Here are the books I chose for each day. When I have published one (mostly at Rich in Color), I'm including formal interviews to go along with the titles and sometimes interviews with the authors.
1. First book you read by an Asian author - I'm sure it was something by Laurence Yep, but I read many of them so I'm going to say Dragon's Gate since it got the Newbery and I tended to read the award books. I know, I know. So nerdy. But our 6th grade teacher made us choose ten of them to read and do reports on over that year so I kind of got in that habit. (I think he's the first author I read, but which book? Not as clear)
2. Favorite 2019 book by Asian author - Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali. I wrote about it here.
3. Book with an Asian on the cover - The Weight of Our Sky [my review] by Hanna Alkaf [author interview]
4. Set in an Asian country I've never been to - The Astonishing Color of After by R.X. Pan [my review]
5. Sci-fi novel by Asian author - Want by Cindy Pon [group discussion]
6. Asian-inspired fantasy - Green Langtern: Legacy by Minh Lê
7. LGBTQIA+ Asian MC - Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki
8. Read the book, watched the adaptation - To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
9. Historical fiction with Asian MC - The Downstairs Girl [my review] [author interview]
10. YA novel by an Asian author - Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram [author interview]
11. Translated work by Asian author - The White Book by Han Kang
12. South Asian MC - You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins [my review] [author interview]
13. Romance with Asian MC - When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon [discussion group]
14. Favorite series by an Asian author - Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace/Pacy Lin
15. Central Asian MC - this was difficult. I didn't think I had read anything for this one, so I looked up some titles and decided that *The Railway by Hamid Ismailov would be one I could read. This is a bit of a book gap for me. First off, I had to look to see precisely which countries are included in the area of Central Asia. Reera mentioned a book that I had previously read and had forgotten fit this - Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata.
16. Mixed-race Asian MC - Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi [my review]
17. Asian re-telling of fairy-talke, myth, or classic - Mulan: Before the Sword by Grace Lin [my review]
18. Mystery/thriller by an Asian author - Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert [author interview]
19. Southeast Asian MC - Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery by Eva Galang [my review]
20. MG novel by an Asian author - Listen, Slowly by Thannhà Lại
21. Story about Asian refugess - Gathering Fireflies by Mai Chao
22. Asian Muslim MC - Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed [my review]
23. Graphic novel by an Asian author - Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada [my review] [author interview in comic form]
24. Asian Superhero - The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang [my review]
25. Asian MC with a disability - *The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
26. Asian American literature classic - *Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
27. West Asian MC - Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian [my review]
28. Summer trip to the "motherland" - Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman
29. Non-fiction by an Asian author - We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang and Let's Make Ramen!: A Comic Cookbook by Hugh Amano
30. 2020 debut novel by an Asian author - Pippa Park Raises Her Game by Erin Yun [my reivew]
31. Next book by Asian author on TBR pile - The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
If you'd like to see the list on Twitter with most of the cover images, you can start with the first tweet:
Jumping in a few days late. Day 1 #AsianBooksChallenge Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep was likely the first book I read by an Asian author.— Crystal Brunelle (@librarygrl2) May 12, 2020
*Adult titles - all else are kidlit and YA
I was also working on the Asian Books Challenge last month. I hadn't thought about Helan Huong's books as filling the disability slot. And I also put Laurence Yep down (Dragon Wings for me) but only because he was the first I read after I started noticing authors.
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