Hey guys, it's Emily! For today's video I am talking about some of my very
favorite books by Asian Pacific American authors in honor of Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month. That's a lot of syllables and I'm not gonna lie, I had a hard
time getting that out. So this is by no means a comprehensive list, but these are
just a handful, like maybe 10--I definitely did not count before starting
filming this video--but these are some of my favorite books by Asian Pacific
American authors. I tried to do a pretty wide range, so we have some YA, some
adult, and fantasy, some literary, some nonfiction--try it out sometime--and some
graphic novels, as well. Let's get into it! First I have Jade City by Fonda Lee. This
is the first book in an adult fantasy series set in an East Asian inspired land
that's kind of modern, which is a really fun, fresh take. I feel like a lot of epic
adult fantasy is set in like medieval times, or the Renaissance. That kind of
thing. So it's really refreshing to see this set in a world in which there is
radio and TV and airplanes and things like that. It also creates a more
expansive world. It feels a lot bigger even though it is set in just one city,
the city of Janloon. Why is this fantasy? The jade in this world
gives people supernatural (ish) abilities. It basically makes people into the kind
of martial artists that you would see in a martial arts movie where they're like
jumping all over the place and super, super strong and that kind of stuff. The
setback to this jade is that for everybody except for the most elite
highly trained warrior class of this one ethnic group in the country in which
this is set, using jade will drive you insane... Until a synthetic drug comes on
the market that allows basically everybody to start being able to harness
the power of this jade without that unfortunate little side effect! So what
happens is basically a gang war, and it is so fun. Again, it's really big in scope
Vonda Lee is herself a martial artist and so the fight scenes are some of the
best I've read in a long time and not saying something because I usually kind
of skim read action sequences I find them the most boring parts of books so
it's saying something that I loved this for the action scenes they are that
strong but it's not just a collection of action scenes
an amusing family drama as well I absolutely love this I did a full
spoiler free review of this so if you want to learn a little bit more about my
thoughts you should check that out next I have an unrestored woman by sho
Burrell this is a literary short story collection and it's absolutely amazing
raus prose is just gorgeous all of the stories in here are connected pairs
you'll read one story and then the next story will have a character crossover
thing going on all of these stories are centered in one way or another around
the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 that means before during after the
generations passed and on top of that these stories tend to focus even when
the main character is a man on the experiences of women and I just I adore
this I talk about on my channel quite a bit I cannot recommend this enough it's
absolutely fabulous next I have some white fantasy and that is ash by Melinda
lo this is a lesbian why a Cinderella retelling it's so good it's the most
atmospheric you get this sense of almost eerie foreboding throughout which I
really like because it feels very reminiscent of an actual fairy tale it's
a quick read which is always fun just very solid why a fantasy next I have
American born Chinese by gene Luen yang this is a really really great
coming-of-age graphic novel I think it is one of the best places you can start
if you're a little unsure about dipping your toe into the graphic novel comic
book world because one it's a self-contained story so you don't have
to worry about issue after issue volume after volume coming out forever and ever
and ever that's nice sometimes the other thing is that the panels themselves are
fairly straightforward I don't think there's anything too kooky going on when
it comes to the way that they're laid out which can be really helpful if
you're not super used to reading in that format so that's great the other thing
is it's just a really good story we followed two story lines one is about
the legend of The Monkey King and the other is just about a kid who is coming
to terms with his own identity and his experience as the child of Chinese
immigrants so it looks at the immigrant experience what it's like for a
second-generation kids and it is just so well done and it's short and sweet and
wonderful and I love it next I have the emperor of all maladies by Siddhartha
who cares this is one of my favorite non-fiction
books of all time it is per the subtitle a biography of cancer so it's basically
a history lesson into what the history of cancer is from ancient times until
present what we've done to treat it what's the science behind it what's
going on with new things in the scientific world it's beautifully
written I think sometimes scientific nonfiction can feel a little bit sterile
that's not the case with this at all it doesn't gloss over the individual
human stories of people whose lives have been affected by cancer and on top of
that it never sensationalizes their stories so it doesn't feel as if you're
reading kind of tragedy porn if you don't have talking about it's all so
gorgeously written which is always really nice and nonfiction I love this
so much I will never stop recommending it next I have shelter by John Young
this is a family drama in which we follow a Korean American family and
tragedy has struck in the form of a horrific act of violence this family
which is two generations or three generations I guess you follow Kyung his
wife and their son and then comes parents as a result of this just
horrible act that's happened Young's parents move in with Kim and his
family and their own tight close quarters and there is a lot of family
drama in history when I say drama I don't mean like Real Housewives of New
York drama I mean like traumatic tension tension is something this book does so
so well I will give this a content warning for sexual assault like abuse
and violence and lots of very difficult content but it's a very very powerful
book this had the kind of main character that I would expect to hate particularly
in more literary fiction where you follow around a very listless guy in
middle age she was just so chock-full of ennui and you're like I'm over it I read
this a million times I didn't hate young which I think of the testament to Jenna
ins writing it's just such a compelling book next I'm gonna recommend the paper
menagerie and other stories by Ken Lou this is one of my all-time favorite
short story collections all of the stories in this collection are
speculative fiction and one way or another some are more science fiction
some are morphing to see I loved every single story the
first story in this collection I think it can be a little bit off-putting to
some people because it's written as if it's a scholarly article which makes
sense once you read it I actually did a full review that's way back in the day
like the early days of my channel so I'll leave a link to that as well I
would say if you're considering picking this up I would listen to the episode of
levar burton reads where levar burton breeds the titular story in this the
paper menagerie it is so good I think it's better listening to it it feels
more emotionally impactful and just levar burton is so good the production
value of this podcast is so good it's also free so you can get a taste for
free which is always nice even if you've read this collection go listen to the
episode i'd read it before i listen to that episode and i was just so moved
i cried in public next i'm gonna recommend another graphic novel and this
is the first in a series and that's monstrous by Marjorie Liu and Santa kada
who is the artist this is a gorgeous graphic novel it's this beautiful art
deco steampunk vibe that is just so fun and interesting to read I feel a little
weird just now saying fun because this is a very very very dark graphic novel
like very dark we follow Myka who is this lady on the front page and she has
been basically caught in the crosshairs of a long conflict between humans and
archaic ark annex Ark a mix and the organics are kind of like mystical
anthropomorphize animals it's really really cool has a million cats in it
which is always great I love this so that's just a few of my favorite books
by Asian Pacific American authors I hope this inspires you to pick up some books
in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and also not in the month
of May for ever and ever thanks so much for watching if you like this video give
it a thumbs up can subscribe to see more my face you can find me on Twitter it
possibly lit and on Instagram but possibly literate and I will see you
next time
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét