Library Chicken: Asian Heritage Month -- May Challenge

(File photo by Flickr user Nate McBean via Creative Commons license)

May is Asian Heritage Month, and a friend in a book club pointed out a challenge to go with it, hosted by ReadWith Cindy with a selection of challenges and a read-along. I can't do the read-along, but I'll try for the others.

CHALLENGES

1) Read any book by an Asian author.

2) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who you can relate to. Ex: If you’re an immigrant you can read about an immigrant character; if you’re a woman you can read a book by another woman; etc.

3) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who is different from you. Ex: If you’re straight you can read about a queer character; if you’re Japanese you can read a book by a Vietnamese author; etc.

4) Read a book recommended by an Asian. Ex: Watch an Asian booktuber’s recommendations video; ask your Asian friend what book best represents them; have an Asian friend choose between 2 books on your TBR; etc.

5) OPTIONAL: Read “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng and participate in the Little Fires Readalong and the Little Fires Watchalong

Spirit Hunters, Ellen Oh. (Korean) (a book!)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, Mindy Kaling (India) (woman, person who isn't hung out with)
On a Sunbeam, Tilly Waldon. (I think Mia was Asian. Sometimes. They were different from me because they were very young). Midwinter Witch, Molly Ostertag. (I think young Ariel was Asian).

And in June I'm finishing up some books I picked in May but didn't finish. Actually, I think I'll track for the rest of the year books that either have an Asian author (1), an Asian character (2) or was recommended by an Asian (3).

The Duchess War, Courtney Milan. (1)
The Prince and the Dressmaker, Jen Wang (1)
Yasmin the Superhero, Saadia Faruqi (1,2)
The Heiress Effect, Courtney Milan (1)
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, ed. Nisi Shawl
Mooncakes, Suzanne Walker (writer) & Wendy Xu (artist) (1,2)
Monstress Vol 4: The Chosen, Marjorie Liu. (1, 2)
Exhalation, Ted Chiang (1)
Operatic, Kyo Maclear (1, 2)
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team, Christina Soontornvat (1,2)
Angel's Blood, Nalini Singh (1) (??? She was born in Fiji, and I'm not sure if that counts?)
Front Desk, Kelly Yang (1, 2) Chinese
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong 9/7/20 (1,2)
On the Horizon, Lois Lowry (2)
We Are Power, Todd Hasek-Lowy 10/6/20 (2 -- Gandhi is the first profile)
That Can Be Arranged, Huda Fahmy. 10/14/20. Islamic girl from Michigan reminisces over her love life, which ended after much patience with marriage to a nicely nerdy man.
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, Ellen Oh (ed)(1)(2)(3) A collection of retellings of Asian folktales by a lot of really good writers.
They Called Us Enemy, George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott. (1, 2) Takei's memories of his internment during World War II, and the aftermath and historical context.
Trash, Andy Mulligan. (2) Set it a slightly disguised Philippines, this shows three boys from the trash heap who outwit the cops and the corrupt politician who controls them as they race to recover the stolen loot that was taken from the original politician/thief.
The Bone Thief, Rin Cupeco. (1). YA-ish fantasy with an geisha-like class of killer magicians, and our heroine is the darkest kind, with powers over the dead. She discovers this when accidentally reanimating her dead brother -- the sibling relationship at the heart is great. Author is Filipino.
Laika, Nick Abadzis. I'm not sure this counts -- it's about the launching of Laika in Sputnik 2, so it ends up in Kazakhstan, but I have no idea where the lead-up is. But if it's nearby, then it's about people in Central Asia...

Looking around for an image to put at the top I tripped across another challenge for May, so I'll see how I do on that as well. This one is by Books And Boba, a blog and podcast about Asian books. Each day they challenge you to come up with a book matching that day's type. I'll keep coming back to this through May to see how I do. So far it's pretty hard.