Books to Celebrate the Lunar New Year
Check out these new novels and non-fiction exploring Asian and Asian-American heritage!
January 17, 2023
Don’t forget to check out last year’s list!
Included in this list:
Fiction
I’m Waiting For You
And Other Stories
Kim Bo-Young
A collection of four tales of speculative fiction includes the story of an engaged couple trying to fight time and space to get married and a story featuring godlike beings who created Earth and humanity and pass judgement on them.
The School For Good Mothers
Jessamine Chan
After one moment of poor judgment involving her daughter Harriet, Frida Liu falls victim to a host of government officials who will determine if she is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion.
The Family Chao
Lan Samantha Chang
When Big Leo, the owner of Fine Chao restaurant is found dead—presumed murdered—his three sons are reunited and fall under suspicion of the town and police, and must reckon with the legacy of their father’s outsized appetites and own future survival.
Counterfeit
Kirstin Chen
Ava Wong, a strait-laced Chinese American lawyer and her former college roommate from Mainland China, who dropped out under mysterious circumstances, join forces in an ingenious counterfeit operation selling replica luxury handbags.
Disorientation
Elaine Hsieh Chou
While finishing her PhD dissertation on the late canonical poet Xiao-Wen Chou, graduate student Ingrid Yang discovers a curious note in the archives and upends her entire life trying to unravel the note’s message, ultimately making an explosive discovery.
The Many Daughters Of Afong Moy
Jamie Ford
Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Seattle’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental breakdowns into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter, Annabel, exhibits the same behavior and begins remembering things and events she has never experienced, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt the present. If she doesn’t take radical steps, her daughter will be doomed to face the same debilitating depression that has marked her life.
Peach Blossom Spring
Melissa Fu
Settling in America years after his turbulent childhood in China, Renshu, now Henry Dao, refuses to talk to his daughter about her heritage, determined to keep her safe in this new land despite being weighed down by his history.
Nuclear Family
Joseph Han
Set in the months leading up to the 2018 nuclear missile false alarm, the members of a Korean family living in Hawai’i, when their son tries—and fails—to cross the Korean demilitarized zone, find themselves under suspicion, while their daughter gets constantly high as she witnesses her family’s undoing.
Concerning My Daughter
Kim Hye-jin
Refusing to accept her gay daughter’s definition of ‘family,’ a widowed, aging mother begins to reconsider the unfair consequences of choosing one’s own path when she is told to lower her standard of care of an elderly dementia patient. Original.
Mika In Real Life
Emiko Jean
Getting to know Penny, the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago, thirty-five-year-old Mika Suzuki finds unexpected love with Penny’s widowed father and finally has a chance to have the life and family she’s always wanted until her deceptions catch up with her.
Thank You, Mr. Nixon
Stories
Gish Jen
This collection brings to life an 11-story journey through U.S.-Chinese relations, capturing both the excitement of a world on the brink of change and the all-too-human encounters that follow as East meets West.
The Fervor
Alma Katsu
In 1944, Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, held in an internment camp in the Midwest, discover a mysterious disease spreading among the interned is linked to a demon from the stories of Meiko’s childhood, hellbent on infiltrating their already strange world.
Before Your Memory Fades
Toshikazu Kawaguchi
From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula’s time-traveling offer. Along with some familiar faces from Kawaguchi’s previous novels, readers will also be introduced to a daughter, a comedian, a sister and a lover, each with something they wish they had said differently.
Portrait Of A Thief
Grace D Li
A Chinese American art history major at Harvard, Will Chen is offered a (very illegal) chance to reclaim five priceless treasures China lost centuries ago and assembles a team of fellow students, chosen for their skills and loyalty, to help him on his mission—and make history.
Our Missing Hearts
Celeste Ng
In a society consumed by fear, 12-year-old Bird Gardner, after receiving a mysterious letter, sets out on a quest to find his mother—a Chinese-American poet who left when he was 9 years old—leading him to NYC where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.
The Swimmers
Julie Otsuka
When a crack appears in the pool, a fellowship of swimmers who take comfort in their laps are cast out, including Alice, who, slowly losing her memory, is reunited too late with her estranged daughter, in this intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss.
The Verifiers
Jane Pek
Stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referral-only online-dating detective agency, Claudia, when a client disappears, breaks protocol to investigate and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit.
Four Aunties And A Wedding
Jesse Q Sutanto
Determined to have her family enjoy her wedding festivities as guests, Meddy Chan hires a Chinese-Indonesian family-run party vendor because they are similar to her own, but discovers they are the mafia in the sequel to Dial A for Aunties.
A Map For The Missing
Belinda Huijuan Tang
A Chinese mathematician living in America returns to China after receiving word that his estranged father has vanished from his village and reunites with a childhood friend he left behind as the pair search and grapple with their pasts.
Siren Queen
Nghi Vo
Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, Chinese American actress Luli Wei, desperate to become a star, bargains with blood and ancient magic to realize her dreams, but the steep price for success may turn her into something she despises.
Joan Is Okay
Weike Wang
An ICU physician at a busy NYC hospital, 30-something Joan, a workaholic with little interest in having friends, let alone lovers, is required to take mandatory leave until the day she must return to the city to face a crisis larger than anything she’s encountered before.
Kaleidoscope
Cecily Wong
Riley Brighton, always eclipsed by her older sister, leaves her biracial Chinese American family after a calamity rocks their world and sets off across the globe in search of answers about the people she thought she knew best.
Four Treasures Of The Sky
Jenny Tinghui Zhang
A Chinese girl struggles to find her place in the 1880s American West after being kidnapped and smuggled, working at a calligraphy school and a San Francisco brothel as anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country.
Non-Fiction and Biography
Bridge To The Sun
The Secret Role Of The Japanese Americans Who Fought In The Pacific In World War II
Bruce Henderson
The best-selling author of Sons and Soldiers tells the story of the Japanese American U.S. Army soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater while their families were back home in America held in government internment camps.
Suzuki
The Man And His Dream To Teach The Children Of The World
Eri Hotta
Shinichi Suzuki, of the eponymous Suzuki Method, debunked Western stereotypes about ‘authentic’ classical performance while transforming music education globally. Yet as Eri Hotta shows, his movement was about much more than developing music skills. A committed humanist, he aspired to nurture the potential, musical or otherwise, in every child.
Winter Pasture
One Woman’s Journey With China’s Kazakh Herders
Li Juan
An award-winning travel memoir from China documents how the author, a girl from the Altai Mountains, joined a Kazakh family of camel, sheep and cattle herders during their winter pasture migration from the Ulungur River to the Heavenly Mountains.
Novelist As A Vocation
Haruki Murakami
In this highly personal look at the craft of writing, an internationally best-selling author and famously reclusive writer shares his own creative process as well as his thoughts on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists and musicians.
1000 Years Of Joys And Sorrows
Ai Weiwei
One of the world’s most famous artists and activists presents a personal memoir and a history of the last 100 years of China, while shedding light on his own artistic process.
Making A Scene
Constance Wu
In this intimate memoir-in-essays, the Golden Globe Award-nominated star of Crazy Rich Asians and Hustlers, chronicling how she ‘made it’ in Hollywood, offers a behind-the-scenes look at being Asian American in the entertainment industry and the continuing evolution of her identity and influence in the public eye.
Cookbooks
Mooncakes & Milk Bread
Sweet & Savory Recipes Inspired By Chinese Bakeries
Kristina Cho
A popular food blogger, focusing exclusively on Chinese bakeries and cafes, presents simple, easy-to-make interpretations of classic recipes for the modern baker, including sweet and savory baked buns, steamed buns, Chinese breads, unique cookies, juicy dumplings and more.
Modern Asian Baking At Home
Essential Sweet And Savory Recipes For Milk Bread, Mochi, Mooncakes, And More; Inspired By The Subtle Asian Baking Community
Kat Lieu
Inspired by the global ‘Subtle Asian’ community, Modern Asian Baking at Home features exciting, contemporary Asian-inspired ingredients and techniques bakers of all levels will want to add to their repertoires.
The Wok
Recipes And Techniques
J Kenji Lopez-Alt
Presenting over 200 recipes, along with more than 1,000 color photos, the author of The Food Lab focuses on the wok, the most versatile pan in the kitchen, showing home cooks how to master the mechanics of a stir-fry and providing endless inspiration for brightening up dinner.