AARP Hearing Center
May is Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, to honor the rich history and accomplishments of AAPIs throughout the history of the United States. AARP is proud to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with articles that showcase AAPI accomplishments and culture.
In this third installment of our series, we offer a list of the most influential and inspiring books — both fiction and nonfiction — that spotlight the AAPI experience.
Lucky
Henry Chang
This is the latest of five novels featuring NYPD detective Jack Yu that involve crime and community in New York's Chinatown. Author Chang, who was born and raised and still lives in Chinatown, evokes his neighborhood with loving detail. Lucky is about his childhood friend, gangster Lucky Louie, who comes out of a coma after being shot and goes on a crime spree to get revenge.
Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
Helen Zia
Zia is a journalist who came to prominence covering the murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin in Detroit in 1982 by two autoworkers who blamed the decline of the U.S. industry on Japanese cars. The book follows the subsequent rise of the pan-Asian movement.
The Making of Asian America
Erika Lee
This book by Lee, a professor of Asian American history, is a comprehensive yet conversationally written overview of the arrival of Asians in America, what brought them here and how their many communities have evolved.