Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Books for Adults

Becoming Ghost details the lives of refugees who escaped the Vietnam War and were utilized as extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now. This poetry collection uses persona, speculation, and the golden shovel form as a means of centering Vietnamese voices.

Deepa and Ruchi are 12 years old when they meet at their Catholic school in India, but their connection is swift and lasting. As the two girls grow up and face their families’ expectations and the limits of their ambitions, their friendship is marked by intimacy, jealousy, and suppressed desire. When Ruchi discovers a dangerous secret about Deepa’s husband’s wealth, both women are forced to weigh the tangled bonds of their friendship with their lives, and their families’, in the burgeoning Indian American community.

Leeann Wu’s hands have started glowing at the most inconvenient times, and the single mother and midwife doesn’t know why. Could it be perimenopause? A hallucination brought on by a lack of sleep? On top of that concerning development, her daughter is off to university in a few months, her tenuous relationship with her ob-gyn mother is in peril of cracking, and she’s attracted the attention of a younger man who sees far more than she’s comfortable with. Her hands, glowing or not, are already full.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl reflects on a life shaped by complexity, heritage, and faith. Born to a Korean Buddhist mother and a Jewish American father, she explores how two different family histories have been united through shared values of resilience, tradition, and hope.

In this enchanting collection of essays and interviews, poet Adrienne Su reflects on her journey as a creative writer and avid home cook, beginning at a neighbor’s dinner table in 1980s Atlanta–lingering over poems, poets, and connections between food and literature–and ending in her 2023 kitchen in central Pennsylvania.

A young woman is drawn into a dangerous game after being invited to the mazelike home of her childhood friend, a rumored witch, in this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines.

From an early age, Sara Kehaulani Goo was enchanted by her family’s land in Hawai’i. When a property tax bill arrives with a 500 percent increase, Sara and her family members are forced to make a decision about the property: fight to keep the land or sell to the next offshore millionaire. Part journalistic offering and part memoir, Kuleana interrogates deeper questions of identity, legacy, and what we owe to those who come before and after us.

Loud is part manual, part manifesto, and part memoir. It is a summoning cry to rid the internet (and our hearts, minds, and lives) of ‘terrible men’ and create a space to fight outdated patriarchal ideals. Above all, it makes it clear that behind Drew’s fearsome laugh is a mission and a life philosophy, a strategy for self-confidence from the inside out.

Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world, and despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic, she’s going places: she’s getting a promotion. Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires, the perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family’s problems. But when she meets William Cheung, company co-founder, she slowly unearths his secrets and finds herself falling in love.

A radiant, intimate novel of the longing that blooms between two boys over the course of one summer-about family, desire, and what we inherit.

Using examples ranging from Parasite to The Thousand and One Nights to the Mario video game franchise, Lien shows how storytelling staples in the West, such as the three-act structure and themes of empowerment and change, are far from universal. He introduces the East Asian four-act structure, as well as circular and nested structures, and explains how Eastern value systems such as collectivism can dictate form.

Hidden islands, poetic parrots, and souls trapped in coconuts—this is the world Kōrero finds herself thrust into when a stranger arrives in her remote island community. Her people are on the brink of starvation, and the wayward stranger offers them an impossible choice: they can remain in the only home they’ve ever known, or Kōrero can join him and lead her people to a bountiful future in the Kingdom of Tonga. What Kōrero and her people don’t know is that the promised refuge is no utopia.