I am beyond pleased to be taking part in this Bingo! It is hosted by Reading (AS) (I) AN (AM) ERICA and it is fantastic. If you didn’t know, May is Asian American Heritage Month in the US.
Why participate? Well, Shenwei explains it best:
In publishing, there are power dynamics in play that marginalize Asian authors, especially those who write Asian characters and draw from their heritage for their writing. In the context of publishing in countries where white people are the majority/dominant group, diaspora Asians in those countries have a hard time breaking into publishing. In a more global context, Asian writers in Asia have a hard to reaching a wider market beyond regional publishing due to their perceived foreignness, plus a general lack of infrastructure for translations for those that don’t write in English (and many do write in English). There are also double standards in the industry that facilitate publication for white authors writing Asian[-inspired] characters/settings/stories while Asian writers who write from the place of a cultural insider are often told their stories are “too Asian” or “not Asian enough.” For this reason, I feel it is especially important to highlight #ownvoices Asian stories, where the authors share the heritage of the characters they write about.
Being an Asian American myself, I felt so strongly about participating. But this month I’m going on my Honeymoon, so I knew time would be tight. Thank goodness I owned a whole column of them already and will try to read more if I can!
My TBR
- East Asian MC: Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh (I finished the ARC yesterday!)
- LGBTQIAP+ Asian MC: Not Your Sidekick by C.B.Lee (This should be arriving at my doorstep any minute!)/Noteworthy by Riley Redgate
- SFF with Asian MC: Huntress by Malinda Lo (I got this while I was in the US from Better World Books)/The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
- Graphic Novel with Asian MC: Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (A book from Christmas…I know shame on me)
- South East Asian MC: The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Which I won from a Kernel of Nonesense for the Winter Comment Challenge)
So that’s my TBR to complete the bingo, but I’d also like to give a shout out to the other books I have from this list and would try to read if I have time.
- Multiracial MC: The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
- South Asian MC: The Kite Runner by Khaleed Hosseini
- Asian Refugee MC: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid/ The Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen
- Asian Muslim MC: Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed
- Working Class Asian MC: Noteworthy by Riley Redgate (Review of that TODAY!)
- Historical Fiction with Asian MC: Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
- Queer Romance with Asian MC: Huntress by Malinda Cho
- Romance with POC Love Interest: The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig
- Translated Work: The Vegetarian by Han Kang
There are two contests as well, one that anyone who read 3 books has one entry, and another one for amount read. I have no hope for the second because the honeymoon is a good chunk of 2 weeks! 0.o Even then, I have to read all my entries after that too! So fulfilling 5 o tp of my normal is already a stretch. BUT IT IS WORTH IT!
Discussion
What is the next book on your TBR that fulfill one of these boxes?
Subscribe for reviews of all of these!
Ooo I’m reading noteworthy and flame in the mist for this too! How did you like them?
And enjoy your honeymoon so much! ❤️❤️
Thank you 😀 I enjoyed them both so much! Noteworthy a bit more because I am a bit of an acapella nerd myself. But I ended up enjoying Flame in the Mist more than I thought I would. I wish there had been more fantasy though…but the next one should have a lot more, I HOPE! Actually both of them are even cross dressing narratives so even more overlap. The way they each look at gender was interesting to read as well. Noteworthy is a little more… ‘enlightened’ in its discussions, but Flame in the Mist is cool too! I actually just reviewed Noteworthy Today on the blog too!
What a great challenge! I can’t wait for Flame in the Mist. Did you like it? No, wait, don’t tell me anything! Monstress looks so beautiful. I think it will be the next graphic novel I tackle. I hope ypu enjoy The Refugees and happy honeymoon!
Haha well I won’t spoil you for sure! It was better than I expected though 🙂 It is gorgeous, I just read it yesterday and it can be a little confusing someteimes, but the characters and graphics are worth it. THANK YOU! Thank you for the book and the well wishes <3
I have a few Asian books on my TBR too including Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan
Very inviting challenge.
Oh those sound so good!