Reads for AAPI Month 2024!

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

A Novel

Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series: Book #1

By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Narrated by: Arina Ii
Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

“Human nature, human desire, and magical realism at its finest, with a setting seemingly destined to be performed on stage. We follow customers and staff of a café rumored to allow quick trips to the past. The intricate rules and restrictions weed out all but the desperate. At times lighthearted and familiar and yet, equally heartbreaking. A look... Read more

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

Zachary Ying

By: Xiran Jay Zhao
Narrated by: Eric Yang
Length: 8 hours 48 minutes

“When the first emperor of China possesses Zachary's video game device and demands his help, he doesn't expect the whirlwind adventure through China that follows. For fans of Percy Jackson! Read more

Iron Widow (Book 1)

Iron Widow: Book #1

By: Xiran Jay Zhao
Narrated by: Rong Fu
Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

“Iron Widow is the feminist bloodthirsty rage antihero fantasy saga of my DREAMS! Pacific Rim meets The Hunger Games. Much like in the movie Pacific Rim, as our protagonist, Zetian is mentally co-piloting gigantic transforming mechas that humanity is relying on to battle massive aliens come to dominate the planet. And much like in The Hunger... Read more

Yellowface

A Novel

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Helen Laser
Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

“Are you curious about how the book publishing industry works? Yellowface explores the publishing world from the point of view of an envious, unlikeable character; who at the core is battling loneliness, grief, and failure. I love the way the story unfolds from an extremely one-sided voice, who doesn't understand how her actions impact others.... Read more

The Kiss Quotient

By: Helen Hoang
Narrated by: Carly Robins
Length: 9 hours 36 minutes

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with as well as way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn’t help that she has Asperger’s and that French kissing... Read more

How Far the Light Reaches

A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

By: Sabrina Imbler
Narrated by: Sabrina Imbler
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler is badass. I never thought I'd walk away from a collection of essays about weird sea creatures with a more crystal-clear understanding of my own gender identity than I have had in years—but curious readers live to be surprised! In winding personal essay with science writing, Imbler gifts the reader... Read more

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

By: Malinda Lo
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 12 hours 25 minutes

“This coming of age story about a young woman growing up queer in 1950s Chinatown, San Francisco, was brilliant. I loved the rich historical detail, believable characters, exploration of intersectional identities, romance, and sense of place, made even stronger by the excellent narration. Best book I've read in quite some time and highly... Read more

The Vanished Birds

A Novel

By: Simon Jimenez
Narrated by: Shayna Small
Length: 13 hours 17 minutes

“This book has stuck with me in a way that I know can only be attributed to masterful storytelling. In The Vanished Birds, Earth becomes uninhabitable and humankind spreads out into space using technology that is all of our capitalist, designer-baby, smart-everything, social-media-age fears realized. But this new world is also beautifully poetic... Read more

The Spear Cuts Through Water

A Novel

By: Simon Jimenez
Narrated by: Joel de la Fuente
Length: 17 hours 17 minutes

“This is it. I've found it. This is my favorite book. Of all time. Listen. Listen to me. If you like books that play around with POV, that is third person omniscient but also first and second person, and tells you the epic tale from as many angles as possible...this is the one. It has everything, it has characters so complex, all pulled together... Read more

Tokyo Ever After

A Novel

Tokyo Ever After: Book #1

By: Emiko Jean
Narrated by: Ali Ahn
Length: 9 hours 33 minutes

"Narrator Ali Ahn gives this young adult rom-com fun doses of personality and sass...Ahn's accents and Japanese pronunciations ring true as she clearly differentiates characters of different ages and nationalities." -- AudioFile Magazine

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK!

The Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians in Emiko... Read more

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali

By: Sabina Khan
Narrated by: Richa Shukla
Length: 8 hours 31 minutes

With a welcome mix of humor, heart, and high-stakes drama, Sabina Khan provides a timely and honest portrait of what it's like to grow up feeling unwelcome in your own culture.Praise for The Love and Lies of Rukhsana AliFeatured on NBC News and the BBCA Junior Library Guild SelectionA Teen Indie Next List Pick (IndieBound)An Amazon Best Book of... Read more

Loveboat, Taipei

Loveboat

By: Abigail Hing Wen
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

“American-Chinese teenager Ever Wong finds herself unexpectedly shipped off to a summer program in Taiwan by her parents against her will to learn Mandarin and more about their culture. Though this originally seems to be the worst way to spend her summer, Ever is surprised to discover that this program is much more entertaining than she could... Read more

All You Can Ever Know

A Memoir

By: Nicole Chung
Narrated by: Janet Song
Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

“Nicole Chung’s memoir is a moving account of a young woman’s gradually evolving understanding of family and of herself as she uncovers the truth about the circumstances behind her adoption. Refusing the false dichotomy of adoption as inherently positive or negative, she reminds us that adoption is a fact and that it’s always complicated. This is... Read more

The Poppy War

A Novel

The Poppy War

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 19 hours 27 minutes

“In The Poppy War, Rin falls somewhere between the lines of morally gray and morally bankrupt. Exploring themes of racism, violence, gender and social inequality, and war, it’s a tough read, but well worth it in my opinion. Kuang is an expert at character development. Even her worst characters will have you rooting for them at times (my personal... Read more

These Violent Delights

These Violent Delights

By: Chloe Gong
Narrated by: Cindy Kay
Length: 14 hours 14 minutes

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.



A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above... Read more

The Joy Luck Club

By: Amy Tan
Narrated by: Gwendoline Yeo
Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

For decades, a quartet of Chinese women who have emigrated to San Francisco gather to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk—they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Over the years, their stories have informed the lives of four daughters who feel the weight of family and world history on their shoulders. With wit and sensitivity, this novel explores... Read more

The Vegetarian

A Novel

By: Han Kang
Narrated by: Janet Song & Stephen Park
Length: 5 hours 13 minutes

FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
 
“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize
 
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE... Read more

Yolk

By: Mary H. K. Choi
Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
Length: 13 hours 5 minutes

“Sneaks up on you with its insight and poignancy.” —Entertainment Weekly

From New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi comes a funny and emotional story about two estranged sisters and how far they’ll go to save one of their lives—even if it means swapping identities.

Jayne and June Baek are nothing alike. June’s three years older, a... Read more

How High We Go in the Dark

A Novel

By: Sequoia Nagamatsu
Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Brian Nishii, Keisuke Hoashi, MacLeod Andrews, Jeanne Sakata, Greg Watanabe, Kurt Kanazawa, Matthew Bridges, Kotaro Watanabe, Brianna Ishibashi, Joe Knezevich, Micky Shiloah, Stephanie Komure & Jason Culp
Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

“An astounding first novel, Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go In The Dark is without a doubt going to be a major event in 2022's speculative fiction. It begins with a virus thawed by an Arctic exploration team, and branches out its far-reaching and long-lasting consequences. It will be a hard read right now for people recently dealing with the... Read more

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Summer I Turned Pretty: Book #1

By: Jenny Han
Narrated by: Lola Tung
Length: 5 hours 59 minutes

“Oh first loves stories, they are both charming and infuriating. If I was a tween reading this it's a perfect summer read - the anticipation of a first kiss, the validation of finally being included, and the jealousy that destroys us all at that age. But as an adult reading this, I wanted more of the friendship between the moms and the struggle... Read more