Diversify Your Bookshelf

Diversify Your Bookshelf: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, & Pride Month

By Robin Wyllie-Scholz & Willow Symonds
Deputy Editor & Staff Writer

Diversify Your Bookshelf introduces readers to books written from marginalized perspectives, including racial minorities, LGBTQ+ people, disabled individuals, and more. This article features books for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May), Jewish American Heritage Month (also May), and LGBTQ+ Pride Month (June), but anyone can read them at any time of year.

AA&PIH picks:
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (2022)
Genre: Literary; Speculative Fiction
In 2030, a grieving archaeologist visits where his daughter died in the Siberian Arctic Circle, only to discover that the melting permafrost ties him and her research team to a deadly, ancient virus. Once exposed to the world, society in every aspect adjusts to death – theme parks designed for terminally ill children, funeral hotels on every street that hasn’t been abandoned, expeditions to far away planets all become the new normal. Yet humans continue pushing through the worst of times toward anything that resembles humanity.
Each chapter of “How High We Go in the Dark” focuses on a different character, all experiencing their own tragedies and small hopes. Whether set near-future America or centuries-from-now Japan, each story holds something special for readers while still creating one overall storyline.

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (2011)
Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Ten-year-old Kim Hà enjoyed her life in Saigon, running through the markets with her friends and watching her own accidental papaya tree grow taller than her. Then the Vietnam War took those simple joys away from her. When she and her family escape for America, their ship becomes stranded at sea, the harsh winds and sun whittling them down over the weeks. Only when Hà’s hope almost dies do they reach the shore, but what’s waiting for them in the refugee camps and later in Alabama is no less confusing than the war-town country they left behind.
Thanhha Lai based “Inside Out & Back Again” from her own life, writing this National Book Award Winner and Newbery Honor Book in simple yet beautifully worded verse.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Spanning almost 80 years and four generations, “Pachinko” is a sprawling epic of a Korean family in Japan struggling with discrimination, poverty and relationships. The backdrop of Japan’s annexation of Korea and both world wars is expertly woven together with the everyday challenges of the book’s protagonists, creating a quietly powerful story about family and identity. The New York Times Bestseller was recently made into a TV show that is available on Apple TV.

Pride Month picks:
The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag (2021)
Genre: Young Adult Graphic Novel; LGBTQ+ Romance
Morgan Kwon has kept secrets all 15 years of her life. When she spends a night on her island hometown’s cliffside, she finds herself sinking to the ocean’s bottom, reflecting on her isolation. Then, as if in a dream, a girl she vaguely recognizes saves her from drowning. She soon discovers this mysterious girl is Keltie, and she’s less human than she appears. While the two grow closer, Morgan’s friend group and community strain what Keltie holds dear – and forces Morgan to make a decision she never expected.
“The Girl from the Sea” tells a story of first love in vibrantly colored comic panels, featuring characters that feel both larger than life and like real people readers know all too well.

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (2021)
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reese has always wanted to be a mother. As a transgender woman in her 30s trapped in a cycle of self-destructive habits, she thinks that the closest thing she’ll get is being a mentor to the younger trans girls in her circle. That changes when her ex Ames, who lived as a trans woman while they were together but has since detransitioned, tells Reece that he got his boss pregnant and wants her to help raise the baby. At once bitingly witty and introspective, “Detransition, Baby” tackles the question of what it means to be a mother with impressive dexterity and care.

Jewish American Heritage Month pick:

The Prison Minyan by Jonathan Stone (2021)
Genre: Crime, Humor
Life at Otisville, America’s only predominantly Jewish prison, isn’t so bad. The white-collar criminals serving their sentences there might even like it better than their real lives. A group of prisoners even form a minyan, a Talmudic study/prayer group, led by their fellow inmate who is a rabbi. Their routine is shaken up when a new inmate joins their group– a celebrity lawyer to an unnamed but familiar conservative president. With his arrival comes a new malevolent warden and a dangerous conspiracy. The minyan must band together to combat this new threat to their existence, aided by a lesbian poetry professor. “The Prison Minyan” is meticulously, probingly funny while also dealing with heavy topics like antisemitism, white supremacy and people’s ability to change.

Comments

comments