New Book Club Books to Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month

Carrie Sun has always worked hard. She excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and entered the corporate world, all in the name of the American Dream her parents wished for her when they immigrated to the U.S. from China. But once she hits 29, she starts feeling like something’s missing. So, she drops out of a master’s program and quits her job. When she gets the opportunity to work for one of the most respected hedge funds in the world, she jumps at it. Soon, luxury and privilege like she’s never known are opened up to her, but it also starts to swallow her whole.

The titular dragonfruit in this Pacific Islander-inspired romantasy is the egg of a seadragon that’s said to hold the power to undo great sorrow. That’s why, when Hanalei’s father steals a seadragon egg meant for a sick princess, her entire family is exiled. After years pass in exile, one day, an encounter with a female dragon shows Hanalei it’s possible to return home. Meanwhile, Samahtitamahenele is the last prince of Tamarind but can’t inherit the matriarchal throne. With his mother sick and his grandmother’s time as sovereign almost up, Sam’s choices are few. But when a childhood friend returns home, she brings with her hope for the future.

In Malaya in 1945, Cecily Alcantara is walking on a tightrope trying to keep (what’s left of) her family intact during a brutal Japanese occupation. Her son is missing, her eldest daughter has to contend with drunk Japanese soldiers at the tea house where she works, and Cecily’s youngest daughter is kept in the basement to stop her from becoming a comfort woman. But Cecily can’t really complain because everything is kind of her fault…

Five hundred years from now, climate change results in a drowning world. In this dystopian future, even in places like Arizona, the rain never stops. It’s in this moist, hellish landscape that 18-year-old Jin Haldar is trying her best to keep her and her sister Thara afloat without their parents. Desperation leads to Thara accepting a job offered by an eccentric stranger, and even though Jin swore off diving since their father’s death, she agrees too. And, as with any good heist, a spicy crew is assembled. As the group tries to get the gold score of a lifetime from a submerged Las Vegas, they’ll encounter sea beasts, pirates, and mysterious figures.