#aapi book

[chanelslibrary]

🌙𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰🌙

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

In 1920’s Shanghai, the city is caught between two feuding gangs who are out for blood. The Scarlets, ruthless criminals who are trying to keep control of their native city, and their vicious rivals the White Flowers, who having been grappling for power for generations since their immigration from Russia. At the helm of each side are teenage heirs, Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov, former lovers and now bitter enemies. But with a string of mysterious deaths (in both the Scarlets and Flowers) linked to a contagious madness, Juliette and Roma must band together to save their gangs and their city.

So…this book was just an OK 3 stars. I love Romeo and Juliet, and I was so excited for a retelling especially set in China with a roaring 20s twist but this fell a little flat. The actual plot with the madness/mystery was interesting, but the romance was boring!! Maybe it’ll pick up in book 2, but there was no sexual tension, no smut, barely any backstory…I needed something more than one kiss!

Anyway, I’ll eventually read book 2. But I was definitely disappointed. How did you guys feel after reading this book?

Read if you love:

🥀Romeo and juliet retelling

🇨🇳China setting

✊🏼AAPI rep

🔥Slow burn

🔍Mystery

[dailydccomics]

"It's an honor to draw all 6 of this year's AAPI Heritage Month covers for @/DCOfficial, and to make it feel extra special I connected them into a giant celebration of some of the DCU's Asian characters." -Cliff Chiang on formerly Twitter

[lizard-reads-the-world]

🏝️Pacific Islander Books🌺

Okay, here it is! In "Asian and Pacific Islander" the second group often gets overshadowed, so here it is... a Pacific-only book list. This is of course by no means comprehensive. I tried to cover as many areas as I could find literature for. I've marked queer and disability rep based on book blurbs, but I have not read most of these (yet!). Feel free to comment if you know more!

Novels

Leaves of the Banyan Tree by Albert Wendt classic novel, Samoa The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt mythology epic, Samoa Scarlet Lies (series) by Lani Young romance, humor, Samoa (🏳️‍🌈 side character) Mata Oti: Eyes of Death by Lani Young zombie thriller, Samoa Telesā (series) by Lani Young YA paranormal romance, Samoa Scar of the Bamboo Leaf by Sieni A.M. YA contemporary, Samoa ♿ Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel literary novel, Samoa They Who Do Not Grieve by Sia Figiel literary novel, Samoa Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier Pacific fantasy, Guam author Turtle Under Ice by Juleah del Rosario YA contemporary, Filipina-CHamoru-American A Mansion on the Moon: A Guam Love Story by C Sablan Gault historical romance, generational, CHamoru (Guam) Lei and the Fire Goddess (series) by Malia Maunakea MG mythology adventure, Kānaka Maoli (Hawai'i)

House of Many Gods by Kiana Davenport generational novel, Hawai'i Song of the Exile by Kiana Davenport historical novel, Hawai'i The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera classic children's novel, Māori All That We Know by Shilo Kino contemporary, Māori ♿ The Pōrangi Boy by Shilo Kino YA contemporary, Māori How to Loiter in a Turf War by Coco Solid contemporary semi-autobiographical, multiple Pacific characters 🏳️‍🌈 The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach fantasy mystery, Māori 🏳️‍🌈 Kāwai: For Such a Time as This (series) by Monty Soutar pre-colonial epic, Māori Auē by Becky Manawatu contemporary novel, Māori Dawn Raid by Pauline (Vaeluaga) Smith MG historical 1970s, Samoan-Aotearoa Falling into Rarohenga by Steph Matuku YA fantasy, Māori The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke by Tina Makereti novel, historical, Māori 🏳️‍🌈

The Bone Tree by Airana Ngarewa novel, Māori Dirt Poor Islanders by Winnie Dunn novel, Tongan-Australian The Shark That Ate the Sun by John Puhiatau Pule literary novel, Niue [read here] Breadfruit (series) by Célestine Hitiura Vaite novel, humor, Tahiti Island of Shattered Dreams by Chantal T. Spitz historical novel, Tahiti Kalyana by Rajni Mala Khelawan novel, Fiji, Indian diaspora Maiba: A Novel of Papua New Guinea by Russell Soaba classic novel

Short Stories

This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila short stories, Hawai'i Tales of the Tikongs by Epeli Hau'ofa short stories, Tonga The Unpainted Mask by Steven Edmund Winduo short stories, Papua New Guinea

Poetry

‘Āina Hānau / Birth Land by Brandy Nālani McDougall poetry, Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Hawai'i) Ocean Mother by Arielle Taitano Lowe poetry, CHamoru (Guam) from unincorporated territory (series) by Craig Santos Perez poetry, CHamoru (Guam) Coconut Milk by Dan Taulapapa McMullin poetry, Samoa 🏳️‍🌈 Rangikura by Tayi Tibble poetry, Māori Goddess Muscle by Karlo Mila poetry, Tongan-Aotearoa Civilized Girl by Jully Makini poetry, Solomon Islands [read title poem here]

Nonfiction

Polynesian Panthers: Pacific Protest and Affirmative Action in Aotearoa New Zealand 1971 - 1981 edited by Dr Melani Anae, Leilani Tamu, Lautofa Luli Hine Toa by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku memoir, Māori activist 🏳️‍🌈 Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii by Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask Desert Warrior by M.B. Dallocchio memoir, CHamoru (Mariana Islands)🏳️‍🌈 No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies by Julian Aguon memoir, climate essays, CHamoru Don't Ever Whisper by Giff Johnson biography of Darlene Keju, Marshall Islands anti-nuclear activist [author not Pasifika] Samoan Queer Lives by Dan Taulapapa McMullin 🏳️‍🌈 Pasifika Heroes series by David Riley and Michel Mulipola illustrated legends/biographies, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands

Anthologies

Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures anthology, climate focus (🏳️‍🌈several contributors) Vā: Stories by women of the Moana anthology, Pacific women Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia, anthology Sista, Stanap Strong! anthology, Vanuatu Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia anthology, Kiribati, Palau, CHamoru, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, more An Ocean of Wonder: The Fantastic in the Pacific spec-fic anthology Hiwa: Contemporary Māori Short Stories edited by Paula Morris

Footnotes below:

Many of these will be indie/small press titles. I've tried to ensure they are available somewhere, even if it's just Kindle. A few (the Papua and Solomon Islands ones) you may need to inter-library loan.

Some authors have more books than listed, so please look into their full bibliography. Witi Ihimaera and Albert Wendt especially are pillars of Pacific literature and have many publications.

There are more Māori authors than listed here! But I wanted to keep a balanced list.

I have left out children's picture books of which there are many, though some may be locally published.

I included Sia Figiel for her contributions to Samoan literature despite her recent... troubles.

I am not PI, I just make lists. Feel free to correct any mistakes I've made or add more to the comments!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Good afternoon, my beloved bookish bats! May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI Heritage Month), which encompasses East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. To celebrate, here are 144 books that celebrate the cultures and identities within this beautiful community.

What was the last book by an AAPI author you read?

Please note that I'm one insignificant human making these guides with my free time, and I'm bound to make mistakes. Feel free to correct me if necessary. Thank you for your understanding.

[reverie-quotes]

If you don't believe it, go down to your local karaoke bar on a busy night. Wait until the third hour, when the drunk frat boys and gastropub waitresses with headshots are all done with Backstreet Boys and Alicia Keys and locate the slightly older Asian businessman standing patiently in line for his turn, his face warmly rouged on Crown or Japanese lager, and when he steps up and starts slaying "Country Roads," try not to laugh, or wink knowingly or clap a little too hard, because by the time he gets to "West Virginia, mountain mama," you're going to be singing along, and by the time he's done, you might understand why a seventy-seven-year-old guy from a tiny island in the Taiwan Strait who's been in a foreign country for two-thirds of his life can nail a song, note perfect, about wanting to go home.

— Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown

[redsugarx]

Year of the Snake Display @ Fremont Main Library

im late as hell but made a quick trip back home to set this display case up last week at Fremont Main Library in Fremont, CA (same place that the previous event was held) for AAPI Heritage Month!

[jkparkin]

Birds of Prey #21 (DC, May 2025) AAPI Heritage Month variant cover by Cliff Chiang

[helioscopepdx]

Green Turtle, the first Asian-American superhero! This poster was drawn by @stevelieber to celebrate the release of @geneluenyang and @sonnyliew's graphic novel, THE SHADOW HERO (published by @firstsecondbooks). You can grab prints of this poster in our Etsy store.

[thesophiewhit]

PHONING FAUST -- A Sapphic Novel of Demonic Contracts, Demisexuality, and Yearning by me! A cool queer author ~

Are you LGBT+ or BIPOC or just REALLY LOVE BOOKS? Interested in being an ARC reader and reading a book and helping a fellow queer indie author out? (Pretty please? -- ARC links all the way at the bottom of this post (beneath the rainbow banner) for those who like Sapphic demon x human angst books ~)

AND LOOK AT THE CHARACTER ART OF MEMPHIS (BADASS DEMON) AND DIAN (HUMAN) BY MY ARTIST FRIEND SNAX

https://linktr.ee/artsnaxk

ABOUT ME

Demisexual?? Queer? Nonbinary? All these were magical words to me until it hit...

Oh-- that's me.

It took me a while to come out as queer, longer to come out as nonbinary, and then some more time to reconcile all this with being a mixed Indonesian kid. A dash of mental health, a sprig of figuring out asexuality and neurodivergence. But atop all that? One thing has been constant.

I've always been a writer.

That's some live footage of me summoning some forces to reign my characters in from being feral.

WHY I WROTE PHONING FAUST

Well, well, well, after years of battling imposter's syndrome, I did it. I wrote another book! It's called PHONING FAUST and it's getting published with queer indie publishing company @ninestarpress-blog because they're all cool and LGBT+ and super talented!

Why did I write PHONING FAUST?

What is... a Faust?

A Faustian bargain is what's popularly known as the devil's bargain. A usually losing situation or a trick where the devil tricks someone out of their soul in exchange for ULTIMATE POWER!

I rewrote Faust to be Sapphic as can be. It stars a mixed Indonesian lesbian named Dian Faust who battles depression tooth and nail and ends up calling a mental health crisis hotline. Bc... she's lonely.

PAUSE-- and this is a horror comedy. Comedy. COMEDY-- you might say?

WHY? HOW? Sounds sad and depressing, right?

WHAT'S FAUST?

Well... in the original retelling version of Goethe's Faust (who retold it from folklore etc etc) the main character of Dr. Faustus accidentally summons the devil or something when he too is about to consider the meaning of life and it gets sad bc he doesn't see one so he makes the devil's bargain FOR ULTIMATE POWER. Or something.

But in my version-- it's based off my experiences as a queer person. Before I had community. Before I understood and accepted myself-- I had a rough time. For a whole bunch of factors outside of that-- I didn't feel like my life was in a good place. And even worse-- I felt isolated.

THE PLOT

I didn't want to bother my friends with my problems. So-- I'd call the Trevor Project or a crisis hotline just to have somebody to talk to. In the same way-- Dian Faust is struggling with depression in the story I write. So she calls a hotline like the Trevor Project just to not be alone.

And guess who she finds?

A super hot genderfluid devil called MEMPHIS, short for Mephistopheles. A pierced and tatted punk rocker who has an interest for telling tall tales and serving Dian Faust's every wish and command! (No, not like that!)

Because Dian Faust, like me, is a mixed Indonesian kid trying to figure out what it means to be queer AND demisexual (finding attraction only after really getting to emotionally connect with someone and feeling, as I explain in the book, a lack of that before then for anyone). And she's figuring plenty out--- including how to save her immortal soul and her feelings for a certain genderfluid demon but if you want to know more-- YOU CAN BUT YOU HAVE TO SCROLL TO THE END OF THIS POST TO FIND OUT !

I wrote this book PHONING FAUST (coming out in 2025 sometime with NineStar Press btw. I have these books CATCH LILI TOO and WAKE THE DEAD also starring Sapphic demiace MCs if it's helpful while you wait!

I WROTE MORE QUEER BOOKS (if interested)! (ARC SIGN UP LINK IS STILL BELOW THIS ONE THO! > FOLLOW THE RAINBOW !!)

MY OTHER QUEER BOOKS: https://sophiawhittemore.com/books/ ) <3 <3 <3

I wrote PHONING FAUST (train of thought, sorry, that's the neurodivergence) because I wanted people to feel less alone.

I was, like Dian Faust and like a lot of people, a queer person who felt like I was on an island unto myself. I didn't know who to turn to-- so I turned to no one. By reaching out to hotlines (no hot devils unfortunately), I managed to get the help I needed to avoid making rash decisions-- to get the help I needed to get better. To take that first step.

PHONING FAUST is a novel that raises the importance of mental health and finding community, and most importantly, not giving up. As Dian Faust says in my upcoming book...

There are stars out there-- I had only to see it.

***

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

🌈🌈🌈🌈ARC LINK SIGN UPS HERE 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

ARC LINK SIGN UPS IN LINKTREE <3

Want to be an ARC reader for this queer book starring a demisexual Sapphic couple and BIPOC cast?

Sign up here! : https://tr.ee/mWPM8I9Zev

***

Hmmm, demon contracts...now where might young 2010 emo me have heard that before... ? ?

[fated-mates]

@triviareads returns to The Collections Department with a celebration of AAPI Heritage Month.

[chanelslibrary]

🌙𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰🌙

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A smog has spread throughout the world depriving the planet of crops and slowly destroying wildlife. A young chef manages to escape the hellscape by getting a job on a luscious Italian mountaintop working for the global elite. Although food is abundant and decadent, and the air is fresh and clean, working for her mysterious employer and his high maintenance daughter comes with its own set of problems.

This book was fantastic! I loved the dystopian background, which felt so real like it could happen today (pollution creating a smog that wipes out plants and eventually animals). And it makes you think how it will affect careers such as chefs, farmers, scientists, meteorologists, etc. Zhang illustrates the chef’s thoughts and these characters so well with excellent prose, metaphors, and details! The research to get the ingredients and names for all of the recipes is so well done and meticulous to show the stark contrast between the wonderful life on the mountain and pollution in the rest of the world. Another great theme Zhang subtly weaved was the subjugation and interchangeably of Asian women. How they are seen as objects and not a whole person. I definitely recommend this book, especially the audiobook!!

Read if you love:

🏔️ Dystopian

👩🏻‍🍳 Culinary commentary

🌈 LGBTQ rep

✊🏼 AAPI rep

[duckprintspress]

Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with 22 Great Queer Reads!

May is wrapping up, and with the end of May comes the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. There are so so so many great books coming out by AAPI authors starring AAPI characters, and so – here’s a list of some of our favorites! All of these are either BY AAPI authors, have AAPI main characters, or – in most cases – both! The contributors to this list are: Shadaras, Tris Lawrence, Nina Waters, D.V. Morse, Terra P. Waters, theirprofoundbond, Annabeth Lynch and an anonymous contributor.

Not Your Sidekick (Sidekick Squad series) by C.B. Lee

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

“Eldest Daughter Seeks Her Wife” by N. C. Farrell from She Wears the Midnight Crown

Babel by R.F. Kuang

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

If You’ll Have Me by Eunnie

Roadqueen: Eternal Roadtrip to Love by Mira Ong Chua

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Away With the Fairies by Annabeth Lynch

Meal by Blue Delliquanti & Soleil Ho

Firebird by Sunmi

After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang

Iron Widow (Iron Widow series) by Xiran Jay Zhao

The Problem with Wishes by Annabeth Lynch

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Hold Me (Cyclone series) by Courtney Milan

Sea Change by Gina Chung

Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee

See a book you can’t live without? You can buy it through our Bookshop.org affiliate shop!

You can view this list, and all our other lists, as shelves on Goodreads.

[the-bi-library]

Here are some upcoming bi Asian books! Make sure to pre-order the ones that interest you! 🩷💜💙 Books listed: Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee The Dark Becomes Her by Judy I. Lin These Deathless Shores by P. H. Low Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar by Anahita Karthik Mistress of Lies by K. M. Enright Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao Please do let me know if I missed any books 💖

[jesncin]

IT'S GONNA BE MAY!! My queer Indonesian graphic novel about a trans moon boy going through Earth culture shock will be out this month, May 14th! Let us jam in unison to A1's Same Old Brand New You, which we can all agree is a trans anthem if we pretend hard enough.

Pre-order already if you haven't- there appears to be a discount on the HarperCollins page~ Tell your friends!!

[reverie-quotes]

I wanted to see the whole world for myself. I wanted to see the whole range of possibilities. Your life is yours. It doesn't belong to anyone else. I wanted to know what it would mean to live life on my own terms.

— Satoshi Yagisawa, Days a the Morisaki Bookshop

[jkparkin]

Batgirl #7 (DC, May 2025) AAPI Heritage Month variant cover by Cliff Chiang