2024 Adult Asian Pacific American Heritage

3.4 stars

Chung investigates the mysteries and complexities of her transracial adoption in this chronicle of unexpected family for anyone who has struggled to figure out where they belong. -- Publisher

"For all who love the magical flavors of good Indian cooking and want to reproduce effortlessly some of the delectable dishes from that part of the world, here is a groundbreaking cookbook from the multi-James Beard Award–winning author who is revered as the “queen of Indian cooking” (Saveur). By deconstructing age-old techniques and reducing the number of steps in a recipe, as well as helping us to understand the nature of each spice and...

4 stars

When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she's last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life, a beautiful lake house, a charming professor boyfriend, and invites to elegant parties that bubble over with champagne and good taste, but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future...

4.6 stars

This memoir from a Chinese woman who arrived in New York City at age seven examines how her family lived in poverty out of fear of being discovered as undocumented immigrants and how she was able to find success.

4.3 stars

"When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she's moving back to Malaysia with her parents--a country she last saw when she was a toddler. She soon learns the new voice isn't even hers, it's the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she's determined to settle a score against a business...

2 stars

"Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries. Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up...

2 stars

Fabienne is dead. Her childhood best friend, Agnès, receives the news, far from the French countryside where the girls were raised–the place that Fabienne helped Agnès escape ten years ago. Now, Agnès is free to tell her story.

4 stars

"From the critically acclaimed author of The Kiss Quotient comes a romantic novel about love that crosses international borders and all boundaries of the heart... Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions--like grief. And love. He thinks he's defective. His family knows better--that his autism means he just processes emotions...

5 stars

"The most authoritative biography--featuring dozens of rarely seen photographs--of film legend Bruce Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between Eastern and Western cultures, and smashed long-held stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans. Forty-five years after Bruce Lee's sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee's life. It's also one...

4.2 stars

"After a fiery attack on a train leaves 104 people dead, the fates of three people become inextricably entangled. Jivan, a bright, striving woman from the slums looking for a way out of poverty, is wrongly accused of planning the attack because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir, a slippery gym teacher from Jivan's former high school, has hitched his aspirations to a rising right wing party, and his own ascent becomes increasingly linked to...