in Central Valley, California. Each story showcases the mastery of Anthony Veasna So, a young debut writer who died the winter before this book was published. So’s characters pulse with life, and I felt like I personally came to know both the older generation—survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide—and the younger generation, who deftly wield humor to process this trauma.

Though self-contained, the short stories are interconnected by characters who share a community. Maly first appears as the beautiful, charismatic cousin of a narrator. Her deceased mom is said to be reincarnated as a baby, and the family is throwing a party to celebrate her return. Maly reappears in a story when that baby is in her 20s and working as a nurse. Maly’s boyfriend has his own story at a Buddhist temple, where he stays to mourn the death of his father. And while I too mourned the death of the young writer, I found comfort in the way these characters return, reassuring me that So himself continues to live in the legacy of his radiant stories.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

9. The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

Genre: Mystery/thriller

Part murder mystery, part dark comedy, Parini Shroff’s 2023 debut novel, The Bandit Queens, follows a woman named Geeta whom everyone believes murdered her abusive husband (even though she insists she didn’t). In a small village in India, women come to Geeta for advice on how to get rid of their husbands, and together they support one another through the pains of misogyny and caste discrimination. While most mystery books focus on the crime and the victim, Shroff uses the narrative as an opportunity to paint a stark and complex portrayal of women’s rights in India and to celebrate the power of sisterhood.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

10. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Genre: Historical fiction/family saga

Before this book was a phenomenon on Apple TV, it was a National Book Award finalist and Roxane Gay’s favorite book of 2017. Pachinko is Min Jin Lee’s second novel (her debut, Free Food for Millionaires, is also excellent), and its scope is ambitious and sweeping. Following four generations of a poor Korean family, the story illuminates the heartrending choices that must be made without financial freedom and how fortune can fluctuate between generations but wounds of displacement linger.

The length of this book may appear intimidating, but Lee’s writing is transportive—before I knew it, I felt like I traveled the years and countries with this family as if they were my own. I cried (a lot!) alongside them and had a hard time leaving them when the book ended. Luckily, we can see them reimagined on TV … or start again from page 1 whenever we want.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

The Parted Earth by Anjali Enjeti

11. The Parted Earth by Anjali Enjeti

Genre: Historical fiction

If you can’t get enough of intergenerational stories like Pachinko, this 2021 debut novel by Anjali Enjeti is one to check out. Enjeti is one of the most exciting new Asian authors and also published a nonfiction book of essays called Southbound the same year. The Parted Earth begins in 1947 during the Partition of India, when British colonizers sliced borders between India and Pakistan along religious lines, causing devastating displacement for millions of people. Scholars have called it the largest migration in human history, and Enjeti brings the reader into a family story to intimately show the loss and reverberating pain of this time. Across 70 years, three generations of women and the continents where they sought to find themselves, The Parted Earth gifts us with a poignant family saga. If you enjoy listening to audiobooks, this is one you won’t want to miss. Its narrator, Deepti Gupta, won the Audie Award for Best Female Narrator of 2022.

The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

12. The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

Genre: Memoir

Another recommendation for fans of intergenerational stories: The Magical Language of Others. If you loved watching the mother-daughter dynamic in Everything Everywhere All at Once as much as I did, you’ll love this 2020 award-winning memoir, a meditation on absence, forgiveness and cultural and language gaps.

When teenage Eun Ji’s parents move to South Korea for work, she finds herself facing adolescence in America without them. Through letters written in Korean, her mother tries to reach her, apologize to her and communicate her love, but it is not until years later that E.J. translates the letters and goes back in time to understand her young self, her mother, her grandmothers and the ways in which they are all a continuation of one another. My immigrant mother and I read the Korean letters in the book together, and it is because of Koh’s background in poetry and translation that her intimate relationship with language lights the pages of this memoir and makes for a revelatory reading experience.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

13. Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

Genre: Historical fiction

After the war in Vietnam, many of the tens of thousands of offspring between American GIs and Vietnamese women became known as the forgotten “children of the dust.” Growing up, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai remembers seeing glimpses of the discrimination these Amerasians faced, and she dedicated part of her life to interviewing and reuniting American veterans with their children. Her stunning and heartbreaking 2023 novel, Dust Child, takes these experiences and fictionalizes them through the interwoven stories of two Sài Gòn bar girls, an American veteran and a Black Vietnamese man who seeks to find his family in the United States. Although the subject matter can be difficult to read at times, this historical fiction book offers glimmers of hope and compassion that transcend borders and language.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

14. The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Genre: Coming-of-age fiction

The Leavers is a story of immigration, separation, adoption, identity, America, China, work, art and so much more. If this sounds ambitious, that’s because it is, but Lisa Ko’s skillful writing seamlessly weaves all these themes through the lives of unforgettable characters. The heart of the story unfolds between Deming and his mother, Polly. One day, when he is just 11 years old, she disappears, leaving him alone and confused. Did she choose to leave, or was she taken away? This question is never absent from his mind, even as he is adopted and ushered into a new life with a new name. Eventually, he will learn that the truth of what happened to his mother is far more complicated than he imagined. This beautiful book surfaces questions about what we owe one another and what we owe ourselves. It’s no wonder this debut novel was on NPR’s Best Books of 2017 list.

Rd Books Ecomm Memory Piece Via Amazon.com

VIA MERCHANT VIA MERCHANT

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

15. Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

Genre: Coming-of-age fiction/saga

Similar to The Leavers, Lisa Ko’s 2024 novel, Memory Piece, is a character-driven masterpiece that navigates human connections, social justice issues and all of the heartbreak in between. The novel is split into three parts, following Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong and Ellen Ng as they bond as teenage outcasts in the 1980s, navigate their wildly different careers in the early 2000s and eventually look back on it all during the dystopian 2040s. While the thought-provoking social commentary on art, tech and capitalism can be heavy-handed at times, I loved that Ko does not lose sight of the lifelong female friendship holding everything together or the idea that even though friendships mature and inevitably change with the world around us, they are no less meaningful or authentic.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport

16. Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport

Genre: Magical realism/historical fiction

Kiana Davenport’s 1994 novel has become a modern classic of Hawaiian literature. At well over 500 pages, this rich and multifaceted narrative is hard to summarize, but at its heart, it’s the story of Pono, a matriarch and seer of the future, and her four granddaughters, each distinct from one another and from her. Written in lyrical language that evokes the crash of waves and the lushness of the forest, Shark Dialogues weaves Hawaiian history with mythology and family secrets with family duty. It gives generously to the reader, unleashing a plot as wild and potent as nature itself. Through the stories of Pono and her mixed-heritage granddaughters, Shark Dialogues adds to the tapestry of Asian American books, showing parts of Hawaii never published before.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.

17. Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.

Genre: LGBTQ+ memoir

Queer hijabi Muslim immigrant Lamya H. made waves with her 2023 memoir, Hijab Butch Blues. Structured around Islamic prophets and her interpretation of their stories from the Quran, the book explores the complex intersectionality of her sexuality and faith. Some of the subject matter around religion, mental health and racism may be triggering for some readers, but the author’s poignant prose and message of finding self-love and acceptance is worth the read. Make sure to add these other LGBTQ+ books to your bookshelf as well.

11. All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

18. All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

Genre: Memoir

Published in 2018 and studded with awards and accolades, All You Can Ever Know is Nicole Chung’s insightful, complex and nuanced account of her adoption. Growing up, her adoptive parents told her a simple and sweet version of how their family came to be. As Chung ventures into adulthood, pregnancy and parenthood, she begins to question her origin story and seeks answers. In a memoir that is as page-turning as it is thought-provoking, Chung uncovers family secrets, beautiful surprises and a new origin story that is anything but simple. She writes with great compassion for her birth family and her adoptive family, and generously shares with readers her experience as a transracial adoptee.

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

19. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

Genre: Magical realism

Award-winning author Ruth Ozeki’s 2021 novel plays with form and what is real in ways that are both delightful and heartbreaking. Just as he enters adolescence, Benny Oh loses his father, and he begins to hear the voices of objects, not in words but in tones. A pencil, a window, a pair of scissors—he hears their moods, histories and desires. At the same time, his mother fills their house with objects in her grief, a fortress of protection that makes Benny’s life at home unbearably loud. The only place he can find solace is in the library. There, he’ll find a voice that leads him to tell his complicated and difficult story. A novel that is as wide in scope as it is deep in compassion, The Book of Form and Emptiness will have you viewing the world differently when you are finished.

When Breath Becomes Air By Paul Kalanithi Via Amazon Ecomm

via amazon.com VIA MERCHANT

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

20. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Genre: Memoir

Paul Kalanithi was a talented neurosurgeon who also studied literature, and his 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, tells a story from both sides of death’s threshold. After a diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer, he began to pen this book, a reflection on his life, his dreams, his mortality and the end. In writing that is both evocative and precise, he speaks right to the heart of all our fears and hopes. Kalanithi invites us into his life and death in an intimate way that allows us to grapple with our own impermanence.

This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila

21. This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila

Genre: Short stories

In this 2013 debut short story collection, Kristiana Kahakauwila takes back the narrative that exoticizes Hawaii as only a vacation spot and lets the voices of the islands tell their own tales. The first story centers on a young tourist’s misadventure, and it’s narrated by the groups of local women who observe her. In the collective “we” voice, we hear from hotel housekeeping staff, surfers and businesswomen. Kahakauwila’s fresh use of this chorus to guide us sets the tone for this collection of six distinct yet connected stories. She traverses divides between class and race and between mainland and island life, making the reader question preconceived ideas of paradise. Each story will make you eager for the next. Joyce Carol Oates calls it “vividly imagined, beautifully written, at times almost unbearably suspenseful.”

Rd Books Ecomm The Fetishist Via Amazon.com

VIA MERCHANT VIA MERCHANT

The Fetishist by Katherine Min

22. The Fetishist by Katherine Min

Genre: Dark comedy/feminist fiction

Courageous and savagely funny, Katherine Min’s The Fetishist examines the complexity of racial and sexual politics. This 2024 novel opens with an estranged couple: Daniel, the titular Asian fetishist, and Alma, a Korean American cellist who looks back on the white men she dated, wondering if she was ever loved for who she actually is. However, it’s Kyoko, a Japanese American punk rocker hell-bent on revenge against Daniel, who lights every scene with gasoline.

Reading these three wildly different perspectives, I felt both enraged and seen, recognizing my own frustrating and confusing dating experiences of being stereotyped and objectified, and I found myself ultimately cheering for Kyoko. Written in 2014, before the #MeToo movement, this work of feminist fiction was posthumously published—Min’s daughter recovered the draft years after her mother died of cancer—and it’s about time Katherine Min received the accolades she deserved.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America by Julia Lee

23. Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America by Julia Lee

Genre: Memoir/cultural criticism

While the United States is often seen as a melting pot or mosaic of cultures, an uncomfortable truth is that matters of race can still be incredibly black and white. In Biting the Hand, her poignant 2023 memoir, Julia Lee confronts the racism she has experienced throughout her life and the myth of the model minority, all while grappling with the racial positionality of Asian Americans in a country that too often asks us to choose sides in a conversation dominated by binary racial dynamics. In doing so, Lee weaves a deeply personal narrative, casting a retrospective gaze on the events that shaped her identity, from the Los Angeles riots of the early ’90s to the social justice movements of the 2010s. But while inherently historical, this nonfiction book, at its heart, attempts to get at a singular question: What does it mean to be truly seen?

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

24. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Genre: Literary fiction

Celeste Ng is one of the most well-known Asian authors and is lauded for stories that thread suspense with psychological insight. Little Fires Everywhere is her second novel, published in 2017 and adapted for television by Hulu in 2020. It follows the Richardsons, a well-meaning and picture-perfect suburban family whose lives are shaken up by the arrival of a single mother who rents a house from them. While I enjoyed watching the two mothers face uncomfortable truths as their children’s lives become entangled, I found the subplot of a custody battle over an adopted Asian American baby to be the most compelling story line. Popular among book clubs, this story will keep the conversation going.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor

25. Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor

Genre: Crime thriller/family saga

If you enjoyed Martin Scorsese’s The Godfather or Goodfellas, you’ll love Deepti Kapoor’s 2023 novel, Age of Vice. Set in the underworld of the lavishly wealthy of India, the novel is an action-packed thriller that explores corruption, sociopolitical tensions and forbidden love. This is admittedly a long one, but with Kapoor’s use of tension and compelling storytelling, the payoff is absolutely worth it.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

The Body Papers by Grace Talusan

26. The Body Papers by Grace Talusan

Genre: Memoir

Winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, this 2019 memoir-in-essays traces Grace Talusan’s journey from the Philippines to New England and back again. After an expired visa, her family lived in fear of deportation, and Talusan lived in fear of her grandfather’s abusive nightly visits. Through these essays, we see how a body documents trauma, how the documenting of bodies can create trauma and how the keeping of secrets can harm bodies across generations. By voicing what was previously silenced, Talusan offers strength and protection to those who follow. Moving, courageous and masterfully written, this memoir is not to be missed.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

27. Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

Genre: Family saga

A sweeping tale of motherhood and survival, this 2023 novel follows the lives of three generations of strong Vietnamese American women. In the aftermath of their beloved matriarch’s death, Ann and her mother Huong must come together in their decrepit mansion in the Florida swampland to process their grief and heal their relationship. Banyan Moon is, at times, historical fiction that dives into the traumas of the war in Vietnam (you may want to keep a box of tissues handy if sad books make you cry easily), but it also reads like a fairy tale and is a beautiful testament to the things we do for love.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Black Ice Matter by Gina Cole

28. Black Ice Matter by Gina Cole

Genre: Short stories

Although not as widely read as some of the blockbuster Asian and Asian American books on this list, Black Ice Matter deserves more attention. In 2017, it won Best First Book of Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, where judges called Gina Cole “a new, assured and vibrant voice.” Of Fijian heritage, Cole resides in New Zealand and centers this collection of short stories in the Asia Pacific region, including New Zealand and Fiji. With writing that is deft and vivid, she plumbs extremes of hot and cold, modern society and prehistory, life and death. Across each of these 13 tales, Cole’s voice rings clear through the darkness.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

29. Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Genre: Memoir

When “Emily Doe” was assaulted by Brock Turner in 2015, the media and the courtroom focused on what a promising young man he was. He went to Stanford. He was a swimmer. But what about the woman he assaulted? They tried to paint her as unreliable, as disposable, but “Emily Doe” wanted the world to know she was Chanel Miller, an artist, a writer, a woman of exceptional promise who raised her voice to fight for all survivors of sexual assault. Her victim impact statement went viral on BuzzFeed, and Know My Name, her 2020 memoir, went on to win prizes and influence laws. This book shines a light on the lonely, harrowing experience of survivors and stands as a beacon of hope on the road to healing.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

30. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Genre: Romance

As far as pop-culture Asian American books go, this one has become iconic: Chances are, you’ve seen the film version or at least heard of Crazy Rich Asians. Featuring the first all-Asian cast since 1993’s The Joy Luck Club, the movie was a groundbreaking moment for Asian Americans. Even if you’ve seen the film, the 2013 novel will be hard to put down. The premise is the same: Rachel Chu and Nicholas Young begin dating in New York, but when they go to Nick’s home in Singapore, Rachel learns his family is rich—like, crazy rich—and not everyone is happy about their relationship. The book also holds so many more delicious layers, family secrets and tender moments. It’s fun from beginning to end, and if you enjoy it, you’ll be pleased to learn there are two more novels in this romance book series.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

31. Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

Genre: Horror

It’s rare to find horror books in Asian American literature and even rarer to find one that’s fun as well. Ling Ling Huang’s debut 2023 novel, Natural Beauty, follows a talented pianist who drops out of her music conservatory in order to work in a luxury beauty and wellness store when her immigrant parents get into a serious car accident. As the protagonist falls deeper into strange beauty practices and the inner circle of the wealthy and charismatic owners, the novel gets creepier and creepier, culminating in a brilliant final act. Come for Huang’s biting commentary on capitalism and the beauty industry; stay for the wild ride.

Long Live The Tribe Of The Fatherless Girls By T Kira Madden Via Bookshop.org

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T. Kira Madden

32. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T. Kira Madden

Genre: Memoir

T. Kira Madden’s 2019 coming-of-age memoir, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, is about growing up in Boca Raton as a queer girl of native Hawaiian, Chinese, Irish and Eastern European Jewish descent. To read this book is to revel in its humor and insight, sometimes bright and sparkling, other times singed with pain. With boundless love, Madden makes vivid her parents’ struggle with drug addiction, the loss of her father and her kinship with other fatherless girls. Her writing extends the boundaries of family and the possibilities of what a memoir can be. The New York Times hailed it as “a fearless debut,” and author Chanel Miller called it “the book I wish I’d had growing up.”

Rd Books Ecomm The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years Via Amazon.com

VIA MERCHANT VIA MERCHANT

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

33. The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

Genre: Gothic fiction/romance

As a fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Isabel Allende’s The House of Spirits, I couldn’t wait to read Shubnum Khan’s 2024 novel, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years. Set in a crumbling seaside mansion in South Africa, where a Muslim Indian community resides, the book follows Meena in the 1930s, Sana in the present day and the djinn that watches over both of them. Khan defies the limits of genre by imbuing elements of gothic horror, historical fiction, magical realism and romance into her lyrical prose, and the haunting beauty of the story stayed with me for weeks after reading.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

34. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Genre: Feminist fiction

Sometimes funny and poignant, other times dark and strange, Breasts and Eggs is about an aspiring writer’s relationship with her bar hostess sister and niece, as well as her fertility journey in modern-day Japan. Mieko Kawakami explores the issues surrounding women’s bodily autonomy in Japan, where (I was shocked to learn) reproductive laws are still stacked against single women, especially working-class single women. Despite the sobering topic, I loved Kawakami’s irreverent tone and characters who feel both real and absurd. It’s no wonder this 2020 novel was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of Time‘s Best Books of 2020.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

35. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Genre: YA historical fiction/LGBTQ+ romance

Winner of the 2021 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, this is Malinda Lo’s sixth novel, and her mastery of the form is clear. Beautifully written and deeply researched, Last Night at the Telegraph Club is both a romantic teen novel and a work of historical fiction, taking place in 1954 in San Francisco. At a time when it is dangerous to be either Chinese or queer, 17-year-old Lily Hu begins to learn what it means to be both. As she and her classmate, Kathleen Miller, find themselves drawn to each other more and more, Lily grapples with what her family would think, how her queerness might endanger them and how much risk comes with love. With the tension of McCarthyism, racism and homophobia humming in the background, this high-stakes story soars with hope.

VIA MERCHANT VIA MERCHANT

Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang

36. Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang

Genre: Fairy tale/LGBTQ+ short stories

Winner of the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, K-Ming Chang’s Gods of Want is a master class in prose-poetry. I absolutely devoured these surrealist short stories of different women whose immigrant and/or queer experiences are tangled in the fantastical and mythological. Be warned: Chang does not shy away from the erotic or the gross and viscerally violent, and the wandering stories are generally unconcerned with plot. While this was exactly why I loved this collection, it’s admittedly not for everyone. Awarded the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” prize in 2020, Chang writes poetry and fiction that are luminous, exquisitely strange and wise beyond her years.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

37. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

Genre: Romance

For readers looking for a happy-ending romance, Helen Hoang’s The Bride Test delivers a story of heart, hope and very steamy love. Hoang was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2016, and she’s been writing romance novels with neurodiverse characters ever since. The Bride Test, published in 2019, is her second novel and follows Khai, a handsome and eternally single young man. His autism makes him particular about the people he spends time with, and he experiences emotions differently from his family. He thinks he’s incapable of love until the beautiful and tenacious Esme arrives from Vietnam. You can’t help but root for these characters and will fall in love with them as they find love with each other.

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns

38. Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns

Genre: LGBTQ+ satire

I know what you’re thinking: We’ve all had it up to here with remakes, reboots and retellings of classics and cult favorites. But Priya Guns’s 2023 novel, Your Driver Is Waiting, is so much more than a gender-flipped, race-swapped retelling of the iconic 1976 movie Taxi Driver in an Uber world. Although our main character, Damiani, is indeed a lonely (and slightly unhinged) taxi driver in a corrupt city, and she too falls madly in love with a rich, white woman, this “love story” stands on its own legs with its biting humor, feminine rage and criticism of capitalism and performative allyship.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

via merchant VIA MERCHANT

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

39. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Genre: YA romance

For the younger generation (or anyone looking for a light teen read), Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series is a true pleasure. In this first installment, Lara Jean shies away from romance, except in her head. She has never had a boyfriend, but she’s written love letters every time she’s had a crush—then hidden them, never to be opened. When someone mails her five letters to five past crushes, her love life might actually leave the page and become more than a fantasy. With humor, sweetness and just a touch of teenage angst, Lara Jean lets us trade our real-life dramas for hers. If three books aren’t enough, you can watch the three movie adaptations on Netflix. When you’re done, move on to Han’s other YA book series and read The Summer I Turned Pretty books in order.

Rd Books Ecom One Last Word Via Amazon.com

VIA MERCHANT VIA MERCHANT

One Last Word by Suzanne Park

40. One Last Word by Suzanne Park

If you consider yourself a fan of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, it’s time to meet Suzanne Park’s latest novel, One Last Word. It’s a grown-up twist on the sent-by-accident plot: Sara Chae has created an app that allows users to send personal messages after their death. The messages are supposed to stay private, but when a case of mistaken identity leads the app to send all of Sara’s drafts while she’s very much alive, she has to face the fallout of speaking her mind. And that includes facing the crush who received one of her notes. The setup makes for a light, fun beach read—grab this one when you want an escape punctuated by laughter and swoony scenes.

72 The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan Via Amazon

via amazon.com VIA MERCHANT