The following is a listing of new and forthcoming titles on the history, culture, and contemporary lives and issues of Asian American and Pacific Islanders. This listing is for adult titles; for an extensive roundup of 2021 AAPI books for children and teens (with links to selected author Q&As), go to Beyond Stereotypes: 2021 AAPI Books for Young Readers.
ANDREWS MCMEEL
Starry Night, Blurry Dreams
Henn Kim, Sept.
Combining the emotional impact of poetry with the storytelling capabilities of graphic art, and inspired by music, fashion, literature, and nature, Kim navigates subjects like mental health, trauma, loneliness, and loss.
APOLLO
Shanghai Acrobat: A True Story of Courage and Perseverance from Revolutionary China
Jingjing Xue, translated by Bo Ai, out now
A memoir of the orphan boy who at age nine became a world-famous acrobat under China’s Communist regime; the author examines the personal and philosophical consequences of the Cultural Revolution, the despair of performing under the weight of ideology, and the mystifying experience of emigrating to a new nation and building a new life.
BERKLEY
Last Guard
Nalini Singh, out now
The twentieth entry in the author’s popular Psy Changeling series.
The Man Ban
Nicola Marsh, out now
Harper Ryland naturally meets the one guy she’s remotely interested in during her self-imposed man ban; the heroine of the story has Vitiligo, a skin condition, which results in self-consciousness and shame.
Tiger Mom’s Tale
Lyn Liao Butler, out now
When an American woman inherits the wealth of her Taiwanese family, she travels to confront them about their past betrayals.
What a Happy Family
Saumya Dave, out now
Set in the suburbs of Atlanta, a timeless immigrant story that examines the difference between first generation and second generation while bringing multiple perspectives to mental health.
The Heart Principle
Helen Hoang, Aug.
The third novel from bestselling author Hoang follows a young woman struggling with burnout as she learns to embrace the unexpected, while choosing between meeting expectations or embracing who she’s always been.
My Sweet Girl
Amanda Jayatissa, Sept.
A debut thriller blending Sri Lankan ghost stories with discussion of race and privilege, and featuring incisive commentary on “white savior complex” and the othering of people of color.
On Location
Sarah Echevarre Smith, Sept.
In the great outdoors of Utah, a documentary producer goes head to head with the man who ghosted her—a man who happens to be the newest member of her TV crew.
A Holly Jolly Diwali
Sonya Lalli, Oct.
While in Mumbai for a friend’s wedding, Niki meets Sameer––and just as she starts to imagine a future with him, a job offer from Seattle forces her to consider how she wants to live her life.
Donut Fall in Love
Jackie Lau, Nov.
When Ryan Kwok signs up to be a celebrity guest on a cooking show, he asks Lindsey McLeod to teach him her ways around the kitchen––and soon it’s not just the ovens that are heating up.
Mimi Lee Cracks the Code
Jennifer Chow, Nov.
Mimi's pet grooming business is taking off, as is her sleuthing career. Luckily, she's got a partner in crime: her cat, Marshmallow, who has plenty to say—too bad only Mimi can understand him. The third book in a series featuring new takes on the classic cozy novel.
The Singles Table
Sara Desai, Nov.
The more time Zara and Jay spend together at every singles table of the wedding season, the more they start to wonder if the perfect match they’re looking for is each other.
CAMBRIDGE UNIV.
American Survivors: Trans-Pacific Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Naoko Wake, out now
A narrative crafted from the oral histories–most published for the first time–of more than 130 Japanese American and Korean American atomic bomb survivors, their family members, community activists, and physicians.
CATAPULT
Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor
Anna Qu, Aug.
A debut that grapples with difficult questions about childhood trauma, mother love, the meaning of work, consumerism, the costs of immigration, and pitfalls of the American Dream.
Hao: Stories
Ye Chun, Sept.
This debut collection of short stories by a three-time Pushcart Prize winner follows Chinese women in both China and the United States to examine the ways in which women can be silenced as they grapple with sexism and racism, and how they find their own language to define their experience.
CENTRAL AVENUE
Turning to Wallpaper
Heidi Wong, Sept.
This collection of digital visual art paired with feminist poetry and emotive experiences is one woman’s homage to her Chinese heritage, her experience as an Asian woman, and the struggle and trauma she experienced while studying in New York City before and as the pandemic broke.
CHRONICLE
The Bridesmaid Handbook: A Helpful Guide for Staying Organized and Having Fun
Heather Lee, illus. by Agnesbic, Aug.
Tips, advice, interactive materials, and self-care strategies on being a brilliant bridesmaid.
High Vibe Home: Holistic Design for Beautiful Spaces with Healing, Balanced Energy
Kirsten Yadouga and Tara Donne, Aug.
An interior designer together with a modern feng shui expert teach readers how to design harmonious spaces that invite free-flowing, positive energy into their homes and lives.
Horizontal Parenting: How to Entertain Your Kid While Lying Down
Michelle Woo, illus. by Dasha Tolstikova, Aug.
Creative and practical advice for overworked parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and caretakers who “just need a minute,” this book includes 50 fun, effective, and hilarious games to play with children while lying down.
CHRONICLE PRISM
Senbazuru: One Thousand Steps to Happiness, Fold by Fold
Michael James Wong, Sept.
The renowned yoga and meditation teacher shows how to achieve happiness through Senbazuru, the tradition of folding one thousand paper cranes that encourages slowing down and taking many small steps on one’s personal path.
COLUMBIA UNIV.
World as Family: A Journey of Multi-Rooted Belongings
Vishakha N. Desai, out now
Through her personal story, Desai reframes the idea of what it means to be global, considering how to lead a life of multiple belongings without losing local and national affinities.
Faraway: A Novel
Lo Yi-Chin, translated by Jeremy Tiang, Sept.
A fictionalized version of the author finds himself stranded in mainland China attempting to bring his comatose father home. One of the most celebrated writers in Taiwan, Lo has been greatly influential throughout the Chinese-speaking world, but his work has not previously been translated into English.
Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America's Cups
Robert Hellyer, Oct.
How the 20th century history of U.S. racial prejudice against Japanese Americans shifted U.S. tea customs and created the preference for black tea over green, when green tea had long been preferred by tea drinkers across America.
COUNTERPOINT
Radiant Fugitives
Nawaaz Ahmed, Aug.
Following three generations of a Muslim Indian-American family, as events that transpire over the course of one fateful week in San Francisco and Texas unearth an accumulated lifetime of love, betrayal, and misunderstandings.
CROWN
The Loneliest Americans
Jay Caspian Kang, Oct.
A blend of family history and original reportage by a New York Times writer that explores and reimagines Asian American identity in a Black and white world.
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
Ai Weiwei, Nov.
The artist/activist explores the origins of his creativity and political beliefs through his own life story and that of his father––whose own creativity was stifled––while offering an understanding of the myriad forces that have shaped modern China, and a reminder of the urgent need to protect freedom of expression.
DAW
We Have Always Been Here
Lena Nguyen, out now
A debut blending psychological science fiction and locked-room mystery that explores issues like the ethics of AI, the effects of climate change, and the importance of mental health services.
Hollywood Heroine
Sarah Kuhn, Oct.
The next installment in Kuhn’s Heroine Complex series follows best friends and Asian American superheroines Evie Tanaka and Aveda Jupiter as they try to save the world while navigating the complexities of friendships and romance.
DEEP VELLUM
Winter Phoenix: Testimonies in Verse
Sophia Terazawa, Oct.
A debut collection of poems written loosely after the form of an international war crimes tribunal; the poet, a daughter of a Vietnamese refugee, navigates the epigenetics of trauma passed down, and across, the archives of war, dislocation, and witness.
DOUBLEDAY
Beautiful Country
Qian Julie Wang, Sept.
A memoir tracing the author’s 1994 arrival in New York City and her journey as an undocumented child living in extreme poverty, asking readers to confront what America takes from those it pretends don’t exist and what it means to criminalize the most human thing in the world: trying to make a home.
ECCO
Afterparties
Anthony Veasna So, Aug.
A story collection about Cambodian-American life that offers insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities.
Edge Case: A Novel
YZ Chin, Aug.
A biting office novel drawing on the author’s own experience of immigration, that skewers the ingrained sexism and racism in startup culture while meditating on marriage, estrangement, and the fractured nature of identity.
Beasts of a Little Land: A Novel
Juhea Kim, Dec.
An epic story of love, war, and redemption set against the backdrop of the Korean independence movement and Japanese occupation.
GRAND CENTRAL
Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir
Kat Chow, Aug.
Told through the prism of three generations of the author’s Chinese American family, an exploration of how kids of immigrants navigate unmapped terrain of traditions and grief.
Dava Shastri’s Last Day: A Novel
Kirthana Ramisetti, Nov.
A dying billionaire matriarch leaks news of her death early so she can examine her legacy—a decision that horrifies her children and inadvertently exposes secrets she has spent a lifetime keeping.
GROVE ATLANTIC
The Human Zoo: A Novel
Sabina Murray, Aug.
A Filipino American journalist must balance the aristocratic traditions of her extended family, seemingly at odds with both situation and circumstance, while tempering her stance towards a regime her loved ones are struggling to survive.
HOLT
Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health
Leana Wen, out now
An insider's account of public health and its crucial role--from opioid addiction to global pandemic--and an account of the author’s journey from struggling immigrant to being one of Time's 100 Most Influential People.
Swan Dive
Georgina Pazcoguin, out now
The award-winning New York City Ballet soloist, aka the Rogue Ballerina, offers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet—the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don’t see from the orchestra circle.
IVP
Power Women: Stories of Motherhood, Faith, and the Academy
Edited by Nancy Wang Yuen and Deshonna Collier-Goubil, Oct.
A resource by and for Christian academic mothers, combining research with personal stories of women of different backgrounds, academic disciplines, institutions, and stages of parenting and career.
Struggling with Evangelicalism: Why I Want to Leave and What It Takes to Stay
Dan Stringer, Nov.
As a lifelong evangelical who happens to be a biracial Asian/white millennial, the author
offers an appreciation of evangelicalism's history, identity, and strengths, and a lament at its blind spots, toxic brokenness, and complicity with injustice.
KAYA
book of the other
Truong Tran, Oct.
A collection of poetry, prose, and essays, offering a rebuttal to the idea of anti-Asian racism as a victimless crime.
MIRA
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur: A Novel
Alka Joshi, out now
In this sequel to The Henna Artist, Malik is now an educated young man apprenticed at the Jaipur Palace and working on building a state-of-the-art public movie house when he becomes ensnared in a smuggling scheme that threatens all he aspires to, including the woman he loves.
WILLIAM MORROW
Incense and Sensibility
Sonali Dev, out now
A retelling of Jane Austen's classic Sense and Sensibility with an Indian-American twist.
The Reading List
Sara Nisha Adams, Aug.
A chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two people living in the multicultural London neighborhood of Ealing.
So We Meet Again
Suzanne Park, Aug.
A young Korean-American woman’s journey to finding a new career and new love means learning to embrace the awkward and unexpected—exploring familial expectations, finding your voice, and unimaginably falling for your childhood rival.
Fault Lines
Emily Itami, Sept.
An exploration of marriage, motherhood, fidelity, and identity, set evocatively against the high-rises and packed streets of contemporary Tokyo.
Nice Girls
Catherine Dang, Sept.
Set in Minnesota, explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and asks what is most dangerous to a woman: showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is?
Reprieve
James Han Mattson, Oct.
A brutal killing takes place in a full-contact haunted escape room in Nebraska,
forcing the surviving participants to reckon with how their beliefs and actions contributed to the catastrophe.
The Donut Trap
Julie Tieu, Nov.
A young Chinese American woman feels caught in the life her parents have made for her until she falls in love and finds a way out of the trap of working at their donut shop.
THOMAS NELSON
When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace
Ruth Chou Simons, Oct.
A Taiwanese immigrant growing up between two cultures, the author guides readers on finding freedom from the never-ending quest for approval and affirmation.
NEW PRESS
One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America
Saru Jayaraman, Oct.
Illustrates how the people left out of the fight for a fair minimum wage––people of color, immigrants, women, disabled workers, incarcerated workers, and youth workers––are society’s most marginalized.
ONE WORLD
Ghost Forest: A Novel
Pik-Shuen Fung, out now
The author weaves memory and oral history to paint a portrait of a Chinese-Canadian “astronaut” family in which the unnamed protagonist considers, after her father dies, how to grieve if your family doesn’t talk about feelings.
OXFORD UNIV.
Asian American Spies: How Asian Americans Helped Win the Allied Victory
Brian Masaru Hayashi, out now
Brings to light the role played by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans in America's first centralized intelligence agency in its fight against the Imperial Japanese forces in east Asia during World War II.
China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy
Peter Martin, out now
Draws on the memoirs of more than one hundred retired diplomats as well as the author’s reporting as a journalist in Beijing to tease out enduring lessons about the kind of power China is set to become.
The Secret Listener: An Ingenue in Mao’s Court
Yuan-tsung Chen, Jan.
Born in Shanghai in 1929, the author offers a personal account of what life was like in the period before the revolution and in Mao's China; her vantage point provides a new perspective on the Maoist regime, one of the most radical political experiments in modern history.
PANTHEON
A Song Everlasting: A Novel
Ha Jin, out now
A popular Chinese singer who clashes with his country’s government flees to America to start a new life.
PARK ROW
Never Saw Me Coming: A Novel
Vera Kurian, Sept.
A college student is involved in an unusual clinical study of psychopaths like herself.
PUTNAM
The Shaadi Set-Up: A Novel
Lillie Vale, Sept.
The YA writer’s adult debut with a second-chance romance that follows an Indian-American furniture restorer who signs herself and her boyfriend up for a matchmaking site to prove they’re the perfect match, only to be paired with her ex instead.
SCRIBNER
House of Sticks: A Memoir
Ly Tran, out now
A young girl’s journey from war-torn Vietnam to Ridgewood, Queens, and the challenges of forging her own path amidst a new culture and the weight of family expectations.
SOHO
Blue-Skinned Gods: A Novel
SJ Sindu, Nov.
An Indian boy born with blue skin ultimately travels to the underground rock scene of New York City in this exploration of ethnic, gender, and sexual identities, and the need for belief in our interconnected world.
SOHO CRIME
The Bombay Prince
Sujata Massey, out now
In this third installment of the series set in 1920s Bombay, Bombay’s first female lawyer must bring justice to the family of a murdered female Parsi student just as Bombay’s streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule.
Midnight, Water City
Chris Mckinney, out now
This first entry in a sci-fi noir trilogy explores the sordid past of Akira Kimura, a murdered scientist deified in death, through the eyes of a man who once committed unspeakable crimes for her.
Clark and Division
Naomi Hirahara, Aug.
Set in 1944 Chicago and inspired by historical events, a young woman searches for the truth about her revered older sister's death, bringing to focus the struggles of one Japanese American family released from mass incarceration at Manzanar during World War II.
STANFORD UNIV.
Minor Transpacific: Triangulating American, Japanese, and Korean Fictions
David S. Roh, out now
Bridges the fields of Asian studies and Asian American studies to unveil new connections between Korean Japanese (Zainichi) and Korean American literatures.
Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in L.A.
Nadia Y. Kim, out now
Profiles the Asian and undocumented Latin@ immigrant women who created a grassroots environmental justice movement in the industrial-port belt of Los Angeles, which is home to eleven of the top twenty oil refineries in California.
Citizens, Immigrants, and the Stateless: A Japanese American Diaspora in the Pacific
Michael R. Jin, Nov.
Examines the intertwined histories of Asian exclusion in the United States, Japanese colonialism in Asia, and volatile geopolitical changes in the Pacific world that converged in the lives of Japanese American migrants.
TIN HOUSE
Win Me Something: A Novel
Kyle Lucia Wu, Nov.
A young biracial Chinese-American woman working for a wealthy white family becomes aware of the things she never had, questions who she is, and revisits a childhood where she never felt fully at home.
TOR
The Chosen and the Beautiful: A Novel
Nghi Vo, out now
A queer, Asian, Vietnamese adoptee is treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.
Light From Uncommon Stars: A Novel
Ryka Aoki, Sept.
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success.
TUTTLE
Otaku Japan: The Fascinating World of Japanese Manga, Anime, Gaming, Cosplay, Toys, Idols and More!
Gianni Simone, out now
More than 20 maps, websites and over 400 color photos span the length and breadth of Japan to all the centers of Otaku culture—from snowy Hokkaido to sunny Kyushu.
Fabulous Paper Flowers: Make 43 Beautiful Asian Flowers––From Irises to Cherry Blossoms to Peonies
Emiko Yamamoto, Aug.
The Japanese paper crafting expert reveals her secrets for making realistic blossoms, leaves and stems from inexpensive colored paper sheets, with a simple cut-curl-paste method perfect for beginners.
Fresh Bento: Affordable, Healthy Box Lunches Your Kids Will Adore
Wendy Thorpe Copley, Aug.
How to transform simple, affordable, and nutritious ingredients into appealing bento box lunches kids will request again and again.
Ganbatte! The Japanese Art of Always Moving Forward
Albert Liebermann, Aug.
Fifty short chapters offering an inspirational yet practical guide to becoming more resilient the Japanese way.
Sashiko for Making & Mending: 15 Simple Japanese Embroidery Projects
Saki Iiduka, Aug.
How to use sashiko stitching to mend rips, repair fraying cuffs, and create original accessories that look fabulous.
A Brief History of Thailand: Monarchy, War and Resilience: The Fascinating Story of the Gilded Kingdom at the Heart of Asia
Richard A. Ruth, Sept.
Looks at the country's last 250 years, from coups and violent massacres to the invention of Pad Thai in the 1930's, and describes Thailand's emergence as a prosperous Buddhist state, its transformation from traditional kingdom to democratic constitutional monarchy, and its subsequent rise to prominence in Southeast Asian affairs.
Inside Your Japanese Garden: A Guide to Creating a Unique Japanese Garden for Your Home
Joseph Cali and Sadao Yasumoro, Sept.
Offers instructive drawings and step-by-step techniques for designing and creating a Japanese garden, from small projects like benches and gates, to larger undertakings like bridges and mud walls.
Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls
Manami Okazaki, Sept.
An inside look at kokeshi dolls, from the skilled woodworkers behind their design to their important cultural significance.
Zen Vegan Food: Delicious Plant-based Recipes from a Zen Buddhist Monk
Koyu Iinuma, Sept.
The Buddhist temple priest, chef and dietician shares the simple plant-based meals he prepares in the kitchens of Fukushoji temple in Yokohama, Japan.
A Beginner's Guide to the Zen Tea Ceremony: Developing Mindfulness and Calm the Japanese Way
Randy Channell Soei, Oct.
The highest-ranked non-Japanese within the Urasenke tea ceremony tradition explains the key elements behind the practice and spirituality of the tea ceremony.
Hiroshige's Japan: On the Trail of the Great Woodblock Print Master - A Modern-day Artist's Journey on the Old Tokaido Road
Philippe Delord, Oct.
All 53 original scenery prints made by Hiroshige, alongside their modern-day equivalent by Delord, take readers from Tokyo and Mount Fuji to mountain passes and rugged coastlines.
Tagalog Stories for Language Learners: Folktales and Stories in Filipino and English
Joi Barrios, Oct.
A resource for intermediate language learners which introduces 40 stories from the Philippines through bilingual Tagalog and English texts, cultural notes, vocabulary lists, exercises, comprehension questions and free online audio recordings.
Arabic for Beginners: Mastering Conversational Arabic
Sarah Risha, Nov.
An introductory textbook for a quick start learning this language.
UNC
Space-Time Colonialism: Alaska’s Indigenous and Asian Entanglements
Juliana Hu Pegues, out now
Evaluates four key historical periods in U.S.-Alaskan history: the Alaskan purchase, the Gold Rush, the emergence of salmon canneries, and the World War II era, recognizing colonial and racial entanglements between Alaska Native peoples and Asian immigrants.
UNIV. OF PENNSYLVANIA
Japanese American Incarceration: The Camps and Coerced Labor During World War II
Stephanie D. Hinnershitz, Oct.
Recasts the forced removal and incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II as a history of prison labor and exploitation.
UNIV. OF WASHINGTON
Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles
Eric C. Wat, Oct.
Connects the deeply personal with the uncompromisingly political in the stories of more than thirty Asian American AIDS activists, detailing the intertwined realities of race and sexuality in AIDS activism, and offering a portrait of a movement founded on joy.
Awake in the River and Shedding Silence
Janice Mirikitani, Dec.
Reprints the renowned poet’s two collections from 1978 and 1987 into one volume, showcasing how she found power in speaking out, connecting Japanese American discrimination with broader struggles from the local to the global.
VESUVIAN
The Light in the Wound: A Novel
Christine Brae, Sept.
Based on a true story and set in the Philippines, a dysfunctional family and a girl's tumultuous relationship with her first love, born from a vastly different background and status in society.
VIKING
The Book of Form and Emptiness
Ruth Ozeki, Sept.
One year after the death of his beloved musician father, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers a strange new world when he begins to hear voices belonging to the things in his house.
Fiona and Jane
Jean Chen Ho, Jan.
Traces the lives of two young Taiwanese American women as they navigate friendship, sexuality, identity, and heartbreak over two decades.
WESTMINSTER JOHN KNOX
Postcolonial Politics and Theology: Unraveling Empire for a Global World
Kwok Pui-lan, Dec.
Seeks to reform and reimagine the field of political theology—uprooting it from the colonial soil—using the comparative lenses of postcolonial politics and theology to bring attention to the realities of the Global South.
WYATT-MACKENZIE
The Baseball Widow
Suzanne Kamata, Oct.
An American teacher marries an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach whose duties take up more and more of his attention as she struggles to manage cultural differences alongside the needs of their multiply-disabled daughter and their sensitive son who has become the victim of bullies.
