Books I Want to Read May 2022

In my quest to read books that are very different than my own up bringing, I have probably the most diverse set of books per month that I’ve had in a long while. In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I wanted to include a few books that were either written by an Asian American or the main character is Asian American. I’m so excited to read these books and have the different discussions with my book clubs later this month. Have you read any of these? Thoughts? What are you looking to read this month?

1. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

Sam Hill, otherwise known as Sam Hell by his classmates for his red pupils, is living with ocular albinism and just trying to get through each day alive. With the help from his other two misfit friends, he is able to preserver and keep moving past the pain and name calling. He believes it was God who sent him his two friends he desperately needed. 40 years later however, Sam is now a small town eye doctor and no longer confident that anything in life was done by design. What else could explain the tragedy event that had him turning his back on his friends, his hometown and everything he once knew. He decides to go on this journey to once again find out who he truly is and what truly matters in life.

2. The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning

A historical fiction novel that tells the little unknown story of Jewish refugees who made the journey to Shanghai during WWII. A jumping in time story that goes back and forth between 1939 Shanghai and 2016 Australia. Li, a local of Shanghai, and Romy, a Jewish refugee, instantly form a tight friendship when they first meet, but as the dangers of the war start impacting the rest of the world, their close bond is quickly torn apart. Fast forward many years later, Alexandra has just returned to Australia after suffering from a broken heart and all she wants to do is spend time with her grandparents, Romy and Wilhelm. After all these years, they finally begin to share some of the family’s secrets and what it was like for Romy during her time in Shanghai. Alexandra begins to peel back the layers and beings to question what she knows about her family and herself.

3. Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

Peach Blossom Spring, follows three generations of a Chinese family as they try and find a place to call home. It begins in 1938 where Meilin and her son Renshu are escaping the Japanese army as they approach China main land. They travel through their ravaged country, seeking refuge. Years later, Renshu has moved to America and living under the name of Henry Dao. He refuses to talk about his childhood despite her daughter yearning to learn more about her heritage. History of modern China, told through the stories on one family. What would it mean to finally be home?

4. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Set on a river boat cruise on the Nile, the tranquility of the trip is quickly shattered when it is discovered that a young lady by the name of Linnet Ridgeway has been shot in the head. But who else is on board, the noble and great detective Hercule Poirot. He will get to the bottom of this crime if it’s the last thing he does. After all, everyone is now a suspect and nothing is as quite what it seems.

5. Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates to beautiful country. But that is not often the case for immigrants entering into the United States. Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 with her family and is quickly fearing her surroundings and the initial curiosity is quickly crushed. Her parents went from professors in China too barely making ends meet in a sweatshop. Quickly shunned by her classmates for her limited English, she takes refuge in a library where she spends every afternoon learning the English language. She is taught to say that if something were to ever happen, she was born here and always lived here. A powerful memoir about a family cracking to the pressure in America and a young girl who never stops seeking the light.

6. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Anna is a thirteen-year-old orphan living inside the walls of Constantinople in a home where the women make their living doing the embroidering for the clothes of priests. Wanting to escape from her reality, Anna soon finds her love of books, especially the story of Aethon, and shares this with her ailing sister on the night that Constantinople is bombarded. Outside of the walls, a young boy by the name of Omeir is getting ready to join the army not knowing that his and Anna’s paths are soon to cross. 500 years in the future, Zeno is working at a library in Idaho and trying to put together a play adaption of Aethon’s story.In the not so distant future, Konstance is living on the interstellar ship, Argos, and thinking about the story of Aethon that her father once told her.

7. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

A memoir following the life of Trevor Noah from growing up on the streets in South Africa to his journey of eventually hosting The Daily Show. How his birth was seen as a huge controversy in his home country and why he needed to stay inside for the earliest years of his life. What his mother risked to keep him safe and away from the white rule of South Africa. A story of a boy who was never suppose to exist and his mother who would put his life above anything else, including her own safety.

Until Next Time, The Library Abroad