Library Blog

Celebrate Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month with some e-selections!

May is Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month. In observance, here is a sampling of fiction and non-fiction books, all downloadable through Overdrive, compiled by our reference librarian Pam. 

The Girl at Baggage Claim Book Jacket

The Girl at the Baggage Claim: Explaining the East-West Culture Gap by Gish Jen. A provocative non-fiction book by one of my favorite novelists.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/2939584

audiobook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/3327805

World and Town Book Jacket

World and Town by Gish Jen. A deeply thoughtful novel featuring a Chinese-American protagonist, her Cambodian refugee neighbors, and assorted native Vermonters in a small New England town.

ebook: https://minuteman.overdrive.com/minuteman-visitor/content/media/467531

Interior Chinatown Book Jacket

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. A funny, yet highly personal satire of bias in Hollywood by the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/4866911

Farewell to Manzanar Book Jacket

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. A classic (1973) memoir of a Japanese family trying to survive the internment camps of World War II.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/1425350

audiobook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/4848283

Uprooted Book Jacket

Uprooted: the Japanese-American Experience During World War II by Albert Marrin. A highly acclaimed history that sheds light on many unexplored aspects of this era.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/2686173

audiobook:  https://minuteman.overdrive.com/minuteman-visitor/content/media/2534231

Re Jane Book Jacket

Re Jane by Patricia Park. A humorous retelling of the Jane Eyre story told through the eyes of a Korean-American girl living in Queens, NY.

ebook: https://minuteman.overdrive.com/minuteman-visitor/content/media/1977670

audiobook: https://minuteman.overdrive.com/minuteman-visitor/content/media/2159632

The Sympathizer Book Jacket

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. This novel won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It offers a new and different perspective, filled with intrigue and suspense, on the Vietnam War.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/2159458

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Book Jacket

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. A “lyrical work of self-discovery,” this novel created a sensation when it was published in 2019.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/4281463

audiobook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/4281332

The Namesake Book Jacket

The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri. A moving novel of culture, family ties and assimilation. There’s an excellent movie version too!

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/574553

audiobook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/128572

Fresh Off the Boat Book Jacket

Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang. An irreverent take on assimilation by a well-known “food personality,” it became a sitcom on ABC starring Constance Wu and Randall Park.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/mvlc-visitor/content/media/1013158

audiobook: https://minuteman.overdrive.com/media/7058b7ba-6fe0-4be3-a0af-179854f80c76

Patron Saints of Nothing Book Jacket

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay. A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin’s murder.

ebook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/4312058

audiobook: https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/4310971