CHILDREN OF THE JOY LUCK CLUB
In April, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone by writing a daily Isolation Journals blog post. In May, I decided to confront my aversion to self-promotion by posting a daily selfie on my Instagram site. I could only do so my shielding myself, figuratively and often literally, behind a book and author I admire. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month provided the perfect excuse.
My Instagram collection of APAHM books is intentionally eclectic. It includes acclaimed literary fiction, fun and frothy beach reads, thought-provoking memoir and non-fiction, compelling young adult and middle-grade books, even a terrific graphic novel. I tried to focus on debuts — both debuts of now-established authors as well as my fellow 2020 Debuts. Some are written by my friends from the Writers Grotto. And honestly, some I added after Googling “books to read during APAHM” and going down the rabbit hole of the internet. My wallet is now a few hundred dollars lighter.
This collection doesn’t even begin to capture the range of APAHM books out there. It’s just the tip of the iceberg — which makes me so happy. As much as I loved the Little House books and E.B. White and Roald Dahl as a child, and then Charles Dickens and John Irving and Zora Neale Hurston as a young adult, none of them spoke to my Asian-American experience.
And then came Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. I distinctly remember reading it shortly after its publication in 1989. It was the first book in which I saw myself. It will come as no surprise to my friends and family that I related to Waverly Jong, the overachiever whose exterior success hides internal conflicts. To this day, my husband likes to joke whenever possible, “all this needs is a little soy sauce.” (Fun fact: I’m family friends with the Korean-American actor who played Ken — Lena’s new fiance — in the movie adaptation. He later earned fame as Woo, the guy who urinates on The Dude’s carpet in The Big Lebowski.)
Today, I capped off my month-long APAHM collection with a middle-grade book, Stand Up, Yumi Chung!, about a Korean-American girl who doesn’t feel like she quite fits in, toggling between her duty to obey her parents and her desire to do what makes her happy. How I wish this book had been available when I was young — both for people like me and my siblings to feel less isolated and for some of our classmates to learn empathy for people who are different from them.
The heart-breaking events of this past week demonstrate that now, more than ever, we need diverse books. Not just in May for APAHM. Not just for African-American History Month or Latinx Heritage Month. But every single day.
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Friends have asked me to compile a “top five” list of my APAHM selections, which I just couldn’t bring myself to do. Instead, I’ve organized them by general (and imperfect) categories, so you can choose based on the kinds of books you like to read.
Evocative Historical Fiction
How Much of These Hills is Gold (C Pam Zhang)
If You Leave Me (Crystal Hana Kim)
The Calligrapher’s Daughter (Eugenia Kim)
The Mountains Sing (Nguyen Phan Que Mai)
Thought-Provoking Non-Fiction
All You Can Ever Know (Nicole Chung)
Almost American Girl (YA) (Robin Ha)
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (Alexander Chee)
Minor Feelings (Cathy Park Hong)
Why We Swim (Bonnie Tsui)
Thrilling and Mysterious
A Beautiful Poison (Lydia Kang)
Miracle Creek (Angie Kim)
The Missing Sister (Elle Marr)
On the Lighter Side
A Sweet Mess (Jayci Lee)
Loathe at First Sight (Suzanne Park)
Mimi Lee Gets A Clue (Jennifer J. Chow)
Temporary Wife Temptation (Jayci Lee)
The Perfect Escape (YA) (Suzanne Park)
Female Friendships in the Big City
A River of Stars (Vanessa Hua)
Free Food for Millionaires (Min Jin Lee)
If I Had Your Face (Frances Cha)
Immigrant Families across Generations
Days of Distraction (Alexandra Chang)
Native Speaker (Chang-Rae Lee)
Number One Chinese Restaurant (Lillian Li)
The Caregiver (Samuel Park)
This Time Will Be Different (YA) (Misa Sugiura)
Spare and Intense
The Incendiaries (R.O. Kwon)
The Unpassing (Chia-Chia Lin)
The Magic of First Love
Anna K (YA) (Jenny Lee)
Frankly in Love (YA) (David Yoon)
Fascinating SciFi/Dystopia
Control (YA) (Lydia Kang)
Exhalation (Ted Chiang)
Girl Power
Seesaw Girl (middle-grade) (Linda Sue Park)
Stand Up, Yumi Chung! (middle-grade) (Jessica Kim)
First Love and Girl Power and Generations and More
If you don’t feel like reading a book, be sure to watch The Half of It, the Netflix original movie written and directed by Alice Yu, which I featured on the first day of APAHM