Earlier this week, I let people know that I’m working on a thesis project about writing about Asian Americans. It’s still really early, so I’ll hold off on sharing specific details for now, but I do want to document/share my process as it unfolds.
To start my project, I needed to develop a reading list of books by Asian American authors, and I asked people for recommendations via Twitter and Bookstagram, and I got a ton of responses.
I’m actively seeking out writing by non East Asians, and I would be particularly interested in hearing from/of anyone who has done writing on the ways that they are not included in typical ‘Asian American’ discourse.
Here’s the list! Feel free to comment any other recommendations below!
| Title | Author | Additional Authors | Number of Pages | Original Publication Year |
| World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments | Aimee Nezhukumatathil | Fumi Nakamura | 165 | 2020 |
| Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes | Albert Samaha | 400 | 2021 | |
| Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self | Alex Tizon | 272 | 2014 | |
| How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays | Alexander Chee | 277 | 2018 | |
| Days of Distraction | Alexandra Chang | 312 | 2020 | |
| Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life | Alice Wong | 400 | 2022 | |
| Snow in Vietnam: A Novel | Amy M. Le | 407 | ||
| Watercress | Andrea Wang | Jason Chin | 32 | 2021 |
| Birds of Paradise Lost | Andrew Lam | 216 | 2012 | |
| Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam | Andrew X. Pham | 352 | 1999 | |
| Miracle Creek | Angie Kim | 355 | 2019 | |
| Boys I Know | Anna Gracia | 352 | 2022 | |
| Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor | Anna Qu | 224 | 2021 | |
| The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race | Anthony Christian Ocampo | 272 | 2016 | |
| Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons | Anthony Christian Ocampo | 240 | ||
| Afterparties | Anthony Veasna So | 272 | 2021 | |
| Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming | Ava Chin | 384 | ||
| Pioneer Girl | Bich Minh Nguyen | 296 | 2014 | |
| The Grave on the Wall | Brandon Shimoda | 222 | 2018 | |
| How Much of These Hills Is Gold | C Pam Zhang | 288 | 2020 | |
| My Life: Growing Up Asian in America | CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) | SuChin Pak | 256 | 2022 |
| America Is in the Heart: A Personal History | Carlos Bulosan | Carey McWilliams | 327 | 1946 |
| The Fortunes of Jaded Women | Carolyn Huynh | 272 | 2022 | |
| Asian American Histories of the United States | Catherine Ceniza Choy | 222 | 2022 | |
| Everything I Never Told You | Celeste Ng | 297 | 2014 | |
| Little Fires Everywhere | Celeste Ng | 338 | 2017 | |
| Our Missing Hearts | Celeste Ng | 352 | 2022 | |
| My Year Abroad | Chang-rae Lee | 672 | 2021 | |
| Native Speaker | Chang-rae Lee | David Colacci | 349 | 1995 |
| Interior Chinatown | Charles Yu | 288 | 2020 | |
| The Unpassing | Chia-Chia Lin | 288 | 2019 | |
| Sky Country | Christine Kitano | 104 | ||
| Malaya: Essays on Freedom | Cinelle Barnes | 190 | 2019 | |
| A Place to Belong | Cynthia Kadohata | Julia Kuo | 405 | 2019 |
| Kira-Kira | Cynthia Kadohata | 291 | 2004 | |
| Brown Girls | Daphne Palasi Andreades | 209 | 2022 | |
| The Atlas of Reds and Blues | Devi S. Laskar | 258 | 2019 | |
| America Is Not the Heart | Elaine Castillo | 408 | 2018 | |
| Disorientation | Elaine Hsieh Chou | 403 | 2022 | |
| Mika in Real Life | Emiko Jean | 384 | 2022 | |
| The Astonishing Color of After | Emily X.R. Pan | 462 | 2018 | |
| Things We Lost to the Water | Eric Nguyen | 304 | 2021 | |
| The Making of Asian America: A History | Erika Lee | 528 | 2015 | |
| The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays | Esmé Weijun Wang | 208 | 2019 | |
| If I Had Your Face | Frances Cha | 288 | 2020 | |
| WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration | Frank Abe | Tamiko Nimura, Matt Sasaki, Ross Ishikawa | 160 | 2021 |
| Soft Science | Franny Choi | 100 | 2019 | |
| American Born Chinese | Gene Luen Yang | 240 | 2006 | |
| Junglee Girl | Ginu Kamani | 208 | 1995 | |
| Tiger Writing: Art, Culture, and the Interdependent Self | Gish Jen | 224 | 2013 | |
| Portrait of a Thief | Grace D. Li | 384 | 2022 | |
| Caring Across Generations: The Linked Lives of Korean American Families | Grace J. Yoo | Barbara W. Kim | 256 | 2014 |
| The Body Papers | Grace Talusan | 272 | 2019 | |
| Waiting | Ha Jin | 310 | 1999 | |
| Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People | Helen Zia | 368 | 2000 | |
| Still Life With Rice: A Young American Woman Discovers the Life and Legacy of Her Korean Grandmother | Helie Lee | Hetie Lee | 320 | 1996 |
| TigerFish: A Memoir | Hoang Chi Truong | 276 | 2017 | |
| Stay True: A Memoir | Hua Hsu | 208 | 2022 | |
| A Hundred Other Girls | Iman Hariri-Kia | 304 | 2022 | |
| Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy | Ira Sukrungruang | 184 | 2010 | |
| The Many Daughters of Afong Moy | Jamie Ford | 384 | 2022 | |
| The Loneliest Americans | Jay Caspian Kang | 272 | 2021 | |
| Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now | Jeff Yang | Phil Yu, Philip Wang | 496 | 2022 |
| Stargazing | Jen Wang | 224 | 2019 | |
| To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, #1) | Jenny Han | 355 | 2014 | |
| Dial A for Aunties | Jesse Q. Sutanto | 302 | 2021 | |
| Interpreter of Maladies | Jhumpa Lahiri | 198 | 1999 | |
| Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion | Jia Tolentino | 303 | 2019 | |
| How to American: An Immigrant’s Guide to Disappointing Your Parents | Jimmy O. Yang | 240 | 2018 | |
| No-No Boy | John Okada | 260 | 1956 | |
| Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen | Jose Antonio Vargas | 256 | 2018 | |
| Obasan | Joy Kogawa | 320 | 1981 | |
| Not My White Savior: A Memoir in Poems | Julayne Lee | 128 | ||
| The Buddha in the Attic | Julie Otsuka | 129 | 2011 | |
| The Donut Trap | Julie Tieu | 368 | 2021 | |
| Bestiary | K-Ming Chang | 259 | 2020 | |
| The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir | Kao Kalia Yang | 277 | 2008 | |
| I Hotel | Karen Tei Yamashita | Sina Grace, Leland Wong | 613 | 2010 |
| Front Desk (Front Desk, #1) | Kelly Yang | 298 | 2018 | |
| An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy | Kenny Xu | 273 | 2021 | |
| Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1) | Kevin Kwan | 403 | 2013 | |
| Displacement | Kiku Hughes | 283 | 2020 | |
| Counterfeit | Kirstin Chen | 288 | 2022 | |
| The Fraud Squad | Kyla Zhao | 368 | 2023 | |
| Win Me Something | Kyle Lucia Wu | 272 | 2021 | |
| Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American | Laura Gao | 272 | 2022 | |
| My Heart Underwater | Laurel Flores Fantauzzo | 320 | 2020 | |
| Lucie Yi Is Not a Romantic | Lauren Ho | 416 | 2022 | |
| Free Food for Millionaires | Lee Min-jin | 577 | 2007 | |
| No Good Very Bad Asian | Leland Cheuk | 240 | 2019 | |
| Prairie Lotus | Linda Sue Park | 260 | 2020 | |
| Bliss Montage | Ling Ma | 240 | 2022 | |
| Severance | Ling Ma | 291 | 2018 | |
| Becoming AppalAsian | Lisa Kwong | 48 | ||
| I Dream of Popo | Livia Blackburne | Julia Kuo | 40 | 2021 |
| A Pho Love Story | Loan Le | 415 | 2021 | |
| Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers | Lois-Ann Yamanaka | 320 | 1996 | |
| Eat A Bowl Of Tea | Louis Chu | 256 | 1961 | |
| House of Sticks | Ly Tran | 368 | 2021 | |
| I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir | Malaka Gharib | 160 | 2019 | |
| Skim | Mariko Tamaki | Jillian Tamaki | 143 | 2008 |
| Turning Japanese | MariNaomi | 228 | 2016 | |
| Flavors of Empire: Food and the Making of Thai America | Mark Padoongpatt | 272 | 2017 | |
| Permanent Record | Mary H.K. Choi | 400 | 2019 | |
| Quiet Odyssey | Mary Paik Lee | Sucheng Chan | 264 | 1990 |
| The Woman Warrior | Maxine Hong Kingston | 204 | 1976 | |
| Self-Portrait with Ghost: Short Stories | Meng Jin | 224 | 2022 | |
| Fairest: A Memoir | Meredith Talusan | 310 | 2020 | |
| In the Country | Mia Alvar | 347 | 2015 | |
| Reading with Patrick | Michelle Kuo | 320 | 2017 | |
| When Lola Visits | Michelle Sterling | Aaron Asis | 40 | 2021 |
| Not Here to Be Liked | Michelle Quach | 2021 | ||
| Crying in H Mart | Michelle Zauner | 242 | 2021 | |
| Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations | Mira Jacob | 349 | 2019 | |
| The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing | Mira Jacob | 512 | 2014 | |
| Imagine Us, The Swarm | Muriel Leung | 120 | 2021 | |
| All You Can Ever Know | Nicole Chung | 240 | 2018 | |
| Through Eyes Like Mine | Noriko Nakada | 202 | 2010 | |
| A Village in the Fields | Patty Enrado | 348 | 2015 | |
| Undergloom | Prageeta Sharma | 88 | 2013 | |
| Beautiful Country | Qian Julie Wang | 320 | 2021 | |
| Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution | R.F. Kuang | 545 | 2022 | |
| Patron Saints of Nothing | Randy Ribay | 323 | 2019 | |
| Blame This on the Boogie | Rina Ayuyang | 200 | ||
| Almost American Girl | Robin Ha | 239 | 2020 | |
| All My Rage | Sabaa Tahir | 384 | 2022 | |
| A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America | Shamita Das Dasgupta | 256 | 1998 | |
| Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America | Sharmila Sen | 224 | 2018 | |
| Homebase | Shawn Wong | 112 | 1973 | |
| We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story | Simu Liu | 320 | 2022 | |
| How to Pronounce Knife: Stories | Souvankham Thammavongsa | 192 | 2020 | |
| Your House Will Pay | Steph Cha | 304 | 2019 | |
| What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma | Stephanie Foo | 352 | 2022 | |
| Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India | Sujatha Gidla | 320 | 2017 | |
| Contours Of The Heart: South Asians Map North-America | Sunaina Maira | 242 | 1996 | |
| White Ivy | Susie Yang | 354 | 2020 | |
| Dictee | Theresa Hak Kyung Cha | 179 | 1982 | |
| The Best We Could Do | Thi Bui | 329 | 2017 | |
| Private Citizens | Tony Tulathimutte | 372 | 2016 | |
| The Magic Fish | Trung Le Nguyen | 256 | 2020 | |
| We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies | Tsering Yangzom Lama | 368 | 2022 | |
| Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence and Grief | Victoria Chang | 136 | 2021 | |
| The Refugees | Viet Thanh Nguyen | 209 | 2017 | |
| Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War | Viet Thanh Nguyen | 384 | 2018 | |
| The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen | 371 | 2015 | |
| Build Your House Around My Body | Violet Kupersmith | 400 | 2021 | |
| Joan Is Okay | Weike Wang | 224 | 2022 | |
| Our Feet Walk the Sky: Women of the South Asian Diaspora | Women of South Asian Descent Collective | Women’s Society of Asian Descent | 380 | 1993 |
| Home Remedies | Xuan Juliana Wang | 256 | 2019 | |
| East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee | Younghill Kang | 425 | 1937 |
Asian Authors to check out:
| Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
| Alex Kuo |
| Arthur Sze |
| Bill Hing |
| Cathy Park Hong |
| Chang-Rae Lee |
| Chaya Bhuvaneswar |
| Christina Soontornvat |
| David Henry Hwang |
| David Mura |
| Don Lee |
| Emily Jungmin Yoon |
| Fay Mayenne Ng |
| Gish Jen |
| Hannah Bae |
| Helen Zia |
| Iris Chang |
| Jade Snow Wong |
| Jeff Yang |
| Jenna Le |
| Jennifer Chang |
| Jennifer S. Cheng |
| Jhumpa Lahiri |
| Jimin Han |
| Josephine Park |
| Judy Fong Bates |
| Judy Yung |
| Kao Kalia Yang |
| Kimiko Hahn |
| Li-Young Lee |
| Mai Der Vang |
| Marilyn Chin |
| Matthew Salesses |
| Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge |
| Michael Ondaatje |
| Monica Ong |
| Ocean Vuong |
| Rick Barot |
| Ronald Takaki |
| Sonali Dev |
| Tara Zambrano |
| Trinidad Escobar |
| Victoria Chang |
| Wendy Xu |
If you’d like to keep up with this project/my writing in general, you can subscribe to my newsletter by filling out this form (also in the sidebar) or follow me on Bookstagram/Twitter.
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