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Add These to Your TBR: AAPI Authors You Need to Read—Curated Book Reviews

Black book titled "Book Review" against a lined background. Text: "Add these to your TBR" and "AAPI authors you need to read."

Curated by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books)


One of the greatest joys of reading is discovering voices that open windows into experiences, cultures, and communities beyond your own—and the authors featured in today's post do exactly that. This month, we're spotlighting books by Asian-American, Pacific-Islander (AAPI) authors across a range of genres, all of which would meet the category in this year's Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge. Whether you're in a reading funk, craving something laugh-out-loud fun, or hunting for your next literary obsession, we think you'll find something here worth adding to your TBR.



"I absolutely loved this beautiful story, which I listened to thanks to Libro.fm and their ALC program. I've been in a little bit of a reading funk, but this one helped me along with my progress and left me ready to pop in my earbuds to do some more listening! (I was so surprised to see that this was a DEBUT! I can't wait to read more by Julie Tieu!)


The Donut Trap (Libro.fm | Bookshop.org) centers 22-year-old Jasmine Tran, a daughter of Cambodian refugees of Chinese descent who fled Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge genocide and found their way to America, where they own a donut shop. While their shop has a steady stream of locals and a solid business, they have not raised prices, included fancier options, or found their footing in the social media world. So with rent costs rising, Jasmine begins to worry that she'll never find her way out of helping her parents at the shop. She feels adrift after college, wondering how she will meet new people and find her way into a career outside of donuts. When Alex, a meet cute crush from college, reappears in Jasmine's life, she finds herself hopeful for the possibility of romance and more outside of the donut shop that has become her whole world." Click to read the full review.



"I was delighted when Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Four Aunties and a Wedding (Book 2 in the Aunties series) came out in March. I really enjoyed the audio of Dial A for Aunties, and I just knew Four Aunties and a Wedding was going to be just what I needed. I also knew I had to get the audiobook–Risa Mei, the narrator, brings these characters to life.


We last left Meddy, her mom, and the Aunties in book one with a brand new engagement between Meddy and her boyfriend, Nathan. So, we pick up with the wedding planning in book two and then the wedding day. Let me just tell you—SO MANY hijinks ensue. Like the first in the series, in Four Aunties and a Wedding, you must suspend all disbelief and just enjoy this fun, campy story. If you can do this, this is a wild, hilarious ride. These are just a few of the hijinks: mafia ties, kidnapping, giant fascinators shaped like komodo dragons…and I am just getting started. I really don’t want to say anything beyond this because it is a mystery, and I don’t want to spoil a thing!" Click to read the full review.



"I listened to Jen Sookfong Lee's Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart: A Memoir (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) thanks to Libro.fm's ALC program. I'm so happy that I experienced this one via audio since the author reads it herself, communicating the tenderness, humor, and outrage she feels with great resonance.


"The book is a series of essays, meditations that weave together a particular pop-culture focus with the author's thoughts on different parts of her life.


"There's a gorgeous tribute to Anne of Green Gables as she considers the impact of her father's death when she was a child and of her subsequent feelings of abandonment by her mother." Click to read the full review.



"Are you looking for some great backlist reading? Well, do I have a suggestion for you. I read Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere a while ago, and thought it was amazing. More recently, I watched the limited series on Hulu. I enjoyed the series, but there is no standing in for Ng's words on the page.


"First, Ng's masterful writing is truly something to behold. She has the ability to capture a feeling in words that I just haven't found in a lot of the books I have read." Click to read the full review.


(A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.)


Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.


Loving what you see here? Please comment below (scroll ALL the way down to comment), share this post using the social media buttons below (scroll down for those as well!), and find us on social media to share your thoughts!

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We are proud to partner with Bookshop.org and have a curated Unabridged store as well as affiliate links. We're also honored to be a partner with Libro.fm and proudly use affiliate links to support them and independent bookstores.

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