Friday, May 15, 2020

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

  1. Spirit Hunters, Ellen Oh. (Korean) (a book!)
  2. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, Mindy Kaling (India) (woman, person who isn't hung out with)
  3. 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). 
  1. The Duchess War, Courtney Milan. (1)
  2. The Prince and the Dressmaker, Jen Wang (1)
  3. Yasmin the Superhero, Saadia Faruqi (1,2)
  4. The Heiress Effect, Courtney Milan (1)
  5. New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, ed. Nisi Shawl
  6. Mooncakes, Suzanne Walker (writer) & Wendy Xu (artist) (1,2)
  7. Monstress Vol 4: The Chosen, Marjorie Liu. (1, 2)
  8. Exhalation, Ted Chiang (1)
  9. Operatic, Kyo Maclear (1, 2)
  10. All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team, Christina Soontornvat (1,2)
  11. Angel's Blood, Nalini Singh (1) (??? She was born in Fiji, and I'm not sure if that counts?)
  12. Front Desk, Kelly Yang (1, 2) Chinese
  13. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong 9/7/20 (1,2)
  14. On the Horizon, Lois Lowry  (2)
  15. We Are Power, Todd Hasek-Lowy 10/6/20 (2 -- Gandhi is the first profile)
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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. 
  19. 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.
  20. 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. 
  21. 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.

  1. Dragonwings, Laurence Yep 
  2. Giant Spider & Me, Kikori Morino
  3. We Are Displaced, Malala Yousafzai
  4. Eight Million Gods, Wen Spencer.
  5. Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee
  6. Jade City, Fonda Lee
  7. On a Sunbeam, Tilly Waldon. Also Operatic, Kyo Maclear
  8. Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Alan Burgess ??
  9. House of Sixty Fathers, Meindert Dejong. ??
  10. Legend, Lu
  11. Three Body Problem
  12. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, Mindy Kaling
  13. The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang
  14. Turner Brothers by Courtney Milan
  15. A Bride's Story, Kaoru Mori
  16. The Spirit Hunter, Ellen Oh
  17. Lin Po Po
  18. Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship, Chitra Soundar
  19. I Shot the Buddha, Colin Cotterill
  20. Dragonwings, Laurence Yep
  21. Best We Could Do, Thi Bui
  22. Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson
  23. Boxer/Saints Gene Luen Yang
  24. The Shadow Hero, Gene Luen Yang
  25. The Bride Test, Helen Huang
  26. Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
  27. Other Words For Home, Jasmine Warga
  28. Listen, Slowly, Tranhha Lee
  29. Every Falling Star, Sunju Lee
  30. ?? 2020 Debut novel ??
  31. The Black Tides of Heaven, JY Yang

rasterized sqaure challenge

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