11 books for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

It is hard to overstate the role Asian immigrants and Asian Americans have played in the development of Arizona. They built our railroads, worked in our mines, and launched successful businesses from Flagstaff to Bisbee to Globe.

So all of us have reason to celebrate during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May.

To help mark the occasion, volunteers with the Tucson Festival of Books were asked to recommend recently published and about-to-be published books featuring our Asian and Island neighbors. It didn’t take them long to suggest these:

“Lady Tan’s Circle of Women” by Lisa See won’t be released until June 6, but it will be worth the wait. All of See’s books are. This time, she will introduce us to a young Chinese woman learning the intricacies of Chinese medicine and the challenges of becoming a woman doctor at a time Chinese women were discouraged from entering the field. — Lynn Wiese Sneyd

“Clark and Division” by Naomi Hirahara packs a one-two punch as a compelling historical novel and an intriguing mystery. It features the Ito family, Americans of Japanese descent who were exiled from Los Angeles to an Arizona internment camp in 1942 and later released in Chicago. There, the oldest daughter was murdered. — Kim Peters

“Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner is a memoir by a well-known singer and songwriter who recalls being a young Korean girl trying to fit in in very white Eugene, Oregon. As a young adult, she considered herself far more American than Korean. Then her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. One of 2021’s best books, the paperback edition was released last month. — Emily Walsh

“Aina Hanau: Birth Land” by Brandy Nalani McDougall is a powerful collection of poems that explore motherhood, Hawaii and the climate crisis. Published by University of Arizona Press, it will be available June 23. — Savannah Hicks

“The Silence That Binds Us” by Joanna Ho is a young adult novel about a Chinese American teen who finds her voice to fight Asian hate while grieving her brother’s suicide. Silence, she knew, can bind families together. It can also prevent them from standing up against hate and discrimination. — Kathy Short

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“The Many Daughters of Afong Moy” by Jamie Ford. The great-grandson of a Chinese immigrant, Ford has explored his heritage in all his many bestsellers. His first was “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” His latest connects the descendants of Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in the United States. — Bill Finley

“Anon” by UA graduate Sophia Terazawa is a collection of love poems that lean on the idea that beauty can heal. An important setting is the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. — Estella Gonzalez

“Into the Riverlands” by Nghi Vo is another bright, colorful novella from Vo’s Singing Hills series. It follows a cleric named Chih and his travels to record tales of the notorious martial artists who still haunt the region. His companion is Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory. — Tricia Clapp

“Iron Widow” by Xiran Jay Zhao is a young adult work of feminist science fiction, featuring the only female emperor in Chinese history. The book was first released in 2021 and the paperback edition was published in February. — Jeaiza Quinones Ivory

“Partners in Crime” by Alisha Rai is an Indian matchmaker tale featuring Mira Matel, who has a successful accounting career and many good friends. What she doesn’t have is someone to share her life with, so she sets out with a spreadsheet and professional help to meet that someone special. Obviously, the search doesn’t take her where she thought it would go. — Jessica Pryde

“Herbs and Roots” by Tamara Venit Shelton is an innovative, deeply researched history of Chinese medicine in America and the surprising interplay between Eastern and Western medical practice. Shelton was in Tucson for two appearances last week. — Thea Chalow