Asian American/Pacific Island (Hawaiian) Authors

 

Asian American Authors - Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

April 1, 2025; Simon & Schuster, NetGalley

Boat Baby: A Memoir by Vicky Nguyen is a memoir about the author and her family's harrowing trip from communist Vietnam in the mid-1970s to safety.  Traveling by boat, the group is attacked by pirates on the ocean, but manage to reach the refugee camps in Malaysia before being sponsored to come to America. 

April 10, 2025; independently published

In a brief biography, NBC News anchor and correspondent Vicky Nguyen also tells the story of her unlikely journey from refugee to award winning reporter and an NBC news anchor.

May 6, 2025; Norton & Company, NetGalley

The Wanderer's Curse: A Memoir by Jennifer Hope Choi, 

Description: An immigrant Korean mother runs off to Alaska, sparking a greater season of wandering. Could her daughter be destined for the same?

This probing memoir follows Choi through her many former homes, from a crumbling Chinatown tenement to a haunted museum in Georgia. 

The memoir is an electric mother-daughter story, exploring ideas of belonging, self-determination, and possibility, leaving readers to wonder what we take with us generation to generation, what we wish we could leave behind, and how we move on.

Jennifer Hope Choi is also an award nominated senior editor at Bon Appetit. 

May 20, 2025; Thomas and Mercer, NetGalley

Kaua'i Storm: a Ranger Makalani Pahukula Mystery by Tori Eldridge 

Genre: mystery, set in Kaua'i

Description: Returning to Kaua‘i after ten years as a national park ranger in Oregon, ranger Makalani Pahukula finds her family divided and their way of life at risk. But when hunters find a dead body in the Keālia Forest Reserve, Makalani fears something ominous is at play, and her search for her cousins is a mystery she must solve.

Tori Eldridge is the bestselling author of the Lily Wong mystery thrillers as well as a two-time Anthony Award nominee, Lefty and Macavity Awards finalist, and winner of the 2021 Crimson Scribe Award for Best Book of the Year.

Born and raised in Honolulu—of Hawaiian, Chinese, and Norwegian descent—she lived in New York and Los Angeles before settling in Portland, Oregon. She holds a 5th degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninja martial arts.

Have you read any books for AAPI Heritage Month? 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Sunday Salon: May Books on My List

 May Books on My List

Autobiography/Memoir

Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange by Katie Goh, May 6, 2025; Tin House, NetGalley

Genre: memoir, nonfiction, nature

Description: 

Katie Goh follows the complicated history of the orange from east-to-west and west-to-east, from a luxury item of kings and  emperors, to a common everyday fruit.  

Growing up queer in a Chinese-Malaysian-Irish household in the north of Ireland, Katie felt herself at odds with the culture and politics. She visited her ancestral home in Longyan, China and travels to Malaysia to understand her roots, to flesh out contradictions, unpeel the layers of personhood. A reflection on identity through the cipher of the orange. 

This unusual memoir is one I'm looking forward to reading.

Mystery Novel

Detective Aunty by Uzma Jaluluddin, May 6, 2025, Harper Perennial, NetGalley

Genre: cozy mystery, adult fiction, set in Toronto

Description:

Kauser Khan returns to Toronto to clear her daughter, Sana, of the murder of a landlord. With the help of old friends and her teenage granddaughter, Kausar investigates to uncover the truth behind the murders that have been occurring there.

General Adult Fiction

My Friends by Fredrik Backman, May 6, 2025; Simon and Schuster, NetGalley

Genre: adult fiction, contemporary, set in Sweden

Description: 

A funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.  One of the boys hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life.

Louisa years later finds three tiny figures painted in the corner of a world famous painting she has been put in charge of, and sets out to find the story behind it.

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

   

Basically Blue: Book Covers

 Women's fiction

March 5, 2024; Putnam, NetGalleyA hilariously offbeat and tender comedy about one bipolar woman’s messy search for love at a seaside wedding where no one can stay afloat.

Is she falling in love, or falling apart?

July 15, 2025; Avon and Harper Voyager, NetGalley

Genre: women's fiction, contemporary fiction

Eliza moves to a small Midwestern town after her engagement falls apart. She buys a lake house, sight unseen, and finds that her friendly neighbors are hiding a marvelous secret, which will impact her life.

General fiction/adult

June 3, 2025; Berkley, NetGalley

A perfectly cozy voyage with the charming and relatable passengers—including one dashing dachshund—whose lives intersect and affect each other on a mountain trip on Japan’s most romantic railway lines, from international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa.

July 15, 2025: Henry Holt, NetGalley

A refreshingly irreverent novel about art, desire, domesticity, freedom, and the intricacies of the twenty-first-century female experience, by the acclaimed writer Hannah Pittard

And now for a mystery/thriller

June 3, 2025; Severn House, NetGalley

 Four friends are meeting at a beautiful Cape Cod beach house for a long overdue reunion. 

It’s been twenty years since Mori, Avery, Remi and Calista last saw each other. As they reconnect on Cape Cod to celebrate Calista’s fortieth birthday, each one hides a painful and devastating secret. But before the trip is over, one of them will wind up dead.

What's your favorite color for a book cover?

Dream State by Eric Puchner: Literary Fiction/Adult Fiction

 Literary Fiction Titles

Dream State by Eric Puchner, Feb. 18, Doubleday

Genre: literary fiction, adult fiction, romance

Review: Set in Montana, this literary novel was a fantastic read. There is a love triangle of sorts between three people - Cece and Charlie, and Charlie’s best friend Garrett, who steals Cece from him right after their wedding. The book follow the three through most of their lives into their later years. 

Cece as a new bride does not join her new husband Charlie in California, but stays behind in Montana with Garrett, her new-found love. Throughout life, Cece finds herself both happy and unhappy. Garrett, whom she later marries in place of Charlie, says that Cece rescued him from a dismal time and saved him by marrying him. Charlie experiences regret throughout life, with several failed marriages and heartache with his son, Jasper.  He does, for whatever reason, work hard to keep Cece and Garrett in his life. 

The lifelong relationship between these three people are what the book is all about. Personal choices, consequences, and love and friendship are the important themes.

I gave this book five stars, and though this was a library borrow for me, I would want to own this novel in my own library.

Fireworks Every Night, June 2023, Random House.

A young woman trapped in a deeply dysfunctional family in the seedy wilds of 1990s South Florida has to make a choice—save her family, or save herself—in this “riveting” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) novel from the acclaimed author of Lay the Favorite.

Pool Fishing, Sept. 15, 2025; Kelp Books, NetGalley

"In prose that crackles, DeMarco-Barrett spins the most deliciously noir stories spanning the deadly undertow of Palm Springs pools to animal rescue missions turned eco-terrorism. I loved it! - Halley Sutton, author of Hurrican Blonde 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Coming in June and September - Poetry and Novels

 September 2025 books 

It's still April, National Poetry Month, but I found a book with poems and other writings by Nikki Giovanni. 

The New Book, Nikki Giovanni, Sept. 2, 2025, William Morrow, NetGalley

Genre: prose, poems, letters

Nikki Giovanni’s extraordinary new collection—a landmark of American literature—speaks to the fury of our current political moment while reflecting on the tragedies and triumphs of her early life.

"If there was a need for poetry that galvanized and inspired, there was also a demand for poetry that comforted and unified — and Ms. Giovanni provided on both counts." — The Washington Post

 

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa,(September 30, 2025; Knopf Canada; NetGalley

Genre: adult fiction, Canadian fiction, Laotian 

Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner, her novel is about loneliness, love, labour, and class, following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name.

Pick a Color is by author Souvankham Thammavongsa, who also writes poetry and short stories. She was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and was raised and educated in Toronto where she now lives. ..

 

Far and Away by Amy Poeppel
June 24, 2025; Atria, NetGalley

Women's fiction, humor, chick lit

Description

The “absolutely hilarious” (Real Simple) Amy Poeppel delights once again with a charming new novel about a house swap gone wonderfully awry.

Perfect strangers Lucy in Dallas and Greta in Berlin have agreed to a house swap—and boy, are they going to regret it.

What's on your reading list for summer, autumn? 

Watching TV but Not Reading Much: An Update

 Watching TV movies has become my passion this spring, beginning during the cold, grey days of a never-ending winter. From Korean and Chinese and Japanese drama, I have skipped to Spanish/Mexican drama, and have watched two and a half so far.

This has meant less reading of books and ebooks. 

However, I have added poetry to my current interests as recent posts show, and recently began this ARC novel, the title  immediately appealing to me.

I'm at the beginning of French Leave, (Sept. 25, 2024; Pegasus, NetGalley) which seems a mystery novel in addition to being contemporary women's fiction. 

Book description:

Martha's life as an intelligent, highly successful social worker is shattered when her husband is killed suddenly in a hit and run accident.

Although the police are initially interested because of Thierry's government connections, the case is quickly closed and Martha is left dealing with grief, a disturbing loss of certainty and a nagging thought that she needs to know what happened on that fateful day.

As she tries to move on, more questions than answers arise and Martha begins to unravel. Will a move to France help or make things worse?

It's holding my interest so far, especially with the suspense of what really happened to her husband. 

The Gallery Assistant by Kate Belli won't be published until October 14, 2025 by Atria, but I was so eager for a psych thriller that I read the NetGalley ARC right away. 

My review: Chloe Harlow wakes up in her own apartment after an all night party, not remembering how she got home or what happened during the party. She has had black out periods before because of excessive drinking, but her situation is now serious as the host of the party, an up and coming artist, a friend of hers, died at that party.

Chloe's own sleuthing leads her to discoveries regarding the gallery where she works and art owners, painters, and works of art. What she finds out during the book shocks her and puts her in danger as well.

Well crafted and suspenseful, the novel is entertaining, with a likeable main character who is both vulnerable and savvy. 

 Next book on my list

Eat, Post, Like by Emily Arden Wells, will be published June 3, 2025 by Avon. I will be reading the NetGalley ARC.

After her accountant boyfriend, James, dies tragically, Cassie Brooks finds his notebook that tells her he is more than an accountant. His detailed notes and diary suggest he is the anonymous restaurant and food expert who is well known in the city. 

When Cassie accepts a food invitation on behalf of James, her journey into the world of food begins. I am wondering  how this book will end and if she will be successful in successfully carrying on what James had started. 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

April - Reading Basho's Haiku during National Poetry Month

 

Graphic by The Lawrenceville School

I bought a book of poetry for a  young friend who is a budding poet just starting to make clever verses that rhyme. Poetry Is Not a Luxury has enough short poems to pique his interest in works that don't necessarily rhyme but are excellent views into the poets' minds.

Along the way, I decided to buy myself a book of poems as well.

On Love and Barley -Haiku of Basho, Jan. 7, 1986, Penguin Classics. 93 pages with 253 haiku poems. 

Description: Basho, one of the greatest of Japanese poets and the master of haiku, was also a Buddhist monk and a life-long traveller.  His poems combine 'karumi', or lightness of touch, with the Zen ideal of oneness with creation. 

Each poem evokes the natural world - the cherry blossom, the leaping frog, the summer moon or the winter snow - suggesting the smallness of human life in comparison to the vastness and drama of nature. 

Basho himself enjoyed solitude and a life free from possessions.  His haiku are the work of an observant eye and a meditative mind.

Excerpts from the book:

8

Spring night,

cherry-

blossom dawn.

12

Spring rain -

under trees

a crystal stream

I will read Basho's haiku, 253 of them in this collection, whenever I'm in the mood for short, poetic observations of nature.

Are you planning to read any poetry this month?

More Poetry: Three Collections of Poems

 More poetry

 

How About Now: Poems by Kate Baer, downloaded from NetGalley, publication Nov. 4, 2025; Harper Perennial.

Description: A young woman's journey to middle age and self-discovery - the third full length poetry collection by Kate Baer. 

Theme: confronting the march of time in a shifting age.

I'm looking forward to these poems and the theme. Baer is a New York Times best selling author, of What Kind of Woman.

 Window and Mirror by Ted Virts, April 8, 2025; Atmosphere Press, downloaded from NetGalley

Description: What are we doing here? The present political situation, the southern U.S. border, the death of the poet's father, the news, and a description of Christmas as an artichoke. 

I am curious about this collection of poems, the themes of the present crises as it affects the poet.

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, translated into the Jamaican by Lorna Goodison who has used Jamaican phrases and expressions to turn Dante's poem into one that would appeal to a modern Caribbean audience.

As I grew up in Jamaica, I am more than eager to read this poet's version of Dante's The Inferno and to see the Italian poem become a Caribbean version. 

Publication on June 10, 2025 by the Literary Press Club of Canada, and downloaded from NetGalley.

 What poetry books have you discovered recently?

Meme: It's Monday: What Are You Reading

Poetry Is Not a Luxury: Poems for All Seasons : Sunday Salon

 Poetry

There are times when fiction or nonfiction won't do, and only poems can fit the bill. In one of those moods, I searched for a new book of poems and found Poetry Is Not a Luxury, (May 6, 2025; NetGalley) an anthology grouped under the themes of Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. A collection of mostly short poems, by writers such as Langston Hughes, Izumi Shikibu, Ilya Kaminsky, Jane Hirshfield, Nikki Giovanni, Ursula K. LeGuin, Timothy Liu, Ria Cortez, and Garous Abdomalekian. 

Over a year ago, I gave away a lot of books to used book stores, senior centers, library book sales, in order to turn my basement into a bedroom/den. Now, I look for books I no longer have, including books of poetry! 

Books of poems I miss having include those by Pablo Neruda, ee cummings, the illustrated I Ching, Mary Oliver, and more that I can't even recall at the moment, lol. 

I still have three poetry anthologies that escaped my great book purge: 

1. The Giant Book of Poetry, edited by William H. Roetzheim, 2006, Level 4 Press

Poems begin with Ishtar, (possibly 4,000 BC), translated by Lewis Spence, and end with Jane Flanders' (born 1984) poem titled The House That Fear Built: Warsaw, 1943.

From the first verse of Ishtar:

The unconsecrated foe entered my courts,

placed his unwashed hands upon me, 

and caused me to tremble.

Putting forth his hand

He smote me with fear. 

 

From the first verse of The House That Fear Built:

I am the boy with his hands raised over his head

in Warsaw.

I am the soldier whose rifle is trained 

on the boy with his hands raised over his head

in Warsaw. 

 It seems to me the poems show that war is always the same, no matter what period in time. 

2. Great Poetry of the English Language: Geoffrey Chaucer to Emily Dickinson, edited by Henry B. Weisberg, 1969, Grolier Incorporated is my second anthology of poems, a large print edition. I don't have a good picture of the cover and neither does the web.

The third anthology of poems is titled "Good Poems:American Places" and features  American poets such as William Carlos Williams, Emily Dickinson, Freya Manfred, Theodore Roethke. 

Poems online include a daily poem or any poet of your choice can be found at The Poetry Foundation. This could fill that urge to read a good poem at any time, day or night. (I must remember this at 2 a.m. in the morning when I can't sleep

 Books written in poetry

Becoming Ghost  by Cathy Linh Che,, May 13, 2025; Atria Books, NetGalley. Award-winning Vietnamese-American writer  on her experiences of familial estrangement, the Vietnam War, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Her parents were extras in the film while it was being made in the Phillippines. The film was released 1979.

I read Becoming Ghost, a collection of stories in poetry, in almost one sitting, mesmerized by her memories of her family and the war in Vietnam, by her times in the Phillippines where they were temporarily in a refugee camp, and in particular poems about her father, whose home movies played a large role in the family history.

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Trust Your Mind by Jenara Nerenberg, and Other Books

 Nonfiction 

Delving into a few more nonfiction books, skimming through for the main ideas.

Trust Your Mind by Jenara Nerenberg, May 6, 2025; HarperOne; NetGalley

Genre: self help, adult nonfiction, health, mind and body

My take on this book: the author feels that people are not being honest with each other, not saying what's really on their minds or what they think about various topics society considers sensitive. This means that real conversation and debate is stifled in the interest of compliant behavior, not "rocking the boat" and only "going with the flow." 

My question about this is: if you are honest all the time, are you opening yourself to being slapped, punched, ostracized, or being canceled in this "cancel culture" ? Are we staying nice or neutral just to please or to fit in and be part of a group? 

Description: self-silencing culture and the toxic impact of groupthink. How to navigate an increasingly polarized world

Goodbye to Inflammation by Sandra Monino, July 1, 2025; HarperOne; NetGalley

A diet plan, recipes, and the basics to combat inflammation and improve health.

I'm interested in the anti-inflammatory diet plan that helps promote health, and downloaded this book to read in depth.

Currently reading: fiction  

The Gulf by Rachel Cochran, June 13, 2023; Harper; NetGalley

Genre: adult fiction, mystery, thriller

I pulled this book from my vast to be read list, chosen for the colors on the cover. I admit that blues and blue greens are a draw, also ice and snow on book covers, paradoxically.

The characters and plot are good, so far. Lou hasn't seen Joanna for a good fifteen years, when Joanna returns to town to ask Lou for a favor - to help refurbish the crumbling mansion of her late mother Kate, whose death might have been accidental, or not. 

Description: set on the gulf coast of Texas in the 1970s at the height of the women’s liberation movement, a closeted young woman attempts to solve her surrogate mother’s murder in a tight-knit, religious small town.

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, July 1, 2025; Pushkin Press; NetGalley

Genre: literary fiction, romance

I love everything Paris! This is a good reason to read this book - chasing through the city with a bookseller in search of the writer of the notebook he found.

Description: a bookseller pursues a mystery woman—known only through the jottings in her red notebook—through the streets of Paris.

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday