AAPI Voices That Inspire, Challenge, and Connect
This month we honor and celebrate the many Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawiians who enrich our history, our culture, and our communities! Celebrated nationally in May, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is an opportunity to learn more about the many AAPI communities who are essential to the United States, in the past, present, and future. Poudre Libraries encourages our community to check out these, and many other, AAPI voices through a mix of contemporary books, eBooks, audiobooks, and graphic novels.
Adult Fiction
Miracle Creek
Angie Kim
A literary courtroom thriller about an immigrant family and a young single mother accused of killing her autistic son, Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we\'ll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets.
The Centre
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
A darkly comic, boundary-pushing debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost.
Every Drop is a Man\'s Nightmare
Megan Kamalei Kakimoto
Megan Kamalei Kakimoto\'s wrenching and sensational debut story collection follows a cast of mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women through a contemporary landscape thick with inherited wisdom and the ghosts of colonization. This is a Hawai\'i where unruly sexuality and generational memory overflow the postcard image of paradise and the boundaries of the real, where the superstitions born of the islands take on the weight of truth.
She Who Became the Sun
Shelley Parker-Chan
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
The Spear Cuts Through Water
Simon Jimenez
In the Land of the Strangled Throat, the people suffer under the rule of a despotic Emperor. His sons, the Three Terrors, despoil the countryside and oppress its citizens. When Keema Daware--a fierce warrior who lost his left arm in battle--finds the lost Moon goddess, who has escaped from her royal imprisonment, at his sentry outpost during a five day celebration of the Emperor, he must make a choice: turn her in and evade the wrath of the Three Terrors, or help her overthrow the government and free a nation.
Honor
Thrity Umrigar
Indian American journalist Smita returns to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past.
Banyan Moon
Thao Thai
When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, she returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng. Ann and Huơng learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann’s childhood home, in all its strange, Gothic glory. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together.
Goddess of the River
Vaishnavi Patel
Ganga, joyful goddess of the river, serves as caretaker to the mischievous godlings who roam her banks. But when their antics incur the wrath of a powerful sage, Ganga is cursed to become mortal, bound to her human form until she fulfills the obligations of the curse.
The Covenant of Water
Abraham Verghese
Set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, this story follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelveyear-old girl from Kerala\'s Christian community is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea
Rita Chang-Eppig
When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband\'s second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life.
A Song to Drown Rivers
Ann Liang
Inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic historical fantasy about womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds.
The Way Spring Arrives
Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, is a Chinese science fiction short story anthology where you can dine at a restaurant at the end of the universe, cultivate to immortality in the high mountains, watch roses perform Shakespeare, or arrive at the island of the gods on the backs of giant fish to ensure that the world can bloom.
Adult Nonfiction & Biography
All You Can Ever Know
Nicole Chung
With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up for adoption, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong.
Local
Jessica Machado
Jessica Machado wrestles with what it means to be \"local.\" Feeling separate from the history and tenets of Hawaiian culture that have been buried under continental imports, Jessica often sees her homeland reflected to her from the tourist perspective--as an uncomplicated paradise. Balancing her parents\' divorce, an ailing mother, and growing anxiety, Jessica rebels. She moves to Los Angeles, convinced she\'ll define herself. Instead, her isolation only becomes more severe. Interwoven with a rich and nuanced exploration of Hawaiian history and traditions, Local is a personal and moving narrative about family, grief, and reconnecting to the land.
What My Bones Know
Stephanie Foo
A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life.
Teen Fiction
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Axie Oh
Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Chlorine
Jade Song
Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will have a good life. But Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that dragged them down and drowned them. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she\'s always longed to become: mermaid.
Hula
Jasmin Iolani Hakes
The Naupka legacy is in jeopardy, buckling under the weight of loaded silences and unexplained absences. Hi\'i, the youngest of the family, dreams of healing the rifts within her family by becoming the next Miss Aloha Hula--and prove herself worthy of carrying on the family dynasty. She demonstrates her devotion to her culture through hula. Part incantation, part rallying cry, Hula is a love letter to a stolen paradise and its people.
The Magic Fish
Trung Le Nguyen
Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he\'s been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing young adult graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.
Young and Restless
Mattie Kahn
Nine months before Rosa Parks kicked off the bus boycotts, Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was fifteen. In 1912, women’s rights activists organized a massive march in support of women’s suffrage. Leading them up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was not one of the mothers of the movement, but a teenage Chinese immigrant named Mabel Ping-Hua Lee. Young women have been disenfranchised and discounted, but the true retelling of major social movements in America reveals their might: they have ignited almost every single one.
Kids Biography & Fiction
The Door is Open
Hena Khan
Discover stories of fear, triumph, and spectacular celebration in the fictional town of Maple Grove, New Jersey, where the local kids gather at the community center to discover new crushes, fight against ignorance, and even save a life. Cheer for Chaya as she wins chess tournaments (unlike Andrew, she knows stupid sugary soda won\'t make you better at chess), and follow as Jeevan learns how to cook traditional food (it turns out he can cook sabji-- he just can\'t eat it). These stories, edited by bestselling and award-winning Pakistani-American author Hena Khan, are filled with humor, warmth, and possibility.
Amazing
Maia Shibutani
Olympic medalist siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani felt compelled to create a book showing the undeniably positive impacts that Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans have made in the United States and around the world. Thanks to quick and accessible biographies written with journalist Dane Liu, readers will learn about important figures who have shaped life-altering policy, made indelible marks on pop culture, and achieved their greatest dreams—paving the way for future generations to make lasting change.
Shining a Light
Veeda Bybee
A collective biography of 40 influential Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, from Kalpana Chawla to The Rock to Tammy Duckworth, whose historical contributions readers may not know but whose light shines on, with stunning illustrated portraits by Hugo Award nominee Victo Ngai. From scientists to sports stars, aerospace engineers to artists, every person shines in this collection. Dynamic portraits portray each person with bold colors and clever, precise details.
Ching Shih
Christina Leaf
Storming aboard a government trade ship, Ching Shih and her band of followers demand payment—or else! The traders soon come to fear Ching Shih, paying her for passage through the pirate-infested waters of the South China Sea. In this high-interest graphic title, readers will learn how Ching Shih became a pirate so fierce that even the government stood down to her power. They’ll discover her real-life feats through engaging dialogue and sharp illustrations, as well as historical quotes, a timeline, and a map.
Yes We Will
Kelly Yang
A lyrical nonfiction picture book featuring eighteen Asian American changemakers and two pivotal moments in Asian American history, illustrated by fifteen renowned Asian and Asian American artists
Pirate Queen
Helaine Becker
The most powerful pirate in history was a woman who was born into poverty in Guangzhou, China, in the early 1800s. When pirates attacked her town and the captain took a liking to her, she saw a way out. Zheng Yi Sao agreed to marry one of them only if she got an equal share of his business. When her husband died six years later, she took command of the fleet. Over the next decade, the pirate queen built a fleet of over 1,800 ships and 70,000 men. On land and sea, Zheng Yi Sao\'s power rivaled the emperor himself.
