It is officially Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a month which is dedicated to recognizing the contributions and influence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to the history, achievements and culture of the United States. This means that now is a better time than ever to read some stories coming from the Asian American/Pacific Islander American communities. Here are two of my personal recommendations from authors that I recommend you all to check out this month!
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir revolves around Noor and Salahudin, two Pakistani-Americans who used to be best friends until they got into a big fight a year before the events in the novel took place. In the present day, Salahudin is working to save his family’s local motel while dealing with his mother’s sickness and his father’s alcoholism. On the other hand, Noor is doing everything she can to get into college so that she can escape from her abusive uncle, who is only raising her so that she can work for him. This novel deals with a lot of serious topics, such as the issues that come along with being the only Muslims/South Asians in a predominantly white community, the difficulties of dealing with illnesses and death, and the reasons behind why one may turn to crime. Despite the heavy and gut-wrenching topics of the novel, it is a truly gripping story that just keeps you wanting to turn the pages, and it’s a novel that I highly recommend because of its subject matter and for how beautifully Sabaa Tahir shares this story.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a coming of age novel, with a twist. The story revolves around Lily Hu, a Chinese-American living in San Francisco during the 1950s, aka the time of the Red Scare, where paranoia about communism and hatred towards Chinese-Americans was rampant. However, Lily has another big secret: she is also a lesbian and is in love with her classmate, Katherine Miller. Throughout the story, Lily goes through many trials and tribulations as she learns to live and love these facets of her identity. Overall, I highly recommend this novel because of the sweet romance between Lily and Kath and because of the clever ways Malinda Lo uses the story to teach readers many different life lessons about love, identity, and history.
And those are just two of my favorite works that I recommend this month! Please let me know what you think and feel free to recommend more works to me too, I would especially appreciate some from Pacific Islander authors.