Two Terrific Books
Hello, Hungry Readers,
It is AANHPI Heritage, which a lot of letters. I mean it’s six, which is not that many. But Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander month is set up to represent multiple groups that can overlap (like me, having the audacity to be both Chinese American and native Hawaiian, without any plot reason whatsoever) and also be quite distinct. Whenever too many letters gather together someone always seems to ask why must all the letters have to be together. The simple answer is power.
Anyway, I promised you I would talk about books, not lessons in power. But since it is AANHPA month, let’s focus on two books that represent some of those letters.
Avid audiobook readers may already be familiar with Natalie Naudus, but she wrote a poignant but hopeful YA story called Pray the Gay Away, loosely insipred by her own story of growing up in a Christian cult and finding that um, maybe she was gay, and being raised in a cult, and needed to change one of those things. Content note: cults, misogyny, casual racism, homophobia. [Note: Barnes and Noble link, since it doesn’t seem to be available on Bookshop.]
And okay, I have not actually read this one yet because it came out this week, but The Invisible Wild by Nikki Van Der Car looks great.
If you want a PI (as in Pacific Islander) book I have read, Makiia Lucier’s Dragonfruit was a delightful historical fantasy about islands, and relying on dragons and wishes to save us, and gosh, I may need to re-read it.
Happy reading!